Tyndall Air Show

The air show was slated for this past weekend, March 28th and 29th. On Friday and Saturday, there was soaking rain, booming thunder and lightening streaking across the sky. The bay out back was slowly creeping in for a "visit". We decided to stay put, even though we were quite disappointed. We heard some people actually ventured out that day for the show, and we heard a few planes zooming over.

On Sunday, we decided that after church, we'd head home for a quick lunch, change, and drive to base to see some of the show. This was the first show that the kids and I had ever been to! As we were waiting in line for the bus to drive us to the flightline side of base, we could see planes high in the sky, dropping out army guys with parachutes. Maybe it is because I am now a mother, or maybe I am older (and wiser?!), but seeing them freefalling for what seemed to be too long made me silently screech, "Open you chute! OPEN YOUR CHUTE!!!!" When they did let their chutes go, they drifted peacefully to the ground, followed by trails of bright red smoke. One of them even purposely let go of his first chute to give us all a good fright. :D

Sunday was a much nicer day weather-wise. It was sunny and warm, but still cool enough to be able to wear light jackets, which helped with sun exposure. We checked out all the planes and watched a lot of demonstrations. The Blue Angels were excellent! I can't believe they can get so close to each other without crashing, but they've been doing it for years.

We got to the air show around 1:30 p.m. Around 4, country music star Darryl Worley was to perform. Dave had to set up the stage on Friday, and he wanted to be able to help Sunday after the show. He was going to bring us to the buses so we could head home, but the lines were ridiculously long, so we decided we'd just stay for the concert. The concert was good, even though I only knew a few songs and we were all wiped out from standing around in the sun all day. We ended up staying for Dave and his class to take down the stage, which meant that we didn't leave until almost 8 p.m.! The kids were really well-behaved, all things considered. We checked out an F-15 and F-22 that were in the hangar and the kids found things to play with to busy themselves. Dave also said we'd get pizza for supper, so I am sure that helped! :D

Here are some photos from yesterday's show:




A nice and quiet F-22!




F-22.




A screeching F-22 Raptor.




The boys posing for a photo by a little recruiting plane. Notice Stephen with the one hand over his ear... He spent most of the time with both hands over his ears. I don't think one will cut it, though! :)




Rachel was NOT impressed with the F-22s!!

Planes, Tanks, and Ammo...Oh My!

The "Heritage Flight": planes of past and present.




The "Heritage Flight" again.




The Princess Elizabeth.




Plane coming in for a landing.




A Vietnam-era tank.




The shiny Pacific Prowler. Beautiful!




Can you imagine being this gunner? He had to sit right in front of the plane. Talk about a sitting duck!




Bombs (dummies, of course) in the Pacific Prowler.




Dave (in his flight suit) and the boys in the bomb area of the plane.




Looking into the area where the guys sit on the plane.



A gun on the side of the Pacific Prowler.



Dave answering the boys' questions. :)

The Blue Angels!

Doing their tricks...








I never thought I'd say exahaust from planes was beautiful before...




See how close they get to each other?




Some of these guys are upside down!

Darryl Worley

Nice stage, right? ;)

Good News!

I think probably most everyone knows this, but for any who don't (I am sorry! I can't remember my name most days, ha!), baby #5 is on the way, due sometime mid-October! :D

I found a great midwife who delivers at one of the local hospitals, and am going to my first appointment this Friday. I am very anxious to hear a heartbeat and see the baby. Yes! They are doing an ultrasound the first appointment to date the pregnancy.

God is GOOD!

Our cruise!

Dave and I decided to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary a bit early (it will be Dec. 2009) by taking a cruise. Our reasoning was that we'll just have moved to a new duty station and Dave will be in the midst of training and we need some time for us. My aunt got us a great deal on a 10-night cruise to the eastern Carribean, so we asked Dave's stepmom if she would be willing to help us out by watching the kids. She graciously accepted, and we left on January 1st and returned on January 12th. We drove all the way to Ft. Lauderdale (about 10 hours) to Port Everglades to get on the cruise ship. It was a grand time! We visited St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten, but were able to also sneak in a trip to St. John while in St. Thomas. We met a couple on the cruise and went on tours with them the whole time, becoming great friends. Cruises are a great way to get a taste of many different places in one trip.


Here are some views inside the ship:



The grand foyer.


The ceiling in the grand foyer.


Our teeny tiny room.

St. Thomas and St. John

We loved St. Thomas and St. John! It was the most "Americanized" of all the places we visited, because they are part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas is also known as a shopping mecca in the Caribbean, so it was bustling place! We took a boat ride to quieter St. John and went on a nature hike there, complete with snorkeling if we desired.







An imposing view of our ship in St. Thomas.


Our ship docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.







Views of St. Thomas from the top of the Skyride.



A cactus people had scarred up with grafitti.



To "lime" in the islands means to relax and chill out.




The Skyride!



The view from the top of the Skyride looking down into St. Thomas.



Medusa vines on St. John.



St. John



A termite nest seen our our nature hike on St. John.



A coconut on Honeymoon Beach on St. John.



Dave snorkeling on St. John. Doesn't it look like pool water?






Honeymoon Beach.



Sugarcane factory ruins on St. Thomas.