Heat Wave and a Birthday

What's a kid to do when it gets hot outside? Play in the water, of course! Cade would spend all day, every day outside if we'd let him (unfortunate that the kid that likes outdoors the most is the whitest and most prone to sunburns of the three) but the heat just gives him another excuse to go outside - to play in the water!

Cade and Cameron like to fill this bucket with water and stick their heads in it. Can't say I ever thought of doing that as a kid but it must be fun.

Cameron's unavailability (or refusal to go outside) doesn't stop Cade. He calls this his shower.

No idea what he's doing here but he looks cute and he has his swimsuit on so it fits the theme.

It's hard to believe but Kevin recently turned 12! This is the same little guy that only wanted to turn 4 so he could ride a dirt bike and then he only wanted to turn 5 so he could go to school. Despite our best efforts and bribes, he just keeps getting older.

We celebrated his birthday this year by taking a couple of his friends to the local water park and having them stay the night. We spent over 6 hours at the park so we all got a little too much sun even though we kept reapplying sunscreen every couple of hours.

Here's the birthday boy with his brothers and best friends Hunter, on the left, and Nic on the right. 12! Geez.

A couple of weekends ago, while Dana was sleeping during the day (she worked the night before), I took the boys to a roller derby. I had no idea what to expect but I sure didn't expect women with mullets and gnarly tattoos on their biceps. It was sort of fun to watch but we really didn't have any idea what was going on. We all rooted for one girl in particular because her appearance was so striking. Her picture is below. It's one of those things where I'm glad I went but don't think I'll go back.

I told you the women were gnarly!

We're down to less than 2 weeks until school starts and the boys are not exactly thrilled about it. It's hard to believe the summer is almost over already. I have a lot of things to I wanted to do with the boys this year that I'll have to cram into the next 2 weeks.

Summer's Cross Flags

I don't know about other forms of racing but in motocross the cross flags signal the midpoint of the race. Such as it is with the boys' summer vacation. They're just a shade past halfway through their carefree summer days and staying-up-late-at-night-to-play-video-games nights. It's a cruel reality that time flies when you're having fun but drags when you're not. Should the kids intentionally stay bored and do as little as possible to drag out their summer vacation or should they go full throttle and cram as much as they can into their 9 or so weeks of freedom to make good memories?

I prefer memories.

We had a pretty good scare with my job situation a couple of weeks ago when several hundred of my coworkers were laid off thanks to the White House's misguided and poorly planned space policy (but that's for another blog). Technically, I did lose my job but my bosses (bless them!) got me transferred to another department. So I'm doing the same type of job I was doing before but instead of working on the Ares rocket I'm now working on a lunar lander. Still pretty cool!

Right before all the lay-offs, MSFC had a family day. Car show, bingo (with REALLY nice prizes - flat screen TVs, blueray DVD players, bicycles, etc.), inflatables, games, etc. We spent a few hours there, almost exclusively watching the boys on the inflatables, and had a great time.



Cameron about to rocket down the big slide.


Kevin just couldn't slide straight like a normal person.



They even had joust!


Cade was sporting this NASA tattoo all day.


The following weekend, our Sunday School class got together at someone's lake house to play in the sun and water all day.



Cade loved the slide!



The little stinker also liked doing the dead man's float. Every time I turned around he looked like this and every time I had a little heart attack.

Kevin and Cameron both took their first rides on a tube behind the boat and spent most of the day swimming and jumping in the water.



By the end of the day, the boys were tuckered out. I think Cade fell asleep before the Expedition's starter quit turning. Kevin is actually faking it in this picture but Cade isn't.


And then it was 4th of July weekend and my mom and dad came to visit for a few days! We ran them ragged by taking them to all our favorite spots.

De Soto State Park is always a nice place to go. Unfortunately, there wasn't much water this year.

At the water falls.

Madison (city) had a nice 4th of July celebration so we took the boys there for a couple of hours.

As usual, the boys had a blast on the inflatables.

