The Barker Four: Chapter 2: Kennedy Space Center

On Sunday of our trip to Titusville, we toured the Kennedy Space Center. The Center is closed on actual launch days so it was awesome to be there one day before the scheduled launch - there was a lot of excitement in the air, the shuttle was positioned on the launch pad, and people were milling about everywhere taking in all the history of the US Space Program. From an adult's perspective, it is amazing how much I had forgotten about space travel, astronauts, walking on the moon. All the big milestones. I think we learn all of this in elementary and middle school and then after that it is put on the back burner. So it was a nice refresher to relive the excitement of space travel with my kids. I felt like I was in 5th grade all over again. (As some or you may or may not know, I won the 5th grade speech contest with my topic of continuing space exploration after the Challenger disaster.)

Chapel and Eli's favorite parts included the rockets you could climb in. The Kennedy Space Center busses which took you from one point to another (they have never really been on a big bus) and the playground where Eli could climb in a very realistic shuttle slide and play astronaut. Eli has announced he is going to indeed be an astronaut when he grows up and I hope this trip helps with that future goal. Kids have so much potential, we just need to foster it. And Chapel, sweet little thing that she is, made friends with an alligator that swam over to us by the Astronaut Memorial. She named him Georgie. Conor and Jude also had a great time. They ran wild through the robot exhibit, Jude screamed on the buses while Conor quietly took everything in, and they, too, really loved the playground. And I think Brett's favorite part was me asking him question after question after question. I had a lot of questions! Stayed tuned for Chapter 3: Blastoff!

The babies in front of the rocket garden.