World War II airplanes

We had three very cool planes land near us for just 2 days...so we knew we had to take the time to go see them.  We not only got to see the three planes used in WWII...but, we got to go inside two of them!  It was such a cool experience.  One was the same type of plane used in the movie Memphis Belle.  This was part of the Collings Foundation Wings of Freedom tour

This first one was the Memphis Belle style plane.

 B-17 Bomber.

crawling up into the plane

sitting in the nose gunner seat.

Hannah's turn in the gunner seat.

Can you see us?  I'm guessing the swastikas are the number of missions this one flew?  I just noticed them, or else I would have asked.

This was the navigator's desk

black box?

a bomb "to Hitler, from "the mighty"

Nicole was intrigued with the communications desk

Look!  She even found a tool to tap out messages in Morse code!

Walking through a portion of the cabin.

"trying out" the machine guns.

this, in my opinion, would be the worst job to have!  small space!

the tail gunner

B-24J Liberator

talking with a civil air patrol student before crawling up into the plane.

Nathan really seemed to enjoy this morning

This was looking back to the tail of the plane where the tail gunner would be.  The metal track on the left is what carried the ammunition from the boxes to the back of the plane where the gun was.

More machine guns

Nate even liked it.

This plane will take people for a ride for over $2,500/ticket.  Since we couldn't afford that...we opted to just sit in the seat and pretend;)

This was an amazing catwalk to connect the cock pit with the gunners in the back.  Imagine squeezing your way through there, 10,000 feet or more above ground, with bombs by your side.  No thank you!  (yes...that is a bomb on the left.)

cock pit

This plane dropped 130 bombs.  

the kids were getting a lesson in propellers here.

TP 51-C Mustang

We were not allowed to get in this one.  We were given special permission to cross the ropes to take a picture next to it.  But, we were asked not to touch it.

A small building at the airport held a little WWII museum.  We thought that while we were there, we would check it out.  The kids watched some little videos from WWII.  Here are some artifacts I found.

French gas mask

oxygen tank

flight computer ;)

Japanese guns

a seat/parachute.  (I found out that my friend's aunt used to make these in a factory during the war.)

This was probably one of the coolest experiences we have had this school year.

It's my birthday, and I'll feed a giraffe if I want to.

Another year, come and gone.  It's true.  It really is true.  Life goes by faster the more you age.  I can not believe how quickly the years are going.  It's craziness!  So, I am officially 33, and the butt of all Jeremy's old age jokes for the next 9 months until he catches up with me ;)

I woke up to a beautiful birthday surprise.

Nate came and woke me up.  He said, "Mommy, it's time to get up.  You have to come downstairs.  We decorated for your birthday.  Hannah, standing next to him put her hand against her head and said, "NAAAA THAN!".  So Nate leaned in and quietly whispered, "It's a surprise."

Yep, my little sweeties decorated for my birthday.

And, they fed me sprinkle covered brownies for my birthday breakfast!

I took the morning and went to our new ladies' Bible study at church, and then joined by crew for the rest of the day.

First we ate at the world famous Taco Bus (literally, serves you tacos out of bus...they aren't to bad...just don't think about what you are eating for to long, haha)

All I wanted to do was go to the zoo, and feed the giraffes:)

So, we finally cashed in our Christmas money, and went to the zoo.

The chimps were in full action for us that day.  They were swinging all over the place...occasionally stopping to make sure we were still watching.

 We had a lovely afternoon, strolling around the zoo looking at cool animals and enjoying each other's company.

Jeremy & Nathan checking out the cheetah

And, yes...I got to feed the giraffes:)