Cade found an obstacle course he really liked. He would enter one end, climb through to the other side and literally run back to the start and do it again. I don't know how many consecutive times he did this but it was enough for me to notice and get a few pictures as he ran by.

Gotta get a patriotic picture of the boys on the 4th of July!

Cade was on the run as usual. If his mouth isn't running, his body is.



I like this picture of Cameron playing with the flag.

Playing with sparklers as it gets dark.

Now that Dana is working weekend nights, the boys and I have to stay deathly quiet during the day (which is basically impossible with these 3) so I just try to get out of the house so she can sleep.

Yesterday, I took them to a car show in Decatur. Lots of really nice cars but I especially liked this Corvette ZR1. The sticker price on this beauty was just under $122k!

And finally, a couple of bonus pictures of Cade:

This picture reminds me of one I took a few years ago when he was tippy toeing to look in the middle drawer. He's a little taller now.

Cade LOVES his tiger. He sleeps with it and carries it around all the time. But it isn't all that white anymore. Here he and the tiger are playing a video game.

Spring Sprang But Summer's Funner

It's officially summer! And apparently we're in for a doozy of a summer this year. I guess Alabama broke us in nice and easy last year and is going to make up for it with a vengeance this year. But so far we still prefer the lower (less than 100 deg) temperature with higher humidity over the skin boiling sun Las Cruces has.

As most of you probably know, we're on pins and needles around here as we wait for news on the status of my job. I do know my position has been eliminated but my bosses (NASA and contractor) are trying hard to get me transferred to another branch so I don't get laid off. I won't even be working for them but they're trying to help nonetheless. We'll know if they're successful by Tuesday. I can't tell you how much I've appreciated all the help people have given me over the last couple of weeks.

Back in happier and less stressful times, we were having fun and keeping busy. Jacobs had an employee appreciation day at a state park in early June.



We liked the view and fog driving up the mountain.



After our free breakfast, we toured the grounds. They have a lot of old buildings and demonstrations of how things were done in the late 1800's. Here, the boys just finished helping churn a bucket of ice cream and are enjoying the fruits, er, milk and ice of their labor.





The museum had a lot of interesting things to see and read about. These two clocks are over 350 years old. That's not a typo. 350. And they still work. To be fair, they were upgraded somewhere along the line to display minutes since they originally only told time in 15 minute intervals (at least that's what I remember). Neat stuff!



We took a walk down a walking trail and had to take a break because the boys were getting hot. Good opportunity to take a picture.

They also had a lot of old farm equipment. Here's an old John Deere something-or-other.

I never realized how big the blooms are on magnolia trees.

After we got home, Kevin and Cade went with me to a car show in downtown Athens. They had about 150 cars that ranged from rat rods to $100k+ cars.


Kevin and Cade posing in front of a car that's just like Pa's! Mostly.

This Viper was one of their favorites.

They were terrified when they realized they were standing next to a Decepticon! (Bad guys from the Transformers movie. This guy had several Decepticon logos on his car and embroidered into the headrests.)

Memorial Day Weekend & School's Out!

I hope everyone had a happy Memorial Day weekend and celebrated this wonderful country of ours and the veterans who made it happen.

So the kids are out of school for the summer. They were supposed to go Monday and Tuesday last week but the schools encouraged the kids not to come to school those two days. So Kevin and Cameron stayed home and started their vacation two days early. Kevin is now officially "7th grade material" and Cameron is moving on to the 4th grade. 7th grade and 4th grade! Where has the time gone?

Our Sunday school class kicked things off with a "School's Out" party. We had a nice time visiting with our friends and the kids had a blast playing on the inflatable slide. Does Cameron look like a happy kid or what?



Of course, it wouldn't be summer without some trips to the swimming pool. We don't have access to the neighborhood pool because we're not members (but can be for a mere $3k) but we have friends who are. Muahahahaha! Take that, you evil HOA! These are our friends the Williams. They're the Alabama version of us. Mike and Nora. Same age as Dana and me. 3 kids. Same ages as our boys. Really nice and wonderful people who are adored and loved by all. See? Just like us.

