Day Seventeen - Zoey disappears; Kennedy and the Kids, Part One

June 15th

First thing to notice is that how ever large the bed (King in this instance) Zoey will force Matt over to maybe a foot of space for himself. It's amazing what that little 18 pound girl can do.

And before you say, 'Uh why is she sleeping in the bed?' I will tell you that she was sleeping on a crib mattress on the floor to begin with. But then I woke up at 2 am to check on her..........

AND SHE WAS GONE. 

Gone. Like didn't just roll off the mattress on to the floor, like I didn't see her at all. I woke Matt up and turned on the lights. Where is Zoey?!?

And there she was, completely underneath the bed, way up by the headboard, fast asleep. She didn't even wake up when I had to get down on my belly to drag her out. 

(Becky I thought of you and the story you told me about the other people that also couldn't find their sleeping child because of this same thing so phew.)

So after that little bit of excitement, we were off to the Kennedy Space Center for the day.

Evan on the front of the bus

Mommy and Evan at pad 39A

Peggy and Zoey go in to see the shuttle rocket engine

Cheeser

Who cares about the awesome Saturn 5 picture behind me? I've got a VW bus.

Evan in front of the original mission control center equipment

Could I be an average Apollo astronaut? Nope, no dog. :)

Right after lunch, Zoey threw a fit in the Saturn 5 building (she was tired) and just laid down on the floor.

Evan with the astronaut bus (and his own bus)

 Need to cheer up your child? Just fling her in the air towards the rocket engines.

Evan touching a moon rock

Sarah, Evan and an astronaut who had to be sweating his 'ears' off

New Horizons poster on the wall of launches at Kennedy at one of the exhibits

At this point it was hot, and the kids were getting tired so we got ice cream and went to the kids playground. In a stroke of genius it was outside but covered with a very large dome tent so kids could cool down and have a great time. And it was large enough for adults to go through as well. See?

Everyone's happy? What,  you're tired? But we aren't done yet................:)

Day Sixteen - My Babies!!!!

June 14th


The day has arrived! Matt and Peggy and kids got up at 5 am to grab a flight down here to visit. Off to the airport to pick them up again. While I was waiting for their plane to land I noticed that the launch board at the Kennedy Space Center Shop has RBSP listed. Whoooo! (Sorry for the glare)

Once they landed, Matt called and said both kids were asleep so they were going to wait for everyone to unload. I'm waiting right outside the one security station for them to get off the train from the terminals, imagining a tearful reunion with Evan, oh I can't wait.............

And then I get a call from Matt, 'where the heck are you? we are by the Disney store.'

Sigh, I was waiting at the wrong security side. I find them wandering through the big atrium. Evan is a little shy when he sees me, but pretty soon he hugs so tight, oh how I have missed this. And then I look at Zoey, I swear she has grown two inches since I last saw her two weeks ago. Amazing that little beautiful girl is. And she loves me again without skipping a heartbeat.

Here we are waiting for the luggage.

Off to Cocoa Beach! Evan is very impressed with Mommy's big Jeep Laredo rental vehicle. And everyone loves the condo when we get there. Though later Evan doesn't like the tile floor so much after he slips and bruises the entire side of his face. We'll just skip that story. :-P

While Evan was sleeping off his injury, Peggy and I took Zoey down to the ocean. Both of my kids love the water, no matter what temperature, weather, anything. Just look how happy she is:

Day Fifteen - A Flyers Fan

July 13th


One of the great things about being down here is that there are a large group of people that rotate in and out from Maryland. So it's always a surprise when you come to work and see someone you have missed. (Even though he's a Flyers fan, I mean really).

Hello Vince!

He is always laughing, that's why I enjoy him so much.
















After work I had a bunch of homework to finish so I dropped my guests off at dinner, and then had to race home because a MONSTER storm was coming. A few pics from my balcony (the pictures don't really do it justice, it was a gigantic black cloud that moved over the area very rapidly):

Lest you worry that I was stranded in the storm, I stopped and bought a piece of pizza, that apparently could feed an army. :)

Day Fourteen - Spacecraft Testing

June 12th


I've been here a full two weeks. It doesn't seem like that long, and I can't wait for my family to arrive in two days. Apparently I didn't take a specific picture for this day, so I'm going to go with the two pictures for RBSP.

In the first picture they are connecting one of the instruments' (EMFISIS) ground power connections for their Comprehensive Performance Test (CPT).

