Another week gone by already?!

While I would love to be able to update my blog more often, I find that there's not enough time in the day. At night, when all the kids are asleep and I have the time, I have no energy and just want to go to sleep. After they come home from school, I have the energy, but dammit, the kids want to TALK to me!! When are they going to get into the stage where they come home from where ever and head straight into their rooms and don't come out until the next morning? Apparently not yet. Anyhow, this weekend was pretty good. On Saturday morning, I took Aislinn and Aidan to the Columbus Airport. Aislinn was thinking I was taking her on a trip (with no luggage??). Instead, the airport has a Young Eagles program where someone explains the parts of a small plane and then takes them up for a short 15 minute flight. Sounds like fun, right?





Not to Aislinn. She was ready to cry! As a matter of fact, she refused to go up unless I did. I hate to fly. Really, really hate it. My plan was to keep my feet firmly on the ground and take pictures, but noooo. I ended up going with them. This itty, bitty plane only holds 4 people, including the pilot. Aidan was the co-pilot and had a blast!
While we were slowly heading over to the end of the runway, the pilot told me to hold my foot outside the door to prop it open. That would be our air conditioning. I'm thinking "Is he serious?" There is no way I want my foot hanging out the door while we are flying over Columbus! What if my shoe flies off my foot? Some poor soul out for a nice morning walk could get struck by my flip flop if it were to hit them on the head! Could I get sued for that? So, I decide to take my shoe off and leave it in the plane. But thankfully, he shuts the door right before take-off. It was a really nice flight and I was not nervous at all, until I heard the pilot tell Aidan, my 9 YEAR OLD, to head for the runway so he could land us! WHAT!! This child does not even ride his bike and the pilot expects him to land a plane! I think the real reason the pilot wears those large head phones is so that he can't hear the moms on the plane screaming. After the bumpy landing, Aislinn asks me what that smell is. It's the rubber from the wheels when we hit the runway. When I got home, I took a nice 4 hour nap. Sunday was nice. I woke up Aislinn and Declan at 5am so we can leave by 5:30 to head over to Callaway Gardens for the balloon launch. They have a really nice Hot Air balloon festival every year. This year there was about 14 balloons. It starts Friday night and there are all sorts of family activities that last all weekend long. So anyway, I waited until Sunday morning to go. We get there at 6 and have breakfast. Then I find a nice spot right at the ropes where we sit so I can get great pictures of the balloons all lit up. And we wait. And wait. Mind you, the seat I was on had been out all night and while it was comfy, it apparently had dew on it, so my butt was getting all wet after waiting for 30 minutes. With my 5 year old telling me he is bored. I told him too bad, we were not leaving until I saw a balloon. Well finally the Re/Max balloon inflates and rocks back and forth. It's too windy. Great. No lift off today. As a matter of fact, there might not even be tethered rides! All weekend everything was fine, until Sunday! It figured. So, we watch the 5K race, and a few other things. Much to my surprise, the person in charge decides to have the rides after all! Yea!! Of course, I have Aislinn with me, who for some reason doesn't like her feet to leave the ground anymore! Unless I go too. I tell the woman that I am not flying, I am taking pictures, to which she replies that she will take a quick shot of the 3 of us, and then we can all go as a family. Thanks. So up we go. Surprisingly, Declan stays inside the basket and doesn't even try once to shimmy down the tethered rope!!