We celebrated Memorial Day weekend by renting a "cabin" at The Ridge where we like to go riding. I use the term cabin loosely because it's really just a single room with beds and a TV with no cable or antenna or VCR or anything to actually watch. The bathroom and showers are across the road. But it was cheap and nice enough and we got to hang out as a family and enjoy the time together. And we had plenty of time together because it rained. A lot. The tracks were closed all weekend so the riding was very limited too. But, it was good enough to get Cade out and get him actually riding the PW! Yep, he's officially a little dirt bike rider now and proud of it.



From Friday evening when we arrived through most of Saturday, this is pretty much what it looked like. See those rivers forming by the Titan? We didn't even bother unloading the bikes until Sunday. But the best part of the rain was listening to it on the tin roof of our cabin. Ahhhhh! I love that. With all the rain, the firewood was soaked so no campfires for us. We improvised and made Smores over a charcoal fire.






Here he goes! I used the training wheels for about 10 minutes (at Cade's request). It was just enough time to let him figure out the throttle and to decide that the bike is very hard to ride with them on. So training wheels are off and throttle is limited. That makes boy #3 that the PW has now taught to ride.

Cute picture.

Sitting on top of the tabletop on the pee wee track.

Riding wears a kid out! Look at his sweaty, spiky hair!

I love this shot.

Cameron getting ready to take off.

Finally! I now have 3 riding buddies!

The rest of us got to ride for about an hour on Sunday. It wasn't long but Kevin, Cameron and I rode the trails and had a good time. Then it rained again. Did I ever mention that it rains a lot in Alabama?

Boy#1 and me.

On the way home, we detoured down a side road to see this covered bridge. Unfortunately, it's in pretty bad shape. We'd never seen one in person before.

Cool bridge.

Looking down the creek. I'll never get tired of scenery like this.

Late Spring and Space Shuttle Launch!!!

Just like the title says, here's the last month plus worth of updates and it's long but I have good reason for it.

Since it's spring, Dana grew tired of spring cleaning so she's trained Cade to take over some of her chores. Poor little guy.




Hard at work mopping the floor.



Don't feel too bad for him though. He's still young enough to enjoy it. In his downtime, Cade figured out how to use the camera and take self portraits. Imagine our delight when we turn the camera on to review our latest pictures and see pictures like this:

And this:

Last time, I had a photo of Cade exercising to Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. Dana kept telling me how good of a workout it is and "suggested" I try it. How hard can it be, right? I get up early and exercise most days so I'm in decent shape. Well, after doing Level 1 (of 3) for a couple of weeks, I grew to be not very fond of ol 'Jillian. The only hand weights we have are 5 lbs. Doesn't seem like much, right? WRONG! They say they're 5 lbs, but I think they're more like 50. I wobbled through some of those exercises and thought my arms were going to fall off. I had to use both hands to pick my spoon full of oatmeal up when I ate breakfast. Once I was able to eat mostly normally again, I figured I'd step it up to Level 2. OMG! I'm now convinced Jillian is the Devil's spawn. That wicked little troll is trying to kill me and she does it with an evil sneer the entire time. I'm scared to death to ever try Level 3. Dana just laughs at me. I think housework is much more gnarly than I ever thought. Or perhaps Dana is one bad dude. Probably both.

Cameron celebrated his 9th birthday last month! Holy moly! Where has the time gone?

We made him work for his presents by giving him clues that eventually led him to them.

9 candles!

The birthday boy! Dana surprised him at school with those balloons and some cupcakes. I think my boy had a pretty special day.















Recently, the science museum had a free day. Kevin was at a birthday party so I took Cade and Cameron. We had a great time and I think the kids accidentally learned a couple of things. They liked this funhouse style mirror.

I have some mad skills with self portraits! I couldn't have framed that any better if I was looking through the camera.

