Noah's First Flight

For weeks, Kevin and I have been keeping a secret: for Noah's eleventh birthday, Kevin had arranged for him to go flying with a friend of Kevin's who has a plane. Understand: this is the boy who eats, sleeps, and breathes all things aviation. He spends his time reading about airplanes, watching t.v. shows about airplanes, building paper airplanes, collecting model airplanes, dreaming about airplanes. And he's never flown at all, even on a commercial flight. And he had no idea what we had planned. When we pulled into the airport, I asked him if he had figured out what we were doing. He said, "Are we gonna look at some planes?!"

At this point I was almost crying because I was so excited for him. I said, "No, we're gonna GO FLYING!!" He was ecstatic.

A Beechcraft Bonanza

This smile hardly left his face!

Watching Bryan begin safety checks.

More safety checks as Bryan explained what he was doing to Noah. I liked the safety checks. :)

I got this shot just as we were airborne. Priceless.

The upper cluster of buildings is where Kevin works--The Sprint Campus.

Downtown KC

Princess Leia-esque, don't you think?

Eating BBQ at the Miami County Airport

Refueling

Bryan, the plane's owner, was so great to explain what he was doing and why, and even let Noah take the controls at one point...which caused my lunch to lurch. :) We did two 'touch and go's', and it was an all-around great experience.

Noah declared it "[One of] the best days of my life!!!" Happy Birthday, Noah!! Just don't expect us to top this one next year. :)

Pizza and a Movie (Review)

I thought I'd let you homeschool Moms of elementary age kids that Pizza Hut's Book It! enrollment is open for the 2011-2012 year. Go here and click on 'enroll'. My kids love getting to get a free personal pan pizza each month for reaching their reading goals!

Also, though I haven't seen this movie and really don't plan to, I know lots of people have seen it or plan to. I thought this was a careful, balanced review.

Arboretum

This morning promised to be such a pretty day, so after family worship time I packed a quick 'old-fashioned' lunch of oranges, hard-boiled eggs, banana bread, cheese, and crackers--and not so old-fashioned Kool-aid-- and we headed out to the arboretum. I have a new camera, and I've been itching to get out there to take pictures of the kids in that beautiful place. Mom is here with us today, so that made our visit even nicer! Grandma's presence makes everyone happy around here. :)

I'm disappointed that this picture turned out a little fuzzy, but I still love it. It perfectly captures Lily and Sam's relationship. They are buddies.