Keeping A Promise

As a child I was taught that lying was wrong very wrong.  And making a promise that you didn't keep was a form of lying.  Needless to say, I want my kids to realize the importance of honesty so I try to do my best to emulate the behavior. 

A few weeks ago the kids and I were at the library picking up some books.   At the checkout counter they had a log sheet to keep track of the books being read over a one month period.  If a child brought it back filled out, they would get a free ticket to the Florida International Airshow (which is held 15 minutes from our house).  Needless to say, my kids thought that would be cool, so we grabbed 2 forms and I told them we would try to go.

A little closer to the show date, I looked up the ticket prices and realized that hubby and I would be $20 each.... ouch!  After all, we just bought a house and we have flooring and paint as well as some furniture to buy.  I then told the kids that rather than go on grounds we would try to drive close and see if we could see anything. 

Well, today was the final day of the airshow and my kids reminded me of that fact shortly after we got home from church.  I had a lot of things I wanted to do (can I just tell you, that living between two houses complicates life) so I was a bit happy when it started to rain as we were cleaning up from lunch.  In typical Florida fashion, the rain didn't last long, so the kids asked again if we could go see the airshow.  So with only 2 hours left for the scheduled show time, I piled the kids in the car and we went in search of a good place to park the car.

I had scoped out the runways using Google maps so I had an idea of which side of the airport I wanted to be on.   As I was driving, I noticed a bunch of cars parked in a parking lot with quite a few people sitting in lawn chairs, so I pulled in.  We got out of the car and wandered around and ended up talking to someone who lived a couple blocks away.  I asked why he didn't just stay home and he said it was because although the planes fly right over his house, there were too many trees in the way.  He was also kind enough to let the kids sit in the bed of his pickup truck.

Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised when 10 minutes after parking, the Navy's Blue Angels started their performance.  We were even happier when we discovered we were in their flight path NUMEROUS times.

So exciting and close!

As reluctant as I was to go on this excursion today, I am VERY glad I did.  Not only was I able to keep a promise to my kids, but we had a good great time.  Considering the funding issues for our military these days, I'm wondering if this could be the first and last time my kids get to see something like this.  I certainly hope not.  Because seeing something like below, shouldn't be missed.