Palm Springs, Day 3

When we drove into Palm Springs, we drove past a billboard that excited Allan so much............(insert eye rolling here) The billboard was an advertisement for an Air Museum. So, of course, Allan whips out his handy phone, and looks it up. He was so excited to go, so today, we went!

We took Jordan with us, because Cassie and Justin had to work, so it was a full van......well, we had one more seat (Just had to throw in there how awesomely awesome my van is!). The kids were excited to go, but they thought they were going to fly in the planes. Boy were they ticked when they found out we were only looking around at them. I went there, thinking it would be a lame museum, with maybe 2 planes and a bunch of models and pictures. NOPE! It was 3 hangers, and an outdoor area, FULL of planes. It was actually pretty awesome!

Allan with a P-40, or a "Flying Tiger"

As soon as we walked in, after paying a very inexpensive price for how many people we had, we were met with old cars, huge air planes, models of airplanes, so you can see the skeleton of it, and a ton of photographs! The kids were most impressed with the cars though (sorry honey!). Allan couldn't have been happier. It may have actually rivaled the birth of any of our children.

There were so many neat things, besides just the airplanes, there were old cars that were there from the WWII era. The kids REALLY loved those. They weren't supposed to open the doors, but they couldn't help but try. None of them can read yet, however Sarah is getting so good at it, but somehow they all saw the "Don't open the doors!" and that's all they thought about doing. Weird.

One thing I really loved, and thought was so fun, was that we were allowed to walk all the way around the planes, under the planes, and one time, inside the plane! The kids loved walking under it and seeing the landing gear and where it folds up. When they walked under the first few planes, Allan would show them where the bombs would drop out of. They all got under each plane and tried to figure out how it all folded up, and where the bombs would come from. Not to mention, it made for some super cute pictures. So mommy was pretty happy too.

Allan telling the kids all about the airplane......and the kids pretending to be interested

Another thing we enjoyed, next to a lot of the airplanes were models of them. I loved looking at them and seeing how the plane looks without all of the "skin" on it, as Sarah calls it. It was really cool to see how they were put together, not to mention, having Allan explain how each component helps the plane fly and stay in the air. I think that was one of Allan's favorite parts was showing the kids different parts of the airplane and telling them what it was.

Kids checking out a model of an airplane

Outside, there were some more planes and helicopters. They had one that was a plane that could go in the water (I'm a girl......so I don't know the names of all of these planes). The kids and I loved this plane, because it looked like a stingray, or a "Mr. Horray" (That's what the kids call Mr. Ray, from Finding Nemo), as the kids called it.

The loved the planes and helicopters outside. The loved walking under them, and exploring them. They especially loved the landing strip right next to the museum, watching the airplanes land and take off. HA! You just can't hold their attention on anything, when there are airplanes landing and taking off. Every time we saw an airplane land or take off, Taylor would throw his arms out and putter around, like an airplane. He loved to pretend to fly. It was pretty sweet.

Taylor flying next to the "Mr. Horray" plane

Checking out the insides of a helicopter

Lucas, Sarah & Jordan under another plane

Taylor checking out the underside. Mechanic in training.

Taylor pretending to be an airplane, and making the noises. He's so dang cute......and all boy!

A special thing to see was the exhibit of the Pearl Harbor attack. Allan had been writing a blog for his Grandpa Rogers. The family had found a journal of his experiences while in the military. He wrote everything that was in the journal, and Googled a lot of the accounts and found pictures of his boat, and found other people's accounts, and maps of places that his grandfather had talked about in the journal. It was neat to see all of these accounts in person, with pictures, uniforms, guns, videos and airplanes. It was really neat to be able to experience that.

Sarah reciting the pledge of allegance, in the Pearl Harbor room. She found a stage, and she took advantage.

Right in the middle of the Pearl Harbor exhibit, there were 5 model boats. I walked over and started taking pictures of them. They were done so exact. You could see that someone took a lot of time to make these boats look exactly like the real Navy ships, how they used to look. There was an older man standing there that told me all about them. He told me that there is a couple, a man and a woman, who got the plans from these Navy ships, and built them to exact Navy specifications. He told me it took this couple 20 years to make these 5 ships, plus one ship that is in the Smithsonian! I couldn't get over that. He told me that the husband would built the ships, and the wife would put in all of the details, like the guns, the antenna's, the railings, everything! I thought that was so stinkin cool!

A model of the same type of boat that Allan's grandpa was on

I think that Allan would say that his favorite things about the museum were, being able to walk inside of a B-17, and see everything, see the Corsair, and seeing his favorite airplane, the mustang. When we walked into the first hangar, he came around an airplane and saw the B-17 inside of the second hanger. He almost started jumping around, I swear. Then, when he saw everyone was able to go inside of it, he lost his mind. He couldn't get through the other planes fast enough. It was pretty dang funny. Because the boys were too little to go inside, he wanted to take Sarah. They definitely took their time going through it. When they came out, he couldn't stop talking about it, and neither could Sarah. Sarah really wanted to take me inside of the plane, so I went with her.

Sarah being a gunner in the B-17.....scary thought, huh?

When we walked inside of the hanger with the Pearl Harbor exhibit, Allan saw one of his favorite airplanes, the Corsair. We must have stood there for 10 minutes or more, while we watched him walk around the airplane and inspect every nook and cranny of the thing. I was so happy to see him so excited passionate about something, but as you can see on the kids' faces, in the picture below, we were starting to get a little bored. Finally, he came over to me, and kept telling me how he used to make model airplanes of the Mustang and the Corsair, all of the time, when he was kid. He was having a blast! I loved watching him get so excited.

Allan and the kids with the Corsair

Finally, the kids' favorite parts of the whole museum was the play area that they had set up next to the B-17. They had the front of an airplane sitting there, that the kids could go in, sit in the cockpit, play with the control panel and pretend to fly their friends around. Next to it, they had the front half of a helicopter, with the same general idea as the airplane. That was Luke's favorite part. He LOVED the helicopter. Finally, there was an old fire truck sitting there. Allan could resist. He made all of the kids sit in the firetruck, with Jordan driving, because he said that Justin needed a picture of his son driving a firetruck (Justin, my brother-in-law, is a firefighter for Colton).

Luke, in the back of the airplane, while Taylor and Sarah were pretending to fly. I think he wanted out.

Taylor flying the airplane

Luke, finally, getting out of the helicopter, so the other kids could play

Jordan in the fire truck

The kids playing with a statue outside of the museum. I couldn't help it, it was so dang funny!

It was a pretty neat day. The museum was so huge, and really really cool! I'm glad my husband pushed us to go there. It was so cool to have that experience with the kids, and have the opportunity to educate them about the family they come from, with some of the actual items for them to see and touch. 

We ended the day getting the kids a treat at a soft serve yogurt place. Do you know how neat it is to be sitting at a restaurant, at a table with just you and your husband, and the kids are sitting at another table, quietly, eating their food, like good kids??  It's pretty much the best thing EVER! We actually had a conversation that didn't have anything to do with them......and they were sitting right there! 

Jordan, Sarah, Taylor and Lucas eating their yogurt.........quietly.