Hot Air Balloon Art
Since we made the hot air balloons, Sean has been more interested in real hot air balloons. I showed him some videos on YouTube and he has a book about flight that has a section about them. The funny thing is that Sean has had hot air balloon art in his room even before he was born. His Mimi gave Andy the mobile and cross stitch the last time we went to visit them before Sean was born. I am not sure who made the mobile but Mimi made the cross stitch. Andy’s mom’s side are a crazy bunch of cross stitchers. His Mamaw (Mimi’s mom) made the boys these beautiful cross stitch stockings for Christmas that are so nice they should be framed instead of hanging over a dirty ole chimney.
Sean has noticed the artwork before but I don’t think he knew their real function. Just last night, after seeing the YouTube videos, Andy pointed to the basket in the cross stitch and asked him, “What’s in the basket under the balloons?” And Sean answered, “Guys!” Haha. Yup. There are people in there.
Even though I am afraid of heights, just learning more about them makes me want to go on one. When Andy was young, his parents use to take him and his brother to different states to chase hot air balloons. I asked him once if he had ever been in one and he said no. He said he doesn’t think anyone in his family has been in one either. So I said, “So you guys just go and chase them? You don’t actually go in them?” And he said, “I don’t know, my mom and dad just always dragged us to see them.” Then one day when visiting his dad, I mentioned the hot air balloon chasing trips the family use to go on and his dad said, “Yes, we did do that a lot. Your mom just loved seeing them.” A few months later, we saw his mom and I mentioned the balloon chases and she said, “Your dad and I use to drive everywhere to see those balloons because you boys just loved them.” So yeah, I think I might have just killed off a beloved family memory. It seems that everyone hated chasing hot air balloons yet they were all too polite to admit it. Good thing that would never happen in the Nguyen household ;P
Lucy, I am really enjoying your new blog and look forward to seeing what new activity you come up with next!
We actually got interested in hot air balloons when my brother and his wife were on the Anheuser-Busch chase crew in Louisville. They invited us to come for the balloon race during Derby Festival and it was AWESOME – so many balloons in the air on a clear beautiful morning! We never really traveled very far JUST to see balloons. However there was one vacation where we happened upon a balloon race in our travels. And, we did go back to Ohio with our friends the Gassins to see some balloons and let the kids play. I always wanted to go to Alburquerque where there is a huge week long festival and hundreds of balloons in the air all at one time (I think they’ve topped 1000!) Maybe we’ll do that in our RV travels when we retire.
As far as Andy ever going up in a balloon….he has! He and Mike went on a tethered flight one time. Nobody cried, so I think they liked it.
I did make that cross-stitch and I did another that I hung over our family room couch. I used a hula hoop for the frame and stretched blue linen cloth over it, then cross stitched the balloon. We had a couple pictures of the boys on their tethered flight, so I cut the boys out of one picture and put them in the gondola. Cheesy, but cute. Also, I have a scrapbook full of pictures we took over the years. We can show Sean and Zack some pictures of their Daddy standing right next to one! As for the mobile, that was a gift from Ann Duff.
And there you have the rest of the story!
Thanks, yes, Andy does leave a lot of things out of his narratives and in effect, so do I. Though my story was more Gift of the Magi-ish :). The Albuquerque trip sounds fun. I think Sean would love to see all the balloons take off. And I can’t believe the mobile was from Ann Duff!