Fourth of July Fun -
Fourth of July, 2009! What a wonderful night. Some good friends of ours invited our family over for a BBQ dinner, which was SO good, and fun, thank you so much, Putnam family! :)
I then drove home, and the Foster family picked me up and we drove to Tycho airport for their "Red, White and BOOM!" fireworks show. It was the first time I have ever gone, and let me tell you, it's the best EVER next to a theme park. My gosh, it was great. And does Disney have old planes parked on a runway for you to look at before the fireworks? Noooo. Did Tycho? YES! WOOT! Ok ok. So the story will go with the pictures. :) Let's take off on it! Engines full throttle....full go ahead. VROOM! Ok ok. Sorry.
We were behind a tanker that was leaking. This was only worrisome to the ladies. We(fine, I) were pretty enthralled by being behind such a fun and interesting vehicle for all of 3 minutes. Notice that we were not 500 feet behind.
The gorgeous sunset as seen out of the back window. What hath God wrought!
The Foster Family Foursome ... of fun, friendship and fantastic-ness. Haha. I'm so good. Seriously. Are they not cute? And wonderful? Oh, and we are walking down a runway. :D
The setting sun shot rays of golden and red and orange light everywhere, proclaiming God's glory, pouring peacefullness and contentment into my soul.
I love my Lord's creation. It brings songs of joy into my bouncing heart. How very beautiful.
So, Tycho brought over these planes from the Warbird Air Museum, and they had like...10 planes? Parked on the runway and you could touch them, take pictures of them, stand under the bomb-bay doors, etc. I've seen them all before, since I've been to the museum, but you all know I like planes and museums, and old things, and so I was pretty much as excited as .... a Jean Marie excited over planes and museums. Come up with your own memory of that. Run with it.
Mr. and Mrs. F. holding hands, following Cam...Becca and I are lagging, as usual. And taking pictures. As usual. And giggling. As usual. LOOK AT THE PLANE! GASP.
VIOLA~ Planes to delight hearts young and old if they have any love for history.
It was soo amazing. The sunset lit up the sky enough for us to take pictures at 8pm, and also made it look like we were in the middle of a war!
See? What did I tell you? Perfect war scene! War sky, war plane ... war.... people? Uh. No.
Oh, beautiful land, I love thee. Look at the scores of people! There were lots and lots.
The WW2 C-47 "Tico Bell" that we saw doing a flyover at her first public "return to flight"! What a glorious and stirring sight she made as she was trailed by her "mentor plane"!!!
What a shining, gleaming beauty she was!
The cars. They had old cars too. I was enthralled. Look at the reflection in the shiny red hood!
Oh, look! The cars are wonderful. I love the black one...but I must point out something that made Becca and I stop and stare and flutter our hands. Do you see that guy with red hair? Ok. Focus on him. No, no...stop rolling your eyes, forget the guy. He is holding...are you ready? It's a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. One, two, three - swoon! It's the first time I've ever seen one outside of a glass cabinet, and I was within stealing range. With 21.1 megapixels, the option to shoot in full HD video, the highest ISO range to date, and selling for about $2,700. - it is amazing. Wow.
Okay, we have to move on, because camera talk could go on indefinitely. Oh, sweetness of a trunk.
Becca! And the plane...that I don't remember what it was. You can ALL tell me later, but right now, it is just too hard to try to remember every single name of what Dad and Cameron told me. So there.
The sight of this truck almost immediately made Becca and I break out into the Beach Boys' Kokomo song because that was the name painted on the door. "Aruba, Jamaica, Oooh, I wanna' take you to Bermuda, Bahama....". Oh, yeah. If you didn't already know, I grew up on the Beach Boys. I never cared about Elvis or the Beatles. Just the Beach Boys. Now you know.
How exciting and fun it was to explore all the planes! Becca and I both agreed, we really did not want to be any gunners in particular...especially not the forward ones. I think I'd like to be the waist-gunner. Definitely not tail or top or ball. Okay. It is late. You really don't care about all these wonderful facts.
"Hello, plane!" No, really. I said that. Aloud.
"Guantanamo Bay!" Look, look!!!
Oh, happy day, happy, happy day. Can life get better than this picture? A star painted on a wing?
Oh, maybe a stripe?
"Helloooo, beautiful!!!" Life just made it to the top right here. Gosh, I was dancin'-happy. This is my favorite shot of the night, just in case you had any doubt.
