Aaron loves airplanes! Since he was a baby he has gone out to my parent's house which is only about a mile from our small local airport and seen the airplanes flying over their house all day long. When he was smaller he used the sign for airplane. For some reason it took me a while to realize that he had more than a passing interest in airplanes. I guess I am so used to the kids seeing them at my parent's house and noticing them that I didn't realize how much he actually liked them. One day though we were at my friend Amy's house and he found her son's airplanes. Glen has a lot of airplanes, partly I think because his mom is a flight instructor for Hesston College, and he had chosen one of Glen's favorite airplanes to play with. Glen was successful at trading him for one that had a broken tail though and Aaron couldn't have cared less. He played with that airplane the entire time we were there. That was when I realized how much he liked them, if they could hold his attention that long then this was definitely something that meant something to him. After that it seemed obvious to me and I wondered how I could have missed it! Since then he has received lots of airplane toys of his own and has the Disney Planes movie as well. With his birthday coming up I wanted to do something special for him and got to thinking. Luke was getting the birthday party he had been planing for a year already, so what was something special we could do with Aaron? Back to my friend Amy, the flight instructor! I set it up with her to go see the real airplanes at the Hesston College hanger out at the Newton Airport. She even said we could go up in one if the weather was nice and Aaron was up for it!
Today was the big day but the weather was foggy and I think it was just as well. Aaron takes a long time to warm up to things and today was a good warm up for him. He loved seeing the planes and getting to touch the outsides of them and see the flaps move etc. When Amy offered to let him sit in one though that was a little too much for him and he started to cry. I got him calmed down and convinced him that I wasn't going to make him get in, and then he let me pick him up and hold him so he could look at the instrument panels and watch Amy show him how the yoke could move the flaps to make the airplane go up or down or turn right or left while it was flying.
After looking at the airplanes in the hanger we went in to Amy's office and played with some toy airplanes and watched a few videos of airplanes flying in the sky for a while, and then he wanted to see the airplanes in the hanger one more time before we went home.
Here is a link to a video of him going into the hanger for the first time and seeing the airplanes!
Aaron had a great time seeing the real airplanes up close! Maybe when he gets bigger he will be ready to try sitting in them or even going for a ride, but for now I think this was just right for him and he really loved it!
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