T-6 Solo

Matt was finally able to solo today after a week of weather cancels!

Major Malloy handing the aircraft over to Matt.

It was really fun watching all the hand signals. I guess it's pretty important to communicate with the Crew Cheif.

Off he goes!! (Insert AF theme song:)

Whew, he made it...not that I had any doubts.

I swear and you have to believe me, my belly is not that big! The wind was blowing out of control and it just pushed my shirt in an awkward position...I swear!

So there's a tradition where the guys have to dunk him in a tank of water before he can get back to the flight room. Well, Matt didn't want to get wet so he put up quite a fight. Very comical.

And there he goes, boots and all!

It was awesome to see how far Matt has come in such a short amount of time. You can imagine how proud I was when Major Malloy said he loves flying with Matt because he's an aggressive and eager student who studies hard, knows his stuff and makes flying fun for the IP. He had all kinds of good things to say about Matt and was certain he'd do great on his solo. After hearing so many awesome things (that I already knew of course) I couldn't help but beam ear to ear:D

Congrats on a job well done, Matt, and I know you'll continue to do great things on land and in the sky. I'm so proud of you!

2 Tummies

Here are two pics of my belly! Honestly not much change.

Ten weeks.

Sixteen weeks. My poor attempt at timed photography.

Baby Lund

The first two on this are from 4 weeks ago (7 weeks) and the last one is from today (11 weeks). I enlarged it below.

This is the sonogram picture I had taken today. Matt was able to come (probably the first and last time he'll make the Dr. appointment) so they did a sonogram just for him. It was spectacular. The little guy was moving and kicking around! I couldn't believe how much bigger he was from 4 weeks ago. We're talking from little bean to human being. It's insane. And the heart beat was strong too. I could see his feet and hands and we got a little profile picture on this one too. You could tell he's kinda stuck down in that crevice for now. He would kick and buck his body almost like he was trying to get outta there. And he even kicked at the sonogram lady where she was poking into his space! Soooooo cool!!! Enjoy!

Recent Pup Pics

Swagger and Spice are growing up fast! They're about 7 months now and both have been fixed. I'm really glad all that is over!! Whew. Anyway, we are really starting to see the difference in Spice (female) and Swagger (male) as they grow up.

Swagger is becoming quite the dog! He's surpassing Spice in size more and more everyday. He's getting huge! His attention span and intelligence never cease to amaze me. He's very bright and very protective of us. He socializes with other people and dogs all the time, but is constantly cautious and aware of the things around him. We have to tell people to ignore him so he and sniff and "ok" the situation before they go right at him and try to pet him. He listens intently and wants nothing more than to please us. You can just see it in his eyes when you're training him. He more attentive than I ever thought a dog could be! Sometimes I swear he speaks English. He's a great dog to have with us and we're so proud to call him our own!

Little Spice is doing well also. Her personality couldn't be anymore different than Swaggers though. She is what I would call more of a Lab temperment. She has really latched on to me as her "buddy". She follows me everywhere I go in the house. Even if it's just to go from the couch to the kitchen for a drink! She's very happy and bright all the time and also wants to please us. She's intelligent, but just a little less attentive then Swagger although she does listen well (just easily distracted by butterflies, bunnies and such sometimes). Spice has excelled being around people and children. She loves EVERYONE and unlike Swagger is not cautious of new people or dogs at all! She's certainly the "Spice of our life" and her vigor for everything keeps us laughing 24/7. The contrast of personalities is great because we certainly get the best of both worlds from our dogs. We're having a blast raising both and learning so much from this experience. We frequently comment on how boring life would be without them. They're our best buddies out here in Enid, America (as the locals call it) and we wouldn't trade them for the world. Hope you all get to meet them someday!!

July 4th and Retirement Party VA

Just a small sampling of the pics from my trip up to VA. It was an awesome time and I got to see all the fam and a lot of friends! Miss you all and hope to get up there again for Thanksgiving!

More T-6 and ejection seat

Strapping in.

Going through the check list.

Ejection seat...head back, chin in, feet out and launch!

Eject and Egress

We got to go watch the guys do a bunch of stuff in the T-6 cockpits today. They were practicing ejecting and getting out of the aircraft in case of an emergency.

The G suit is the strappy thing over his flight suit and apparently it's very uncomfortable.

It's great to finally be involved in training. Yay for finally starting UPT! Way to go Matt!