Apparently We Like Tanks

You know the weird, random assortment of letters you have to decipher when you're signing in to some sites?  The last time I left a comment somewhere I also had to make sense of a blurry photo as well as decipher the letters, all to prove I'm not a robot.

Well...and you might want to be sitting down for this...I THINK I MIGHT BE A ROBOT because I can NEVER get those things right.

I'm not sure what to do with this information.

Daphne would probably like me a whole lot if I was a robot.  She likes things of the mechanical persuasion, like airplanes, and as we learned today, tanks.

David got an invitation through work to Young American Day at the Air National Guard Base.  This was Daph as we were walking in:

She's saying, "Look at that!  Look at that big airplane!  Can we go see that airplane?  Can we get in that airplane?  Can we go see that firetruck?  Look at that big airplane!"

We waited in a super long line to get a few minutes in a fighter jet.  Like an hour and a half long wait.  The wait wasn't actually too terrible; we waited with one of David's co-workers who happened to have a very sweet wife, so David and his friend would take the kids around to look at other things while she and I chatted it up in line.  When the fighter jets took off on the runway we could still easily watch them.  Really we missed nothing by being so wonderful as to hold spots in line for our spouses and children.

It was during this wandering around where it was discovered that Daphne really loves tanks.  

I mean, just check out her look of pure happiness/contentment at getting to chill in this massive machine (I don't think this is a tank; maybe a Humvee?  I get my war machines mixed up.  The boys up there playing with the 50 caliber make this a real touching photograph, though.):

When we finally made our way to the front of the fighter jet line, I was afraid that she would get nervous climbing the wobbly stairs to get to the top (personally I was feeling the need to possibly throw up) and cling to me for dear life and not want to touch the plane.

I was wrong.

She let us set her in no problem and was immediately pestering the poor pilots, "what is that? what is that?" and tugging on all the bells and whistles. 

She got out so that David and Christian could get in, and then what do you know, when no one was watching her closely she just hopped herself right in for another round.

My favorite part about the fighter jet was that I got to meet two pilots, so now when I see the jets flying over I can imagine maybe one of the guys I 'know' is in there and that's pretty cool.  I can say I 'know' them because I asked the very personal question of  "do you ever throw up on yourself when you're up there" and the one said "I really try not to."  I find it interesting that he didn't say no, so does that mean he sometimes does?  An interesting thought to ponder.    

It was a really fun day and I imagine we'll go again next year. You can all come too, it's open to the public (I don't think they advertize it much?).  They have all manner of American-type things to be happy about: police cars/motorcycles, fire trucks, airplanes, tanks (if I hadn't mentioned that yet) and then some loud planes do cool take offs to watch.  If you or your children find any of those things fascinating you would probably enjoy this event. 

We got to watch that big grey plane take off.  It was pretty big and loud.