A Day with the Thunderbirdies

This weekend, we had an opportunity to head up to the Cleveland Air Show. Growing up with a father who was in the Air National Guard, I have certainly been to my fair share of air shows.

This air show was extra special to us though, because one of our friends is a Thunderbird right now. Lt. Col. Derek Routt, Thunderbird 7, is someone that I have known since I was a little kid. Derek's dad was the Commander of my dad's unit, so he was kind of like an older brother to Rog and I when we were growing up.

Derek drove down to spend the evening with us on Friday and it was wonderful to catch up with him. His wife, Heather, and their three kids live in Las Vegas now, so it had been two years since the last time we saw him. Derek showed up with enough Thunderbird tattoos, pins, and stickers to cover our entire neighborhood. Many of our neighbors ended up with Thunderbird paraphernalia and my refrigerator now has Thunderbird stickers on its front. The ottoman in my living room may or may not have been covered with stickers as well. Thanks Derek!

Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed up to the air show. My mom and Grandma were in town for the show and Steve's parents joined us as well. Minus one noisy Harrier Jet, we enjoyed every part of the day. Derek got us tickets to sit in the Thunderbirds' VIP section, which was awesome, to say the least. No need to take our own chairs or worry about finding shade, because the VIP section provided us with all of that. The section was also located in the center of the air strip, so we had the perfect view of everything that was going on.

Sorry to bore you with lots pictures...over 1/2 of which are of planes...but they were exciting to me, so you're stuck with them!

Madison

Olivia showing off her Thunderbirdie tattoo

Our whole crew minus Steve (Me, Livie, my mom, Maddie, Deb, Ric, and my grandma)

Olivia

My mom and Maddie

Olivia, who was not impressed by the extremely loud hovering Harrier Jet

Maddie, who was wondering why on earth the Harrier needed to come back to hover for a second time. Once was probably more than enough!

The Thunderbirds coming overhead for their first pass, which was directly above us

I LOVE this picture and can't believe Steve captured it!

Planes...

More planes...

Derek and Olivia (he put a tattoo on her and they were instant buddies)

Madison, Olivia, Derek, and me

Thanks for the tickets, Derek! And the tattoos...stickers...pins...flowers...

But most importantly, thanks for taking the time to visit with us this weekend. It was great to catch up with you and my kids loved meeting you. Every time a plane goes overhead (which is often since we live in the flight pattern for the Akron Canton Airport!), the kids ask if it's you flying the plane and if they can go see the "Thunderbirdies" again. Clearly they are a little behind on their plane identification! We'll start working on the differences between a 737 and an F16 next week.