Summer Vacation - Day Three

We went to the Houston Space Center on Friday. There was a lot there for the kids, so they all had a lot of fun. We spent about four and a half hours there. When we first arrived, we went into one of the theaters and watched a 15 minute video about the space program. Afterwards, you were allowed into a room that had some of the original space capsules and moon rocks.

In the brochure, there was an attraction called Blast Off. The description said that you would experience the spectacular sensation of a Blast Off. You would see and feel what it is like when over 7 million pounds of thrust push a 4 ½ million pound vehicle skyward. After your launch, you will go into the theater for a live update on the current shuttle missions as well as future explorations. It sounded really cool so we went to it. There was a big line for it and everybody was entered into this dark room with three screens on the wall. The Blast Off lasted less than five minutes and consisted of the screens showing a blast off and some smoke entering the room. It was nothing like the description. Then we had to go into the other room and listen for 30 minutes as some guy in a monotone and quiet voice talked about the current space shuttle missions. The kids kept asking if we were going to blast off pretty soon. They really tricked us into going in that one.

After the disappointment, we decided we wouldn’t go into any more theaters and we just let the kids play in the kid zone. They had a slide area with balls that you could shoot up that Noah and Paysen played on most of the time. Shelby, Kydan and Ceanna went to the adventure area. The kids went on an obstacle course where they were attached by a harness and had to go through a balancing areas such as rope steps and walking across a rope. Shelby was pretty nervous, but did all right even though she said her knees were shaking the entire time.

From there they went to this swing where they climbed up to a tower and held onto a bar to swing out and drop onto a soft cushioned area. To the surprise of us all, Ceanna actually did it after the working coaxed her into it at the top. She hadn’t made it through the obstacle balancing course previous to the swing and had to be carried across by a worker. The kids then went on a trampoline with a harness that allowed them to jump pretty high.

As we were going back to the car, we found a bunch of really tiny frogs jumping by the sidewalk. It had rained a little bit during the day, and the frogs were in the puddles. The kids were catching a bunch of them with Noah and Paysen squishing them in their fingers when they tried to hold them.

After the museum, we went swimming in the pool for a little while and then went to a parking lot across the street to light a couple fireworks we bought. When we asked the firework stand what some good ones would be for small children he had given us this no light fireworks that you struck like a match. All I had heard him say was they smoked, so I struck one and was holding it in my hand. Well, after it had smoked for a short time it exploded like a black cat in my hand. It scared Noah and Tamara really bad and burnt the crud out of my fingers. I don’t know how those were supposed to be good for little kids. I was a lot more excited about the fireworks than everybody else.

Today we are going to go to the beach in Galveston. The kids are all really excited to go. Jon took the day off, and as long as the weather cooperates, it should be a lot of fun.