Night Fly

We love night flying! Flying in the evening, picnic dinner, playing in the dirt, and watching the sun go down - all out in the middle of nowhere. 

We flew in June this year instead of later in the summer, so the evening was extra long. Lots of daylight and lots of twilight too. 

 

After dinner we got glowsticks out. Nora has a pink trident and Zeke has a green ax. They had a ball having battles with their super-powered weapons. 

Family photo at the flying field (say that 3 times fast!). 

As the night got darker the lights on the planes showed more. So fun to watch. 

 

We also watched the stars come out and did a little stargazing. Zeke asked what the zodiac sign was (Gemini) and we looked up how to locate it. We think we found it, although we weren't there long enough to see all the stars in it. 

Night Flying

Night flying is awesome if just for the sunsets. 

Which is good, because it is kind of the Bermuda Triangle of flying events for Aaron. It seems that more crashes happen to us at night flys than any other time. This year was no exception. 

So, we tried to focus on the positive and I took a whole bunch of sunset pictures. Then Nora took some more. 

And, as the sun went down, the glow sticks came out. These helicopters/fireworks/wheels were really cool. I've never seen them before. 

We made Nora's helicopter into a crown for a while.

At least some other people had night fly planes that worked. One day that will be us..........

Loertscher Reunion

Loads of fun at the Loertscher reunion this year! 

Of course there were train rides (although Zeke may think he's on a roller coaster in this one...)

Nora adored the slip-n-slide. It was so fun to watch her. 

Zeke didn't want to get his whole self wet, so he manned the water cannons. 

We wore our matchy family shirts and found it impossible to get a good family picture in them. 

And the kids spent a lot of time in the big swing with their cousins and their new family friends. There were some families here this year that don't usually come and Zeke made fast friends with one of the boys his age. There seemed to be a gang of 8 year old boys (who are 2nd cousins) running around together and they had a blast.

Windy Fly

The last flying day was super windy. The photo doesn't do it justice but the wings of the plane were very wobbly!

And seagulls - so many seagulls - were soaring on the wind currents.

Aaron flew once and counted it as a success. The kids entertained themselves with this old chair. They could sit on it, pull the lever, and go up. They weren't quite heavy enough to put the chair back down though, even stacked on top of each other.

Kites and Planes

Last weekend we went with Aaron to fly his plane on a fairly windy day. The first thing the kids wanted to do when we got there is fly kites. 

It was rather gusty so it took some effort to get Nora's Cinderella kite up. Zeke's Jake and the Neverland Pirates kite is great and it went right up for us. 

Sadly, Zeke lost hold of his kite and it floated away. We sprinted after it but it was fast! It got caught on a bush after a while and Aaron went to check it out. He decided the $3 kite wasn't worth wading a canal and climbing a steep embankment to pursue any further. It was kind of traumatic at the time but Zeke made it through. Now we need to go kite shopping!

Aaron also flew his plane and Zeke got to fly a little bit too. While the boys flew, Nora and I took pictures.

Our cute family. 

Float Flying

Like the night fly, we weren't sure what the weather would be for the float fly. It rained all week, and even in the night on Saturday morning. But the weather at the lake on Saturday lat morning was so beautiful! 

Nora helping Daddy take off. She spent the whole time in the water.

There were some wild clouds around, but fortunately no rain that came over us.

Sweet (wet) girl.

Zeke on the muddy shore.

It was a good flying day. Aaron flew 4 or 5 times, no crashes. The kids loved playing outside, and we had a good hamburger/hot dog lunch. 

Night Flying

The Saturday of the Night Fly, we spent the morning working on finishing Aaron's plane, then around 3:00 a thunderstorm rolled in. Thunder, lightning, cold wind, raining cats and dogs. We were going to run to the grocery store before we headed flying, but we didn't want to go out in the heavy rain, so we stayed home and waited for the notice that the fly was cancelled. But the cancellation email never came, and after consulting the weather radar, we decided that there would probably be people and food at the flying field even if the weather wouldn't let us fly. So we loaded up and headed out. 

About halfway through our drive we drove out of the rain and into the sunshine. When we arrived at the field it was 80+ degrees and sunny. We felt like we had entered another world - no wonder the event wasn't cancelled; the weather was fine here! 

Dinner with melty chocolate chip cookes.

One of my favorite parts of the night fly is watching the sun set. It's easy to get beautiful sunset pictures out here.

Moon rising.

Sun setting.

Lights on and ready to fly.

We brought our glowsticks, but the club was handing them out. There weren't that many kids, so we got several packages!

Right as it got dark, we got a fireworks show. The next town over was having their town celebration, and we had a great view of the fireworks. We were far enough away that the sound was a bit behind the light, but not too much. The kids were so happy to have fireworks. 

Planes flew until about 10 then everyone packed up and went home. We stopped at the grocery store on the way, and the kids were better behaved than ever before. It was kind of a small miracle! We speed shopped, checked out as the store was closing, and then went home to fall into bed. It was a fun night!

May Float Fly

We love going float flying!

The kids had such a good time in the water.

Nora gave herself a mud treatment at one point.

Watching Aaron fly and the sailboat in the distance. I did a lot of relaxing at this event; it was great!

Fall Float Flying

We haven't done a whole lot of flying this summer, but we were excited to go float flying for a second time this year. The kids were thrilled to go play in the water and watch the planes. 

Aaron had an awesome flying day. He flew 4 times in one morning. I can't remember the last time we flew like that, but it had to have been 2 or 3 years ago. 

Aaron had some really good landings too. 

The weather was perfect. Warm but not hot, and lots of light pretty clouds against the blue sky. 

Utah Valley Aeromodelers Open House

A few weeks ago we went to a flying event in Utah County. We always fly in Salt Lake, but we've been thinking we should check out the closer options, and we are so glad we did! The site is great and the drive is nice. We didn't fly at the event, and Aaron hasn't had the chance to get back there because the fires are fairly close. But as long as the flying is as nice as the rest of the place, we will be coming here more!

We were only there for the last hour or so, but that's okay because it was really hot. We did have time to see some stunt flying and cool planes (like the flying lawnmower and flying RC Iron Man).

Zeke was getting sick this day, and he tried to enjoy himself but he really didn't have a great time. He was really lethargic and asked more than once if he could lie down on the asphalt and have a nap! Poor kid. 

We bought lunch while we were there and all Nora wanted was to drink. Such a cute girl with her soda.