On our first full day in Kansas we decided to spend the morning by heading out to watch the Thunderbirds at the somewhat-annual Air Show at McConnell Air Force Base. Wichita is, after all, the Air Capital of the World, so you just have to do these things, right?
Besides, jets going fast.
That’s fun.
But the day started out cold.
And cloudy.
The week prior, it was 95+ degrees back home.
We were not prepared.
So we ran out, bought sweatshirts for the girls & borrowed for the rest of us.
And then we sat and waited.
They were originally supposed to fly around 10:30.
However, with all the clouds, you wouldn’t be able to actually see them do anything as they would spend a lot of time in or above them.
So they moved it back to noon. (See, in Kansas, there’s this saying: “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.”)
Noon rolled around, and though we did see some interesting retired World War II planes and even a bi-plane with a sky walker in which Big Sis declared, “That’s not a good idea!”
But we did not see any jets.
We soon learned that it was still a little more cloudy than they would like and that they would fly at 2:30.
Geez! Don’t they know we have kids?
Who just spent an incredibly tiring day on a plane and in a car the day before??
And now they’ve not had a nap!!
But we were committed.
We stayed.
2:30 rolls around. . . and passes.
Still no jets.
By this time the parents (me) are getting antsy.
Nate & I are fearing a melt-down of epic proportions is steadily approaching the longer we hold off nap-time, but we’ve already waited this long. . .and we’d hate it if we left and then 5 minutes later they flew. . . So we gave them until 3 & then we were definitely, positively leaving.
No matter what.
3 came.
The girls were still in good spirits.
So we tempted fate and stayed.
And engaged in the longest session of Ring Around the Rosies that anyone has possibly ever witnessed as it kept the girls from whining and we had heard through the grape vine that the ThunderBirds were definitely flying at 3:30.
We might have bothered a few of our blanket neighbors, though there were a few glances from little girls wishing they could take part ( I did invite them). Regardless, we had success!
At about 3:30, we heard the engines reving up and the girls were still smiling.
They were a bit louder than the girls’ appreciated.
But soon-to-be-Aunt Joni’s heart melted as Little lunged out of my arms into hers.
Persistence?
Stupidity?
I don’t know. But we had fun. 
xoxo Lori Danelle
