A Glimpse at the Gilpins: Blue Angels

At the end of March, Tuscaloosa hosted the annual air show. One of the highlights was the Blue Angels! For the past few years we would sit on my mom and dad's porch and watch them practice. This year my brother invited us to actually attend the air show and be apart of his work's tent where we could have free food and drinks. We accepted! The day before the air show started, though, my family started changing their minds. They thought the traffic would be too bad to try to get to the airport and they weren't too sure about the huge crowd of people. They started talking about just setting up some chairs in a parking lot nearby and watching the show. Kyle and I were fine with whatever decision was made. The day of the air show we decided to try the Northport Church of Christ parking lot which is right next to the airport. It was so hot that day! We arrived and set up our chairs while Brody napped in the van. My dad remembered that he had a friend who lived in the neighborhood behind the church building so he called him up and asked if we could set up at his house. He didn't mind at all so we went and checked it out to see if it would be a better view before we packed up all of our stuff. We decided to move over to his front yard to watch the show. It turned out to be a good decision because he ended up putting up a tent like you'd take tailgating which shielded the sun and also the heat!

We already knew Brody wasn't a fan of the airplanes. While we were watching them practice on Friday he would duck down and run towards me when a plane would fly over the house. He spent the time we were outside watching them practice huddled up next to me on the porch swing with one ear pressed up against me and I would cover his other ear when a plane would fly by. The poor little guy would put his head down and close his eyes, but he didn't cry. We took some headphones to put on him for the air show and hoped that would help.

The air show finally started and we watched some skydivers and other planes before the Blue Angels performed their show. Brody was fine with these shows because the planes weren't that loud. When the Blue Angels were about to start we put the headphones on Brody. He didn't really like them being on, but he was happy as long as they were on. He tried to take them off a few times, but then a plane would come by and he'd cry and we'd put them back on him. He eventually learned to keep them on! One of the Blue Angels broke the sound barrier which was super cool. It was completely silent when the plane flew by which is very odd since they are SO LOUD! Just seconds after the plane flew by the sound followed! It was so neat and so quick that some watching didn't even see it go by! We had a great day watching the air show. Our decision to not go to the airport payed off when it was time to leave. We were able to get back on the road and back home pretty quickly and easily. Brody was one worn out little boy on the drive back home to Jasper that day!