Santa flies a C-17

There are so many posts I have completed in my head and not put here on the blog. My time has been extremely limited lately with preparing for Christmas and all that entails. But in an effort to get back on the blogging wagon, I thought I'd share the highlight of last weekend: visiting Santa on board one of Charleston's newest C-17s. See, Santa comes in piloting his very special vehicle:


And he waves to all the boys and girls just so they know it is indeed Santa!


Thomas was very excited about seeing Santa. I talked it up all week long, hoping to avoid the terror and tears we got last year and it seemed to work. Thomas was so happy when it was his turn and he rushed up and told Santa that what he really wants for Christmas is a garbage truck (the one that caught his eye earlier in the week at Target and I told him then he'd have to ask Santa for it. I guess he remembered.). :) My kid is easy to please.


And then he got his present, which was not a garbage truck since Santa needs time to fulfill that request.

I wasn't quite sure if Santa was up to the task of holding both boys at once, so Parker took his own turn and wasn't scared at all:


Santa's looking younger and younger, isn't he? Maybe we should all find out his secrets.

In addition to seeing Santa, we also got to just spend some time playing on the plane. Thomas enjoyed checking it out:


And he got to "fly" a little, too:


This was one of the base's newest planes, and seeing how it is worth more than $250 million, I'm not sure they should be letting us so freely romp around the plane, but we enjoyed the opportunity!


Umpa and Nana made the trip; here's a picture with Umpa (sorry I don't have a picture with Nana as she was valiantly trying to quiet and overtired Parker most of the time!):


And Trey's cousin and her husband came too!


And a rare picture of the four of us:


And a little closer:


It was a fun time and it's a neat event that the Reserves squadrons put on for the families of the units. We were glad that our family members were able to enjoy the day with us, too!
That picture cracks me up since it's actually decent of Trey and me, but not the best of the boys! Oh well. We have plenty of cute pictures of the two of them!