Water Lantern Fest

I got us tickets to the Water Lantern Fest to see how it compared to the Rise Fest. Thought it would still be a fun experience with the lanterns floating on the water instead.

We had to park a bit far and we went into the area around the lake the moment we saw a gate into it, but didn't realize it was a bad idea. We could've walked more sidewalk for much more sturdy terrain. Oh well, we just went with it and had no idea at the time anyways. It was pretty much like walking through a forest with uneven pavement that was sandy and rocky. I slipped once, but caught myself quickly before real damage could take place.

Anyhow, I'm glad we brought Zoë's blanket with us. We used it to lay out so we can hang out and design our lanterns.

Zoë was super excited and started taking all the pieces out right when we dropped everything.


I helped her get situated and she began to draw on her lantern.


Then, Daddy jumped in and started designing his.

And then, Mommy too!

Zoë ended up wanting to color mine in after I drew whatever she requested.

Once all our lanterns were all pretty, it was time to assemble them.

Tada! Our lanterns!

Here's a view of the pretty lake that will soon be filled with our beautiful lanterns.

And here's a close up of our lanterns.

It was almost time for the launch, so we lit our lanterns up.


And then it was launch time! We waited until a bunch of people launched there's first.

And then, we launched ours! There were a few piers to launch lanterns off of, but they couldn't fit that many people on them so the line was way long. We decided to launch off the shoreline instead. Biiiiig mistake. We tried our best to get a non-muddy spot, but even then, it was still pretty muddy. My foot literally sank in. Hahaha. And then Zoë's feet sunk in too and she freaked out a bit. At least we both wore slippers. Me and her launched ours at the same time. Jeric didn't want to get his shoes all muddy, so he gave Zoë his to launch. She didn't want to sink again, so she totally just tossed his into the water and walked away. Hahahahahahaha. It was good though. Check out our floating lanterns.

We all had a ton of fun, but we'd probably rather do Rise again instead. It's just so much more amazing.

Together We...RISE!

It's Rise Fest time!

The Rise Fest was held 30 minutes further East of Las Vegas. We did want to get there before sundown, but we lagged here and there. It always happens. Hahaha. And then the line for a pic in front of the Rise sign was long as heck and moved as slow as a sloth! Still, the sign was a great welcome piece!


After picking up our lantern kits, we made our way around to our section and picked out a spot for us to stake. The whole area had metal tiki torches that were spaced out about 5 ft apart from each other. Definitely more than enough for every group to have their own.

While Jeric held the Zoesters, Marky worked on sparking up our torch!

Success! We have fire people!

And here you have the impatient ones. There's always the one in a handful of groups that decides to not follow rules. Seriously though. Don't they know that if we all release at the same time it would be that much more glorious? Oh well. What can you do!

Here's a bunch of folks behind us working on lighting their lanterns and prepping for launch.

I wont show you the first failed one. But the first to try was Liz and Marky and sadly, the lantern fizzled out and literally burned down. Hahaha. Jeric had to straight out stomp it out. That's when we all decided to look around us to see how everyone else was doing there's and then we figured it out! Pwahaha. What rookies we are. But hey, there weren't actually any instructions mind you. And even when we figured it all out, it wasn't something that was easy. You have the lantern all folded up, so you have to have two people holding it at an angle and sticking the portion that needs to catch fire over the torch. But the thing has waaaay too much fire retardant on it that needs to burn away before the lantern actually gets lit! Then, when it's lit, you have to patiently wait for the emitted gas to pile up enough to push "air" into the lantern to make it all poofy and ready to take off. If you release your lantern too early, well, you can have it sway all weird and then the sides catch on fire. Which is what happened to Marky and Liz's. Or it will take off, but laterally, thus having a high chance of taking out someones head. Lol! Trust, we weren't the only ones struggling. There were so many.. "WATCH OUT!"s and screaming and squealing as people chased their runaway lanterns. Hoping they wouldn't burn anyone in their wake.

Anyhow, here's take 2. Marky helping Ivan light his up. Looks like success, folks!

And then it was launch time... I'll just leave you with the video, which doesn't do the experience justice.

And here we are, admiring the view.

Zoë had an absolute blast. She kept wanting to light lantern after lantern! And we had tons to release because we basically had two for every one of us! Plus, we were down 1 person. So among us 5, we had 12 lanterns! Yah, toooons.


Best. Day. Ever.

Whenever I have some time, I'm going to make an awesome slideshow vid. So keep an eye out for that!