Chris and I went to our first Hot Air Jubilee this morning. It was a pretty cool morning and the sun kept popping in and out of the heavily clouded sky but the balloons made it worth it:

 

 

And we pimped this HHR on the way out. Hopefully they join the group

 

Awesome pics guys... never been to one of those but I remember seeing them fly over as a kid.

 

my parents have a really large front yard(about a football field) so we have had balloons land it it before. When they were looking for a spot to come down, they'd see us, and down they'd go.

Since your lighting wasn't optimal, they just need a few adjustments to get the shadows to come out on the balloons. In the future, if you have these kind of conditions, you can adjust your settings manually to expose for the lighting on the balloon, and not the sky, since they are what you're trying to get in the shot. Or find the way to turn your auto bracketing on, usually called AEB. What this does is when you take a shot, hold down the shutter and it will fire 3 shots in a row. One at the correct exposure, one under, and one over (you can adjust how much usually). Yes, you will end up with 3 times as many shots, but you will most likely get the "perfect" shot easier. This is how we were taught to shoot in school. Especially since we were using film, usually, we didn't have a second chance later to go back and reshoot.