Any Volunteers?

We wandered outside this spring to look at our planter boxes and saw that we were already growing flowers! A pansy and johnny-jump-ups from last year had returned (along with the requisite spring weeds).

We decided that we would have to transplant the strong-willed little plants when we rotated the soil and planted this year's flowers. We went on vacation, planning to take care of the gardening when we came home. While we were gone, we found that the number of volunteers had increased.

And they just keep filling in. We have one petunia that came back too. This year, our garden planted itself!

Flying in the Dark

We went night flying for the first time last weekend. Aaron put lights on his plane and so did several of his flying friends. We went out to the field around 8 pm to watch the sun set over the salt flats and chat while we waited for the night to fly in.

It was really really fun to watch the lighted planes fly around in the dark. Each plane had a unique lighting scheme and they were easy to see for spectators.

Most people used plane-specific light tubes, although there was one guy who taped dollar-store glow sticks to his jet. And it worked really well for him.

Aaron's plane only flew once because the propellar broke on landing. We were a little bummed (Zeke especially) that Aaron couldn't fly more, but it was still fun to watch everyone else fly. This one is Aaron's plane while it was in the sky.

We also got to show Zeke real stars while we weren't watching planes. He knows all about (and loves) star shapes, but we've never pointed out the stars in the sky. He was as excited about stars as he was about planes!

Fort Collins Jet Vacation

Our family vacation for this year was a trip to Fort Collins to go to an RC jet rally. Aaron wants to fly jets someday, and the closest jet events for him to see them in action are in northern Idaho and eastern Colorado. So it's a trip. We drove through Wyoming because that's fastest --- it's still a long drive though. I was trying taking some pictures through the windshield while we were driving (it turns out better at the beginning of the trip when there is less dust and fewer bugs).

We got to Fort Collins late and stayed up even later. The next morning we headed out to see jets!

We used our shade shelter for the first time and it was great. No sunburns on this trip!

We don't quite have a fancy enough camera to get great jet action shots up close, but that doesn't stop us from trying! Really, this jet isn't going to hit this shade shelter, it just looks like it.

Friday night we went to dinner and hung out with one of Aaron's college friends and his family and stayed up late again. Then we were back out at the field on Saturday morning.

Saturday at noon all the pilots gathered in the jets so the spectators could look at them up close. We looked and took lots of pictures and were about to move out when one of the pilots asked if Zeke would like a picture with a jet. We said yes and the pilot carried him out into the center of the field by a jet. We took our picture and Zeke came back to us when some guys from the Academy of Model Aeronautics (the national organization) came by and asked if the pilot could take Zeke back out to the plane so they could get pictures for their magazine. Zeke could be in print in a few months!

Our American Flag