Air Show with the Boys

It's been a couple of weeks now, but the boys, their grandpa and I all went to the Joint Services Air Show at Andrew's Air Force base and had a great time (until it rained). Jack was afraid to walk up the tail end of the C5 Galaxy and other large cargo planes at first, but he soon came around. Toward the end, he'd walk into the much smaller helicopters.

They were able to get right into the pilot's seat and play with everything. We saw some cool acrobatic performances, but the coolest is watching the C5. Yeah, I know. What can be so cool about a big, awkward, stodgy cargo plane? Well, this thing is able to operate on very short runways. As soon as it lifts off it is capable of a steep climb. It also can cruise at under 100 mph without stalling. You are literally waiting to see it drop out of the sky because it looks like it is barely moving. Finally, when it lands it can come to an incredibly quick stop. Not bad for one of the largest airplanes in the world.

Unfortunately, it began raining pretty heavy and we weren't able to stick around for the Blue Angels.

We'll be sure to check out the Thunderbirds when they perform over the Air Force Academy next fall.

Check out some additional pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/foodpartygirl/AirShow2008

Kailee's Best Game

Kailee played an amazing softball game yesterday. She scored twice with two strong hits and pitched for two innings as well. Her pitches where always straight and strong. She'll be working on the height, but she still struck out a lot of batters. They started to realize they had to swing or they stood a good chance of striking out in disgrace (e.g. while looking).

She takes a pretty long step in her pitching motion, and probably delivers the ball from 10-12 inches off the dirt. It actually has to rise to reach the strike zone - a pretty wierd angle to look at for most pitchers who are use to seeing the ball come down to them.

The highlight was in the last inning - with two outs, she dove for a infield pop-up down the third base line. It probably would've fell foul. She was pitching at the time.

She caught it on while full out on her stomach and scraped her elbow up a little.
The crowd cheered (even the parents of the other team) and stood to their feet. She was visibly thrilled.

Game over.

Step 1 - Buy a New House >> Done

Well that seems almost overwith. We've seem to come to an agreement on all the terms, and expect to have the contract fully signed off on sometime today.

We've purchased a beautiful home in the Northgate area of Colorado Springs. This location is about 6 miles north of my offices, so a very close commute compared to the hour I drive each way today.



The home sits one 1/3 acre and has some nice mountain views from the front. The kid's bedrooms are all upstairs; they also have a loft we're not quite sure what to do with - probably homework/desk space eventually.

Our bedroom is on the main floor along with a study, kitchen, dining and family room. The home is casual and open; there is no separate formal dining room just a larger single eating space, and no living room either.

The outside has a beautiful large deck and play set.

The basement is unfinished, but extremely well setup for future finishing. It's garden level so it has lots of light and it's also quite large (~1700 sq. ft.). Overall, the home has over 4300 sq. feet, so we shouldn't run out of room too soon.

We are planning a July 10th settlement, which should be interesting because we won't be there yet. We'll have to do our part by mail. We'll actually be on vacation in Florida during that time. We'll arrive in COS on the 15th and hopefully get the movers scheduled for the next day.