The Final Countdown

Neener neee ner. Neee ner neet neet ner.
OK. I think you get the point.

Yesterday, the space shuttle Endeavour finally lifted off. The space shuttle that we were supposed to see launch. I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that it left without us {They didn't even call...}. But, after 5 launch scrubs, I started to feel a little bit bad for the one Japanese astronaut who had been on board the space station since March who was supposed to come home last month.

So, he's finally got a ticket to come home.

And all I've got are these tickets that are really expensive pieces card stock at this point. I never finished the story of how we got home; I think because I didn't want it to be true! We were so excited about seeing the shuttle launch. And after they scrubbed the first launch attempt, we even stayed a few more days to try to see the second attempt.

We loved our last minute vacation and had a great 6 days at the beach. We took the kids to the Kennedy Space Center to tour and teach them about finding the right person.... umm, I mean space. They LOVED it- even in the blazing sun.

Here are our little Gemini astronauts:
Because it was some sort of record breaking heat, we decided to take the bus tour. This usually goes up to the launch pad, but since there was a shuttle there and all, it did not.
And like good parents, we stopped by the gift store before we left because everybody needs a toy space shuttle.

Ollie is still talking about becoming an astronaut. I told him that was fine and we would help him every step of the way. To which he replied, "FANK you, Mommy. Can I have some fruit snacks?"
Here we are underneath the Saturn V display on the bus tour. It's one of the last rockets made that never launched in the Apollo program. There's one on display like this now in Huntsville and I can't say I didn't think WE COULD SEE THIS AT HOME INSTEAD OF 11 HOURS AWAY.
We really did have a great day at the space center. The tickets we had included admission, they rented free {and very good} strollers that you could take from stop to stop and we packed our own lunch. So, it was a great cheap day trip for us!

We had the car packed and ready to go home when we drove on site to see the next launch attempt at 12:00 am {that's in the middle of the night}. Jason found out through Twitter that it had been scrubbed and we were the first car out of the parking lot on the LONG way home. We drove to Dothan and were there by 6:00 am. Thankfully my parents cooked us breakfast and let us sleep while they played with the kiddos {who had done a decent job of sleeping in the car}. Then we made our way home that afternoon and got to Huntsville around 6:00 pm. We were a little sad, and we still are now, but there are a few more shuttle launches left, so I think we're going to try to get tickets to the next one.

And if it doesn't launch I'm going to sic my little wanna be astronaut on them. He'll get them with his toy shuttle that hasn't left his side. He knows all the pieces of it and he has already injured his brother with those solid rocket boosters. So, they'll know he means business. Or fruit snacks. Whatever works.