In the second picture they are running the CPT from in the control room. (Okay they might have posed just a little for this picture, but that is real spacecraft telemetry and the test was currently running).

Day Thirteen - Oh Bread Pudding

June 11th


It's Monday so back to work. But after work my friends and I walked up the beach to Cocoa Beach Pier and had dinner at Atlantic Seafood. The food was good, but the bread pudding dessert was amazing. I will be returning for it again at some point.

Bread Pudding with Whisky Sauce, mmmmm

Day Twelve - Goodbye to some, hello to others!

June 10th


Becky and Dan's last day before heading to Orlando, so we went swimming again in the morning. Here is the bathing suit shot I like the most, haha:

So we might have gotten a little bit more sun that day than before. Should have worn a hat. :)

In the afternoon we jetted on down to Jetty Park (huh huh) so we could see the cruise ships leaving port. They have a very cool fishing pier and we managed to see quite a few young sea turtles swimming among the rocks.

Some pier shots:

Becky and Dan

The public beach at Jetty Park and Ron Jon Resort in the background

Young Sea Turtle

Waiting for the ships to come

Carnival Sensation

The backside - lots of waving from people onboard

 So once the ships went off to sea, I got in my car and jetted to the airport. Goodbye to Becky and Dan, hello to Jeff and Jess.

Oh and I finished off the night with a video chat with the kids, especially love this shot of Zoey. Can't wait until they arrive!

Day Eleven - Fish Tacos!

June 9th


Just a fun Saturday, swimming in the ocean (it was nicely overcast, my kind of day!), lunch next door at the famous Sandbar (with some ridiculously good fish tacos), shopping at Ron Jon's, and then a nice dinner out after a ride in a convertible.

Oh, and a typical thunderstorm, they are pretty much a daily occurrence here.

Day Ten - In which I see a rocket!!

 June 8th


So my friends arrived late last night, they are here to relax for a few days before off to a conference in Orlando.

Relax-smalax, let's go to Kennedy Space Center!!!!

While I was waiting for them to arrive (I DID work a few hours in the morning), I posted this phone picture on facebook, to see if anyone knew where I was.

Most answers were snarky, "Parking Lot 5?" but thanks to Art, I was not disappointed. :)

"Being old enough to know who Wally Schirra is I'm going to guess Cape Canaveral. (Note for you youngsters: Wally Schirra is an astronaut from the very beginnings of the US manned space flight program and the only man to go into space in a Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft.)"


Off to the ticket booth. Quite a few dollars later, we were in, but since the bus tours only ran until early in the afternoon, we headed there first.

The first stop is a view of the shuttle launch pads. Hey where are the shuttles? I missed them?? There won't be any more?!? Sigh... (worst aerospace engineer ever)...


Regardless, it was very neat to see, especially the up close space shuttle main engine that flew on 15 separate shuttle flights. It seemed both very big (compared to us) and very small (compared to the shuttle it powered).

The pointing sisters :)

Happy Newlyweds Becky and Dan!

Shuttle Launch Pad

From there we got back on to the bus, okay slid because it was so humid. Ugh. For the record, the weather here has been much better than I expected, mostly I think because I either spent my time inside with a bunch of computers and air and humidity conditioning, or on the water with a breeze. So here on Kennedy that day was very muggy.

On to the next stop, with a quick view of some alligators on the way. We arrived at the Saturn 5 building. I wasn't really sure what to expect, the only time I was ever here was when I was 15 with a friend from school, and I don't really remember much at all. We were shuffled inside and saw a short movie about the Apollo programs, posed in front of the Saturn picture:

and then saw a cool presentation for one of the launches while we sat in front of the actual mission consoles (for me this was very exciting because that is what I also do in my space job at home).

And then they lead you through the doors to this:

 So. Very. Huge.

I'm not going to post anymore photos yet because my family arrives tomorrow and we are going sometime this week and it will be more fun if they haven't seen it yet. Okay, except for this cool picture of Becky touching a moon rock. Sweet!!!! Sweat from a billion people!!

 Oh, and for my mission ops peeps, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the console log book. Pretty much hasn't changed over the years, except these people don't draw stick figures like I do.

All in all, a wonderful day!! (You can see here I'm smiling because I'm about to leave and eat yet some more seafood!)

Note: for Becky's blog post click here and read about how I am the greatest tour guide ever. :)