Saturday, September 20, 2008

Birthday Party for Eve at the Air Show

To celebrate Eve's birthday we went to the Santa Fe Air Show, along with us came Bettie and Bryce and their kids, and Karen and Kyle and their kids. The air show was great for a family event because there was a lot to do and to see. There were several planes and helicopters open to look into and a couple you could climb into. There was a small car show with lots of Corvettes for Gordon to drool over and in the hanger were displays advertising different groups and museums in the state, and they were all handing out goodies, pencils, pens or small toys. Each of the kids had quite a collection of stuff after going through there.

To start off the show they had the National Guard Colorguard present the flags and played the National Anthem. I love participating in patriotic events with my kids. I love the chance to show my kids how to act and show honor to our flag and our country. The first planes to fly through did a formation to honor the fallen soldiers. They were all together until right in front of the crowd, then one started to smoke and fell back, out of the formation. During this they played Taps over the speakers. It was so moving I was in tears. I was embarrassed and grateful I had my sunglasses on, but it was hard to recover my composure. Also during most of the show I couldn't help but remember my Dad, how much he loved planes, he would have loved to watch this with us. It made me miss him so much today.

From 2008_09_20


After the first act the show was full of fun and tricks that were amazing to watch. Several times Gordon and I couldn't help but hope the pilot had taken dramamine before taking off.

From 2008_09_20


One of the really neat acts was a glider that the pilot had mounted a jet engine on top of. He could do some really neat things since his craft had a lot of power, but not much weight.

From 2008_09_20


But the most nail biting act was the "Wing Walker". Which was a woman who climbed on top of the plane, after takeoff and held on to a little metal apparatus doing hand stands and other tricks while flying around, including during loops and twists!

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20


Here's the kids playing
From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20



And did you notice any yellow stuff in our ears? Bettie brought earplugs for everyone to help us save our hearing. It was a good thing too, because some of those planes were loud.
From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20



Here we are with an Alien, advertising for the Roswell UFO museum.
From 2008_09_20


Here's some of the neat aircraft we saw.
From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20

From 2008_09_20



And here's the car Gordon wants to own someday.
From 2008_09_20


After the show we went to Kyle and Karen's home for the birthday cake and ice cream!
From 2008_09_20


So now it's official, our Eve is four!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fun!! We went to an airshow in Las Vegas, and it reminded me of Dad also. Sometimes it seems we have an airshow around here most days. It's fun to see the AF planes flying if they're not so close you can't hear for the noise. You'll have to come to the AF Museum the next time you're up here.

Maria said...

so, who did the cake?

KAT said...

I did! Amber helped me come up with the idea for it though. Thanks Amber! Eve was happy, she had just asked for a Horse cake.

Anonymous said...

how fun!! I tagged you on my blog :)

julie_77 said...

What a cool cake! It looks like you guys had a fun day.

Share :) said...

Wow, you guys are always doing the most fun things it seems like. And your photos really help me imagine what it was like to be there. I totally noticed the ear plugs, before I read about it and thought "what excellent, responsible parents!" I was going to ask about the cake too, very nice! It's no Tom Selleck, but maybe you can do that for Eve's 16th birthday. ;)

Lanell said...

Andrew's jealous. He wishes we had an airshow here to go to for his birthday :)