Thunder Over Michigan Airshow

I'm like 2 months behind on blogging!  So much has happened (all good things).  I have big plans to listen to conference while combing through hundreds of photos.  Fingers crossed that the girls let me!

Last month we had our annual "Thunder Over Michigan" airshow party.  We invited some friends over for otter pops and airplanes.

Jake found these Rocket Balloons on Amazon.  They have been such a hit!

Jake borrowed Jordan's little PW50 to teach Scarlett how to ride.  She's not quite ready to ride, but luckily Jake found another use for it.  Our friend Craig brought his remote control car and they raced around the yard.

One of the best parts about living so close to the airport: we get to see the airshow performers practice and every performance.  We saw this year's show 3 times!  It was soooo hot - so we set up umbrellas to create shade.  Scarlett really wanted to use my clear umbrella... not sure what she's protecting herself from...

More rocket balloon fun.  The girls would fight over who got to find the deflated balloon - so I made them carry it back to Jake together.

All this staring into the space had a lasting effect on Scarlett.  She told me "In my dream last night I was on the Moon with my friends. We didn't fly but we were gently leaping around, cause it has less gravity than Earth."  So cute!

This year's air show was kind of disappointing.  The Blue Angels only come every other year, so this year they filled the spot with the Breitling Jet Team.  They were very nimble but the show was short and their planes weren't that impressive.  It was fun to watch, but I'm glad I didn't pay $100 for my family to watch.  The saving grace of the show was the F-22 Raptor.  I love that plane!  It helps that it's powered by 2 Pratt & Whitney F119s!  

Here the Raptor was doing it's cool hover move - I caught just the tail end of it.  So cool!  It has a thrust/weight ratio of ~1.09 meaning it can hover in air using just its engines to hold itself in place.  Dang!

Here the F-22 flies over our house.  I wish you could feel the power of the engines as it shakes you down to your bones!

I just thought this was funny.  I took this video and at the end Scarlett says...

..."it sounded like a potty."  They should put that on their specifications sheet!