Hill AFB Museum and More

This was SUCH a fun weekend with the family. I tell ya . . . since we moved into our house, life just feels so much different. I feel kind of like I felt when I got married, this extreme relief and contentment. I feel like a huge compartment of my brain has been cleared out and there is more room to enjoy life. I am so incredibly grateful for the blessings that we have been provided with. I feel especially happy these days. On to the weekend . . .

Friday night our good friends Amanda and Tim joined us for dinner. Andrea knocked that meal out of the ballpark. It was some kind of mediterranean chicken dish, and though she made a lot, I wish there had been much more, it was fantastic.

Saturday, for our weekly family exploration thing, we went to the Hill Aerospace Museum. It was a blast!

Hill Aerospace Museum

Location: 7961 Wardleigh Rd. Bldg. 1955 Hill AFB, UT 84056-5842
Cost: Free
Kid friendly: Very
Time Spent: 1-1.5 hours
Worth going back: Yes
Things to bring:

• water
• snack
• stroller 

Even the smaller airplanes had propellers that were as tall as Peter.

Peter saw this landing gear and was quick to explain to me that the wheels go up inside the plane when it flies.

I remembered seeing this huge distinctive airplane when I was younger, but the museum has really changed since the last time I saw it. It's probably been 15 years or so. There are a few new airplanes outside and even an additional hangar that I had never seen!

I don't know what's more amazing: how big the landing gear is, or how little our little person named Peter is.

One of the planes that I think must be newer is this B-1. B-1's are MY FAVORITE! They're sooo sleek!

It was such a beautiful day to be outside.

I don't know if we were supposed to touch the planes, but Max and Peter had fun trying to touch the wings.

This airplane's landing gears weren't touching the ground. The boys had fun spinning the wheel.

Andrea found her nickname on the underside of a tail fin.

I inadvertently changed my camera to black and white mode (it was so bright outside I couldn't see what I was doing. The photos turned out kind of cool I guess.

Sometimes Max prefers to push the stroller rather than be pushed.

At Grandma CeCe and Poppy's house, there are several little plastic airplanes that the grandkids love to play with. One of them is an A-10 warthog. When we walked into the indoor portion of the museum, Peter was examining this image on the wall and said "Dad, there's an A-10!" I was pretty impressed that he recognized it, especially since the toy is pretty small and is just a solid yellow plastic thing.

Here the boys are inside. I was really happy that they enjoyed themselves! I was a little worried that they weren't quite old enough yet, but Peter and Max both loved looking at all of the planes.

This is the new hangar I had never been in. They have the SR-71 blackbird in here (not pictured) . . . cool stuff. It was instantly Peter's favorite, and he bought a little toy of it in the gift store. Max chose to buy "The Red Baron." For some reason, that made a lot of sense to me ;)

I was happy that I had a coin in my pocket for Peter to drop in this thing. I love these things!

So that ends the Museum. Here are a few pics from the rest of the weekend:

When we got home, we found max doing this. Funny little frog!

After church I went outside to play with Peter and he found his kite and he really wanted to fly it. Our yard isn't great for that though because we have a few tall trees that would make it difficult, so we decided to walk to the park down the street to give it a try.

Peter rode his bike and Max took the stroller. I haven't seen Peter riding his little strider much since we moved away from the University Village, and I forgot how happy it makes me! I think it's just because he looks like he's having so much fun when he's gliding around. Then when we got to the park, it made me even more happy to see him flying his kite! It almost brought me to tears. I don't know why. I don't know if it's cause I'm proud of him or because it's just such a purely joyful moment . . . it was just one of those things that fills you with awe for a minute or two. I love him so much.

Max giggled and screeched whenever the kite started to fly and he chased after it to get in on the fun.

With Peter's help I managed to hold Max up as he held the string and move fast enough to keep the line taut for a little while to keep the kite in the air. It was so much fun!

We all had turns flying the kite and we were all pretty pooped on the way home, so Max and Peter shared the stroller.

What a great weekend.