'Boys' day out at the Dayton Air Show

Last Saturday, we ventured out on a rather cloudy Saturday to see the Dayton Air Show. Patrick, Owen, Grandpa Dave, Grandpa Tom, Uncle Greg, and I all loaded up the car and headed out early to get a good seat and have plenty of time to check out the displays.

I'm sure many of you saw the news about the unfortunate end to Saturday's show, which happened directly in front of us and our thoughts and prayers went out to all involved.

However, we still had a wonderful time at the show. The clouds helped make things a little more tolerable to wander around and check out all the airplanes. The boys had a blast. They got to check out everything: old planes like the Wright-B Flyer and Memphis Belle, massive cargo planes, military planes, and helicopters. In the air, they particularly enjoyed the smoke trails from groups like the Brazillian Smoke Squadron. We set their chairs up on their wagon to give them their own little grandstrand to watch the show. The Stealth Bomber and Stealth Fighter were very cool to see in the air, as was the heritage flight with planes from 3 different eras.

Here are the pictures, and be sure to hang for the last 2 pics of two very happy aviation enthusiasts. :-) Click on the title above or the slide show while its playing to see larger versions of the pics and browse through on your own time.

Fond memories of Stephen and Janice through the eyes of children

11 weeks ago, my cousin Janice passed away after 29 years living with CF. This past weekend, my cousin Stephen, her brother, also passed away after 26 years living with CF. This has been tough for their family, and for my entire extended family, and many friends and others that Janice and Stephen encountered in their life. The one thing that has been emphasized about both Janice and Stephen is that they lived. And so, as I looked through a few pictures, I thought I'd share a couple more slices of how they lived, through or in the eyes of my kids.

For starters, our family Christmas gathering, and my boys running wild with pirate gear and a new fisher price camera. The most frequent subject, and ready with a willing smile....Stephen of course. Patrick snapped a couple candids of Stephen minding his business on the family-famous gold chairs.

After some pirate sword play, Cap'n Owen came to rest with Stephen and was once again captured by Patrick's quick eye.

And just because Stephen had changed places, didn't mean Patrick couldn't track down his photogenic subject and click away again.

Always the teacher I suppose, Stephen took the opportunity to show Patrick the art of self portaits on his new camera.


Of course, this also got me thinking of another frequent guest around the boys, especially upon their arrival. In 2002, just a few days after we had come home with Patrick, Janice stopped by after work to check in on the newest member of the clan.

And a few years later, and again a few days after our return home with Owen, Janice brought her Mom in tow this time to check on the latest addition.


A small window into some very special people. Thanks to them for all the memories.

Here, also, is a link I found to the poem titled Child of Mine (To All Parents)