Friday was an eventful day! It started with an 8 mile run for me in almost 100% humidity. Yuck! The day improved though as I went to Joshua's class for first Friday of the month reading time. He loves it and I do too! Then I went home and we loaded the van for our overnight trip to Pensacola, Florida. With the van packed, we stopped by Joshua's school to check him out early. Side story- Joshua does not want to miss school ever but he was excited for this experience. He said other kids had been checked out and he just couldn't wait to be checked out just like a library book. I don't know that the solo walk to the office and me signing a piece of paper was quite as thrilling as he hoped but it was on to fun adventures so no time to dwell on that.
We stopped by Chick Fil A and grabbed Rachel and lunch. Thanks for the discount Rachel! She didn't want to miss out on making money but she's been working 6 days a week and has never been to an air show so she decided to ask for the time off.
We arrived at the Navy Base and the Blue Angels were flying at that moment. That sure got everyone pumped for the show and all the kids (Rachel too were just giddy with excitement.)
We dropped off bags and the lady at the front desk told us we should just walk over. We had tried to drive a little closer already but the guards weren't letting anyone in to any parking lots. This advice to walk over turned out to be a pretty negative part of our story but we survived. We left the hotel with the red wagon loaded with 80+ pounds worth of boys and our arms loaded with chairs and a backpack. It was only a mile to the entrance of the air show but in humid air and through sand/dirt and on a slanted hill we all thought we were dying upon entrance to the gates of the air show. We were then told no backpacks so we dumped all of our stuff from the back pack in to the wagon and were told that was ok....yeah military life. It seemed really disorganized and their were tons of people leaving. We got there early because we anticipated a huge crowd. I will pause here and fill you in on the discovery we made about 2 hours later. We had missed the Blue Angels! We thought we were catching a warm-up when we arrived but actually that was their performance! They performed at 2 and the show we attended started at 4. This show was other planes performing followed by fireworks. So, our early arrival wasn't necessary and the people leaving had finished watching the Blue Angels. We had a much better experience the next day because the military personnel directing traffic were ready for people to start showing up and it was very clear what to do.
The initial excitement captured when the first planes started flying made Matt and I excited to share this moment with our kids. Nathan jumped when the first plane arrived and started crying but that was instantly replaced with laughter, delight, and amusement.
Joshua has always loved and been fascinated by air planes.
The planes flying during the day were very entertaining. They had to cancel a few of the performances due to clouds. This extra time had me a little crazy because Nathan started getting pretty restless. He then kicked us out of our comfy chairs and decided they were both his. He was just everywhere! Then when I thought I might lose my mind the fireworks began. They had fireworks/sparklers on the tips of the wings of the planes. This was really neat to watch. Then they had a regular firework show with music. It was very entertaining.
Remember our treacherous walk to the show? Well, it is time to repeat and this time in the dark. We took off and Matt found a trail for us to take instead of the slanted side of the road. However, the flashlight app on the phone still had me feeling like I was experiencing too much nature. We all laughed at the sounds and the appearances of possible snakes at my expense. When we arrived at the hotel, we were completely drenched in sweat. I still don't believe it was only a mile.
The Navy Lodge is a nice hotel. It has a nice brick path that takes you on to the beach and it even has a little playground.
We had decided to swap some things around in our day and to kill time in Pensacola longer than planned to catch the 2pm Blue Angel show. We had enjoyed the other planes but felt really disappointed that we had missed the main event. We just happened to stop by the lobby and someone informed us that the Blue Angels were now performing at 11:30! BLESSINGS! Can you imagine the disappointment if we had killed time only to miss the Blue Angels again?
After our continental breakfast, we took off for the National Naval Aviation Museum. This museum is wonderful and free! We drove over to it and this time we were arriving at the start of the first show. It was very clear where to go and they had shuttles immediately ready to take you to the air show. We declined since we were going to the museum first but we all just shook our heads as we remembered our "fun" walk the night before.
Nathan is trying to change his screen on to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.
The museum even had a playground and both boys could have stayed in the playground for hours but we had the Blue Angels to see.
Scored these souvenirs from Matt. The boys had already gotten tie tacks from me. Good job boys!
The show was great and we all enjoyed it. It was very loud and Nathan went through every option of ear plug without leaving a single one to actually protect his ears. At one point, he is in my lap and he has taken the yellow squishy plugs out and is eating it! He said, he thought it was candy! He wasn't a fan of the loudness either so we just took turns covering his ears with our hands. We left as they were doing their final circle and would just pause as they flew overhead. Nathan wanted Joshua to push him and I was fine with that because I wanted him to actually ride in the stroller. We were almost to the exit and they flew right over us. Joshua instantly paused and grabbed Nathan's ears. I love how well he cares for his brother.
We left the show, hopped on the shuttle, and loaded up in the van. We drove a few minutes away to a delicious restaurant called The Oar House where we were meeting my cousin Kalli and her husband Sean. The last time I saw Kalli was on my wedding day! It was wonderful to reconnect and I hope that we will do more of these visits now that we live two hours apart. No, I did not get a picture of us. :-( I guess we will just have to visit again.
Nathan and Rachel fell asleep pretty quickly.
We were around Mobile and I knew that Nathan needed a diaper change and Joshua probably would need to go to the bathroom again so I suggested we stop at The Bass Pro Shop which is right off the interstate. It was a great idea as the kids felt like this was another part of the adventure. Free plane show, free plane museum, and a free aquarium works for me! We won't talk about the other non free parts! It was a great adventure!
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