Hill Aerospace Museum

Ben and I have some friends from our singles ward days named Danny and Stephanie.  They got married shortly after we did and even lived in a condo unit right behind ours in Tallahassee.  They were fun neighbors and we've continued to exchange Christmas cards since then.  Well, Danny and Stephanie now live in the Logan area, about 2 hours from us.  We've talked about getting together a few times, but finally decided to make it happen Labor Day weekend.  Our original plan was to meet up at Antelope Island to experience the Great Salt Lake together, but wouldn't you know, the forecast was calling for rain.  SO we decided to meet in Ogden and take all of the kids to Hill Air Force Base to see the Aerospace Museum.  Many people had recommended it to us, so it was on our bucket list anyway.  And actually, Ben had taken Jack one day when he had an errand to run in the area, and really enjoyed the planes (yes, you read that correctly, Ben really enjoyed the planes).  Anyway, we'd been planning on going as a family, so it worked out just fine.

I thought this sign was cool.
Especially if you're wondering how far these places are from a random spot in Korea.

I had to include this picture because it shows Ben's favorite plane, the B-17
(green one on the left side), a WWII plane.

Cat was particularly interested in this little exhibit about women in the Air Force.
And, no, I didn't even try to pique her interest in this.  She just noticed it and wanted
to read all about it.  What do you think, Grammy?  A budding feminist?
I found it interesting that there were women pilots during WWII.  Very cool.

Jack's favorite plane.  Don't ask me what it's called.

A replica of the Wright Flyer.
The kids were more interested in the Wright Brothers' fake dog, ha ha.

Cat being Presidential.

Cat and Jack ready to march to duty.

The kids did a good job of walking through the museum and staying in the designated areas and trying not to touch things (other than the Wright Brothers' fake dog).  They thought the planes were interesting and even learned a thing or two.  But the real fun began when we found ACE, the Aerospace Center for Education.  It is a hands-on, made-for-kids, area, complete with costumes uniforms, flight simulators, and science experiments.  As you can tell, Ben thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

When we were finished at ACE we made our way outside to see the really big planes.
Jack and Eliza were more interested in the rocks...

I thought it was cool to see how big the tires were on the Globemaster II, a plane from the 1950's

And here is a group shot because we were, in fact, all together.
Danny and Stephanie have their two little ones, Parker and Paisley.
The Globemaster II is behind us.

We'd planned ahead of time to have a picnic for lunch, but since the weather was, ahem, supposed to be rainy, which it wasn't, we opted to grab lunch out instead.  It was great to just sit and catch up with Danny and Stephanie and for the kids to have some more time together before we went our separate ways.  Danny and Stephanie, hopefully we'll get to see you a couple more times while we're in Utah!