Thunder in the Valley

Like half of the Cedar Valley, the kids & I attended the inaugural "Thunder in the Valley" air show at the Waterloo Regional Airport this weekend.  Austin was still out of town for work, so it was just the three of us.  We got there in plenty of time on Saturday morning to look at many of the airplanes and helicopters on display.  Lincoln was in heaven and pointed out the "eh-panes" and "hel-topters" to anyone and everyone.  Emily tolerated it for the first half hour.

The weather was perfect, but after awhile the sun started getting hot.  By the time the show actually started Emily was already asking to go home.  They had security checkpoints and searched everything upon entry.  I snuck in a water bottle and some fruit snacks.  I should have brought some books or something.  We spent an exorbitant amount on food for lunch, but that's what you have to do.  We were there a total of 3.5 hours (2 hours of show).  As expected, Lincoln was enthralled the whole time while Emily spent 75% of the time whining in my ear about being too hot, too sunny, too hungry, too tired and wanting to go home.  I should have brought ear plugs just for that!  When they announced that the USAF Thunderbirds would be in another 2 hours I decided to call it quits.  At least we got to see the B-2 Stealth Bomber flyover!

The air show was also on Sunday, but tickets were only good for one day.  I was still disappointed about missing the Thunderbirds, especially after reading so much about them on people's Facebook status posts.  Since I knew approximately what time they would fly, as soon as Lincoln woke up from his nap on Sunday, I packed him up in the van and headed back to Waterloo (Emily stayed home with Austin).  We parked along the side of the road off the Lone Tree exit with all the other free-loaders.  After waiting for 45 minutes with nothing (there must have been a ground display going on), the Thunderbirds came.  It was awesome and totally worth the drive back down.  It was great hanging out in the back of the van with Lincoln with the stadium seats flipped up, eating cheap snacks and having plenty of things to entertain while waiting.

It sounds like the air show was a huge success.  I hope they do it again in the future.  I definitely know who will be going and who will be staying home next time!