Up Up & Away!

We always try to do something fun as a fam on Memorial/Labor Day not to mention the fact that a rare day off is a good opportunity to venture somewhere new-especially when even Chris ends up with a few hours to spare. He worked in the a.m., but then we drove up to Seattle in time to see just about everything @ Museum of Flight that afternoon with exception of Boeing's history in the red barn?! Sorry if that decreases our status as true Washingtonians:)
All that science gave Chris & I a whole new appreciation for pilots & astronauts-


















However, Cole & Dane are pretty sure they could fly a plane themselves after taking the wheel on a few and studying other aspects of aeronautics.














I've never seen so many different planes in one place although I still felt pretty ignorant by the end. Keeping track of the controls alone was enough to give me a headache! 'Course it's easy for me to be over-stimulated these days:) Hard to narrow down the several artistic shots that Chris took, but here are some notable ones:
Cole in front of speedy Concorde Climbing onto the tarmack-sp? after touring Air Force One that flew Pres. Nixon & Eisenhower (if I remember correctly; bear in mind I've got a pregnant brain & packed a lot o' history into a few hours:))Chris' favorites (boys & plane=Blackbird:))











Nice to get up close & personal with a Blue Angel since we always seem to miss out on Sea Fair-














We checked out a lookout tower with examples of everything that air traffic controllers get to stay on top of-whoa! No pressure keeping all of those flights straight & even understanding the lingo...Also spent quite a while in the hands-on Flight Zone; Chris discovered that a hang glider is a lil' trickier than it looks to maneuver let alone land near target! We learned (not gonna lie! I've already forgotten most of it:)) new vocab. i.e yaw & even equations that go into even taking off the ground & definitely the art to landing!


















I've never been a huge fan o' the solar system, but that's probably 'cuz the people smart enough & willing to leave our planet to explore space are way outta my league! I must admit t'was fascinating to see all that entails...from what's on board to the years of preparation/training!













Cool planes from World Wars I & II respectively incl. Dane's favorite one "with the shark nose"; can't imagine how chilly & dangerous that was to fly exposed like that in combat-whoa!














After all that, this mean mom wouldn't let any of her boys pay extra for a flight simulator 'cuz we have lots o' different directions for our money this month including the upcoming famous Puyallup fair:) Otherwise all had fun & we stayed until close! Last but not least, we hooked up with my parents & 2 sisters for dinner @ Cheesecake Factory in SoCtr before Brooke headed to SeaTac for her own flight back to UT for fall semester...Guess it's back to real world with work & school!