The Blue Angels

Today we went to see the Blue Angels in Pensacola. As I finished packing the car I started thinking that I was probably CRAZY to go with three children by myself, but Will has taken so much time off work that he couldn't come with us. : / I decided to go for it. WE ended up having a really good time. Of course, it's not much of a surprise when you think about how much Will loves airplanes, and the beach! Jessica had a good time too, and Jonathan . . . well . . . he was either sleeping or eating, so I think he had a good time too.
I had a really hard time trying ot hold Jonathan and get Will to stand somewhere I could get a picture of him and the planes in the background, so this was as good as I could do. (Look really hard at the far left of the picture! There are 4 angels flying in formation back there!)

This was the Blue Angels first performance since that crash a few months ago where one of the pilots died. They started off the show with this one airplane flying seperate from the rest. (Maybe to honor him?)

Before the Angels started flying there were lots of other planes and helicopters doing stunts. Jessica said her favorite part was when the coast guard helicopter dropped someone into the water and then picked them back up again. It was pretty cool. The water was flying everywhere when the helicopter was hovering above the water!

There is just something about the Blue Angels that makes me feel so patriotic. As I saw the planes come in for the first time, I had this overwhelming gratitude come over me. I was grateful to be living in a free country. I was grateful to the men and women serving in the military. I felt so blessed to be there at that moment with my beautiful children. It was awesome!

As you can see it was pretty sunny, but that didn't stop us! Will was pointing out the planes as they were about to make another pass. We were there for 2 hours and he never got tired of yelling, "Airplane!" everytime he spotted one.

So all in all the day went really well . . . until I tried to back my car out of the spot I was in. I parked at the edge of the white sandy beach, and I quickly learned that it's not only beautiful sand, but it's soft. I was totally stuck!! Luckily there were many people willing to help out (especially when they saw I was alone with three little ones!) After 4 men couldn't even make the car budge by pushing it, we stopped a truck passing by that had a wench on the front of his truck. In less than a minute he had pulled us free and we were on our way! There were so many people around watching they applauded when we finally got out. : ) Jessica got a kick out of the whole thing, and I was surprisingly calm. It helped that I had some angels of my own to help out. So anyway, NOTE TO SELF: Don't park on the sand!!