Helicopters

Wow!

Tonight we were invited by a colleague at work to see her son and several other pilots land four U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 Super Cobra helicopters at one of the airports in town. It was really neat! Several of us from work grabbed our kids to view the landing, meet the pilots (including her son) and even get an up close and personal view of the "copters."

Jacob and Josh were pretty fascinated by the whole ordeal. We got to see where the helicopters hold the missiles. Then, we were told that the helicopters are painted a grayish-blue so they will blend into the skyline when flying over enemy territory. Jacob kept asking me where the "bad guys are..." That was a little hard to explain.

Thanks to our friends at work for sharing a neat and patriotic experience with us. Go U.S.A!

p.s. - In case you were wondering, yes. It is hot on an airport tarmac in 103 degree heat. We were sweating up a storm! After these photos, we immediately went home and the whole family jumped in the pool. Ahhhh.

Desert Rain

Yesterday, it rained. For those of you from the Northwest or other areas of the country that get a lot of rain, that may not seem like a big deal. But, when you live in the desert, it's pretty cool (figuratively, and literally).

It was "dark" outside when we woke up. This is in comparison to the bright, shining sun that usually wakes us up. The kids actually slept in longer because of this, making the morning process a little slow (and mommy late to work -- oh well!)

It was, in fact, so rainy, cloudy and "cool," that I decided to wear my brown knee-high boots to work. Jacob was ecstatic that he could carry his yellow duck umbrella up the sidewalk to school. Josh liked the puddles. It also warrented a stop at Starbucks for a tall, hot, skinny vanilla latte.

Later in the day when the temperature peaked at about 103 degrees, the boots seemed to be a bad idea. Sweating in the heat, I wondered how I guzzled down that hot latte. But, for one glorious summer morning, the desert rain was amazing and beautiful. If you live in Arizona, you know what I'm talking about.

Summer of Fun

Wow. This summer has been one of the craziest and most fun we've had as a family.

We've accomplished a lot: wedding, Disneyland, Josh's 2nd Birthday, pools, Jacob starting t-ball... and that's not to mention Daddy's boys weekend in Seattle and Mommy's girls weekend in Missouri!

So much to tell and so little time (seriously -- see how delayed this post already is). So, since a photo can tell a thousand words, we'll just let these pics do the talking for a while. Enjoy!