fall is here again!

You know it's officially fall when the fairs start rolling around. Jeff and I made our way to the Spokane County Interstate Fair last week and had a good time doing normal fair things. We ate some deliciously unhealthy fair food, pet some animals, rode some rides, and topped it all off with what else, an elephant ear. Here's some quick fair photos:

Somehow still hungry after being fed literally all day long

I really liked these chickens all lined up between these two cow pens

I didn't really do this, but totally would have if we had gone earlier in the day. I did it once about 15 years ago and want to try again!

Love a good fair skyline

More exciting though was what I got to do the next day. It was my very first spouse flight! Every once in a while if there's enough money in the budget many squadrons will do a spouse day where we get to take a flight in our husbands' (or wives') aircraft. There was a spouse flight day at Ft. Rucker just a few weeks after we left and then again at Kirtland just a few days after we got there, and the sign up deadline had passed. So I've been anxiously awaiting being able to go up for a while now! The pilots aren't allowed to actually fly their family members (in case of an emergency it's assumed they would put their family's safety in front of all other passengers so they just avoid that situation altogether and don't allow the pilots to fly their own families) and Jeff was in briefings all day so I went by myself. It was still an amazing experience! We flew about 20 miles north of Spokane and followed the Spokane River up to Nine Mile Dam and then turned around and came back.

I went in the morning so it was absolutely freezing-- I had gloves and two jackets on and was still freezing. But it was worth it to leave the doors open. Definitely something I've never experienced before! I could lean out the doors as far as I wanted (I was buckled in but still able to lean out there). The views were breathtaking and I honestly can't wait till my next spouse flight!

I figured it was an appropriate time for a selfie

This what most of the area outside of Spokane looks like, especially to the south

Spokane River

They flew us formation with another helo hence the shots of the other one from the air

More of the river

The FE (flight engineer) took this shot of me with the other bird in the back

See what I mean about being able to just stick my head out the side? This was an incredible opportunity that I absolutely don't take for granted. I did hear that this was the first spouse flight in three years due to limited budget. So I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get to go up again for several years. Fun fact: This flight was four days before Jeff's first flight here at Fairchild so I technically had more hours here than him for a few days :)

As I mentioned before, yesterday Jeff had his first flight here at Fairchild. He loved it. I've never seen him come home so excited about flying! He said it was such a relief to finally be able to fly without being evaluated in some way. One of the highlights of his flight was being able to land on the helipads of two local hospitals in downtown Spokane. This isn't something most USAF Huey pilots get to practice so he was really excited to do that. He also hovered while others trained on being hoisted in and out of a helicopter--something he's never done before but was excited to learn. Near the end of the day I got a text from him to "come outside" but I knew even before he sent the text that he was circling our house! I could hear him coming from a mile away (probably literally!). I was in the middle of painting our bathroom (update on that later) and was up on a ladder when I heard the thup-thup-thup coming. I immediately dropped what I was doing, grabbed my phone and Chipper, and ran outside. In these pictures I quickly snapped he looks so high up but he was only about 350 feet off the ground. I could see them waving and I was waving back and frantically trying to yell to my neighbors who were also unknowingly waving with their kids, "That's my husband!" which was totally futile because there's no way they could hear me over the sound of the helo. But what an introduction to the neighbors behind us!

This one is a bit zoomed in but best shows about how close he really was

The last week has been purely awesome and I don't know how the rest of fall is going to top it. We coming up on a month of living here already and are settling into life in Spokane. We are really starting to enjoy where we are in this season of life. I've gotten to see and catch up with lots of friends I haven't seen in a while (Megan this mention's for you!) and the best part is that it isn't a one-time catch up like we're used to. We get to see our friends whenever we want now! Our house is on the highway that you take to get from Spokane to Moscow and today as I was driving home I had a moment where I thought if anyone had told me 4 years ago that I was driving past my future house every time I came and left Spokane, I wouldn't have seen how that could be in our future. It's surreal being here, but we are really starting to enjoy it!