(stole some of these from Kendra... thought I should come clean first thing!)
When the Brooms came in July, Cason was certainly outnumbered. But he didn't seem to mind, did a lot of dollhouse playing with Brooklyn.
The big girls did LOTS of dressing up, of course. :)
David took them on a Nasa tour, which I think was much more appreciated by the adults than the children! (understandable...) Here are David, Cassidee, and Reagan overlooking the Space Shuttle Mission Control Room. This was in the middle of the last shuttle flight, when Atlantis was up. So it was cool to be there "in action." Right in front of Reagan is the EVA chair, where David sits when he is on MC (no EVAs that day, no person in the seat). She did like seeing where Daddy is when we see him on TV.
No flash allowed, so these aren't great. But here is the Broom fam. :) Kendra was talking to Cason trying to get him to look as I took this...
Cutie girls.
This Misson Control room is actually now an official national historic landmark... kinda cool. All the Gemini and Apollo mission plaques are up on the walls and stuff. Weird to think how antiquated these computers are!!!
LOVE Cass's look here...
Reagan, hitching a ride to our next building.
Cass too!
This was in the Astronaut Training facility where all the mock-ups of the shuttle, International Space Station, and other space vehicles are. Brooklyn took it upon herself to go under the ropes... "my Daddy works here, I'm special." I had to GRAB her. Btw, anyone besides me think that the shuttle was bigger than this?
This was awesome. David had taken Kendra and Jeremy up in the shuttle mock-up (no kids allowed), so I stayed down with them while they entertained themselves spinning until they fell down in a pile of giggles. Typical. :) Anyways, right above us on the second floor is the glassed-in hallway that the "official tour groups" for NASA (that they pay for) walk by to just look down out the window at all this stuff, but not come in. So, this picture was going on right as a tour group was walking by. Yes, my little monkeys are spinning and falling on the floor while a group of about 50 people with paid tickets are watching them act like maniacs. It was awesome. :)
B checking out Daddy's space suit... or as she called it, the "robot."
Here is David, up there in the shuttle mock up platform. Brooklyn spotted him... "Hi Daddy Hi Daddy Hi Daddy Hi Daddy!!!!!" :)
This is when I accidentally changed settings on my camera. Woops. And yes, the legs of the space suit are all bunched up at the bottom... looks like it is just for a super short person.
Family Photo. I think Brooklyn had tears from just having gotten in trouble, but I love this picture anyways.
Jeremy and Kendra flying the shuttle! Kendra went nuts and pushed every button and flipped every switch she could find.
I wasn't thinking and wore a SKIRT that day. Dumb. Some places you have to wear closed-toe shoes, so I kept having to change my shoes. DUMB. But here is the one and only potty on the shuttle, right next to the "kitchen" and where they all sleep in one room. Must. Be. Nice. See all those black cylinder looking things with the colors on the left? Each crew member has their own color, and their toilet paper is stuffed in there. No rolls... they would just unravel I guess. And the potty has stirrups and handles so you can anchor your feet down then push your hiney down to sit. Hilarious-looking. When I actually think about how this all works in zero-gravity, it just makes me chuckle. There has to be suction of some kind... hee hee hee.
This trip David got it worked out to visit the moon rocks. So boring. They are in these cases behind like 6 inches of glass, set back about 6 feet from the window. And they just look like rocks. I mean, cool to see it, but look and move on.
But we couldn't because this lady was giving us the "tour." It took forever, and the kids (and the grown-ups a little bit!) were DONE. So, I just sat and loved on them to keep them quiet... fine by me. :)
After that, we drove over to the Natural Buoyancy Lab, the big pool where the astronauts train in an underwater mock-up of the space station. It is unbelieveably HUGE. Like 4 stories deep. David worked there A LOT since he trained them on space walks. They do all their practice runs in the simulated zero-gravity underwater.
This is the office were David worked simulations. The girls were mostly impressed with the chairs that they could spin in.
During this visit, Brooklyn fell in LOVE with the Broom kids all over again. Asks for them ALL THE TIME.
A couple of weeks later, David took my parents and Jerrod and Tracy on a tour as well! I didn't have my camera or my children (score! thanks again, Natalie), so Tracy took some pics for me. Here is Daddy, the shuttle pilot.
And Mom, the Shuttle Commander.
This time, we actually got to go down into the Apollo Mission Control room... so of course we had to sit in the flight director's seat!
And call on the Bat-Phone direct line to the President!
Omega watches makes a special watch for every astronaut that flies. It actually works in zero-gravity, outside in space. Super cool. You can buy them, minus the inscripted mission patch that they put inside. A few years ago, I bought one for David for his birthday. He had always wanted one to have as a "forever thing" from this cool job, something he could pass down as well. Then, one of his astronaut friends that he trained actually took David's watch up and flew it on a shuttle mission! So, we have pictures of him wearing David's watch in space. Way cool. Here is the Omega display outside the Historic MCC... might have to click on it to see it better.
If you've seen the ever-so-scientifically-accurate movie Armaggedon, you've seen this place (and the NBL pool as well). It is the huge vaccum chamber. Can't see the chamber itself in this photo, this is just the HUGE DOOR swung open.
The Edwards Fam flying the shuttle!
So weird to think that David has actually worked with all that super-cool stuff, really a part of history. As happy as I am in some respects that he is done, it is also really sad too. Glad we got to take the girls to go see it!
~
On to couple more things from summer...
David's birthday cake that R decorated. He's 34, so there are 3 yellow candles then 4 blue candles. :)
Baby girl, excited for cake!
I'm sure Daddy really needed the help with the candles...
A little summertime painting. I wanted to remember this picture... she spend almost 2 HOURS painting this picture. One tiny purple stroke at a time. Only two colors total. I kept asking if she was done... "Not yet, Mommy!"
Reagan did I think 5 pictures to Brooklyn's 1. I love this one in particular... all rainbows... all Reagan. :)
Tomorrow I will wrap up the summer posts, finally. Since school starts Monday *sniff... sigh*, it is time.
1 comment:
SO. COOL. Seriously.
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