You've been my support for the last week and I fully believe with out you all I would be dragging long before now.
So I promised to tell you all about the day and what made it so special and beautiful.
My day started at 5 am with doing another picture board. Now I'd already done 1 that was the trifold presentation board size and it was PACKED. with 20+ years of pics. I'd then done 2 smaller 14x22" boards one of all the family pics from xmases and of of Halloweens past that I'd almost always taken pics of the boys in their costumes with gram and gramp. So as we were talking with th grandaughters at the wake they were saying how few pics they had of gram and gramp, well me being me i had alot so I did a 4th board. Now for any of you that know about where I live I'm 6 miles from the local balloon festival so this weekend can tend to be VERY busy in the area. It is not unheard of for us to be helping and greeting balloonist and their crews morning and night from fri to sunday.
Yesterday am phone is ringing as tom is yelling balloons this to us is our version of man the battle stations. Everyone jumps on 4wheelers and heads out. L is in charge of leading chase crews to the landing sites. Both of them can take down and pack up the balloon. At the point we hit the field there was already 1 landed and 3 more coming down. Gram has 4 children and 4 grandchildren. You can see where i'm going with this.......
1 crew packed up and out quickly the other 3 hung around. the canadian crew gave there stories complete with hay wreaths the pilot made and then had the 1st time flyers on their knees and with the hay wreaths they had to bend over to pick up the champagne glasses with their teeth while keeping the wreath on their head. He then poured more over their heads. They left after presenting us with the cutomery bottle. The other 2 crews hung around told us the history of the hot air balloon, said the balloonist prayer and toasted gram's life. One of the daughter of the maine balloonist played the fiddle while we all ate and drank ( I mean drank). by 7:45 I'd had at least 3 glasses of bubbly.
This am 2 more landed in the field and 1 at our house. side note the boys had stranded Alice Tom's aunt and I in the field so we hiked out to her car. Upon all of us arriving at our house the balloon came down IN the horse pasture which is a steep side hill. After CARRYING all the stuff out to the drive he opens 3 bottles of champagne made balloons out of the cork and metal for each of the boys did a different blessing and story and poured his on the heads. He also did the balloonist prayer and made margareta's so 2 glasses of bubblly and a full margarita later and many gifts for us they pulled out.
So to Gram and all my wonderful crews that have shared this weekend with us.
The Winds have Welcomed you with softness.
The Sun has blessed you with his warm hands.
You have flown so high and so well
that God has joined you in your laughter
and set you gently back again
into the loving arms of Mother Earth.
And to all of you in the box may you all be blessed with this prayer and know that every one of you have made a difference in my life and the life of our family.
So I promised to tell you all about the day and what made it so special and beautiful.
My day started at 5 am with doing another picture board. Now I'd already done 1 that was the trifold presentation board size and it was PACKED. with 20+ years of pics. I'd then done 2 smaller 14x22" boards one of all the family pics from xmases and of of Halloweens past that I'd almost always taken pics of the boys in their costumes with gram and gramp. So as we were talking with th grandaughters at the wake they were saying how few pics they had of gram and gramp, well me being me i had alot so I did a 4th board. Now for any of you that know about where I live I'm 6 miles from the local balloon festival so this weekend can tend to be VERY busy in the area. It is not unheard of for us to be helping and greeting balloonist and their crews morning and night from fri to sunday.
Yesterday am phone is ringing as tom is yelling balloons this to us is our version of man the battle stations. Everyone jumps on 4wheelers and heads out. L is in charge of leading chase crews to the landing sites. Both of them can take down and pack up the balloon. At the point we hit the field there was already 1 landed and 3 more coming down. Gram has 4 children and 4 grandchildren. You can see where i'm going with this.......
1 crew packed up and out quickly the other 3 hung around. the canadian crew gave there stories complete with hay wreaths the pilot made and then had the 1st time flyers on their knees and with the hay wreaths they had to bend over to pick up the champagne glasses with their teeth while keeping the wreath on their head. He then poured more over their heads. They left after presenting us with the cutomery bottle. The other 2 crews hung around told us the history of the hot air balloon, said the balloonist prayer and toasted gram's life. One of the daughter of the maine balloonist played the fiddle while we all ate and drank ( I mean drank). by 7:45 I'd had at least 3 glasses of bubbly.
This am 2 more landed in the field and 1 at our house. side note the boys had stranded Alice Tom's aunt and I in the field so we hiked out to her car. Upon all of us arriving at our house the balloon came down IN the horse pasture which is a steep side hill. After CARRYING all the stuff out to the drive he opens 3 bottles of champagne made balloons out of the cork and metal for each of the boys did a different blessing and story and poured his on the heads. He also did the balloonist prayer and made margareta's so 2 glasses of bubblly and a full margarita later and many gifts for us they pulled out.
So to Gram and all my wonderful crews that have shared this weekend with us.
The Winds have Welcomed you with softness.
The Sun has blessed you with his warm hands.
You have flown so high and so well
that God has joined you in your laughter
and set you gently back again
into the loving arms of Mother Earth.
And to all of you in the box may you all be blessed with this prayer and know that every one of you have made a difference in my life and the life of our family.
Christy!
