I might have a new favorite Freedom Festival event: The Balloon Glow.

I’m not sure who was having more fun at Brucemore last night: the kids (I especially loved the ones who would walk up the balloons in awe, shriek and run away at the roar of the burner blasting that hot propane into the balloons, then scurry right back as soon as the flame died down),

the photographers (who snapped away with everything from fancy SLRs on tripods to cell phone with built-in cameras),

or the balloon operators (Like this team, who clearly loved the opportunity to show off their balloon to the crowds, and may have had the biggest smiles I saw all night).

I, clearly, was in that second group. My husband was generous enough to let me hog the camera all night, even after being the one who had to volunteered to carry the camera bag around. (Don’t feel too sorry for him though. He got to play “dork with a camera” — his words, not mine — earlier this week at a fireworks display.)