Summer Vacation 2007: Space Center Houston (NASA)

During our stay with my parents we had a great time going to NASA's Space Center Houston. Little Robby has always been fascinated with space travel, so we have always wanted to take him here. I was glad to finally have that opportunity on this trip.

We really enjoyed seeing all of the NASA artifacts on display. Here we see Robby in front of one of the Apollo capsules. As a kid, I don't think I fully appreciated the personal risk these early astronauts took. I can't imagine being sealed in a very confined capsule and attached to enormous rockets and blasted into space. Wow! I think they had a lot of courage. I realize people still travel into space today, but I don't think I would have wanted to be one of the first.

While at the museum, Jenna found her own ways of amusing herself by swinging like a little monkey.

Okay, so he's not looking at the camera, but I wanted to post this one because I think it is really cool that he has his hand on a piece of moon rock. Where else can you actually touch the moon?!

This picture and the next one are of all of us riding on the tram to go and see the Astronaut Training Facility and the Saturn V Rocket.

Jenna really like riding the tram and kept saying, "Weeeee!"

Little Robby, Grandma, and Grandpa are standing in front of the window overlooking the Astronaut Training Facility. Behind them you can see some of the life-sized models they use to practice their missions here on earth.

We are standing in front of the Saturn V Rocket. This was the biggest rocket that NASA has used up to this date. It was used to launch the Apollo and Skylab missions. How would you like to be strapped onto the top of that thing?!

Summer Vacation 2007: Family Reunion

The first full day after we arrived at my parent's house we drove about an hour to my brother's house in the country for a family reunion. My aunt (my dad's sister), uncle, cousins, and their children came out too. I am so glad we got to share this time with everyone. Here are some highlights:

We got to meet our new nephew Hayden for the first time. Isn't he a cutie?! He is now 8 months, and he weighs a whopping 25lbs.! (Jenna, who's just over 2yrs, only weighs 23lbs.!)

My Aunt Marcel, Charlene, and my mom chat together on the porch.

One thing was for sure, we weren't totally used to the humidity in Texas, especially after living in dry Arizona for the last three years. You can't tell completely from this picture, but Jenna's hair had a little bit of a wave in it while we were in Texas.

Jenna was really fascinated with Uncle David and Aunt Charlene's horses. She was interested in helping feed them carrots all until the horse's giant lips reached out to grab it, at which point I had to take over because she tried to jump back. I guess the horse got a little too up close and personal for Jenna.

Little Robby really enjoyed playing in Uncle David's playroom!

So did Robby! He's having flashbacks to his childhood playing Donky Kong.

We really had a great time visiting David and Charlene!

One last cute pic, Jenna and Little Robby with their cousin Hayden!

Summer Vacation 2007: The Alamo

Our second stop on our vacation was the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. By the time we arrived we had been in the car for about 5 hours, and we had only 3 hours to go till we arrived at my parent's house. Robby was really excited to see the Alamo again and to show Chap around. He could have spent a few hours there. Chap, on the other hand, had Grandma and Grandpa on his mind, and he only had interest in seeing the memorabilia and reading the explanations for about 30 minutes.

We did enjoy some time in the courtyard of the Alamo. Here Little Robby and I are near an old dried-up well.

Jenna decides that it is more fun to push the stroller herself than to ride in it! This turned out to be a bit of a problem when we were surrounded by others trying to look around the Alamo. Jenna is yet one more example of why young children can't have drivers licenses!

Awww! What a sweet family picture!

And lastly, here we are in the front of the Alamo. This was a fun stop on our road trip.

Summer Vacation 2007: Carlsbad Caverns

The first thing we did on our vacation (after getting rained out of our tent the night before - a night we will sure never forget!) was to go and see Carlsbad Caverns. Since we were behind on our planned schedule due to dealing with lack of sleep, we had to make some adjustments. When we arrived at the Caverns we discussed our options. One choice was for Little Robby and I to go on the additional tour to see the King's room (one of the most decorated rooms in the caverns) while Dad and Jenna went walked down the 1.5 mile entrance path. Little Robby nixed this idea though.

I think his lack of interest was mainly because of the extra money it would have cost to do the additional tour. To give him added responsibility on this trip we gave him charge over the family spending money. When we first told him that he was going to be in charge of the funds (for souvenirs and food on the trip) Little Robby promptly developed a budget and we found out that we each got a total of $17 of personal money to spend over the whole trip. He took his job very seriously, and on a couple of occasions Robby and I tried to bargain with him to allow us to spend the money in different ways. For the most part he didn't want to budge! I am glad though that he understands the idea of keeping to a budget. I digress though, back to the caverns...



Here you see the natural entrance to the caverns. The creatures you see flying are not bats, but swallows. Obviously, the bats don't come out until night.

We decided that since we were going to stay together the whole time that we would take the 1.5 mile walking path through the natural entrance into the caves. It descends a total of 750 ft over the entire distance, and Robby and I both got a good feel for what our Grand Canyon trip will probably bring in the Fall.

The only disadvantage we both had was that neither one of us could wear our tennis shoes because both pairs had gotten soaked the night before. I really wished I had mine because my sandals were not the best choice for steep downhill inclines.

Once we got to the bottom we wandered through the 1.25 miles of cave path to see all the amazing creations contained inside.

Little Robby really had fun because he and his science class had studied caves this last year in school, so he got to see all the things he had learned about.And finally a family picture together!