Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tues July 8, Staycation day 2, Summer day 38

Today we took another local adventure to the Historic Aviation Memorial Museum (HAMM).  It is located in the old terminal building of the Tyler Pounds Field Airport.  This is the website if you want to check it out.  http://www.tylerhamm.com/

When we arrived & paid for our tickets, we were assigned a docent (a retired gentleman) who took us outside first to tour around the older planes on the grounds and play in the cockpit they have set up for people to climb into & take a look at what pilots would have to work with in an older fighter plane.  And because this is my blog, you get to see a picture of all three of my kids in it!

 

After playing in the cockpit & taking a look at an ejector seat from some old plane (I didn't get a pic of that), we went outside to look at some planes.  I won't begin to try to identify each one of these, although Larry might be able to.  Honestly, I don't get into history at all and so most of what I read & what the docent told us today went into one ear & out the other.  It was sort of like what you see in cartoons that kids hear when parents talk.  "blah blah blah blah PLANE blah blah blah blah FIGHTER PLANE blah blah blah blah PILOT blah blah blah blah WINGS".  You get the idea.  My kids had fun playing around the planes while Daddy listened to the docent tell every detail of each plane, who flew it, what war it was involved in, how many bullets/missiles the plane carried, what speed it flew, how each part of it functioned...blah blah blah.  LOL!

Here, we have the first plane.  It's silver with red stripes.  See how much bigger it is than Sarah?

And this is another plane.  It is really big.  Samuel & Sarah sat UNDERNEATH it near the wheels for some shade.

Here's another plane.  It wasn't too big, though.  You can see that, though.  After all, my eight year old could hold it up.  Savannah wandered around & looked at the back part of it, too.

After close to an hour of hearing all about the planes they have set up outside (I think there were about 8 of them) and watching 2 or 3 planes take off from the runway right beside the field where the planes were set up, we moved indoors.  Each of the kids got a turn on the flight simulator.  Again...my blog...you get to see pics of all three!  :)

And I have to share this 2nd pic of Samuel.  I love the look on his face!

We wandered around the rest of the museum for a little while, looking at displays of well...honestly, I don't even know what.  The kids were getting bored & I wasn't really all that interested in reading documents about aircrafts or pilots that I've never heard of, so I just followed the kids around.  Sarah liked this pilot!  Or maybe he's not a pilot.  I really don't know.  But she liked him anyway.  ha ha!

The kids & I eventually went to the gift shop to wait for Daddy to finish immersing himself in all the exhibits.  He really enjoyed the place, so I tried to keep the kids busy as long as I could so he could spend time checking out all the things he wanted to see. 

When he got done, it was lunchtime &we took the kids to CiCi's pizza.  We tried to convince them that while the restaurant's name LOOKED LIKE somewhere they'd been before, this was actually a new place they'd never been to.  We were pronouncing the name like "Kee-Kee's".  They didn't buy it, so we switched to calling it "Ky-Ky's".  They didn't buy that either.  LOL!  We tried.  We enjoyed our lunches & headed home, but ended up stopping at Lifeway bookstore to pick up something for Larry's grandmother.  While we were there, I got Sarah a kid's devotional book & let Savannah pick out a new book because tonight was Samuel & Sarah's first swim lesson of the summer.

We came home to rest & then left again in time for swim class.  This is the giant pool where their class is held.

And here is their class.  The teacher (the man walking with them) was showing them all the stuff around the pool & pointing out safety issues as they walked.  Samuel & Sarah are together, at the back of the crowd.  Sarah's in the blue suit & Samuel's right beside her.

Swim class was not over til nearly 8:30 tonight, which is when they're usually in BED!  When we left swim class, Larry surprised us all by pulling through Dairy Queen for a little treat on the way home!  Everyone was tickled about that!

Tomorrow is a new day.  Time for me to get in the shower & hit the pillow!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


  I forgot to tell you to look for a picture of Cordell's grandmother in the museum. She was a nurse who took care of wounded soldiers on their flight home.  
   Hope the kids enjoy the swimming lessons.
                                                           Mom