Kennedy space center

Our 2nd day in Florida we went with Chris to the Kennedy Space Center.  Mom was pretty excited to see this place. She's heard of it ever since she was a little girl and told us all about her memories of when the big advancements in space exploration happened. 

Here is the pavilion set up for the NASA robotic mining competition. They had some bleachers facing the testing pits and we were able to watch a few of the teams do their test runs. We missed MSU's run by a little bit but it wasn't all that eventful anyway so probably better that we didn't witness it. Then we walked over to the building next door where all the teams had work stations and got to see some of the cool designs the schools have come up with.  Chris can correct me if I'm wrong but the basic gist of the competition is to build a robot that could function well on the moon (so can't have air in the tires, must be lightweight enough to send on a rocket in the first place etc...) and that can be driven around remotely to dig really fine moon dust/sand and then travel back across the pit to dump it. Points for collecting the most, bonus points for autonomy, minus points for the vehicles weight, etc... You get 2 actual runs for the competition and then they rank the winners based on points earned. 

The team was trying to fix some lose sensors so Chris was able to walk around with us for the next few hours. We learned a lot. 

Two astronauts sat in this capsule for 2 weeks straight without every stretching their legs!!! Crazy. 

This rover is built with legos. Pretty impressive to these lego-loving kids. 

The Atlantis exhibit was by far my favorite thing. Its crazy to see all the stuff in person and get a sense for HOW BIG it all is. These rocket booster and fuel packs are HUGE!!

We walked around to the top of the building and watched this movie about the history of designing and building the first resuable rocket: the space shuttle.  It was really interesting and then the way you see the ACTUAL space shuttle, the Atlantis, for the first time was really impressive. It is HUGE and just amazing. They had a fun slide that shows the trajectory for the shuttle's landing that the kids went down over and over again. There was also a mini space station suspended in the air to crawl around in. And lots of other things to look at. One really good experience was the launch simulator. You watch another movie about the launch sequence and then you get a turn to sit through a simulation where the room tips up and makes you feel alot of the force and noise and bumping and tilting and everything. Its incredible to realize how quick it is and how fast the shuttle goes. Really really awesome. It was sad to learn that the space shuttle program has been shut down and that we're not doing it anymore. I know that's not news for many of you, but I didn't know or had quickly forgotten or maybe just didn't realize what it meant when I heard it. 

Then Chris had to go back to the team and help with stuff so Mom and I took the kids on the bus tour. We drove around and saw some of the launch sites and storage facilities and other buildings. Miles and Miles of roadways and vast natural swampish lands in between. Then they dropped us off at a separate campus where they had the Saturn V exhibit. We watched another really cool movie and saw the actual headquarters for one of the launches with the rows and rows of computers. Then we exited the theater and there hanging about 5 feet above our heads was the ACTUAL Saturn V rocket. SOOOO HUGE. (seriously... I know I'm being repetitive but its all so massively impressive). 

Grandma treated us to some dip 'n dots ice cream for a pick me up and then we headed back on the bus to meet Chris and head back to the hotel where we walked into an easy crockpot dinner waiting.  The kids (and my) sunburns were making a lot of us kinda irritable for most of the day and Mom had the wonderful chance to witness some awesome tantrums by Gwen and the typical fighting of tired-vacationed children.  We went to bed early.. well the kids and I did... Chris went to put some late night hours in with the team to get ready for their first official run early the next morning.  During evenings like that I wonder if its actually worth it to take the kids on trips like these.  I'm sure they aren't really appreciating the awesome-ness of our experiences and its easy for them to focus on the things they weren't happy about. But I know everyone, even adults struggle with that at times.  Looking back, I'm glad we went but there were definitely some hard times. I know my mom would say that the kids pick up and appreciate more than they share with me so I'll go with that as my final take away. (BTW... sometimes I have imaginary conversations with my mom in my head. I'll think about some problem or Brittney-fail and I kinda can guess what my mom would say back and even hear her voice in my head giving me a nice pep talk.  These imaginary conversations are never as great as the real thing but my mom's calming magic can help me even when she doesn't even do anything.... Does that kind of thing happen for anyone else? I hope I'm not the only crazy one...)

Florida trip day 1

Chris would be driving the big 15 passenger rental van filled with students and so Mom and I drove our kids in our van. We were worried about traveling with kids and being a hold-up / inconvenience for Chris and the students so Mom and I left a few hours ahead of Chris and thought maybe we'd end up arriving close to the same time. Last minute, the robot group decided to go a different way (taking a 'short cut' on some country roads...which didn't end up being a short cut at all) and since they stopped for meals we beat them to Orlando by 3ish hours despite stopping at an LDS meetinghouse en route for some of a sacrament meeting and despite taking an hour or so detour/excursion to walk around the grounds of the Orlando Florida Temple.  We had packed all our meals for the day and the kids really are good car travelers so we made good time. 

Good thing Mom and Dad got a separate hotel room for mom and the hotel next door to the one that Chris had a room reserved for him because Chris and the robot team didn't arrive until close to midnight!  The kids and I slept with mom in her room for the first night. 

