Air Show Awesomeness

Two weekends ago, we got experience something really cool that none of us have experienced before, an AIR SHOW!  My cousin Keri is a police officer and she coordinates security for this event every year.  As a thank you she gets complimentary passes to give to family & friends to attend.  Not only did Keri secure us free access but she also hooked us up with passes into the VIP tent where we met up with her hubby & twin sons.  Mike & I were not expecting VIP treatment but man what a treat! We enjoyed a catered bbq lunch AND an open bar!  We also had runway seats for the all the excitement in the sky! 

Mike was stoked!  They had a F-22 Raptor! He says "This is the deadliest, badass, mother fuc*in, stealth, supersonic payload from hell." His words exactly. :) 

It's back end is pretty sweet lookin' too!  I should be though, Mike says this thing costs 100 million dollars... WOW!

It was a hot sunny day, a bit humid too, but the girls enjoyed their front row seats!  It was a bit loud but they didn't mind!

The Misty Blue Skydive team is nothing but chics! Girl power!

The Air Show is a patriotic event, as this skydiver brought the flag down, there was a lady singing God Bless America over the speaker system & a few fireworks popped you can see the smoke here in the picture! 

The Misty Blue Skydiver that landed right in front of us came over to greet the girls... GIRL POWER!  Maddy & Mikayla were both impressed by the chic skydivers & the chic pilots doing ariel acrobats! 

In line for lunch!

Here's an F-16 cruising down the runway preparing for take off, this thing flew so fast in the sky, every picture I tried to take was blurrrry! Next year if we're lucky enough to go again, we'll have to borrow one of Mike's Dad's professional cameras.  My little Sony Cybershot doesn't do the Air Show justice.  I was bummed, the pictures that I tried to take of the Heavy Metal Jet Team that flies in formation did not come out at all. :( 

But I found this cool pic on their facebook page! Sweet!

The stealth bombers fired blanks but had pyrotechnics on the ground, imagine our surprise when this patch of grass just went up in flames!

This is the A-10 Warthog, another badass warplane, Mike says "It turns tanks into swiss cheese with it's depleted uranium rounds from it's evil nose gun."  Again.... his words. Here's the pilot waving to the crowd!

So the Airforce builds motorcycles now... I did not know!

We also got to tour an Eastern Airlines DC-7B, it's inaugural flight was January 23rd, 1958.  Just a few short years before the jet age.

Cockpit...

Well, the seats haven't changed much in 60 years...

But this was interesting!  A 6 seat lounge in the back of the plane! 

NASA was there for the day!  How do you like the girls space suits?

US Army C-27J cargo plane, designed for short takeoffs & landings.

An Avenger!

The Tokyo Doolittle Raiders B-25 Bomber, three of the five WWII veterans were at the Air Show. We ate lunch 15 feet from them in the VIP tent.  What an honor!  

I can't thank my cousin Keri enough for such a great day, what would have cost our family well over $100, cost us less than $20.  My only complaints are that Keri was working the whole time, so we hardly got to see her and that her boys wouldn't sit still long enough for a picture.  Otherwise it was an absolutely AWESOME day!