Top Gun

WHEW! We spent Mother's Day out at the Naval Air Station enjoying the Air Show. TOTAL blast!

I have this infatuation with aviation. No, really. I do.


One of my long-time life goals was to fly in a small plane. I made that happen this past summer. Next, I wanna fly in an even smaller one and sit right in the front seat, or at least be able to look right out the front window. I wanna go up in a helicopter. I wanna go up in a hot air balloon. And most of all, (yet probably furthest from ever being able to happen, unless I lose all this weight), I want to skydive. Today, watching the Golden Knights freefalling and spinning and twisting and commanding the wind, I got all tingly and emotional. I want.to.do.that.someday.

Aidan and Ian fell completely in love with the Blue Angels. In fact, yesterday, after seeing them flying overhead while running errands, Ian proclaimed, "I'm gonna be a Blue Angel driver when I grow up." By today, he'd changed his mind. Now he wants to pilot the Space Shuttle. (He saw a picture in a Navy calendar we got at the show.) As we were leaving, he noticed a fighter and wanted to go see it up close. We walked 60 yards across the tarmac, with Ian chattering the whole way, intent on asking "that man in the pilot suit if he's the driver of that fighter." When we got to within 10 feet of the jet, Ian tugged on my arm and said, "Mom. I'm too afraid. You'll have to ask him." I tried to talk him into it, but his shyness overtook him. So I said, "My son walked all the way over here to ask you a question, but now he's too shy. He wants to know, 'Are you da driver of dis fighter?'" The pilot smiled broadly and said enthusiasticly, "I sure am!" Ian hid behind my legs, dodging the pilot's attempts to peek around and see him. Ian was SO impressed. He practically skipped all the way back to where Darren and the kids were waiting.

Aidan was equally impressed with the planes and copters. He and Ian got to sit in the co-pilot's seat of a carrier, and they stood in the cockpit of a Blackhawk. They were most impressed by all the buttons and gadgets. They also loved the First Aid kits for some reason. LOL!

The Blue Angels were amazing. I'd never seen them in person, and as they taxied out past the crowd, I had goosebumps I was so excited. I tell you, I am a ten-year old boy inside. :) There was one point during the show where one of the wingmen came flying in real low, and the noise caught everyone off guard and scared half of us to death. Seriously, I felt my stomach jump. I immediately started laughing and turned to Dani to see if it had scared her too, and just then, another wingman came zooming over from out of nowhere and scared the crapola out of me again. After catching my breath, I busted out laughing. Judging from the people around me, I wasn't the only one caught off guard. In fact, a twenty-something man standing behind me said to his Dad, "That's what got me when I was a kid, wasn't it?" His Dad laughed and said, "Yep. You fell to the ground crying, so scared you couldn't get up." That was pretty much Aidan's reaction. He hates to be caught off guard in ANY situation, but add a terrifying noise and a huge plane, and he's done for. He cried for 15 minutes, and spent the rest of the show like this:


It didn't ruin the day, though. We all still had a great time. The weather was perfect (87 degrees, breezy, 37% humidity), the strawberry smoothie was mmm mmm good, and we stopped at Sonic on the way home to wet our whistles with Diet Vanilla Coke and Lemon Berry Slushes. I wouldn't have spend my Mother's Day any other way. Being with my kiddos and husband, doing something so out of the ordinary and fun - just wow. Happy Mother's Day!