Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The Jay's are hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and safe travels.

Kenny and Marianne Jay

Private License Check Off Ride

On Sunday, December 19th we woke up to a very cold 14 degrees in Indianolia, IA. From Indianolia, we headed to Carlisle, IA so Kenny could take his check off ride for his Lighter Than Air (Hot Air Balloon) Private License.

Here are Kenny and Rob taking off for the skies. Guess we did well so far!


There they go, despite the cold, it was a beautiful day for a hot air balloon ride.

I think he skidded a little upon landing, good thing it was Rob's field and he was with him!!

Our friends Stacie Brackenberry and Adam McGee joined us as crew for the all very important flight. Not only are they great crew, they are great fun!! (ps..don't you love Stacie's hat?)

Kenny and I were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling...because...

HE PASSED!!! My husband is now an official Lighter Than Air Pilot!!!!

Congrats, Kenny, everyone is so proud of you!!

Now, about that ride you have been promising me since May....

Soft Landings,

Kenny and Marianne Jay

THE PUMPKIN DROP AND SOME GOOD NEWS

We had a great time last night at the Sutters' annual Pumpkin Drop, even though no pumpkins made it into the lagoon. What we did have; however, was a beautiful night for a hot air balloon flight, good food and good fellowship.

Our friend Stacie came out to crew and drug along her friend Jason, he was a hot air balloon virgin. He had a great time and wants to come back.

We inflated next to our good friend Lynn with Skydreamer. Two great inflations.

Our friend Jason was also there with Cheaper than a Wife.

Such a beautiful flight seeing Skydreamer and Mai'Ken Dreams flying together.

In other news, Kenny passed the written portion of his test to get his Private Pilot's license. We are very excited to have that next step done to get that much closer to me getting to ride with him!

The next step is a trip to Iowa so he can take his check off ride. Hopefully that will come in the next month or so. Then it will be time to start cashing in on all those promises for hot air balloon rides.

Flying season is never over; however, it sure slows down a lot, and that time is here. We will fly as much as we can this winter, but it probably won't be much.

Until next time,

Soft Landings

Marianne and Kenny

First Solo Flight

KB got his first solo flight Tuesday, September 7th. It was a very exciting night, but I was way nervous. Here we are getting things ready, he's checking over the balloon and making sure we are good to go.

There he goes, setting it up and getting ready.

Oh my, he's off! I was a WRECK. You can see Gary Sines in the background.

He flew for about 30 minutes, nice short flight with a fairly tight landing spot, but he landed it great. We were all there to catch him.

I will post pictures of the celebration later, it was a great day!!!

Flying in Brookfield

As with the past 5 years, we spent Labor Day weekend in Brookfield, MO at the Great Pershing Balloon Derby. This was the 34th year for this derby, and it's the longest running BFA competition in the US. We started the derby Saturday morning with a beautiful 4 part task from the launch field. Here are a few of our friends inflating for this beautiful flight. First we have Tim Graham in Still No Regrets, Andrew James in Godzilla, Matthew Riley in Cherry Bomb and Gary Whitby in Boomer.

What a beautiful sight. Here we see our friend Lynn McVay in Skydreamer (3rd balloon from left)

I love when all the balloon cluster together.

After a small incident Saturday evening at the glow, our friend Jim Wolters needed a balloon to fly, and we happened to have our system there and ready to go. Kenny got to fly with Jim for Sunday morning's competition. They scored 5th for the morning.

Here they are hovering over the target, making a great throw. After that, Kenny got to take over the burner and get his high speed landing in.

Unfortunately I was not there to see that very fast landing, I think he looked for the most remote field he could find to land.

The rest of the weekend ended up very windy and we were unable to get any more flights in, but we did have a great time. Looking forward to the 35th Great Pershing Balloon Derby when we will hopefully be able to enter our own balloon, with Kenny Jay as the pilot.

Congrats to Jeremy Rubin for his big win on this derby.

High Altitude Flight

Stacie, Gaige and Jesse came out to crew for Kenny's high altitude flight with Theron. I guess we need to get Gaige a Mai'Ken Dreams shirt, huh?

George Thomas and Gary Sines also flew that night, well, Adam Magee did too, but I didn't get him in this picture.

There he is, just a dot in the sky. He went up to approximately 4,300 feet. On the way down, they did a 'terminal decent' at about 1,400 feet per minute. This caused them to go into a spin. I'm sure glad I didn't see it!!! It was bad enough knowing how high he was going.