Chris arrived and unpacked our stuff out of the van and into his hotel room before going to sleep. He's so sweet. The first morning we met Chris, ate breakfast, and despite having issued a no jumping on the bed rule early... Freddy bonked his head on the side table and had a gash on his head. Chris ran to the pharmacy and got some glue-bandage stuff and helped mom and I apply it to Freddy. We knew a day at the sandy beach would not be good for an open head wound. Chris had to leave with the team by 9:00 to get set up at the Kennedy Space Center for their first day of testing.  Mom and I gathered all our stuff and the kids and walked down the path to the beach.  

The older kids were immediately drawn to the water and Freddy just wanted to chase the birds and squeeze the sand. Mom and I figured out how to set up our cool new tent/shade thing and enjoyed the warm breeze and pretty view.  It wasn't the relax-and-close-your-eyes kind of beach experience but it was nice to be outside and to play with the kids. I taught Gwen and the boys how to ride waves and Freddy how to fill up a bucket with water. He was actually afraid of the water. He would stand very apprehensively a few inches into it and feel the water and sand recede under his feet and then see another wave come and then just beg me to hold him as he cried out, "Water coming! Water coming!"  He we very content to just play in the sand up by mom or I in the tent. Especially when we had to fill up some buckets with water to help anchor the tent because the wind picked up pretty good and almost sent it flying a few times!

I could barely get Alec and Charlie out of the water ALL DAY LONG.  Gwen came out to grab some snacks or just sit for a bit and then went right back out there. I did force everyone to come eat some lunch (hard boiled eggs, grapes, apples, pretzels, and cookies) and get a reapplication of sun screen. I did NOT want anyone to get sunburned and I felt I was being pretty strict and careful about it. 

Freddy was sooo tired but refused my assistance in falling asleep as I tried to hold him and sing songs. Grandma saved the day by bringing down a sippy cup and his blanket from the hotel room. I could get him to sit still in the chair if he was in it by himself and if he was eating some cookie stick waffers. So I watched him from the corner of my eye to keep him in ready supply of cookies until he finally nodded off. It only took about 4 sticks. 

Around 3 or so, we called it a day at the beach and walked back to the hotel to swim in the pool in the shade. I had noticed the boys getting red around their lower back and I thought it was just rubbing from the blow-up rings they were sitting in all afternoon. But... turns out it was sunburn. UGH! Everyone got bad sunburns in very weird patches. I thought I was doing so good on this! I blame it on the spray sunscreen.

I made all of our dinners before hand so they could just be put the in crock pot in the morning and then they'd be ready for us whenever we got back to the hotel to eat them. Frozen meatballs and rice, Shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches (that was just warmed up in the microwave), and taco soup. We had bagged salads with all of them and opened a can of green beans or canned peaches or pears with some of the others. It saved us alot of money and stress of taking the tired kids to restaurants.  I should've brought garbage bags to help contain all the mess and also I wish I would've remembered to bring something for the kids to play with in the hotel room... but whatever.. the TV worked. 

Each night one of the kids got to sleepover with Grandma in her hotel room. (Except Freddy who woke up in the middle of most nights and needed to finish off the night with Chris and I in our bed).

Getting ready, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters

I had a few days to recover and clean the house and get ready for a Fathers and Sons camp out, a YW fundraising dinner, and our upcoming Florida beach / Space Center trip with my mom! Freddy was excellent shopping buddy. Well, at least he was a super cute shopping buddy. Its getting increasingly more difficult to shop with him now that he refuses to sit in the front of the cart. 

I am fairly happy with how clean I got the house and how much cooking I was able to get done in those few days. My mom hasn't seen the new addition and I was excited to show her our house and yard. Also, I prepared most of our meals for the following week and got a big pot of Brunswick stew ready to bring to the YW fundraising dinner. 

The Fathers and Sons camp out was a stake-wide thing and so it was at a campground about 1 and 1/2 hours away. They left right after school on Friday and Gwen helped me finish stuff up around the house. 

Gwen and I planned to have a little girls night and last minute we thought to invite some friends over. My friend and I just chatted as I finished the soup while the girls played around. I was suprised how quiet and how tidy the house  remained.. even with the same total number of kids... just girls instead of boys. :)  We had left over pizza for dinner and made muddy buddies for dessert. Then I painted the girls nails and had a dance party to Frozen songs. I let Gwen stay up super late and we fell asleep in my bed watching one of Gwen's favorite shows on netflix. 

Chris texted me the next morning and told me that despite getting to bed super late, Freddy was up with the sun just after 5:00am. He did a really good job going to sleep and staying in his sleeping bag though.  I texted him back a picture of Gwen still sleeping next to me at 7:30am. 

Then Gwen and I set out to finish cleaning, doing the laundry, making meals and packing. We had the YW fundraiser for dinner where Alec won a HUGE cupcake at the cake walk and then we left straight from there to the local airport to pick up my mom!  It was SO FUN to watch her walk off the plane and have all of us lined up with our faces against the window ready to welcome her with lots of hugs. I love my mom so much. I'm glad she could make the time to come out and go to Florida with us.  Even though it was dark a little late (2 nights in a row for the kids) we still enjoyed showing her around the house. My mom always gives such good reactions. 

Fun, sunny, Florida times just a 12 hour drive away!