HAFB...

With the wonderful weather we have had we decided to to HAFB Museum and check out the planes.  I have taken them before but Easton wasn't big enough to enjoy them.  He LOVED it!  He is all about airplanes, cars and trucks.  It was so fun to see him and Madi get so excited about all the planes and they LOVED being outside.

Whenever I go here I think of my dad.  It's an easy way for me to talk about him with my kids since he passed away before they were born.  He worked as an air traffic controller for most of his life and yet he never tired of seeing an airplane take off or land or fly overhead.  I took him here once, just a few years before he died.  It was like Disneyland to a little kid.  He had sparkles in his eyes and was so excited to walk through and read the facts and see all the planes and equipment.  Airplanes always make me remember some of the good things about him.

These tires are massive!  I love the way Easton was in awe of them.   

Madi kept commenting about how scary the planes looked.  A lot of them are painted with scary faces or big sharp teeth.  I thought it was funny that she was so concerned about that.

 Intrigued by a movie...

I loved the new addition of the Vietnam exhibit.  I never realized how real of a war it was.  It is kind of skipped over in history classes and labeled as a "police action" but here is a model of one of the many cells that POW's lived in.  At night they were fastened into their beds.  They lived under awful, awful circumstances and were treated inhumanly. 

Ready to eject... 

I am determined to someday get the perfect picture of the two of them, both looking, both smiling.  Might not be until they are teenagers but I am going to get it! 

I think the kids favorite part was being outside.  They are soooo done with winter and being inside all day.  Easton LOVES the snow and immediately started a snow ball fight with Madi and me.  He thinks it is so fun to throw it at me and giggles hysterically as I try to dodge his throws. 

Madi enjoyed it too.  She got me with several and then her attention to Easton. 

Look at the size of this one... 

"Don't get me!!!" 

I love watching them play together, especially when they are laughing and having fun.  So much nicer than when they are arguing and hitting each other. 

Madi had fun spinning some wheels on a few of the planes.  I was bummed the children's area was closed while we were there.  Guess we'll have to go back.

Coming here makes me so thankful for the men and women that fight for our country; for the services they provide and the extreme sacrifices they and there families make.  This is a picture of my father-in-law in uniform.  Pretty handsome picture.  Derrick looks so much like him.  Derrick remembers dropping him off right before Christmas when he was deployed for Desert Storm.  I am grateful to live in the country I do.  Even with all the problems we face and the political craziness that is here, there is no where else I would rather live.

 

March 1, 2013