Future Aviators of America

Liam is currently suffering from Mystery Fever, which is not some rabid desire to read The Hardy Boys, but instead my term for a moderately high fever of unknown origin with no other symptoms. Graeme suffered Mystery Fever for two days last week, then he was fine. Hopefully there won't be a day three for Liam, because he is just tragic when he's feeling really bad. He did have moments yesterday and today when he was feeling okay enough to play and be a subdued version his usual crazy self.

While Liam was reclining on the playroom couch this afternoon, I brought out the trampoline in an effort to tire Graeme before dinner. After watching Graeme jump for a couple of minutes, Liam got up and decided to jump a bit. It was half-hearted compared to his usual jumping, but at least he got up. Maybe there's hope that when he's older he won't be so pitiful when he's sick like some adult males are (I'm looking at you, E. Brown).

Enough sickness; moving on to the fun. On Sunday we went to the Singapore Air Force open house. Being the aircraft lovers that they are, the boys had a great time. Check out this photo of Liam, Graeme, and Sean with two Black Knights, members of S'pore's aerobatics team (Singapore's Thunderbirds):

Lookin' good in our shades

We were able to go inside a C-130. This was especially cool since my dad used to fly them when he was in the Air Force. Yes, I actually exist in this picture, since Sean volunteered to take it:

Hercules!
(Not me - the plane, though Graeme is weighing more these days)

Ready for our first jump

After looking at more planes, helicopters, and weapons, we saw a military version of a front loader, which the boys immediately called a digger. Here's a pic of them "driving" the digger:

Get out of the way down there!

After the digger, Liam and Graeme jumped around in a bouncy thing that was set up for little kids. Nearby, some people were taking a hot air balloon ride, and Liam was particularly fascinated by the balloon and the fire involved. We then rushed to the grandstand to watch the aerial display. We saw F-16s and F-5s take off, fly around, and land; a Chinook helicopter drop a vehicle and some commandos (ok, they used ropes to get down); and Apache helicopters pretend to intercept an unidentified aircraft. Finally, a C-130 landed in the distance, as you can see in the far right of this picture:

One of the few moments Graeme took his eyes off the aircraft

The best part of the aerial display for me and Sean was the music. It seems military personnel all over the world enjoy 80s rock - the soundtrack included several Metallica songs and, of course, The Final Countdown. I guess we were showing our age when we named the band and the year that song was a hit.

Coming soon - the Great Fruit Debate and other strange toddler discussions.