NASA - my heart is proud. A Northrop Grumman plane - Astronaut trainer plane.
We just about removed them, and then remembered that we were not taking off. Sniff. Who can resist red wood circles? Clearly, I could not, as I told Becca to pretend to take one off.
Hello big whale lookin' transport cargo plane. I dub you - "Big Blue". I know you are thankful.
May the Stars and Stripes forever wave, over our land and in the hearts of her countrymen!
Cameron and I getting two different takes on this lovely big girl.
My second favorite shot of the day. I just love this. It stirs pride in my heart, and love for my land. Even now, it's either way late and I'm way tired, or the sight of the plane parked and restored, with the flag she flew through battles for waving and snapping on her Independence Day next to her - is making tears well in my eyes. Maybe it's both.
The darkening night still light up the planes upon the runway.
And we sway in the summer night breeze and listen to the Space Coast Pops play. I was pleasantly surprised by how well they played! We truly enjoyed listening to everything they played! They played on into the fireworks, it being sychronized, astonishing us! Wow!
I especially loved how they played patriotic songs - our National Anthem, God bless the USA, America the Beautiful, which were all met with cheers and whistles from the crowd, and the 1812 Overture, and Indiana Jones theme and others.
And yes, I do know why the wings fold back. And I will tell you even if you know. On any given moment. Gotta' love the drawing of Liberty Luke, eh?
Fireworks!!! It was such fun because we were so close, just a green and runway away, and they shot right up from the ground and lit us all up with their splendor and noise! :D
My favorite. The sparkly pop ones that turn into chrysanthemums. And no, I did not think of Anne when I wrote that. Fine I did. But I did NOT replay the entire thing out, quote by quote, and I most certainly did NOT spell it out to make sure it was correct. Fine. I really did. Hah.
Ooooh!
AaHHhhhh!!
Wow. Bright. And. Loud.
Happy Independence Day, beloved America!
What a truly wonderful and special night! Thank you so much, Foster family, for taking me along, and enduring with my constant cheering, picture taking, talking, hugging, singing, dancing, gasping, and happy sighs. Going that night made my 4th of July! It was such fun! Ya'll have become dear to me. I laughed so much, especially over - "You don' want dem cupcakes, they is squished, 'cause Becca ... she put her purse down on 'em, she just been carryin' on 'bout dem...she runs into poor Momma carryin' dem, she just ... sometin' ain't right wit' dat child!"
HAHAHA...and the guy who was directing us to parking? I'll quote Becca's blog on this: "something that sent peals of laughter through the car was when the guy that waved you on where to park said, " Just go that way and pull up to the guy that is wildly waving his arms and he will park you" (the way he said it was hilarious, extremely sarcastic!)". Hahaha hahaha!!!
Oh, and when we pulled up to enter the parking lot, haha!! I'll quote Becca's blog again: "When we first get there you have to stop and the policeman asks you,"Do you have any firearms fireworks or alcohol?" Well, obviously that answer was no! But the question we all had was how does the guy we know we didn't, he didn't check our car or anything! Then Jean went on to say after we had pulled in," No Sir we ain't got no guns!.....OH! Bubba put that gun down, that's dangerous!(said in a Tennessee Hick accent!)....... lol...that was funny!" HAHAHA....we had such, such a fun time. :)
Thanks again, Foster Family. I love you all! And - that was my 4th of July fun! God bless ya'll! Come back 'round again soon! Be family. :) And leave me a comment about which pic was your favorite, okay?
My soul wells up with Hallelujahs,
~ Jean Marie
I then drove home, and the Foster family picked me up and we drove to Tycho airport for their "Red, White and BOOM!" fireworks show. It was the first time I have ever gone, and let me tell you, it's the best EVER next to a theme park. My gosh, it was great. And does Disney have old planes parked on a runway for you to look at before the fireworks? Noooo. Did Tycho? YES! WOOT! Ok ok. So the story will go with the pictures. :) Let's take off on it! Engines full throttle....full go ahead. VROOM! Ok ok. Sorry.
We were behind a tanker that was leaking. This was only worrisome to the ladies. We(fine, I) were pretty enthralled by being behind such a fun and interesting vehicle for all of 3 minutes. Notice that we were not 500 feet behind.
