So prior to our arrival in Florida I received a text from my brother that asked if the boys would be interested in going to a Blue Angels show...I responded with "Uh Yea! and so would their parents." Let me tell you we were all beside ourselves excited to both get to hang out with Uncle Wesley AND have front-row-Joe viewing to the Blue Angels. AND Wes drove our van onto base so we didn't have to wait for ever in the visitors lane which was incredibly long.
I know he is my brother, and I should know him, but he is nearly 9 years younger than me and, well, we just didn't really have that much in common. It kind of makes me sad that we really weren't close while growing up (we have a running "joke" that I chased him with a butcher knife...we laugh about it now, but totally not my finest moment...I believe he was 4? Wow...) but I don't think I had the awareness or maturity at the time to foster any sort of relationship. And I am fairly certain the butcher knife incident probably put nails in that coffin at the time. So it was so neat to hang out as adults and get to know each other. And to see him both as a grown man with a crazy-cool career, and an awesome and totally patient uncle to my babies, was pretty much the best thing ever.
This is the old Fat Albert...with jet assisted Jet Assisted Take Off booster-thingies. The boys wanted to look into the rocket boosters...but I am fairly certain they would have looked into a black hole if their Uncle Wesley was holding them up and explaining things to them!
While we were walking around with Wes, people were saluting him right and left. It was catching me off guard. And then after the show people were asking him if he was a Blue Angels pilot...we got a kick out of this because there have been times people have asked for his autograph right after the show! I guess people were just star-struck and thought he must have been one of the pilots...even though the planes were just taxiing in!! It was pretty funny...but he is a celebrity in our eyes!
Wes was so patient and explained all kinds of things to the boys and got down on their level, and answered tons of questions that Josh and I had...about everything! He even told them when it was gonna be super loud so they would cover their ears! Finley kept looking at the airplanes on his shirt and, because we were so close to the action, he enjoyed comparing the real-life planes to those on his shirt...
After the airshow (which turned out was "just" a practice...but narrated and fanfare filled...so it might as well have been an actual airshow) we went to lunch then went to the Navy Museum. They boys wanted to fly through it (no pun intended) and just sit in the planes that they could then move on to whatever may be next. The grown boys got in on some of the action too... I yawned a lot. Haha! I remember yawning a lot when I did stuff like this with my mom and dad... but it was a joy to watch my kids enjoy the cool guy-things.
After our big day, we went back to Wesley's house and watched the sunset on his dock, we took a few selfies, and looked for alligators, bears, or crabs. We didn't see any. But then we went back inside and Wes did a low country boil and margaritas! Yum!!
It was a great day and on our drive back "home" to Destin we all were content from such a wonderfully fulfilling day! Josh and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with my baby brother, picking his brain on his life, and watching how well he interacted with my boys.
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