NASA

One good thing about living in a big city is all the cool stuff there is to do.  Marcus has been wanting to go to NASA for a while, and so we made plans to go while my parents would be in town.  Their 11th wedding anniversary, actually, and they wanted to spend it with us.  When they arrived, we went to dinner at the Empanada House

 to celebrate and then back home for king cake.  Saturday we were up early for our NASA trip.  The plan was to meet the cousins (and parents) there at 10:00 when it opened. I think we arrived at 10:15

and made our way to the tram tour.  I read the brochure and since the weather was questionable for late afternoon, we decided to do the tram tour while it was still dry.  The Marsh's and Hantla's were not far behind us, and caught up to us when we were finished with our tram tour.  The tram tour was very cool.  The building where it ended was my favorite because it had a display for each of the Apollo trips and a little blurb about each one.  I found it interesting to read about the astronauts and the different experiences that happened with each trip.  I would read their stories and stand in amazement at how God created humans to be so smart and invent machines that could fly into space and land on the moon etc...in AWE.  The boys were most impressed with how big the rockets were especially the one that was inside.  After the tram tour, we went through an exhibit that showed various parts of space adventures including moon rocks and a walk through of a shuttle where the men and women would eat, sleep, and shower. The kids' favorite part was the angry birds play area that had it's own space theme activities.

  We used the play area as a buffer when we needed a filler while we waited for shows to start.  We at lunch in their cafe with the family and then watched a few more informational videos.  I learned about Curiosity, the robot that is investigating Mars (I think).

 I was very impressed with how the tires used Morse code to leave an imprint of the creators.  We also watched a sad, but good, video about the space shuttles and the different ways those trips ended.  That's when W fell asleep and we knew it was about our time to leave NASA.  Rarely does W go without taking a nap and E always takes an afternoon nap, so when 3:00 came, our kids were on the verge of major meltdowns.  I think it actually happened if I remember correctly that W was on the floor, A was in the corner crying, and E was in her stroller screaming....yeah, it was time to bounce.  We drove about an hour home, and all was good.  We made grilled cheese for dinner and watched Carolina defeat the cardinals in the wild card game of the NFL playoffs.  Sunday we went to church like normal and watched football during the afternoon hours.  The kids went to their Awana club while B and I took my parents (and E) to Pappa's BBQ for dinner.  It's near College Park BC and we wanted some adult conversation without interruptions.  After picking the kids up from Awana, we headed home and put everyone to bed.  My mom and Chuck left early Monday morning (like 6) and B went to work like a normal day.  It was a fast visit, but a very fun one and a great way to end our Christmas Vacation!