Oregon International Air Show 2011

We have started a tradition of going to the Air Show every year on Friday night. We get a kid free with a paying adult, awesome evening air show, and FIREWORKS! It's the best fireworks show out there! Really, they ended the show with a huge ball of fire! IT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!

This year, we started hearing the practice runs of the jets in the early afternoon. So we headed outside to watch. I swear, one F-15 or F-16 flew about a mile above us, over the apartments. I loved it! Leo and Teage, not so much. Need to get ear plugs as soon as we get to the show.

We get there early and wait in a really LONG line. Everyone is excited. As soon as we get there, we go look at the static displays. It was pretty cool!

***NOTE*** PICTURE OVER LOAD!

There was a motorbike Officer just besides one of the helicopters. He was just chatting with a friend, but kids swarmed him, so he let them on his bike, while me and the other kids waited in like to get in a helicopter!

 Leo, the sun was bright!

Jake, darn sun!

This was one of two Coast Guard rescue helicopters. I didn't realize how BIG they are! One had the rescue basket out for us to see it was well. These two copters were probably my favorites!

Waiting in line

Leo inside one. He looks thrilled, huh?

Jake and Zoe on the other side.

Inside the other another one.

So, funny note. One of the Coast Guard was talking with the kids, commenting on the stickers. He told them to put the stickers on the window of other copter. lol! But the funny part was, Zoe was picking her nose right before she jumped down. I told her to stop it, and the dude was like, sorry ma'am. I told him he should really know better. But then, Zoe looks up at him, with a booger on her finger, sticks out her tongue and starts running her finger up and down on her tongue, getting the booger off. We both just start cracking up. The look she was giving him was priceless! And I was only a little bit embarrassed!

This was a humvee they all climbed into. I told them that their Boopie (my dad) used to drive one when he was in the National Guard. That got them more excited about it and all wanted to climb in it!

 Jake

 Zoe

 Leo

Teage

He was a little worried because some planes started going and Teage was afraid of the loudness. But he sure is cute!

I have no clue what the following jets are, but I got jet wood we were all googly eyed looking at them!

 This radar plane was huge! And awesome!

I wish we would have gotten a picture of a HUGE helicopter that the Marines had there. It had a hatch in the back, so I think it's one where they jump out of, or carry small trucks/humvess in. I don't know, but it was huge!

But the big jets started their show, and the half of the kids started freaking out, so we rushed back (when we weren't stopping to watch the jet) to find some ear plugs.

We were stopped outside the Farmers Insurance booth when one the jets came by. They guy asked if we wanted some of the ear plugs they had. Sure. So while we were getting the ear plugs in all 4 kids (Dexter was sound asleep, unfazed by the noise) I signed up to win a prize. Back to school supplies. Guess what? I won! I picked up my prize yesterday! See:

Now that we got the kids their ear plugs, we went to find our seats. By the time we got there, the big jets were done, and the smaller, less noisy planes were going. Much better!

Dexter woke up for a meal. He was the best kid out of the bunch! And look at how cute he was!

At dusk, there was some parachuters that jumped out of a helicopter and flew down with flares on. It was pretty cool to watch!

We love going to the night show! The planes all have their lights on, different color smoke coming out, doing a little bit different show than during the days on Saturday and Sunday. It was so much fun!

This one plane spent like two years trying to get the lights just right. He finally got it right, and this was the first season flying this awesomely decked out plane with a million lights on! Enjoy the video!!

I'm so glad we went this year! It's so much fun each year! The kids love it, and we love it too. I'm just a little sad that next year, we won't be in the flight path of the big jets, or be close enough to watch the show on Saturday and Sunday. But, we will be making the trek to watch the Friday night show! It's tradition now!