Arctic Thunder

Last Sunday, we skipped church, packed lunches, loaded up and drove into Anchorage for the Air Show. This year, they featured the Thunderbirds. Some of the boys' favorites include the F22-Raptor flying with a Mustang- a little yellow stunt plane. (Ryley's currently reminding me of all we saw, complete with their "real" names. It was just a bunch of cool aircraft, to me!) We got to sit in a C-17. We saw the Globlemaster III and the new F-16. We waited in line to go up and see in the cockpit while an enlisted answered our questions and gave the "tour".

The Thunderbird show was amazing. I got a bit choked up and patriotic as the music played and I thanked God for our military, the strongest in the WORLD! I'm so proud to be American and am incredibly blessed to have been born here. I'm astounded at the geniuses who put together these aircraft. All the controls and buttons and levers and dials serve a purpose and I am completely stunned by them.

One of the highlights was sitting inside a Blackhawk helicopter. The kids' Uncle Brendon is currently undergoing training to fly this aircraft in the Army. When we got to the front of the line, the man in the pic. put his arm out to stop my kiddos after Ryley climbed aboard. "One at a time, please, kids", he said. I implored him to make an exception. "Would it be possible for all of them to climb up together for a picture? Their uncle flies this helicopter, but he lives out of state and I'd love to send him a picture." "Well," he said, "I guess that would be alright, this one time." So he proceeded to lift them up one by one and allowed me to snap a shot.