blast off

today we went to nasa. more accurately, the nasa glenn research center in cleveland for their 75th anniversary open house. we had friends go yesterday so i knew that the lines were long - really long. i warned matt (who hates waiting in line) even offering to take the kids by myself, but he still came with us (he loves us SO much). the picture is a portion of the single line to get the shuttle from the parking lot to the research center. it took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get through the line (thankfully it was a gorgeous day) and security.

there was so much to see and we didn't even see a quarter of it. the kids (and i) thought that it was all awesome!

wearing a nasa sticker while waiting to put his "face in space" - see below.

we waited in line for a picture with this astronaut guy but when it was our turn someone ran up and jumped ahead of us to be the "last one." so instead i got a picture of him walking away.

we had so much fun with the kids activities. the pictures only show a fraction of what we were able to do during the afternoon.

testing their straw rockets

the kids made these cooling sleeves that were then injected with ice water to show how astronauts keep cool when they are out in space (since the sun is so hot).

manning loved this satellite so much that he couldn't stop looking at it.

and then they got to make a 'jet engine' that was pretty cool too. the staff was so amazing explaining the science behind each activity too. we now have several aspiring astronauts.

there was a swat team there with a line to see inside their trucks. as the kids were checking it out i overheard one of the swat team guys answering questions. it turns out that they weren't part of the event but were actually there as security! they were just showing kindness in letting the kids check out their equipment. how nice? and how crazy that a swat team was on standby?!

matt was already in the very (very) long line to catch the buses to the parking lot so the kids and i walked around to see some of the other vehicles on exhibit.

once again, we can't take a group shot.

proof that it was actually nasa.

a sampling of the line for the buses (on the other side of the far building)

still marveling over their cool 'jet engines'

awesome day. i wish we could have gotten around to more (really, any) of the test and research facilities open to the public. oh well, it was still pretty amazing to see the campus.

right as we were leaving church to head to nasa manning tripped and fell into the rubber mat just outside the entry. ouch! since he couldn't see his forehead, he was more concerned with his hands - which were not bleeding at all. i was more concerned about the dent in his forehead! he wasn't too bothered about it so we went ahead with our nasa plans. i took this picture when we got home just to document his crazy forehead. i guess we will be waiting a little longer on that short summer cut. love.