parades in the sky.

Orlando has it's ups and downs to living here. The downs? It's REALLY hot! We are right in the center of the state so we don't get a sea breeze. We have a ton of rain over the summer, and this year it seems as though it's never going to end hopefully it will bring us a chilly fall and winter. We don't have seasons, just super hot, hot and semi cold. The traffic is killer! If you don't have to use I4 then you don't go anywhere near it. And tourists, I think over the summer there are more tourists occupying Orlando than there are locals. When I go to the grocery I feel as though I'm in another country, I think I'm the only one there who has an American accent.

But one of the best things about living where we live are seeing the parades in the sky every morning...

These were all taken on the road to the boy's schools. There is a big empty lot that they land in most of the time, depending on the wind and weather.

They play a mean game of hide and seek when it's foggy out, can you spy both balloons here?

We each have our favorite one that we look for each morning, Mine is in the back there with all of the colors.

Here you can see just how close they land to the school. My oldest said he heard a story that one actually crash landed onto the school one year. We have seen the baskets tip during landing before, with all 20 or so people in it.

Growing up we had balloon parades go over our house on the weekends. There was a "landing lot" just behind our house so by the time they got by us they were pretty low and we could talk to the people in the baskets. If I remember correctly there may have been races, or maybe we made that story up ourselves. As soon as we heard the heat blow in the balloon we would run outside and watch them all. It's one of my favorite memories from the house I grew up in. I'm so glad my kids get to experience the excitement and adventure hot air balloons seem to give just as I did. {They fly over our new home now as well but these were all taken on the way to school}.

Do you have any childhood memories you now get to share with your kids?

~Meg