Thunder over Louisville

Thunder over Louisville is a huge fireworks show. It is the kick off of the festivities for the Kentucky Derby. Almost every night after Thunder is some sort of activity until the Derby. There will be soap box races, Hot air Balloon Glow and race, the festi-ville carnival, a parade, concerts, steam boat race and lots more. When Will finally made it home on Saturday we decided we would go out to the riverside park and check it out. Thunder over Louisville really starts at about 12:00 and they have a few rides and lots of unhealthy food vendors. At 3:30 an airshow started and went until about an hour and a half before the fireworks. If you know Will you know that he LOVES planes and if you know me you know I LOVE fireworks. So it is a good combination for us. When we left the apartment we thought that is was in the low 50's, we were both wearing two layers. It wasn't in the low 50's it was more like the low 40's and the longer we were out there the colder it became. We knew the ground was wet so we brought a few trash bags to sit on and two fleece blankets. One to sit on and the other to wrap around us. We really should have had about five more blankets. We were making memories though! That's what my dad always says when things get interesting.
The Air show was amazing! Will taught me all about the different kinds of Navy and Air Force Air Craft. There were f16's (Will's Favorites), F-15's, F-18's, F-22's, C-130's, Apache helicopters, CH-47 or a Chinook, an Osprey, an F-4 phantom, P-44's, C-17's and lots more I can't remember. For those of you who don't know what any of those are, trust me they are all amazing. We tried to take pictures of them but, my camera wasn't built for that. Will took a couple of really good shots. Our friends took some clearer pictures, I'll see if I can post those later for the boys to drool over.
We didn't have a folding chair so it was really hard for Will to sit on the ground for that long. He would Stand up to stretch his legs then sit down to get warm, the wind was brutal. By the end of the air show we were seriously contemplating throwing in the towel. When Rebecca, a friend from our small group at church spotted us and came to say hello. She invited us to come and sit with she and her husband, Wade. We were so glad they were there. They said they were thinking of leaving too. They had arrived at 12:00 because last year people were jam packed into the park. This year I guess because of the weather there weren't as many people. None the less misery loves company so we shivered and talked until the fireworks started. Wade and Rebecca said that they had watched the show on TV last year and decided it was worth it to come see in person. They said that is why they stuck it out through the cold.
Right after the fireworks started we all decided it was worth it. I have never seen such a big show. They had two barges shooting off fireworks and the 2nd street bridge also had choreographed fireworks being shot off from it as well. I took tons of pictures and a few videos. Here are the pictures from the day. You can gradually see us start to freeze.

After paying a lot for parking and walking a few blocks we made it to a comfy spot right in front of the water. As you can see were are excited about the planes and enthusiastic about the afternoon.

Downtown behind us. Lots of people

Crowds and one of the bridges in front of us.

Will watching the planes

The air force heritage flight, put together the four generations of jets. Each from a different war. F-16, F-15, F-4 and P-40.

All four jets flying in missing man formation. It was really touching to watch.

Will is cold but happy about the awesome, loud and really fast jets

These are C-130's Will told me that this is what his dad flew.

goose bumps. Still happy but getting colder.

Apache Helicopters are bad looking. They are surprisingly very agile. They can do a lot of cool maneuvers.

The wind was chilly. There were two boys running around like airplanes. It made me think that if I could just get my blood flowing I could get warmer. So I got up and ran around Will like an airplane. Surprisingly it didn't work it just made my feet feel like they were going to fall off.

Will standing to stretch. Isn't he cute.

My cocoon, after the fly like an airplane idea didn't work I decided to take off my muddy shoes and wrap myself up as tight as I could.

Our next brilliant idea was to go get some hot food. Surely that would warm us up. Being on a budget and not really wanting to eat all the greasy food we decided we would split a "Personal Pan" and finish the snacks we had brought (Almonds, Trail mix and Nilla Wafers). Will ventured off to buy the pizza and when he returned and opened it we discovered it wasn't a personal pan at all but really 2 dinky slices.

How sad... it wasn't even that hot. But that is okay our tummies were full and there were more planes to watch.

BRRRRRR!

Rebecca to the rescue! They had been about 10 feet in front of us the whole time.

Rebecca is an engineer and works with ergonomics. It turns out that she was just as sick of sitting in a sling chair (Which turns your hips in, she informed us) as Will was sick of sitting on the ground. She was sweet enough to let Will sit in her chair. The wives sat on the husbands laps and we all kept warm... sort of. It started to rain a bit, the misty sort that makes you think it is about to start a gushin'. But after a few minutes it stopped

It is getting dark and the barges with the fireworks are come up river. yay!

We're ready for some big booms! Having become accustom to the loud jets peanut is ready too.

LET THE THUNDER BEGIN!!!!

Strobes on the bridge




Rainbow colors on both barges and the bridge too.



We tried to take a picture in front of the thunder but we always seemed to snap it in between explosions.
It worked for Wade and Rebecca

Sparks off of the bridge
Waterfall off the bridge, it was so pretty.


Ohhh Ahhh!

Sparks flying!








We made it! it was worth the wait.

Red noses and absolutely frozen! But happy about the awesome shows. We are ready to get back to the car and thaw out. Hot chocolate anyone? Or maybe just our warm bed!