Bikes Beaches and Bolt Cutters

Sunday was a beautiful day, so we thought we'd get our bikes out and enjoy the weather.  Chicago was hosting the Air & Water show which was expecting to bring a couple million people to the lake front. Wanting to avoid the crowds we decided to head for Indiana....only this time we stayed away from Gary!  As I was making lunch Jason went down to our storage locker to grab his bike. He came back shortly after leaving to show me our lock...very nicely cut with bolt cutters and his mountain bike missing..what a lovely surprise!! 

We had called security the night before because we saw someone using bolt cutters on the outside bike racks, and then on Monday security found them in the grass next to another bike rack. It seems as if bikes are a hot item these days!

We decided to head to Indiana sans bikes and just enjoy the beach.

We stopped by McDonalds for their cheap iced coffees which were huge!!

We had heard great things about the Dunes State Park and wanted to investigate for ourselves.

The idea of leaving Chicago crowds behind didn't work out so well as the beach was much more crowded than our own!  We discovered that the sand is soo much nicer and the water quite a bit warmer than ours so the trip was deemed a success. 

We climbed to the top of the sand dunes and Jason decided to roll down the dunes.

All in all it was a very relaxing afternoon and we stayed until shortly before sunset.

Tractors, Babies, and Planes

A 10 day summer break from school took me to the great town of Waterville these past days. Spending time with family and friends (and working) was the main goal. 

On the clear beautiful flight to Seattle I snapped some pictures of Thompson Falls, Mt. If you look real close you might be able to see Sue's parents place in the top left edge of the picture.

After landing Monday morning I made a 1.5 hr 3 bus transfer bus ride up to Uncle Bruce's and hung out with him until he was done seeing patients and then headed over with him to tackle some farming. Let me tell you, I'm beginning to think that the Seattle buses are more exciting than those here in Chicago after my trip sitting next to a guy who's "brain was on fire!!" and after saying hi to a guy who informed me that I was the 1st of "50 or 60 people to say hi" to him that day. He thinks that the world is becoming "antisocial."

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning I spent some much needed mental relaxation time on the family's newly acquired CAT Challenger tractor plowing and chiseling the fields. 

The weather started to move in on Wednesday, but it lead to some great pictures.

Getting to see Justin & Pam Grillo's new daughter Dakota was one of the highlights of the trip. Being in the eye-care filed, we just had to present Dakota with her 1st pair of sunglasses! I don't think she appreciates them just yet as she just kept her eyes closed behind them the whole time. Wow! Do they change her appearance.

After Convention in Olympia I headed back to Waterville for a day of flying and birthdays. We celebrated Trese's, Josh's, and Joel's birthdays over the course of the week, but I failed to get any good pictures of the flying or the birthday parties. I do have an older picture of me with the Piper Supercub though.

Convention!

We all know that there is no better way to spend a weekend than at convention! Jason has been visiting family in Waterville so I flew to Seattle to meet him for the weekend of Olympia. It was so wonderful and encouraging. I just have a few pictures to post from my camera, but Jason will be home soon and maybe I'll be lucky enough to get him to share tales of his travels. 

My dad has been working in Longview for the last couple of weeks, so he drove up for the weekend and mom came over as well. 

We enjoyed time with grandma and grandpa and wish we could have had more..

It was so much fun to see Beth! She will be in Cheyenne, WY this year so we hope to make it out sometime this winter.

A few Buckinghams...

My favorite man!

and of course, the coolest roommates ever.

Out From Under Tornado Watch

Close to 8 o'clock last night we were finishing up our last 5 or so patients at the clinic when Chicago's 115 emergency warning sirens started going off.  I had never heard a Tornado siren before so it took me a while to figure out what it was. Highrises were being evacuated to their basements, and cars were directed off of the Interstate. Rains were pouring at a predicted rate of 3-4 inches per hour, all at the mercy of 75 mph winds.  Patients were panicking and the windows were threatening to break. 

About 8:45 cars were back on the road and we were able to let patients leave. The wind settled enough that I could make it home, but I have never seen so much continuous lightning. The wind and rain stopped by for round two about 11 oclock and were still going strong when I finally fell asleep. I found a couple pictures on the Tribune's website.  Twisters did touch down in three Chicago suburbs. Winds were recorded at 94 mph over the lake one mile from our beach and there were 8,00o lightning strikes within one 10 minute segment in the greater Chicagoland. 

The view in this picture is very similar to the view from our place. You can see the Sears Tower being struck, my clinic is 2 blocks from it.

A small example of some of the damage.

Another storm photo.

OshKosh

I'm just beginning to learn what it means to be a pilot's wife, and haven't found anything to complain about yet. We both had the weekend off and got word that Oshkosh (the world's LARGEST aviation show) was going on in WI. As soon as Jason found out he had a trip planned, so I decided to go along with him:)  We left early saturday morning so we could spend time checking out all the planes before the air show started.  We had a great time, and lucky for you, took lots of pictures! 

This is an amphibious plane. It can take off and land on water or ground. There are only 3 like it in the world. This one is from the Caribbean.

This plane was from the British Army, insanely huge and powerful.

There were also a few helicopters....

All branches of the military were there showing off some of their gigantic airplanes. 

This one can fly as either a plane or helicopter...in this picture is it halfway through changing it's wings from props to rotary.

To start the air show they had jumpers come down with the American flag.

There were some many planes flying, you couldn't watch them all..at one point Jason counted 43 planes in the air!

They did an awesome bombing demonstration with B17 bombers and P51 mustangs. They detonated TNT as the planes flew by. It was so loud that the ground was shaking. 

If you look closely you can see one of the bombers, right after they released the bombs.

They flew straight at us and created what they call a "wall of fire."