Ouma and Oupa Visit

Ouma and Oupa came up for a long weekend visit a few weeks ago. Peoria had their annual air show that weekend, plus we stayed busy with fun summer things!



When we were back in Kansas a few weeks ago, Jaxon had asked Ouma and Oupa if they had baseball gloves. When they realized Jax was hoping to play baseball with them, they quickly bought Ouma a new glove and oiled up Oupa's old glove so they could bring them to Illinois during their July visit. Jax was so excited to see them carry in their gloves the night they got here and he quickly arranged for a baseball game the following morning. It was the hottest weekend we've had up here so far, but we all trudged over to the junior high to set up a game on their field. We played for over an hour and had a blast watching Jaxon!




When we first got there, he was very insistent that he stretch. Here's a few of his "stretches":






Then it was time to play. He had positions for everyone and told us all exactly how he wanted us to play those positions. We all obliged, of course.

Hiking his front leg as he pitches the ball.



Taping the bat at home plate before hitting. He was disappointed in anyone who did not tap their bat at home plate.



There's our star and future Kansas City Royals player.



Anyone who will take the time to listen can hear all about his favorite Royals player, Billy Butler. He'll tell you that he's number 16 and that he will hit a home run and that he's never met Billy Butler.



Oupa was playing the catcher's position and Jaxon was not happy that Oupa didn't squat like a catcher. This was the compromise the two of them came to when Oupa explained that he wasn't flexible enough to squat.



Sissy was a good sport through it all. She spent most of the "game" stealing everyone's drinks.





AIR SHOW:
For those of you that already know Jason's story, you know how he came to love airplanes at the age of four. He remembers the first air show his parents took him to at Richards-Gebaur when he was four. He has since loved air planes and air shows. After making his dream, of becoming a pilot, come true, about the only thing left to complete the circle was "working" an air show. I get chills thinking about him as a little kid watching the military pilots demonstrate their plane's abilities and now he is the one flying the planes while kids watch on and dream of their own futures. He was hoping to sit at the static display of one of their C-130's at some point during the show, but the scheduling didn't work out for that. He did, however, get to fly four different times in the show. He dropped a parachute team out the back of the Herk, along with the American flag to start the show on Saturday and did another parachute drop toward the end of Saturdays show. He flew a VIP-only air show Friday night and did another parachute drop Sunday afternoon. I cannot find the words to tell you how proud of him we all were and how amazing to see it all through my kids' eyes. Every time that Herk could be seen, Jax was waving his arms and yelling, "Hi Daddy!"

Another cool thing about the day was that Jason got us some VIP tickets. The owner of the company, Coin Force, sent over enough tickets for his VIP tent for 2 military families in Jason's unit to enjoy. The tickets were to go to some "more senior" pilots, but one family had plans and couldn't use them. So, for whatever reason, the tickets were given to Jason. We felt so blessed to have this priority seating. And our host provided us with lunch, all the water we could drink, and gift bags. The other great part of having the VIP tickets was that we had a tent (with shade!!!) we could sit under and a "fenced" in area, right on the flight line, to watch the show. We really enjoyed having the fenced in area to let the kids run about safely.



The owner of Coin Force, also owns the Smoke-N-Thunder car/jet that raced some of the airplanes that day. Here's a picture of Jaxon with the driver of the Smoke-N-Thunder jet car, Bill Braack. Mr. Braack gave Jaxon one of his specially designed challenge coins. Jaxon's toy airplanes have been racing his toy race cars ever since.


Here's Jax receiving the challenge coin from Mr. Braack.



Seeing this tail wing kind of felt like "home". This is a T-38 from Columbus, MS.





Because it was so HOT the day of the air show, we got some ice cream to cool off. Here's Jax while eating a chocolate covered ice cream cone:






A glimpse at our fenced-in seating. Notice the little blue hat sticking up above one of the chairs. My son was so excited for the show, he didn't care that he was the only one sitting in the seats awaiting the first parachute drop.


Sissy was such a good sport that day!



Our cheesy kid in the back of a C-130.



Excited for the air show to start!



This is a video of the announcement of Jason's fly-over/parachute drop (there's not much to see, but I thought it was awesome to hear his name announced at the air show):






The kids walking the ramp outside Alexander's Steakhouse.



Ouma and Dakota!