Sandblasted by the KFalls airshow

Klamath Falls had an airshow over the weekend that we attended. It's 4 hours away, but it had the Thunderbirds coming to it, so we had to go! If you're not sure who the Thunderbirds are, they are the Air Force's version of the Blue Angels, which basically are really great pilots who do cool formations in flight.

My George cousins, Dusty and Tome, and their families were going too, so we tagged along with them (thanks guys, it was fun to catch up!) and we all went camping. This is the first time we've been camping since we've had kids, (I know, pathetic), and we've discovered that camping in a tent with small children and a baby isn't very fun for the other campers in the area.

A baby crying in the night, little kids laughing and talking too loud and too late or early...it made it a bit stressful worrying about what other people were going to say to us. Setting up and packing up the tent and sleeping bags and gear was a pain for Hyrum since I had my hands full of kids. The Georges are smart because they go camping in trailers now that they have kids, and we've resolved to get one ourselves now, though not a cute retro one like theirs. We have too many kids now for one that size! Aside from the mosquito plague, it was fun to finally get out and do a little camping with the kids.

The next morning we went to the airshow, but first we waited in a horrific line of traffic (probably nothing compared to Seattle or LA, but for us little-towners, it was pretty awful).

We picked a spot and lined up our chairs. From left to right is Tilly, Hyatt, Tome, her son Jude, Emily holding her son Brock and Dusty holding his daughter McKenna.

The weather decided not too cooperate that much, and though I'm grateful we weren't baking in the hot sun (we hate the heat and sun...our little family is comprised of shade lovers), the wind was whipping up the dirt and sand blasting us and our camera and...well, everything.

Notice the haze in this picture? The lens was coated with dust.

The kids weren't too thrilled about the wind and dust getting in their eyes, but they liked being fooled into thinking the trick planes really were crashing.

We got a few raindrops on us, but overall is was fun to be there. You're not allowed to bring food or drinks in, so poor Hyrum spent almost the entire airshow waiting in lines. He waited for an hour in a line to get a couple of stupid $5 hot dogs for us, just to be told they were all out right when he got to the front. So off to another horrendous line he went, only to end up getting salads after another huge wait, but I was happier with that anyway.

Dusty got McKenna nachos and she graced me with a "cheesy" grin.

Hyatt goofed around with his ear protection and ended up looking like he was doing the "chubby" story.


Here are scenes from the show:

A WW2 plane flew with a plane used today for the military. It was crazy to see the difference in the two up close like that.

A couple of planes did their fancy tricks, even with the wind and threats of rain.
Either the crowd just let out one huge, collective fluff, or else a pyrotechnics display just went off and I missed the fireball.

Dallas and Weston came by while they were there doing a service project for Youth Conference.

The Thunderbirds were the finale to the show, and they really were amazing. Hyrum took TONS of pictures of them, but here are just two. Click on them to enlarge.

Though we left a bit early and watched the Thunderbirds in the parking lot so we could skip the exiting traffic jam, somehow we still got stuck in it for almost an hour, even though we were less than 100 ft from the exit.
We did some playing around in KFalls afterward and got to our tent after dark, so luckily the mosquitoes weren't out full force. Our hair felt like straw and all crevices were caked with dirt, so we took showers and went to bed.

Can you find Hyatt?

Next time we go to an airshow, we'll sneak our own food so we can spend our time looking at planes and having fun, rather than waiting in a food line. And we'll go camping in a trailer!
The coolest thing about this whole trip, for me, was that though Hyatt wears underwear at home, we put him in pullups on this trip since we weren't sure how he'd do with the traveling and airshow and camping, but he didn't have ONE accident! I'd say he's about 95% pottytrained now. He just has occassional wet nights, and rare accidents in the day. My goal is to have him completely done, day and night, by the 4th of July. I'm one of those funny moms that don't consider my child accomplished with a task until they're proficient. I don't consider my kids "walking" unless all they do is walk and they do it alone, which is normally 9-10 months for my kids. I don't consider them "talking" until they actually use the right words for what they mean, are using at least two words at a time if not a sentence, and are talking a lot, which wasn't until 21 months for Hyatt. I don't consider them "potty-trained" until all diapers and pullups are banished from use because of not needing them anymore, which was 2 yrs and 3 months for Tilly, hence my 4th of July goal for Hyatt. To each his own!
Oh, the next day of our weekend was even more fun than the airshow, so maybe that's cooler than Hyatt staying dry, but that's for another post.