Eyes to the skies

And y'all thought I took a lot of pictures of my kids.

Below are 50 painfully selected photos of almost 300 that I took this past weekend when my dad, the boys, and I went to the Lynchburg Regional Air Show.

It. Was. Awesome.

We've never been to an air show before. Had an idea of what to expect, but seeing and hearing it in person just took my breath away. Which fully explains the love song selection for Top Gun, by the way.

It made me so thankful to God, that, at least to this point, He has blessed this nation in ways we never even think about. I am so proud to be an American and am eternally grateful to the brave souls who dedicate their lives to America's freedom and greatness.

The play by play, as best I can recall:

A Corvette parade carrying members of the armed services who have fought in every American war since World War II.

Can't remember this fellow, but pretty sure is a World War II plane.

To kick off the show, this gray behemoth of a plane carrying skydivers took off and circled a few times.

Meanwhile these guys took off and got into position.

Out of the gray plane jumped a Navy Seal, and the group of four planes circled him as he drifted to earth.

And this is what we saluted for the National Anthem. Y'all, I choke up during singings of the National Anthem where you can't see anything special going on. Could hardly breathe as the tears fell.

A few more Seals jumped out and did some mid-air stunts.

Then a missing man formation. Can't remember for whom. Lost a tear on this one too.

A demonstration by someone who works for the LU aviation department.

Kevin Coleman, aerobatic pilot with a lightweight plane specially built to make its audience want to vomit.

Seriously, this guy was nuts. And brave.

And extremely talented. With a stomach made of pure, thick steel.

The P-51 Mustang, which is apparently the greatest fighter plane ever built. So fast, this was the only non-blurry photo I got.

The Sea Harrier, beyond impressive.

The pilot was able to stop it in mid-air, keeping it aloft with the wind.

He hovered and did a little back and forth dance for us until landing vertically with a little bounce at the end. Spectacular.

Captain Julie Clark put on an amazing and patriotic show, complete with barrel rolls, loops, and skywriting.

She is 68 years old.

The Aeroshell team was up next, and impressed us all with their stunts and formations.

And no, I didn't forget to rotate that photo. They were flying vertically.

As if we weren't amazed enough, to finish off they did donuts on the runway.

This is the Shockwave, a truck with jet engines capable of going 370-some miles per hour. Boys loved the flames.

Kevin Coleman came back in his plane and picked on Shockwave, as only a plane can pick on a truck.

They raced. And the truck won.

This is Fat Albert, the Blue Angels' transport plane, as I understand it.

Astounding, the maneuvers this huge plane could do.

And then, the Blue Angels themselves. The sound of these planes shook the ground where we stood. They flew inches from each other in formation, played chicken on several occasions, flew upside down, and distracted the crowd so another one of them could low-fly from behind us and scare us half to death. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

This boy with wide eyes, open mouth, and covered ears watched every moment. And will probably end up going to flight school one day.

This boy, who battled attitude all day, later raved about everything and remembered much more about it than I did. Also took some mean video on his Poppop's phone.

Three peas in a pod, they are. Closing out an amazing day I hope they remember forever.