4th of July!

Happy Belated Independence Day!!! The kids were jazzed up to start the festivities this year and took to all the summer fun with great attitudes! The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays (ok, all holidays are pretty much my favorite) because my Grandma Weirdo loved to celebrate it. I have great memories of watermelon eating contests, Grandma dressed as a clown for Legion picnics, pinatas, family BBQs, firecrackers (she called them all firecrackers regardless of type) in the street (several times the police showed up because they were marginally legal), lawnchairs in the yard, and lots of fun! This year, I wanted to begin doing some of those things for my two (minus the clown costume).
We celebrated with neighbors at a BBQ and also did the lawnchair/firecracker/yard fun at dusk. Unfortunately Kestrel went to bed at her normal time so she missed the show, but Layton had a blast!
In addition to the 4th, we celebrated our 9th anniversary on 7/7! Luke is in flight school in Atlanta and I was feeling the itch to have a vacation so I decided I would take the kids to a resort in Georgia and Luke could meet us there in the evenings. After misreading a map (I know...how could I?) and realizing my first pick was 2.5 hours for Luke to get to in the evenings, I booked us a family getaway at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. Turns out...it was PERFECT!!
The Mountain itself is a huge granite dome and, on one side, there is a huge carving of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee. At dusk, the largest laser light show in the world is projected on top of the three men and it was a "southern experience" for sure. There were lots of jeers and jabs between Georgia Bulldog and Georgia Tech fans, Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Georgia on my Mind", etc...Layton had a long enough day, so we packed it up and went back to the hotel for the night. Gotta love his face in this one :)
We stayed at the resort right in the park and it kept us busy and was comfortable. At the park, we took a nature walk...
We did go into the park where we saw a percussion group, rode a train, Layton did some bouldering, rode the skylift to the top, played miniature golf and ate a bunch of popsicles. It was 100º the two days we were there, so I didn't get the camera out in the heat too much. It was a great mini-trip and was wonderful to be together as a family on our special day while Luke is in school.
This week Layton is spending each morning at his old pre-school for Vacation Bible School and Kestrel is helping me update the blog.

The Sky's the Limit

After roughly six months I took my checkride last Tuesday (June 15th), which consists of an oral and practical examination. I successfully passed and now have my private pilot license! Yeeeeeha!  The process involved lots reading, testing, perfecting flight maneuvers and logging minimum flight times for night, solo, instrument and cross country flying. Airplanes and flying always fascinated me as a kid and learning has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling challenges I've ever experienced. There's just nothing like being in the air. I only wish that I learned sooner, however I never could have afforded it. Well, it's not like I can now either... but I have a goal in mind.... anyway, it's great to finally have this first step completed of what some call the "license to learn". Aviation is a complex world and there's some amount of learning to be done every time you fly.

Mom and Dad were out here last week, on the way up from FL en route to NM, so Dad and I went out for my first passenger, non instructor, flight around Chattanooga.  I can't wait to start my next school near Atlanta in early July.  I'll begin their program with 85 flight hours and I'll receive my Multi-engine, Instrument, Commercial and Instructor ratings in about 90 straight days.

This is Todd Pettibone waving to someone I think (sorry I don't have more of him in the photo), my instructor at ASI in Collegedale, TN, where I flew N5469K (shown here), a Cessna 172P each lesson when the weather was nice enough. Todd is a great teacher with over 10,000 flight hours.

Layton helping me plan a cross-country flight with a plotter and aviation sectional...

The required reading list for my career pilot program.

Without immense support from my loving wife Melissa, as well as Layton and Kestrel, there's no way I'd ever be able to do this. So thanks Honey! Also, special thanks to Mom and Dad for helping me get there.