Fun in the Suburbs

Speaking of ways my husband and I keep ourselves entertained... we chased a balloon over the weekend. I think it was Thursday night, I was watching an old movie and heard something that I thought was thunder, but didn't sound exactly right. I muted the movie a couple of times to try to hear it more clearly, but really didn't care enough to actually turn the TV off and go investigate. Moments later, my husband came tearing in the door calling for me to put on my shoes and come outside. I already had my shoes on, and thankfully I had put on real clothes (you know, jeans instead of flannel pants) so I grabbed the blanket off the couch (it was chilly out) and ran out to meet him.
Now, he's all kinds of excited grabbing my hand and pulling me down the street, babbling something about a balloon caught in the trees. I didn't entirely understand what was so exciting about a balloon in the trees, until I connected the thunder sounds with the balloon word and realized he was talking about a HOT AIR balloon being stuck in the trees.
I apologize for the picture, I took it on my husband's cell phone, so it's a little crappy.
So here's this hot air balloon with it's basket caught in the trees firing it's flame every few seconds desperately trying to clear the ridge. And we have it from our friends on the next block over that this is a regular autumnal occurrence. Apparently a hot air balloon has landed in the shopping plaza driveway across the street once, and another time in the church parking lot, which they knew were mistakes, but weren't quite sure where they actually were trying to get to. So, when the balloon finally cleared the trees, rather than heading back to my cozy place on the couch, we decided to accompany the kids on a wild-balloon-chase to find out once and for all where these balloons were heading.
So down the street, around the corner and toward the school went me and my afghan, doing my best to keep up with the 6 and 8-year-olds. After about a half mile, we chased it down to the middle school football field where it landed right smack in the middle of the pee-wee football game! Okay, it was a bit off to the side of the field, but the ensuing chaos was still pretty entertaining.
Looking at ourselves from the outside, we couldn't help but laugh at our excitement over such a little thing, but we actually enjoyed ourselves! Running down the street with childlike abandon, trailing my blanket behind me and not caring who saw because half the neighborhood was right behind us, it's a freedom that you can only find out here is the good ol' suburbs.
TIME: About 2 hours.
COST: FREE!!