Off he goes, into the wild blue yonder...

I can't think of a different way to say it that could explain it any better than my facebook post, so i'll just quote myself:

"

I saw him fly a plane. A really fast plane. A really fast plane owned by the United States Air Force. I saw him fly a really fast USAF plane all by himself!! And with that I saw another part of his dreams come true. And it was just as awesome as I thought it would be!"

I am truly very proud of my husband. He's incredible. And, though he might doubt himself from time to time, he is well on his way to officially becoming a pilot for the USAF.  Yay kyle! I will forever be your biggest fan :o)

I can't tell you how thrilling it was to watch him take-off and land again and again (12 landings total!!) and perform various maneuvers whose names i cannot remember.  I pointed to him over and over: "Billy, see that airplane? that's daddy!!!"  I was so ecstatic that i can't remember what billy's response was. i'm sure it was something really cute but i just can't remember.  I do remember what he said when i put him back in the car though: "wanna go fly daddy airplane!"  I think he enjoyed it almost as much as i did...almost.

Thanks to my friend Jamie, I was able to listen to him make his radio calls. That made the experience that much cooler. (sidenote: a big thank you to jamie for watching noah in the shade. because of her i was actually able to take pictures!)

Speaking of...I took 354 pictures. 354! insane, right? maybe a little obsessive...but i couldn't stand the thought of missing "the" picture. I was using a new manual-focused lens and i was/am not confident using it. But i am so happy I took as many as i did, because i feel like i got some incredible shots!

One of his touch-and-go's.  Can you see the tail number? It's "901."  My birthday is 9/01. Destiny :o)

Here he is making a turn. I am most proud of this picture! I LOVE it!

I can't remember the name of this maneuver... I know it must have been something at least a little rare b/c his classmates were saying "get a picture of this!" and "wow" and "that's awesome" and stuff. So that's cool :O)

taxiing after his final landing

Pretty darn handsome, if i do say so myself!

One of kyle's classmates took this. Like i said, manual focus on the lens. and this one wasn't focused correctly (it's sort-of a pain). Sadly it is the best of the 3 pictures taken of us :o( 

a little back story on this: The trainees get thrown in a "dunk tank" immediately following their solo flight. If they can make it back into their classroom and touch the back wall, the rest of the class has to buy that person a thing (case? sixer? not sure) of beer. Mention free beer and kyle will run his butt off :o) He came close, but didn't quite make it.

He got some good air!

So there you have it! I had a hard time narrowing 354 pictures down to just a few, but i'm not sure even the proudest of family would tolerate me posting all the pictures!

God just continues to bless us in ways we don't deserve. But we try to remain thankful every day. I was/am incredibly thankful for this day.