MacDill AirFest

I have always, always, always wanted to fly a jet.  I never will :(
I have always, always wanted to go to an air show.  I never have (at least not that I remember), until now.

We tried to sneak the MacDill AirFest into an already busy Saturday.  We almost missed it.

After over an hour of waiting in stand still traffic, Jeremy made the decision to pull over, park in an office parking lot and walk. We had brought the wagon, so why not?  (I was afraid the truck would get towed....but we would just have to wait and see).  The scramble began, and we pushed those three sweet kids as hard as we could.  We even raced the car that was in front of us.  When we made it to the base entrance, the car that was in front of us(and all others) were forced to turn around because there was no more parking.  We walked right through.  I don't think I can fully express the pride my husband felt at that moment!

We raced to the hangers and made it with a few minutes to spare before the Thunderbirds took flight.

Can you see the Thunderbirds in the distance?

I'm not going to lie....I had a few tears spill down as I listed to, and felt those enginges start up, and as they flew over our heads with all of their incredible stunts.  It was unbelievable! Amazing!  Beautiful!  Stunning!  Flat out Awesome!  I loved it.

mirror image flight

These girls had the best views in the house.

 After the show, the kids got to through one of the big air force planes.  I believe this is a 707...and it's like a gas station in the skies.  They refuel  aircraft while in mid air.

Honeymoon Island, with my littles

While Jeremy and Nicole were away on an overnight camping trip (someone call Jeremy and ask him to put the pictures on the computer so I can write about it ;), I took the Hannah and Nathan to the beach.  We went to Honemoon Island State Park.  It was beautiful.  ( I daresay, it ranked right up there with Naples beaches...maybe even better ).  

 We were there at a perfect time.  It was low tide, so there was, what seemed to be a tidal pool, for the kids to play in.  This meant, they could play in shallow water that was separated from the Gulf without me worrying about rip currents.  It was a perfect depth for the to play, before coming a sand bar and going out into deeper water again.

We had a lot of fun looking for, and finding shells.  I have not had this much luck finding beautiful, in tacked shells at other beaches before.  Here is out bounty.

 We even found a live conch (we put it back in the water after I took a picture), as well as a hermit crab.

 The creature inside the conch.

 The sand was soft, white and beautiful!

Pretty sailboat 

 I'm not sure if anyone knows this or not...but...these two adore each other.  They love to talk and play together.  They had a blast covering one another in sand.

Can you see the joy on this little boy's face.

Love

 Hannah really wanted to take a picture where it looks like she is holding the sun.  This was our first take...it's still a bit to high.

Nate insisted on some "scary" faces, so this is their "scary" pose.

I think we got it....she's holding the sun.

It was a sweet time with my two youngest children.  I was battling a pretty intense head cold that weekend, so it was nice to get outside, but be somewhere that I could just sit and not be to active.  I love spending time with them.

A Passport to Learning- CC Science Fair

This is Hannah, with her little buddy Claire.

Our Classical Conversations community hosted our first ever Science Fair this past month.  The kids had a blast, and did a wonderful job on their projects.  

Nicole did her project on Samuel Morse and the telegraph.  She built a larger scale, working model telegraph, researched and wrote information about Samuel Morse and his invention, and made decipher sheets for her friends to take with them.  This was the first time she had completed a project like this before.  I thought she did an excellent job, and I now she learned a lot about something she is quite interested in.

Nicole, putting her board together.

Explaining her topic to her friend

Her friend, Claire, is testing out the key and learning how electromagnetism works

Nicole's full display.  She had her information, the telegraph, decipher sheets for her friends to take, and even a sheet for others to write a code to her.  She hardly left her spot all night ;)

Hannah did her project on the science sentence "How do animal adapt to environmental change?  They will adapt, migrate,or hibernate."

She divided her board into three sections: adapt, migrate, hibernate.  Each section contained pictures of animals that exhibited that particular trait.

Hannah is showing her board to her friend Stephen.

I love that this dad made sure he walked around to each display, listened to what the kids said, and asked a lot of questions.  He is taking a stop at Hannah's display.

AHG- Trailblazers Day

Our American Heritage Girls troop hosted a Trailblazers day of outdoor fun and adventure at a local horse stable.  Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, but we packed as much muddy fun in as we could :)

The kids all got to ride a horse (first time.  They have ridden a pony before, but not a horse)

While I was helping people check in, the kids wandered around, talking to some of the vendors who came out to participate.  They learned a little about air boats, alligator and frog hunting.  They also learned a bit from a local turkey hunter (but I don't have a picture from that)

With their friends Alex and Carly, they had fun learning to cast different types of fishing poles into the little pond.  It was extremely windy, so often times the cast when off to the right and landed on the ground.

They also got a little bit of gun safety instruction and shot the BB gun a few times.

 It was at that point (we were at the back of the property) when the storm really rolled in.  We had to take a "monster truck" to the front.  We sat in the back, and almost got thrown out a couple of times as slipped around in the mud.  It was fun ;)

Although our time was cut short, it was a lot of fun.  We are looking forward to another event like this one.