Super Saturday

We have a love/hate relationship with Saturdays here in Altus. We look forward to Saturdays because a) its just Saturday, b) we can "sleep in" and c) no silly responsibilities like work. On the other hand, its a total letdown because although we have all this "free time" on Saturdays there is not much to do. Not this Saturday. The big talk of the town was the Altus AFB "Wings of Warriors" Air Show held right here on base. Now, under normal circumstances I would not have thought twice about an air show, but friends, these are not normal circumstances.

We had dreams of waking early Saturday morning, getting Malone all dressed in her first real summer outfit of the year...ok, of her life...and walking down the street, a little summer family of three complete with hats, a stroller and camera in hand. Unfortunately, dreams are only dreams and we woke to a blustery, chilly morning. But again, we were determined to make this work. Malone had her summer outfit on under her bundle of sweatshirts and blankets. We walked down to the airfield a cold little family of three ready for some airplane action. Luckily, the airshow did not disappoint. Just about every airplane in the Air Force was there including the brand new F-22 (apparently the new darling of the Air Force needs to be heavily guarded by big, scary men with machine guns) and Cameron's C-17. We were pretty cold and took shelter in the C-17 which was open all the way from the tail through to the cockpit for us to see. We waited in line for about an hour or so to see the cockpit, which was fine because we were starting to regain feeling in our fingers again and Malone had fallen asleep on Cameron's chest (too cute). It was amazing to see what Cameron will be flying and the responsibility of this enormous aircraft that lies on his shoulders. I have to admit that it made me pretty impressed with Cameron.

We walked around, Cameron spouting off little known facts about all kinds of amazing aircrafts and watched some demonstrations showcasing the abilities of these planes. We enjoyed all the best flavors of a fair like freshly grilled corn, hamburgers, nachos and I even saw some people walking around with huge smoked turkey legs. So fun!! But soon, Malone was not having so much fun anymore and our time had to come to an end. We went home and had the best naps ever! And so ended our fantastic Saturday. I'm not quite sure whether we enjoyed ourselves so much because we have been "fun" starved for the past however long, or whether it really was fun. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will put this in the books as possibly the "Best Saturday in our time here at Altus".

*** Just a little side-note, Cameron just came into the bedroom to clean Malone's diaper and it was the poopiest diaper I have EVER seen in my life. It was like it exploded everywhere, which is not an uncommon occurrence in our house, but this one was different! We both had to clean it, it was a team effort. Pretty comical, I know. ****

In other news, this week has been a week of discoveries. We have discovered that Malone has toenails. I know it sounds funny, but her toenails always were so soft that they didn't even look like she had them. How did we make this shocking discovery? I was playing with her and she scratched me with her razor sharp toe-claws. Now there's something else to dread clipping...have I told you about our bad relationship with clipping her nails...oh that's a few stories for another day. Oh yes, discoveries, Malone has also discovered my hair. She doesn't pull my hair, but rather looks at it and mockingly laughs at it. At first I thought it was the funny faces I make at her, but soon realized that she's not even looking at my face but is fixated on my hair. Is my hair that funny looking? I know I haven't gotten a haircut in a while, but I didn't think it looked that bad. She doesn't really laugh at much right now which makes me think that it must look REALLY funny. Out of the mouths of babes....

Here's some pictures from our day now known as "Super Saturday":

Picture1: F- 22 Raptor- Homage to our favorite friends, the Skelley's.

Picture 2: Here's the Schaefer family by the C-17

Picture 3: Malone and I standing by the engines. They are soooo huge! Can you see us?
Picture 4: The C-17 cargo ramp. This is where we entered and stood in line from the entrance all the way to the cockpit.
Picture 5: Here we are standing in line. Apparently, Malone wasn't too impressed with her dad's plane.
Picture 6: I'm in the cockpit

Picture 7: Malone awoke to find herself in the cockpit of a C-17
Picture 8: Look at all the buttons. Cameron knows what each one does...WOW!
Picture 9: Malone and I on Friday night. How pretty is her dress? My mom got it from Ecuador...I think.
Picture 10: Malone found my chin and thought it was a pacifier.
Picture 10: My beautiful girl hasn't learned yet that its not very ladylike to show your "under-things" to the world...she'll learn.

Picture 11: Pretty girl