A Dream Come True

We spent several days in Harrisonburg, VA. I was helping my parents do work there. Rebecca and the kids came along. We stayed in a Residence Inn Marriott and it was delightful. The kids enjoyed the indoor pool and "hot pool". The staff was kind and friendly toward the kids. Each morning the kids thought the waffles were just such a treat. As we arrived in town, Rebecca spotted this incredible park, A Dream Come True playground. The kids and Rebecca visited it several times during the week and I got to come one time. It was such a colorful park with many unique (or new to us) activities.

pogo sticks

sisters...Olivia is so sweet to play with and help keep an eye on Emma.

Emma started pulling herself around this day. She was working on getting her knees under her but mostly uses her upper body and her feet to move. I have seen her get into a plank position now and again. She is really good a circles but with some motivation she gets some forward motion. She actually enjoys being on her tummy. That is a first for one of our children.

lots of climbing

let me just say, he is adventurous and requires a pretty close eye :)

this is typical Gabe. he was a little worried when he first found himself in this position. "ah! ah! i'm stuck." but then he quickly turned to laughing and let me get a picture before helping him get free.

"Ready, Set, Go!" Olivia might just make a good runner someday.

spider girl

more climbing

spinning

well, i could tell you that this was a sibling slide race but really they just graciously posed for pictures that mom and dad thought would be sweet. :)

the circles made funny sounds when the kids stepped on them

The picture didn't turn out but Olivia had her first success at getting all the way across a set of monkey bars one of the evenings we were there.

Gabe's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Gabe!

Our tenderhearted, excited about life, and goofy son turned 4. Rebecca and I worked together to make him a bulldozer cake. This was actually a few days before his birthday but we were headed out of town and, with the Labor Day holiday, Grandpa and Grandma were able to join us for a celebration. We did this at breakfast. The kids were delighted to get cake and a party first thing. :)

"Don't I get cake too?"

On Gabe's actual birthday, we were in Harrisonburg, VA where I was working with my parents. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. They put the sombrero on Gabe and sang to him. He also got ice cream. His expressions and enjoyment were priceless.  The same could be said for his siblings. There was lots of joy to go around that night.

Pop-pop and Nana are down there on the end. The ran from our end of the table (when there was food) to their end of the table for sitting in laps. 

"You take pichur?"

"I smile!"

"I take over world!!! Muahahahaha!!!"

Emma sat in a high chair for the first time. She did pretty well, though Rebecca had to have some quick hands to keep her upright a couple of times.

Ultimately, though, the excitement was just too much for Emma...

Winston Salem Air Show

For Gabe's birthday, we got tickets to the Winston Salem Air Show. We had never been to an air show, so we had only a vague idea of what to expect. We knew there would be planes in the air and on the ground, so we thought they would like that. When we got there, the Army "Golden Knights" parachute team was starting their presentation.

The first jumper just did a straight jump but the second one did a "failed chute" simulation, where he purposely detached one side of his main chute.

The jump started normally enough...

But then one side of his chute "failed",

so he cut the chute away completely

and deployed his backup,

landing safely a few minutes later.

The next sequence had 3 jumpers that started out pretty far apart,

but then angled in toward each other.

They got within inches of each other

and then shot apart as fast as they could.

It was amazing to see how much control they had while falling at 120 MPH.

Their jump plane.

The Army Golden Knights

Next we had some nut in a biplane doing some crazy acrobatics.

The boys thought the Douglas B-26 bomber taking off was too loud. :)

We got to walk around the airfield and look at bunch of different WWII and later era fighters. We also got to see some really incredible acrobatics, including 2 tiger-striped planes that sometimes came so close to one another that they looked sure to collide. 

The final display we saw was a celebration of 100 years of USMC Aviation. They did a simulated rescue in a "hot" landing zone with an Apache attack helicopter, an A-4 fighter and a Harrier all doing bombing runs. 

Looks like they hit something...

At the end, the Harrier came in low and fast to drop napalm.

The results were impressive. The kids didn't really like that part. :)

As we were leaving, we got to see the Harrier hover over the runway and then come straight down for a landing. Again, it was incredibly loud, so the boys didn't like it.