Two weeks ago, I managed to snag a last minute causeway pass to see the launch of Atlantis on STS-132. (Did I ever mention I was on the flight deck of Atlantis? ☺ Ok, ok, ok. ) Since it came about so late, Dana had commitments so she stayed home with Cade. Kevin, Cameron and I made a fast trip down to FL to watch the launch. We drove down on Thursday, watched the launch Friday afternoon and started driving back that evening. It was a quick trip but well worth it.

The boys wanted to play in the ocean but settled for the hotel pool. What good is a pool without a cannonball? Or a Cameronball, in this case.

Kevin lounging by the pool. It was a gorgeous evening!

The next morning we fought through traffic to get to the Kennedy Space Center gate 4 hours before launch. Once on site, traffic was suddenly stopped and helicopters started hovering around. I had no idea what was going on until we saw the convoy drive right by us with the Astrovan right in the middle of it. The astronauts were on their way to the pad!

While we were stopped, this big ol' birds meandered through. I don't know if these are herons or what they are but they were neat to watch.

That's the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background. That's where they mate the orbiter to the external tank and boosters.

4 hour wait in the sun. The boys complained a little but not too bad considering.

While they're waiting I'll show you some pictures a coworker took. She had access to KSC the day before and got a good tour of the area. She also took much better pictures of the launch than I did so I'll use hers.

This is Pad 39-B. This is where Ares I would have launched from. There are some rumors/efforts that it may live on in one form or another but I'm not holding my breath. I think it'll be a while before the dust settles and we know what's going to happen.

This is the launch tower added to one of the mobile launch platforms for Ares I. It's huge!


Lisa (the photographer) also took these gorgeous shots the night before the launch. How cool are these? The shuttle looks SO neat lit up at night like that.

Postcard worthy, I tell you.

Ok, enough time has passed, the countdown has progressed very nicely, all systems are go and we're getting giddy because it looks like we'll actually get to see one launch!

Main engine start!!! I can't tell you how excited I was right about now.

Booster ignition and lift off!!! The view we had was different than this. We were further to the right looking directly at Atlantis. It disappeared from our view shortly after the main engines started but it looked so cool rising above that cloud.

Right about this point, it became so bright it was like looking at the sun. As Darth Vader would say, "Impressive." Actually, I was so giddy I think I was hopping around and squealing like a 2nd grade girl doing the pee pee dance.

Rolling over and heading NE.

Honestly, words can't describe how impressive it is to see that thing rocket away like that. After the solid rocket motors separated, we were able to see the main engines for about 4 more minutes before they disappeared behind a light cloud. So in all, we saw about 6 minutes of the 8 minute ride to orbit. Had it been at night, we would have been able to see them the whole time.

I took this photo of the aftermath. The breezes were dissipating the plume pretty quickly.

So after waiting 29 years and suffering through 2 aborts last summer, I FINALLY got to see a launch and it was even better than I expected it to be. Both boys really enjoyed it and excitedly proclaimed it was worth the wait and the long drive.

I know, this is a looooong post. But thanks for reading this far.

Our soccer season ended today. Cade's team didn't fare so well but they all had fun. After every game, they would ask if they won and I would answer with either, "I think so," or "I'm not sure but it was close." (I lied) They were happy with that.

Frenzy - 5 & 6 year olds (and one 4 yr old Cade)

Kevin and Cameron's team turned out to be a pretty darn good team. They finished 4-1-1 and outscored their opponents 25-7 in 6 games with Kevin accounting for 16 of those goals and Cameron (who wanted to stay in his age bracket and not move up) scored 1. If I may brag briefly, my favorite goal of the year was when Kevin took a penalty kick from about 20 yards out. The opposing team lined up in front of the goal to block his kick. Kevin kicked it over the team and goalie and hit the net in the upper right corner! That just doesn't happen at this level! Both boys played great this season and Cameron became fearless playing against kids considerably bigger than him. I couldn't be more proud.

And lastly, since our house in NM still hasn't sold, Dana has rejoined the working world. She got a job at the hospital here in Athens working Friday and Saturday nights. She starts in June. The hours stink but it's what she wanted because it's what works best for our family. Darn it.