Wonder-ful Celebrating

After our crazy Summer with the 7 Wonders of the World Balloon Art Exhibit at Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Ancient Life (you have no idea how many times I said that while making YouTube videos this Summer), and after things calmed down a bit, we got together with the other balloon artists and had a celebration to thank everyone for their hard work.

And of course we couldn't do this sort of celebration without themed food.  So I would like to share with you the foods we had based on the ancient wonders of the world and the modern wonders of the world.

 Hanging Garden Salad with Lite House Dressing

(the salad even had flowers on it)

Golden Apples (because of the Greek myth where Atalanta chooses to follow Artemis but later has to get married because during a footrace she slows down to pick up golden apples her suitor throws in front of her)- for the Temple of Artemis

Zeus Juice (we forgot to get a picture of the pitcher of orange juice we made up for the party- sorry)

Mousse-aleum Cake (okay, so it was chocolate pudding cake, but close enough- we did not feel up to making chocolate mousse with all the other things we were doing)

Colossus of Rhodes Rolls

 Great Pickle Pyramid

 Chichen Itza Pizza (you can even see the shape of the step pyramid on the left pizza)

 Petra Floats

 Colosseum of Croutons

 Egg Roll of China

 Taj Mahal Cheeseball

We wanted to be respectful of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, so we didn't have themed food for that Wonder, but we made sure to say a prayer before we ate.

It was so nice to celebrate with our friends in a relaxed atmosphere where nobody had to be pumping up and twisting balloons.  We just got to eat and chat and play a little Phase 10 toward the end of the evening.

Our family also had it's own little celebration at a different time.  The kids were real troopers this Summer with me dragging them to Thanksgiving Point every week, sometimes multiple times a week.  They were awesome.  So we took them out to the Olive Garden to say Thank you.  Great kids.
It was fun.

Oh, no.  Jr. Jr. says drinking Sprite turns him into a Daddy-eating piranha. 

During the process of preparing this blog post, I realized that with the ancient wonders of the world I blogged about in July, I forgot to put a picture of the balloon Lighthouse of Alexandria.  It should have been between the Colossus of Rhodes and the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Oh, silly me.  So here is that picture of the Lighthouse of Alexandria for your balloon viewing enjoyment.

Modern Wonders of the World

November 4 is King Tut Day, the anniversary of when King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered.
When I think of King Tut, I think of Egypt.  Well, I think of the old Batman show with Adam West, but I also think of Egypt.  When I think of Egypt, I think of pyramids.  When I think of pyramids, I think of balloons.  Well, the 7 Wonders of the World Balloon Art Exhibit from this Summer.  Then I think that I showed finished pictures of all of the ancient wonders in July, but I never put up finished pictures of the modern wonders.  So I am going to do that now.

 Great Pyramid of Giza

 Chichen Itza

 Petra

 Colosseum

 Great Wall of China

 Statue of Christ the Redeemer

Taj Mahal

I'll also tell you what was said to our children this morning.

Me:  It's King Tut Day.

Jeremy:  You know what that means.  It means you have to be nice to your Mummy.

Scarecrow Festival

Last weekend we went to a Scarecrow Festival at the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

Lots of scarecrows were brought in by different people or organizations, a lot from different departments at Thanksgiving Point.  It was fun to see what people came up with.

As we walked down the hill, Jr. Jr. kept exclaiming, "Wow.  There are so many scarecrows.  Why are there so many scarecrows?"  We had to keep telling him, "It's because this is the Scarecrow Festival."
One of the scarecrows was advertising the upcoming Dia de Los Muertos celebration this coming Friday and Saturday (October 23-24) at the Show Barn.  I thought that was a clever way of advertising it.

They had other activities going on, though they had to take the bounce houses down because of the weather.

Burlap Maze

We also finally got our chance to check out the Temple of Artemis Garden, new because of the "Wonders of the World" this Summer.

Because of the drizzly rain, when we went home we had hot chocolate, grilled cheese sandwiches, and tomato bisque from a can.

It was a good family day.

Relaxation Day 2015

August 15 is Relaxation Day.  So what were Jeremy and I doing until 2 o'clock in the morning (the beginning of Relaxation Day)?  Building small balloon sculptures to go on the Colosseum.
Yeah, this is me standing next to the balloon holder/carrier so you can see how big it is.

This is how full of sculptures it is.

In total (including sculptures that were already built and at the museum), we had to build 80 small sculptures for the Colosseum.  Yeah, it's going to look cool.

Petra Floats

Yesterday, August 5 was Work Like a Dog Day.  I told the kids that if we worked really hard all day, we could celebrate the next day, August 6, National Root Beer Float Day.
Jr. tried to get out of it by saying that dogs are lazy and just lie around.  I explained to them how some dogs work really really hard.  Finally I told them, "Anyone who works as hard as I work will get a root beer float."
I took some pictures throughout the day of them "working like a dog."  I even gave them a list of things they could start with.

They did help with some things.

And other things?

I saw them doing this

when they should have been doing this.

So in the end Jeremy and I had root beer floats this evening.  I did work really hard.

And we realized something.
We looked at pictures Jeremy took of balloon Petra.  The side walls look like root beer floats with the layers of root beer and ice cream and root beer and ice cream.

We had themed food for Petra and it wasn't even planned.  Petra Floats.  How cool is that?

Chichen Itza Pizza

At the start of building the Ancient Wonders of the World, we had themed food- hanging garden salad.
After Jeremy got his world record we had themed food again- long hot dogs.
During the start of the Modern Wonders of the World, we again had themed food- Chichen Itza Pizza.

We have fun.

Last Week

After breaking the world record, Jeremy took a week off... sort of.  Instead of going back to work on the Wonders, he did balloon animals at a county fair in Wyoming.  Monday through Saturday.

A couple of the days, the kids and I visited cousins.

A couple of the days, the kids and I played at the fair.

On the last day, we got to have a nice picnic lunch with Jeremy then the kids got to play at a couple playgrounds while Jeremy went back to work.

When we got back to Utah Saturday we stopped off at Thanksgiving Point so Jeremy could help the other balloon twisters who had been working on Chichen Itza all week.

And now that week is over.
The End.