flying in little planes, and other acts of patriotism

(showing off her best impression of an american actress fending off the paparazzi)

there's something about summer that just seems so....american... which is funny because do they not barbecue in other countries? no hose water fights? no absurdly giant balls of ammunition being shot up in the air and then exploding into a bunch of lights and sprinkling depris back down on all the voluntary spectators? (okay, i already know the answer to that one) 

in any case, summer = america. which is why the boy really went all out this year with his fourth of july getup. well, that and he lost a bet to me...

these two looked just fantastic (said with a lisp) at the telluride fourth of july parade. there may or may not have been american flag speedos involved too, but that footage has been burned... just look at 'em waving their flags with pride...

q was proud to be an american but opted for a tutu instead of a speedo. thank our lucky stars

 

next on our list of patriotic activities...and i'm not even sure why this felt patriotic to me - maybe because of the red and blue stripes on the side... was our near death experience in a 6-seater prop plane. 

okay fine, it wasn't a near death experience at all - our pilot definitely knew what he was doing, but if you saw the way we were all gripping to our seats for dear life during the flight, you would think it was. let me rephrase that, the boy and i were gripping the seats for our lives while the pilot was casually flipping through pictures on his ipad!!

at one point during the flight, the boy asked the pilot, "so, what would i do if you suddenly died of a heart attack right now?" i can't say for certain, but i'm guessing the pilot sensed our tenseness...

let's back up. our friends invited us to stay at their family cabin with them in montana (see - doesn't that just sound american somehow?) and we've been wanting to see what flying in a small plane was all about (isn't that a normal curiosity?)

so we connected with a pilot who could take the whole fam out and back to the montana boondocks. because that's just the type of thing we do as a family - load up a carseat with a toddler and a pregnant woman on a teensy little plane for a 3 hour flight. i seriously considered wearing depends. by the way, i'm pregnant again in case i haven't mentioned that yet... yay!

(check out how patriotic i am)

the last, and only, time i was ever in montana was with bug on our way to seattle back in the day. we stopped in butte, or as we called it, butt (no offense to any butteons out there. butteites? butteys?) it was pretty sketchy, but that could have just been because we had about $4.23 to both our names and were looking for the cheapest place we could find to spend the night. i guess anyplace would be pretty sketch when that's your criteria. 

we were patriotic back then too though and went to see the site of the battle of little big horn and custard's last stand. It was a powerful scene, and as we soberly drove away from it, bug reverently and in all seriousness said, "wow, what a battle that must have been between big horn and colonel mustard." ...in the conservatory...with the candlestick... 

anyway, back to montana. q liked the plane. especially singing "la la la" over and over again into the headphones for all traffic control people across the country to hear. so i guess she's more adventurous than her parents in that sense

i'm so glad we lived to tell the tale because when we landed back in colorado, there just so happened to be 70-something parachuters jumping out of planes AT THAT VERY MINUTE trying to beat a world record of some sort (also seems oddly american, huh?). so we got to see them do their thing, which looked something like this:

i know, i know. the jumpers look like little tiny spots in the picture - like when you laugh out loud at something you see while on the computer and eating an oreo and it sprays little crumbs on the screen...

so, i took the liberty to make the jumpers feel more personal to you so you could really get a sense of it all

god bless america and all of its bizarre quirks