The things that make kids happy . . .

These are the happy faces of my children after spending a couple of hours at a park playing with friends from M's preschool. On our way home we noticed a C-130 practicing so the kids wanted to go do one of their favorite things...watch the airplanes take off and land. So there they are, happily waiting for a brief glimpse of a plane. (This airplane love is second only to that of the love of trains...which we sometimes drive 1 hour to go watch...we are insane.)

The thing is, we live pretty close to the airport. Luckily, this airport is not that busy, and we have become used to the airplane noise. Most of the time we don't notice it. It's when we have company that it becomes noticeable. Such as when I hosted Bunco 2 weeks ago.

Because our airport isn't that busy, it is ideal for the military C-130s to practice here. For those who don't know what they are...I took a picture of one today as it was doing a touch-and-go.

Yes, it is one big Bubba of an airplane. And it's LOUD.

Bunco went something like this. ROOOOAAAARRRR. (the airplane) Me (shouting): "Just ignore the C-130s!" Guests (incredulously): "Do they do this EVERY night?" No, not every night. But often enough. But K can still fall soundly asleep in my arms in the evening, even with the intermittent ROOOOAAARRRRs. I guess we've all tuned them out.

We taught both of our kids some baby signs. One of the first that K used was the sign for airplane. If I haven't already, I should mention that he's named after my grandfather, who flew a B-15 Bomber in WWII. Maybe it's part of the name.

So we endure the noise, although endure probably isn't a fair term since we don't really notice the noise most of the time. The kids think the airplanes are cool, especially when they fly what seems like is just barely above the tree line over our house (although they're much higher than that).

At least these men and women get someplace to practice before they have to go overseas and fight for whatever causes the POTUS deems righteous enough. You'll never hear me bad-mouth the military. I am from military. My Dad, is a career military man, and he gets irked when someone protests about military. He says "that is their JOB." He has a right to say that. He was there in war, and in peace.

Sometimes the C-130s look pretty. Especially if you're in the car with the windows up, a/c on and radio playing some decent tunes. Then you can't hear the Bubba flying overhead.