The gorgeous sunset as seen out of the back window. What hath God wrought!
The Foster Family Foursome ... of fun, friendship and fantastic-ness. Haha. I'm so good. Seriously. Are they not cute? And wonderful? Oh, and we are walking down a runway. :D
The setting sun shot rays of golden and red and orange light everywhere, proclaiming God's glory, pouring peacefullness and contentment into my soul.
I love my Lord's creation. It brings songs of joy into my bouncing heart. How very beautiful.
So, Tycho brought over these planes from the Warbird Air Museum, and they had like...10 planes? Parked on the runway and you could touch them, take pictures of them, stand under the bomb-bay doors, etc. I've seen them all before, since I've been to the museum, but you all know I like planes and museums, and old things, and so I was pretty much as excited as .... a Jean Marie excited over planes and museums. Come up with your own memory of that. Run with it.
Mr. and Mrs. F. holding hands, following Cam...Becca and I are lagging, as usual. And taking pictures. As usual. And giggling. As usual. LOOK AT THE PLANE! GASP.
VIOLA~ Planes to delight hearts young and old if they have any love for history.
It was soo amazing. The sunset lit up the sky enough for us to take pictures at 8pm, and also made it look like we were in the middle of a war!
See? What did I tell you? Perfect war scene! War sky, war plane ... war.... people? Uh. No.
Oh, beautiful land, I love thee. Look at the scores of people! There were lots and lots.
The WW2 C-47 "Tico Bell" that we saw doing a flyover at her first public "return to flight"! What a glorious and stirring sight she made as she was trailed by her "mentor plane"!!!
What a shining, gleaming beauty she was!
The cars. They had old cars too. I was enthralled. Look at the reflection in the shiny red hood!
Oh, look! The cars are wonderful. I love the black one...but I must point out something that made Becca and I stop and stare and flutter our hands. Do you see that guy with red hair? Ok. Focus on him. No, no...stop rolling your eyes, forget the guy. He is holding...are you ready? It's a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. One, two, three - swoon! It's the first time I've ever seen one outside of a glass cabinet, and I was within stealing range. With 21.1 megapixels, the option to shoot in full HD video, the highest ISO range to date, and selling for about $2,700. - it is amazing. Wow.
Okay, we have to move on, because camera talk could go on indefinitely. Oh, sweetness of a trunk.
Becca! And the plane...that I don't remember what it was. You can ALL tell me later, but right now, it is just too hard to try to remember every single name of what Dad and Cameron told me. So there.
The sight of this truck almost immediately made Becca and I break out into the Beach Boys' Kokomo song because that was the name painted on the door. "Aruba, Jamaica, Oooh, I wanna' take you to Bermuda, Bahama....". Oh, yeah. If you didn't already know, I grew up on the Beach Boys. I never cared about Elvis or the Beatles. Just the Beach Boys. Now you know.
How exciting and fun it was to explore all the planes! Becca and I both agreed, we really did not want to be any gunners in particular...especially not the forward ones. I think I'd like to be the waist-gunner. Definitely not tail or top or ball. Okay. It is late. You really don't care about all these wonderful facts.
"Hello, plane!" No, really. I said that. Aloud.
"Guantanamo Bay!" Look, look!!!
Oh, happy day, happy, happy day. Can life get better than this picture? A star painted on a wing?
Oh, maybe a stripe?
"Helloooo, beautiful!!!" Life just made it to the top right here. Gosh, I was dancin'-happy. This is my favorite shot of the night, just in case you had any doubt.
NASA - my heart is proud. A Northrop Grumman plane - Astronaut trainer plane.
We just about removed them, and then remembered that we were not taking off. Sniff. Who can resist red wood circles? Clearly, I could not, as I told Becca to pretend to take one off.
Hello big whale lookin' transport cargo plane. I dub you - "Big Blue". I know you are thankful.
May the Stars and Stripes forever wave, over our land and in the hearts of her countrymen!
Cameron and I getting two different takes on this lovely big girl.
My second favorite shot of the day. I just love this. It stirs pride in my heart, and love for my land. Even now, it's either way late and I'm way tired, or the sight of the plane parked and restored, with the flag she flew through battles for waving and snapping on her Independence Day next to her - is making tears well in my eyes. Maybe it's both.
The darkening night still light up the planes upon the runway.
