Joint Forces Air Show

The nice thing about living so close to District of Colombia is all the military stuff that goes on. This weekend the Andrew's Air Force base was hosting a Joint Services Air Show! If my Dad was here he would contest to how much I love air shows. I don't know what it is about airplanes but I have always been so curious and fascinated by them. There is just something so cool about any plane or helicopter. And of course growing up near San Diego and Miramar I was able to get up close and personal. Every year Miramar host an air show and my Dad and I would go...I loved it!

Well this was my first time going to Andrew's Air Force Base and let me tell you it was awesome! First of all it is free, second of all if you have a Department of Defense ID, which my hubby does, then you don't have to take the long shuttle from the FedEx field, you can drive right up on the base and park next to the air strip which we did. The show started at 8am and since our kiddos are up at 6am every morning we had no problem getting there early. We picked up Jason, Aria's Godfather, and on the beltway we went. We were there for 3 hours and it was great. All the planes were open, you could even get in the cockpits. They had helicopters open, I was surprised...Miramar only let a few planes open but not all of them. How fun for the kids! Oh and Ocean Spray had a big van there and they were giving away free drinks of their new sparkling cranberry drinks. The base didn't allow any food or drinks so we drank several of those, what a treat. All in all the kids were great and by 1pm we covered enough ground and saw enough planes we were content heading back home.

Since the food vendors were so expensive we didn't eat lunch there, which was good because we went somewhere even better for the same price; the National Harbor! On the way home and none of us had been there. It is right next to the Woodrow Wilson bridge right before the VA border. It's very new and it was kind of like a miniature Seaport Village. We at at Rosa Mexicano; GREAT healthy Mexican restaurant. Wow we all liked this place. The kids meal was healthy and very nice portions. I couldn't even eat my entire pulled chicken sandwhich. A great spot for a date night for sure! There was other restaurants with pretty cool names; Ketchup, Elevation Burger, Bond 45, Freshii just to name a few, and looked like some spots I will have to try for sure. OK so yes a long day with 3 kids after we got done exploring this place so finally we headed back home after dropping off Jason.

Enjoy the pics and if you are in DC tomorrow the show is still on free to public.

Daddy and Kaden in front of the real Memphis Belle!

One observation I have made over and over again; Lance loves planes and he has no problem spotting them in the sky. Mmmm maybe a future pilot in our family????

The Memphis Belle, I loved that movie...

Kaden in the cockpit of a helicopter; sorry didn't notice the model. Either way pretty darn cool, he even got to touch the yoke.

You can't see the entire chopper but this thing was COOL. Massive and hey if I could have I would have loved to go up in this thing. Way cool that is all I can say:-)

Kaden checking out some telescopic instrument.

Kaden doesn't like to share....

Daddy and Kaden checking out the drone? That thing that is remote controlled that drops you know what.

Kaden and I next to some cool aircraft.

When we got back to the car, we had an amazing view of these stunt planes...way awesome! OK I know of my choice of words are juvenile but I get excited about these kinds of things; like a kid in a candy store:-)

The stunt planes getting back in formation.

Another shot from the car.

At the National Harbor. They had this weird statue in the sandbox that was right next to the water.

Maybe it's Gulliver?

And after lunch the kids always have room for ice cream so we went to Ben and Jerry's.