Going back a few months...

It's been a while since I've posted but it's finally time to update the blog! Our new house is livable at this point, although the unpacking is by no means over, but I at least cleared the boxes this week in the office so I have no excuse not to post to our blog. So, back to where we left off. It was late February in a cold and dreary place called Sumter, SC. We were packing out our house (and by "we", I mean "me") and Steve was running around at work like a chicken with his head cut off to accomplish a checkride, a fini flight, and outprocess the base all in his first two weeks back to work since returning from the deployment. Brian and I did manage to escape the house packing for an hour to make it to Steve's final flight with the Shooters (called a fini flight). Here are some pictures from the event, and to set the scene, it was about 30 degrees that day in the sun and was super windy.

The tradition of the fini flight is after the jets all land, lieutenants descend upon the pilot whose last flight was just flown for the squadron and try to tie him to the ladder or the wing or some other part of the jet with duct tape so they can spray him down with water and champagne. Steve's theory on this is that if he has to get wet, so will everyone else. He puts up a good fight every time and they've never managed to tie him to anything and usually just give up and start spraying the whole pile of pilots.

See how the capturers scatter when the water works start!?!

Brian didn't really enjoy seeing his daddy get attacked and had a little anxiety about the whole thing but was very happy to see daddy after he emerged from his fight soaking wet and bleeding. At about this point, my hands were numb because it was so cold out and since I was dry, I can only imagine how cold Steve was. At least it wasn't snowing like it was the day of Steve's fini flight in Germany!