It runs in the blood

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun! ..."

I could not pass up the opportunity to drag the boys to the

Quad City Air Show in Davenport, Iowa this past June.

And to top it off, the Blue Angels would be flying.

Members of my family have been involved in aviation since before WWII..

One Grandfather built aircraft and retired from Lockheed Martin.

He also met Amelia Earhart. 

My other Grandfather built his own planes and crashed them, not on purpose.

My Dad, who also retired from Lockheed Martin, is a pilot and has his own plane.

My brother is in the Air Force.

There were a countless number of uncles in there too.

Many of my childhood weekends were spent at small airport lounges with a bag of vending machine chips or taking in the California sunshine at an airshow.

One favorite flying memory was when we flew over the Pacific out to Catalina Island. We spotted a whale, had lunch at the little airport on top of the hill and watched the buffalo on the hillside. 

Every time my dad took us flying we would go weightless.  Yes, weightless.

You know, that thing you can pay a few thousand dollars to do?

My dad would pull up the nose on the plane, we would go up and up and up.

He would stall out the plane and the plane would fall.

We would unbuckle our seat belts and float!

We would float. along with our cabbage patch dolls. weightless. for seconds...

When Sean and I were engaged, my dad wanted to take him flying. 

My poor, motion sickness, soon to be, husband.

I knew what my dad had planned as soon as he grabbed the yoke and pulled.

A little while later, Sean was puking in one of those cute little bags.

I loved going to airshows... 

Walking around in my dad's shadow as we walked from plane to plane.

Sitting in cockpits and cargo holds.

Watching the amazing acrobatics of barn stormers.

Seeing and hearing Chuck Yeager break the sound barrier.

The best for me though is watching either the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds.

It sends excitement through my body and it gives me goosebumps every time.

It is so loud and powerful and perfect.

Braeden has seen both the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds.

I plan to drag take both boys to airshows every summer of their childhood.

I hope that it is something that they will love to do and I hope they have great memories from it.

Thanks Dad!