Road Trip!

We did it!

We survived our first BIG road trip together as a family, and we had a great family vacation in Destin.

When I first proposed driving to Florida to Carl, he of the "South Padre is too far to drive" was less than enthusiastic. But it worked well, and it helped that I had my "surPRIZE backpack" full of goodies I would bring out every hour or so - they ranged from Pokemon cards to silly bands to books to sticker books and I even though in a DS game for each boy and a new DVD they wanted. (although I probably should have had a few goodies for Carl, too... the boys handled the car drive better than he did most days).

Due to a magic show the boys' camp was putting on at 3pm on Friday, we got off to a late start, so we didn't pull in to Lafayette, Louisiana until almost 10pm. All we did was sleep in our hotel, and then we were back on the road by 8am. It did seem to have a bit of a view of some of the bayou.

Our first stop on Saturday was NASA's Stennis Space Center. Its in Mississippi, just over the border with Louisiana. Apparently its the second largest NASA facility in the US (after Florida's Kennedy Space Center), although the visitor center is significantly smaller than Houston's NASA. Still, the Mars rover, Curiosity, was scheduled to land in Mars the day after we were at NASA, so they had all sorts of fun, free activities planned for Saturday, and I think it made it more interesting for us than it might be most days.

The lego space shuttle was a big hit with Team Danger.

The bus tour around the complex is only 30 minutes long - the boys found this far superior to the ones in Houston and near Orlando, which lasted two hours.

Ryan's favorite part was the paper airplane contest - he spent over 45 minutes creating not one, not two, but FOUR different airplanes, decorating them, and them testing them for speed.

 

And guess what? He won! Here he is with his Winner ribbon and the prize-winning paper airplane.

Meanwhile, Alex had fun testing the robotics rover and having it throw nerf balls around. He also liked catching the nerf balls.

As an added bonus, they took your picture. For FREE. Last summer, Orlando's NASA wanted $25 for the picture they took, so all I have to remember it by was the one I took from the side.

 

We spent about 3 hours here, looking at everything and learning more about the space program. And just having fun.

Then it was time to take off for Destin. The kids have only been to New Mexico, California, Florida and Alex to Arizona before, so we made a BIG deal about the five states we visited on this drive. Here are the boys at the three we crossed into on Day 2 of the drive (we saved Louisiana and Texas for the return trip). They were pretty excited with Mississippi. After all, it had NASA.

But by Alabama, Ryan was not feeling the picture taking love.

He did insist on having his picture taken, though. Just not smiling.

By Florida, things were better.

It didn't hurt that they had a Blue Angel plane greeting us at the visitor center.

We hit a lot of traffic around Mobile, Alabama, and it was around here that people started getting a bit cranky. After a stop at the Cracker Barrel for dinner, a grocery store and a liquor store for necessities, we finally made it to our home for the next week.

Star Wars Camp

  Last week, the boys went off to Star Wars camp.

OK, its really a Kids Acting Studio camp, but they spent the week learning the proper way to lightsaber duel and practicing for a Return of the Jedi play on Friday afternoon, so we call it Star Wars camp.

After last year's disastrous Theatre Action Project: Heroes and Legends camp (which was all touchy feely, and actually involved no theatre as far as I or the boys could ascertain - I just know I'm still living through the horrors of showing up for the Friday afternoon "performance" and having to spend an hour "sharing" myself with the stranger sitting next to me. Apparently that's how their whole week went, so I made them promise me that if a camp is ever that bad again, to scream and cry and yell until we get just how bad it is so we can pull them out early. The boys and I are still having PTSD nightmares from it... ugh.)

Anyway. I digress. Star Wars camp was an unqualified success.

Despite the fact that the boys didn't have the starring roles, and Ryan's character was somewhat based on the guy we call "Butt Face" in the movies.

Alex was Boba Fett, Ryan was Ponda Boba, and they were both stormtroopers for the big battle scene of Jedi vs/ stormtroopers, where everyone used lightsabers. And yes, there costumes look nothing like the movies. You just have to go with it.

I'm still amazed the boys - especially Ryan - were able to memorize as much script as they did. When they came home with a 40+ page script, I was worried.

Very worried.

Turns out that was all for naught.

Granny came in from Houston for the big show, and cousins Connor, Matthew and Aunt Elaine came to watch, as well.

This was definitely one of the "hits" of our summer, so we'll likely repeat it again in the future. The boys are anxious to try the Pirates of the Caribbean one. Although if one of them gets to be Captain Jack and the other becomes Pirate Butt Face... on second thought, maybe not the pirates camp.

My Royal Olympics

I'm pretty content with my life.

I have two fantastic children, a wonderful husband of almost fifteen years, a good job, a great house, I get to travel, and I have amazing friends and family.

But when I see pictures of how wonderfully happy and real Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry are at the Olympics, well, I just really want to be Kate Middleton.

I mean, just look at her.

She's beautiful, has an incredible wardrobe, a shoe closet Carrie Bradshaw must envy, and she has access to the royal jewels.

She has hair to dye for, and I think might secretly model for shampoo commercials.

She's married to Prince William, and is great friends with Hot Prince Harry.

Look how much in love they are.

She and the other Windsors are all having just a bit too much fun at the Olympics.

In my secret life, I am Kate Middleton.

Or her sister-in-law, married to Harry.*

* with apologies to my dear husband who knows I'm only joking.

Sort of.

Opening Cermony Party

I've always loved the Olympics. And the fact that they are happening in London this year is just icing on the cake for me.

So of course I had to have a little gathering to celebrate the Opening Ceremony. :)

Ryan and Alex were in charge of decorations. These were flags.

I also updated my buffet, borrowing the London 2012 bear we had brought back for Ryan for the occassion.

The party was quickly thrown together at the last minute, since I ran out of time.

But still.. we had a great time, and I loved watching Kenneth Branagh read Shakespeare, Mr. Bean play the Chariots of Fire theme song, and of course, my James Bond, Daniel Craig, escort the Queen and her corgis to the Olympics.

Ryan couldn't make it past the "A" countries before falling asleep on my lap, though.

 

Needless to say, he did not win our Bingo Game.