Yuma Air Show

This year, we called Poppy and invited him to come with us to the Yuma Air Show. Jonny wasn't able to come because of a prior commitment to Wood Badge. It was a VERY windy day and very crowded, but we enjoyed our time together. We forgot to bring our camera, but fortunately we came across good friends (David and Kelly Tran) that offered to take our picture.

This year's highlight was a rocket propelled school bus, outhouse, and more. It was difficult to see but we could hear it and see the flames. We did see the outhouse travel across the runway, but even with a jet, it really had to fight the wind to pick up any speed.

Shortly after arriving, we lost Britton. I'd been counting heads every couple minutes so I knew very quickly that he was missing but we'd probably walked 40 feet since the last head count. He stopped to look at something as we kept walking. I noticed he was gone as I was setting up our chairs to watch the show. So I left Poppy with 4 kids and snacks and quickly backtracked. I grabbed the first soldier that I saw and said, "I've lost my son. Who can I call?". He quickly led me to another soldier with a walkie-talkie and we were able to locate Britton within 10 minutes. Britton said he was crying and some soldiers "mans with an army suit" asked if he was lost and put him in their rhino-cart. We made radio connection and met up quickly.

We also lost Josh for a few minutes and that was actually more scary to me. We were standing in line for a jumping castle and almost to the front of the line. I looked away for 8 SECONDS! (typical statement made when losing small children). I looked in every direction and couldn't see him. I didn't know what to do first. Poppy was elsewhere with Darren. I had Jay, Nikki, Britton, and Josh. I didn't want to look for Josh with 3 other children slowing me down. I just had this feeling to stay put which seemed at odds with what I should do. I decided to put the other 3 kids in the jumping castle and then do another radius check. After they went in, though, I wasn't sure that I was any better off because I couldn't go far in case they finished jumping before I got back. I kept looking around and didn't see anything that would have caught his attention or pulled him away from the jumping castle (it was an enormouse one). The other kids were in the jumping castle for a few minutes and when they exited, they had Josh with them. He had somehow slipped through the line unnoticed without a ticket. I should have considered that 3-year olds DON'T wait in line. I thanked Heavenly Father for his prompting.

After the Air Show, Poppy stayed long enough to pain a mural on Nikki's wall. She'd been looking at pictures on the internet all week long trying to decide. She opted for a nature scene with a deer. Now we'll have to figure out how to coordinate the rest of the room to make it "her own". He gave her some lessons on painting as he worked on it.