Busy busy week

I haven't had time to download pictures from the last week yet, we have been so very busy. We were in Brookfield, MO this past weekend at the 34th Annual Great Pershing Balloon Derby.

We started out crewing for our friend Lynn with Skydreamer, but ended up being fortunate enough to fly Mai'Ken Dreams Sunday morning. There was a bit of an 'incident' Saturday evening at the glow, when our friend Jim Wolters that flies the Missouri Lottery Balloon had a small mishap that caused damage to his envelope. He was doing well in the standings and wanted to fly Sunday morning, but didn't have an envelope. We were all lucky enough that we happened to have brought our system, so Jim and Kenny took off in Mai'Ken Dreams for the competition flight Sunday morning. Jim started out flying for the competition and placed 5th for the morning. As soon as that was done, he let Kenny take over the burner and continue to fly. Kenny got his high speed landing in!! He flew 16 miles in 41 minutes, they were a truckin' right along! He also found the most remote place to land, with the worse roads to get to him. Thanks to the GPS on his phone, and the GPS we had in the truck, Mom, Dad and I were finally able to locate him, in the valley of a CPR field. It was a very exciting day for the Mai'Ken Dreams crew. We didn't get any more flights in after that as the wind decided it wanted to blow 90 to nothin'.

Tuesday night Tim Graham signed Kenny off to do his solo flight and it was wonderful. He had a nice 30 minute flight with a perfect landing in a very tight spot. We were there to catch him and celebrate. Special thanks to Tim for all his help in Kenny's training. Also thanks to Mom and Dad, Stacie and Jesse and Brian for coming out to crew with us for his first solo. Adam was also there to meet us upon landing. We had a big celebration with Kenny wearing a bottle of champagne. Good thing we brought along an extra shirt!!

I will try to post pictures soon, as soon as I get rid of this poison ivy and get the darn yard mowed.

Soft landings and congratulations to my Love Dove on his first solo flight, along with many more to come.

Centralia, IL

We had a good time in Centralia, IL this past weekend, we got 2 out of 4 flights in. Bad weather kept us grounded Friday night and Saturday morning. Here's a picture of our friend George Thomas' balloon, Freedom.

Then we drove home just in time to fly our balloon Sunday evening. I caught Ashtin sitting down on the job, Miss Hollywood looks pretty good there, huh?

Thank you to Tim and Renee, and Linda, Dalton and Ashtin for coming out Sunday night. Kenny had a great flight and a perfect landing. He's going to be a great pilot! I am so very proud of him!!

Hoping to fly again later this week, so stayed posted, I will try to get more pictures on here.

It seems like there are never enough hours in the day to do everything, we have been flying so much lately that I haven't had time to post pictures. Here are a few pictures from a few weeks ago.
I love this shot of the moon with the balloon.

The little girl looking out of the sun roof of the car is precious.

Thank you to Brian for sharing the pictures he has taken of Mai'Ken Dreams.

We are headed to Centralia, IL this weekend so look for more pictures next week. Unfortunately, we will not be taking Mai'Ken Dreams to Centralia with us, so I will be posting pictures of Lynn's balloon, Skydreamer.

Having fun ballooning

Things have been very busy around here, so busy I haven't had a chance to post any pictures. Kenny got three flights in this past weekend, thanks to Tim and Layne for flying with us then. He got another flight in Thursday evening, also thanks to George for that instruction.

In addition to three flights, three crew members have had birthdays. My mother in law, Peggy, had a birthday Thursday, July 29th, my niece, Faythe, had a birthday Thursday, July 30th, and I had a birthday Sunday, Aug 1st. My sister in law, Jennifer, made the flip flop cake for Faythe and the Mai'Ken Dreams balloon cake was a join effort between both Jennifer and Faythe. I didn't want to cut it!

Brookfield High School Alumni Memorial 5K/10K walk/run

Peggy, Jennifer, Faythe, Erica, Ethan and I participated in a 5K/10K walk/run in memory of KB's little brother Dustin on Saturday, July 17th. Johni and her little ones, Madison and Mason, joined us too. It was a fun, very warm walk but we all survived it.

A beautiful sunset

The sunsetting over our pond at our house Sunday night. So beautiful and peaceful!

July 9 2010 Fun Flight

KB had a beautiful one hour long flight with George Thomas friday night. They took off from a field next to Home Depot and landed South of town, at Grindstone and Rock Quarry Road.

Thanks to George, Kathy, David, Brian and Stacie for coming out and helping!