What a weekend!

Well really, what a Saturday. Sunday was really spent sleeping to try and mend myself from the debacle that was the Balloonfest on Saturday night.

Boobeebooeebeeooobeeeboooo rewind to Friday night.

Got Eli's hair cut..... for the first time since, like, July. He was in desparate need. We went to that fancy Snip-Its place and he was more difficult and stressed out there than he is at Great Clips. And it was wayyy more expensive. Lesson learned.

Saturday we went to Cousin Ben's baseball game. This time Eli's Gram brought him a bat and a REAL baseball. He spent the whole game carrying that ball around and showing it to random people walking by. "BALL! BALL! BALL!"

This face was when he saw a bicycle riding by... he started yelling "BICYCLE!" (sounds like guh-di-guh) and singing our bicycle song. He was a bit mezmerized.

After the baseball game we went to Play It Again sports to try to get him a football since I could see how enamored he was with his new baseball. That was an adventure. He loved trying to pick up the weights, swing the golf clubs, and ride the skateboards. The staff loved us there.

Finally, we had our FOOTBALL!!

Next we spent the rest of the day napping and getting ready for the big trip to Statesville for the Balloonfest. Before we left I turned his carseat forward facing... It's a big deal!

Of course we had to take the new baseball with us to the Balloonfest.

We went to pick up Dad and Jack and set out. We got there within about 45 minutes, at around 4, knowing that the big launch was 4:30 to 5. We got directed to park in a "remote lot" because the usual lots were full. Well, it looked like a long walk but we had NO IDEA just how long.

*Literally* around 2-1/2 - 3 miles. With a toddler that will only let his mama carry him and refuses to walk on his own that feels like about 10. It was brutal. There were even people selling water and food on the side of the road, it was that long. BUT, both of us were in good spirits so I guess it could have been worse.

We got there JUST in time to see the balloons launch and it was really great. Around 50 balloons all took off, some great photo ops.

For the most part Eli was pretty scared of the balloons. He spent most of the launch clinging to me for dear life. It took all I had to put him 3 feet in front of me for these pictures.

We did not stay there long. The thought of the 2-1/2 to 3 mile walk ahead of us was looming over us. Kind of spoiled the whole thing.

Just on the way out Eli had his first meltdown of many. Total screaming, falling down on the ground awfulness. First it was that he wanted total control of Jack's new bubble gun, which I was not going to spend $15 for one of his own. Then it was the balloon that he was holding flew away because he would not let me tie it on his wrist. There were lots of other triggers but just writing about it is giving me anxiety from the memories. We almost gave several people concussions from throwing our new baseball at them. Ugh. Good thing he's cute.

Must be something about the Balloonfest that brings out the worst in toddlers. Here was Ben 4 years ago...

ANYHOO we finally all headed out for the LONG walk back to the car. Shortly after Eli suffered a head wound from taking a header to the asphalt a nice man in a golf cart stopped and carried us about a mile. He let us out and that's when it got really bad. Eli wanted to walk along the white line on the side of the road. And whenever I would pull him to the side because a car was coming it was fall-out melt-down central. At one point he was just lying in the grass screaming "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY" but when I would get close to him he would say "NO!" and keep screaming. We were both tired. It was getting dark. I kind of lost it and all I knew to do besides crying was to laugh. So as he was laying in the grass beside the airport runway screaming his brains out I was laughing. This one couple with three kids stopped to say they would carry him and that just made me laugh more. He wouldn't even let his Pop-Pop carry him, let alone this strange man. I just said no thanks and they were like are you sure and I just kept laughing and explained that my dad was about 100 yards ahead of me and he would help if I needed it.

Finally after a LOT of screaming and crying we made it to the car. I was too tired to do much of anything on Sunday except nap. Next year we will definitely re-think the Balloonfest.