"Houston, we've had a problem"

Matt and I decided that we wanted to do some fun activities before the babies come because we never know how long we'll be in an area and life after the babies come is going to be quite chaotic. Unfortunately most things cost money, unless it's purely outdoors which is out of the question with the heat. It's already hot, but adding a pregnancy to the heat does not help. So, we've decided to do one fun activity a month and we'll plan them around temple visits.

This past Saturday we drove down to the Houston temple and afterwards went to the Space Center Houston. It had some really cool things and was informative. We thought that 4 hours would be plenty, but we were running from one thing to the next to try and fit as much as we could into those four hours.

We first watched a movie about the triumphs of manned space missions and then walked around a gallery of different objects - moon rocks, a robonaut, different space vehicles, a replica of the inside of a space shuttle, etc. It was an interesting movie, but we weren't "wowed" by it.

Next we went on a tram tour of NASA. The tour was good, but it was incredibly hot. We only stopped at two places - mission controls and to see the Saturn V. Mission Controls was neat, although it would have been better if there were people actually working. It was fun to hear about the different positions and what it takes to get into that position. Something I found interesting was that the flight director makes the ultimate decisions and even has a greater voice than the President of the United States when it comes to the space missions. The Saturn V is the first rocket to land on the moon and it was amazing how large it was.

We then saw a presentation about living in space. They had a replica of the inside of a shuttle and we were able to see how they sleep, eat, shower, go to the bathroom, brush their teeth, etc. It was interesting to see how many accommodations you have to make when there's no gravity. For example, the food packets have velcro on them so they can attach them to the counter or to the wall and the silverware is held down by magnets.

I thought the next thing was going to be really exciting - it was titled "Blast Off" and it was supposed to be a recreation of what it would be like to be at a launch. Basically we had a large screen in front of us and the shuttle was shown. The sound was really loud and then they had some fog come out - I was less than impressed. However, afterwards we were briefed on current space activity. We heard about the International Space Station, who was on it, how complete it was, the plans for it, etc. and also about the upcoming launching of a space shuttle on November 1st. We also learned about the astronauts on the space station and about the astronauts that would be leaving November 1st.

Lastly we watched a film titled "To Be An Astronaut" that was shown on a 5-story tall screen. It was actually really fun to watch what an astronaut has to go through - all the training, etc. It was neat to watch a launch simulation, how they practice zero gravity in planes and also in the water. It was a good end to our day.

Other Upcoming Adventures:

- Dallas Temple along with the Dallas aquarium that's supposed to be really neat and perhaps the JFK assassination site

- San Antonio Temple along with a walk down the river walk, which is supposed to be neat and reminiscent of Europe

- Port Aransas, which is a beach that is supposed to be pretty with white sand

- Maybe a trip to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory, although they are only open weekdays, which would make it difficult for Matt to go

We'll see how much we can fit in before the babies come, but we don't have too much time!

**P.S. Does anyone know why Blogger won't let me upload any pictures? The pictures aren't too large and when I try, I get the message: "There were errors during upload. The following images were not uploaded. This image could not be uploaded due to an internal error."