And we sway in the summer night breeze and listen to the Space Coast Pops play. I was pleasantly surprised by how well they played! We truly enjoyed listening to everything they played! They played on into the fireworks, it being sychronized, astonishing us! Wow!
I especially loved how they played patriotic songs - our National Anthem, God bless the USA, America the Beautiful, which were all met with cheers and whistles from the crowd, and the 1812 Overture, and Indiana Jones theme and others.
And yes, I do know why the wings fold back. And I will tell you even if you know. On any given moment. Gotta' love the drawing of Liberty Luke, eh?
Fireworks!!! It was such fun because we were so close, just a green and runway away, and they shot right up from the ground and lit us all up with their splendor and noise! :D
My favorite. The sparkly pop ones that turn into chrysanthemums. And no, I did not think of Anne when I wrote that. Fine I did. But I did NOT replay the entire thing out, quote by quote, and I most certainly did NOT spell it out to make sure it was correct. Fine. I really did. Hah.
Ooooh!
AaHHhhhh!!
Wow. Bright. And. Loud.
Happy Independence Day, beloved America!
What a truly wonderful and special night! Thank you so much, Foster family, for taking me along, and enduring with my constant cheering, picture taking, talking, hugging, singing, dancing, gasping, and happy sighs. Going that night made my 4th of July! It was such fun! Ya'll have become dear to me. I laughed so much, especially over - "You don' want dem cupcakes, they is squished, 'cause Becca ... she put her purse down on 'em, she just been carryin' on 'bout dem...she runs into poor Momma carryin' dem, she just ... sometin' ain't right wit' dat child!"
HAHAHA...and the guy who was directing us to parking? I'll quote Becca's blog on this: "something that sent peals of laughter through the car was when the guy that waved you on where to park said, " Just go that way and pull up to the guy that is wildly waving his arms and he will park you" (the way he said it was hilarious, extremely sarcastic!)". Hahaha hahaha!!!
Oh, and when we pulled up to enter the parking lot, haha!! I'll quote Becca's blog again: "When we first get there you have to stop and the policeman asks you,"Do you have any firearms fireworks or alcohol?" Well, obviously that answer was no! But the question we all had was how does the guy we know we didn't, he didn't check our car or anything! Then Jean went on to say after we had pulled in," No Sir we ain't got no guns!.....OH! Bubba put that gun down, that's dangerous!(said in a Tennessee Hick accent!)....... lol...that was funny!" HAHAHA....we had such, such a fun time. :)
Thanks again, Foster Family. I love you all! And - that was my 4th of July fun! God bless ya'll! Come back 'round again soon! Be family. :) And leave me a comment about which pic was your favorite, okay?
My soul wells up with Hallelujahs,
~ Jean Marie
You got some wonderful fireworks pictures. I wonder if Mrs. Foster has family that lives in Port Orange. I have a friend who they look like they could be sisters or first cousins. They really look alike.
ReplyDeleteSuch sweet memories of Tico Bell (pics 11-12 I believe)! When I was enrolled in the black/white photography class, the restoration staff let me in to document their work. They even gave me a tour of her...got to go inside and take all manner of neat pictures! :) Thanks for reminding me of that amazing time!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure y'all a blast, nothing like gazing at cars and planes...the handiwork of our fine American mechanics! :D
Love you!!!
~Anna :)
Good for you!
ReplyDeleteLovely Lovely, Jean! Totally worth the wait! All your pictures are lovely(especially the one of me parents!).But favorite picture would have to be of me......jk.... I think the last firework picture!!
ReplyDeleteI laughed through your whole post, it reminded me of all fun that night! "Its overflowing not leaking!" Yeah, and you know...I ain't right! :P
Love ya!
~Becca who is a camera watcher and a cupcake smasher(they still tasted fine!)
..no we don't have family in Port Orange :)..
Yet another example of your exquisite way of putting into words what you feel in your heart,being able to share your most precious memories of your fourth of July with us all. I liked the comment on the Camera " It's a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. One, two, three - swoon! It's the first time I've ever seen one outside of a glass cabinet, and I was within stealing range" haha Thank you jean for sharing these great pictures and memories of such a fantastic evening. God Bless
ReplyDeleteJoel
I am kind of late to comment. :(
ReplyDeleteI so very much like your sunset and plane pics. . . . You take some very beautiful pics, Jean!!