Ya gotta have friends

On Sunday morning, the Smith crew got up and headed for Nanny & Pa's EARLY. There were to be some people arrive around 7am to launch hot air balloons from the pasture. Jess & Glenn had some friends over Saturday night and they heard, so they wanted to tag along, too. One of their friends, Brook, is moving out of state at the end of this week, so we had no problem letting the 4 of them hang out together for just a little while longer. They are such a great group, anyway.
After the much-delayed-do-to-rain balloon launching (3 of them launched, a couple others decided not to)the kids wanted to get some pictures of all of them together, as well as pics of Brook & Lauren who are the best of best friends. More like sisters, really.
We had a BLAST getting pictures. I was the target for much flying bark off the dead oak - but when I retalliated, Glenn found out just how good his mother's aim is! (sorry 'bout that lip, bud!) Lauren fell off the tree and scraped her leg; Brook fell OUT of the tree and was hanging by a branch, which decided to abandon her; Jesse, he just decided to hang around - literally! As we bid farewell to the fallen oak and ventured back towards the house, I can't say I wasn't a little sad - not just for the tree that I have known to be a GORGEOUS and strong one at the edge of our property for my 30+ years there, but for the foursome of friends who will now have to be dependent on modern technology to 'hang out'. *sniff* Thank goodness for unlimited texting, IM's, etc.
The pictures here are just a SMALL portion of the ones that I took Sunday. The balloon pictures alone numbered 500+ as I recall!