Ballard Banter: All in one Day

The kids participated in the Ogden Pioneer Days Children's Parade. These four kids rode their bikes:

And these three girls rode on the float with the Ogden City's Summer Recreation Program:

We were told to be there by 8:30 am for a 9:00 am start time. But the parade didn't actually start until 9:30 am. It worked out perfectly for me since I am always late. I even had time to stop at Wangsgard's and get some granola bars.

Emily usually walks with the kids and by the time I move the truck and walk back, I may as well have been in a parade myself. It was crazy hot and muggy.

Immediately after the parade concluded,we had collected our free tickets to the Ogden Pioneer Day's Rodeo... yes, that is one/the MAIN reason I hassle through this parade, we hustled over to the Salomon Center.

As part of Fat Cats' Five Year Anniversary Bash, they were offering five dollar helicopter rides. I hadn't ever ridden in a helicopter before. And you can't beat five dollars. We called Steve, who gave us the update that there were only a handful of people in line. We didn't want to miss out, so we ran the two blocks back to Sonora Grill, ditched our bikes, and hurried over to claim a spot in line.

We stood in line with about a dozen other people for 45 minutes before Fat Cats even opened. There were some funny things that took place in that line because nobody really knew exactly what the rules were and some people were very eager to secure a ticket. One woman passed around a piece of paper and made us all sign our names, to prove that we had been in line, I am not sure she was impressed when I used 16 of her lines for Team Ballard.

This photo makes it look like it was a pleasant wait, but it wasn't.

The kids raided the free newspaper bin and littered the sidewalk with their newspaper fans. They went back and forth to Sonora Grill to get water and go to the bathroom approximately fifteen times.

We bought our tickets and then waited another hour or so inside, with air conditioning and a vending machine. We let another group go in front of us so we could all ride, to the airport, together in the limousine.

Lucy was I-can't-believe-I'm-in-a-limo excited:

And then the kids started to get a little out of control:

They were sure to leave their fingerprints on every single glass and other fancy item in the limousine:

Rachel asked, "These windows are tinted, right? So they couldn't even see if I was picking my nose. Look, world, I'm picking my nose, and you can't even see me!"

~I think she might have liked someone to see her in a limousine, that is the problem with tinted windows, no one knows who is that lucky~

The limo ride was only a few miles long, which was good for our sanity. The driver dropped us off at Whirlybird Helicopters:

And he was even kind enough to pose for a picture with the kids.

I wonder if Gracie thought that was cool....

Gracie grew horns while we waited:

And Mike rested after a long wait for us to get to the front of the hot line and call him to come down;)

Group #1: Lucy, Angela, Gretchen:

We circled around Riverdale and back to the airport. It wasn't a very long ride, but you could still say you have flown in a helicopter. The Whirlybird guys were great. They were really good with the kids.