Arboretum & Aviation, All in A Day

A few weekends ago was one of those perfect mid 80's weekends complete with outdoor activities to boot.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum - More than I anticipated, can't wait to go back!

Look, someone wrote a book about me and didn't even ask permission.  Where's my royalties?

I love how it looks like I'm 50 feet high in this tree.  Nice angle Amber!

I also love the new point and shoot Greg got me for Christmas, it takes awesome pictures like this one of a butterfly. 

Gateway Aviation Day - a local event (for free!) that was quite spectactular.


This Harrier was in Afganistan just 6 months ago.  The painted missiles & gunsights just under the Captin's name indicates how many missiles were deployed and times the guns were used. (Borrowing Greg's Facebook captions cause he actually retains this type of information).

Per the pilot "This is the bomb button"....

Nathan and I are sitting in a Blackhawk.

They must have removed the Bluth company logos.

Got to see some aerial stuff, very cool.

Valley Metro's newest bus driver.

The Apache helicopter, we got to see this lift off.

C 135 - the flying gas station. Carries 36,000 gallons of fuel. It can unload enough gas in 1 minute to fuel a car for a year. Wish I could have a minute of their time.

 

Nathan and I sitting inside the C 135...

The inside of the C 135 was like a huge hall, here is Nathan and Greg walking towards the cockpit.

Inside the cockpit of the C135...

Crazy controls to fly this thing!



A Day Out with Thomas

This past weekend was the 16th consecutive year for Thomas the Tank Engine to tour.  The tour stopped in 45 cities across the United States and Canada.  We were so fortunate that Thomas chugged into Globe, AZ - just about an hour away. 

From the moment we arrived, Nathan was beside-himself-dancing-in-line-slap-happy.  It was 3 hours of unabridged train phenomena and Nathan couldn't have enjoyed anything more.  

We met the train engineer.

We rode an old double decker train (that Thomas was pulling - wink, wink).

We got a 'Jr Engineer Certificate' during the train ride.

We met Sir Topham Hat also known as The Fat Controller. 

We played with Thomas train sets.

But the very best part of the day was seeing Thomas the Tank Engine up close!

It was the best day EVER for this little 4 year old!!!

(sidebar - we've been experimenting with Nathan's hair to work with his cowlicks, hahaha!)

Brighter Days

By Leeland