Houston Weekend

Dear Person in charge of exhibits at the Johnson Space Center,

While Legos are very cool and my almost 4-year-old loves them, I do not believe that a LEGO Castle exhibit has anything to do with space. As a result what should have been a fun family outing learning about space and rockets, etc. turned into what Mitchell loves to do best- play with Legos- and not learning about space. Thank you for allowing us to waste $60 between 4 adults doing what we can do at home for free.

Yours Truly,

Abby

We headed down to Houston for the weekend for two reasons- for Mitchell to spend a day at NASA and for Laura to meet her great-grandparents. Nana & Papa also went with us. While spending time with family was not a bust, as you can tell from my note above the Johnson Space Center was. Have you ever been excited to take your child somewhere only to be truly disappointed? That's what happened on Saturday. Mitchell was so excited to go see the Space Shuttle on Friday morning as we left. In fact he was so excited he waited in the car the entire time Matthew packed the car. Then that night we discovered there was a Castle Lego exhibit and all of a sudden, who cared about rockets and space shuttles?! There were LEGOS!!!!

It wasn't a total bust, but Mitchell did complain about wanting to play with the legos while on the two-hour tram ride to Mission Control, the training center, and Rocket park. Actually, rocket park was where he really perked up. The big Saturn V space shuttle really captured his interest, but once we got back inside, it was mainly about the legos. and lunch. oh wait. THAT was me. :) Laura slept through most of the tram ride. YEAH! Because we left the bottles behind. We had the formula, just not the bottles. D'OH! And Laura is just like her Mommy when she's hungry. Cranky and whiney.

Laura waiting in line for the tram. I love this pic!

Laura and the sun bonnet she had to wear because this is Texas after all and still kind of warm and very sunny! Then we tried the hat on Mitchell to see if it would fit.

Mitchell, Laura, Nana & Papa in front of the big space shuttle. It had to be moved indoors because of the weather elements getting to it.

Mitchell in front of the pictures of Apollo 14. He has the patch on his astronaut suit because the astronaut on the left is Astronaut Mitchell.

We did finally get Mitchell away from the Legos to explore. He was real excited to see any astronaut suits, but was a little upset that he couldn't wear any.

Saturday night we had a birthday party for the four October birthdays. Each person got their own candle. Mitchell went first and only blew out one while Nana went second and blew the rest out. Oops Nana! Laura slept through most of the party, but when she was awake she charmed her great Aunt & Uncle and cousins with her adorable smile! And of course this morning brought about the obligatory family photos.

I forgot. On the way to Houston we stopped off in Huntsville to visit the second largest statue in the US after the Statue of Liberty.