3-2-1...

A loooooonnnnng time ago...well, not that long ago.  Just several months ago, Mark turned 30.  With that, the kids and his parents decided to give him a memorable gift.  A trip to see a space shuttle launch.  This is the last year, unless intervened upon by Congress, that NASA will send men into space using their own space transportation system.  Long story short, this was going to be the last year that the shuttle would be launched and next year they would start sending up a new rocket (like what the Apollo missions used only modern).  However, the NASA program to use the rockets (which were already being tested) has been cut from the government budget.  This, obviously, is going to put a big delay on more man-space missions.  Anyways...all that to say that there were only a handful of missions left to see an actual shuttle launch.

We couldn't go to the first few...but this month was THE month to make it.

Now, I must admit we almost had to "scrub" our mission to head to Florida to watch the launch.  Josiah and Liam both decided to start with a fever (that Mark and Ceili Rain had had the previous week) on Friday.  Mark was still feeling a little under the weather on Saturday night and then I started to get a sore throat.  We made the decision to cancel our trip unless we both felt better Sunday morning (two parents plus two kids down and out would not make for a very fun trip).  Easter Sunday dawned and Mark and I both were up and ready to go.  After church we loaded the van, kids, and food and headed to Florida.

We stopped that night in Daytona and slept for a few hours and then got up at 2:30 in the morning (I'm so not kidding on that).  Woke the kids up at 3 a.m. (not kidding on that) and headed the extra hour to Titusville.  Going from a tip from one of Mark's co-workers, we squeezed into a spot to watch the launch.  And we had an awesome view.

We really hoped the kids would sleep on the way to Titusville.  But they didn't.

The entire wait until the launch.  All five of them.  Wide awake.

"Why am I awake now???"

"Okay, this isn't too bad."

Mark had the idea to take out the backseat of the van.  He moved stuff around and threw some sleeping bags on the floorboard.  They used that as their playing field.  We finally broke out the DVD player with about 30 minutes until the launch and that pacified them until we headed back home.  Ceili Rain fell asleep about 10 minutes before launch so we put her down in the back of the van.  Liam showed no signs of fever but Josiah was feverish and not feeling great the whole time.  He started to perk up after the launch (thanks to acetemetophin).