Fini Flight

Yesterday JB, Isaac, and I were given the privilege of attending our friend Jeff's "fini flight" while my Dad graciously stayed home with Elijah. As I have mentioned previously on the blog, Jeff, Bobbie, and their kids, are preparing to move to Seattle. They moved out of their house a few weeks ago but have been living in TLF (temporary lodging facility) until their final departure on Saturday. Jeff is taking a position in ROTC which will not allow him to fly anymore. Therefore this was his "final" flight. We were so honored to be able to attend this event, and I actually took some pictures as I only had one child with me and he was so occupied with other stuff, I had plenty of time on my hands.

Before the flight. Paige, Bobbie, and Brooke.

Before the flight. Robert holding Isaac.

The four kids with Isaac who adores all of them. From left: Isaac, Paige, Matthew, Brooke, and Robert.

We took a little mini bus to the flight line and then waited for Jeff's arrival. Here is Brooke with Bobbie waiting for him to finally land. He kept going back up to take one more ride before officially retiring from flight.

Jeff arrives. It was very emotional, even for us, to see him come in for what could be the last time.

Until they turn the engines off, it is VERY loud out there. We all wore earplugs or noise protectors but getting Isaac's ears covered wasn't so easy. We tried earplugs. Isaac HATED them and kept pulling them out.

We tried the noise protectors. Not happening.

JB finally decided to just put him in a "full Nelson" and let him scream. No one could hear him crying anyway.

JB with Isaac and Jeff arriving in the background.

Here's the fam spraying their Dad down once he returns. This is a very popular tradition in the military and was very fun to get to be a part of.

The entire family after the flight. I cannot put into words how blessed I have been to have had this family adopt our family into their own for the last 15 months. Bobbie had two daughters one year apart and so she was able to help me get through some of the highs and lows of managing two boys so close in age. The girls babysat and all the kids took turns helping with Scrubs, especially while I was out of commission for six weeks. I often wonder what would have happened if our dogs wouldn't have become such good buddies as that was the reason we initially became friends. We look forward to visiting them in Seattle sometime soon.