Control, We Are 'Go' For Launch

This one is for my teacher.

I went in a hot air balloon today because I won the reading contest! Me and Jane and Silas got to go and lots of people got to watch. A hot air balloon is so cool because it's this big balloon and a man in a blue coat turns a machine and fire goes up in it. That's what makes the balloon stay up.

When it was my turn to go up, I put my foot into this little hole in the basket and climbed in. Then it started to feel like I was floating and that's when I knew we were flying in the air. I didn't look at the bottom of the basket. I just looked out the side of the basket and my teacher lifted me up so I could see better. We were very high and when I looked down I could see all of the kids from my school.

When we came down it felt like I had parachutes on me. Then it was time to get out of the basket. I love riding in a hot air balloon. I definately need to do that again. There was no way I could have taken Stein up there. But I did take a dinosaur up there. Now that dinosaur's been in a hot air balloon!

[Dad's Note: I honestly thought Bridger would freak out once it came time to climb in. He did get a bit nervous the first time they ignited the burner, but he was ok after that. I also thought he might be disapponted that the balloon was tethered and stayed low. Wrong again, his first words after landing were "Dad- did you see how high I was?!"]