Aviation Nation 2010

Yes, ladies and gents, we went to another air show. Earlier in November, we invited our friends, the Howcrofts, and all drove down to Las Vegas for the Aviation Nation air show at Nellis AFB. Okay, it is a little misleading to say we drove to Vegas. Vegas is a disgusting, horrible, smelly city, and I wanted nothing to do with it. So, we happily stayed in St. George for the weekend, and drove to Nellis on Saturday, where we could see the impressive skyline of Sin City from a safe, un-smelly distance. :)

Us

The Howcrofts

Our 'spot' (before the crowd moved in around us):

The kids:

The planes:

My favorites were the F-22, which really does seem to defy all principles of physics, and, of course, the Thunderbirds, whose pilots seem to defy death by flying so close together and so fast.

It was very fun to go with friends; the kids entertained eachother, and the adults enjoyed socializing together. The weather was perfect, the air demonstrations were fantastic, and we all had a great time. There was the slight hitch in our day, when the Howcrofts' 4-year-old son, Alex, went missing among the tens of thousands air show enthusiasts, but thanks to the boy's bright yellow shirt and Clint's sharp eyes, the tear-streaked child was shortly reunited with his not-quite-histerical-but-quickly-getting-there mother. But no big deal, right?

Tayson has always been a big chicken when it comes to loud noises, and usually tightly plugs his ears when we light piddly firewords on the street during the 4th of July. He was no different here at the air show.

Brennen surprised me by being the one to enjoy the show the most out of all of us. The noises didn't even faze him, and he loved all of it.

Me? I was fortunate to contract a nasty head cold the day before traveling south for the weekend, so I spent the day enjoying the warm weather while blowing my nose and sucking on cough drops. Awesome.

Clint enjoyed pointing out just which jets were built with the tooling that his company, Precorp, manufactures. (Boeing is by far their biggest customer.)

This was our second time attending the air show at Nellis, and we enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Now we get to debate going to the air show in Phoenix this March....