I found a spray bottle for Lydia, the kind with the little fan on it. She'd needed a new one, because the one she'd bought earlier in the week had broke, and THIS one said NASA on it! Perfect! So, I got in line to buy it for her. While I was waiting, Brian and the kids came in and found me. When the ladies working in the shop spotted Lydia's outfit, they went CRAZY!!! It's hard to believe, but apparently they don't see a lot of customs at Kennedy Space Center!!! The cashier called over several other ladies that were working, and pretty soon there were about five employees gathered around Lydia admiring her outfit! It was pretty cool! Lydia loved the attention! Of course, she would have traded it all for one of the orange astronaut jumpsuits she spotted hanging on the wall! But, there was no way I was shelling out that much money! She was happy with her fan though. So, we paid for the fan and once again got on the bus (number 22).
In my notes, I have written down that we went to the ISS Lookout station. I don't have a clue what that stands for!
OH OH!! I remember now!!
It was the International Space Station! We went up on an observation deck inside the building and got to watch them loading things up to take to the space station!!
Lydia and I were both very impressed!!! There was a guy up there that looked like Dr.Green from ER (the bald guy from a few years ago, that I have always had a bit of a crush on...) So, I tried to get Lydia to ask him some questions. I don't even remember if she did though! But, he was cute, and I believe he had an English accent, which made him cuter even! (But not as cute as my Brian!)
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in this place!!!!
or, on the window...
We wanted to make it over to the astronaut encounter for the day, so we decided we were done looking around and took the bus (number 17) back to the main tourist area.
Lydia was excited to be meeting a real live astronaut! Even though we had met him the year before too! His name is John Fabian, and he showed us some pictures that he took from outer space, which we all enjoyed seeing. Then, at the end he asked if anyone would like to ask him any questions. Lydia put her hand up first, and asked him, "Was the food good on the space shuttle?" To which he replied that it actually was very good. Which, surprised us.
Afterwords, we got to take our picture with him,
and Lydia told him That she was going to be an astronaut someday. He was very friendly with her, and told her that she needed to study real hard and take lots of math classes! (I guess that's why I never became an astronaut!)
And, just because, here's a picture of Brian
We were just about starved at this point, so we headed to our favorite place to eat at Kennedy Space Center, Mila's Restaurant. I love the chicken Caesar wrap. So, of course that's what I got. The kids usually order personal pizzas. I have no clue what the boys ordered. Lydia had calmed down during the astronaut encounter, but something about sitting in the restaurant got her going again. She was acting like a crazy nut
(Ok, so she doesn't look like she's acting crazy in those pictures, but she was! You are just going to have to trust me on this!)
So I had to take her out and have a talk with her. She promised to behave if I took her back in,
but as soon as we got inside the restaurant she acted up again. So, I took her out again, and we had another talk about proper restaurant behavior. This time it worked, thank goodness., and we enjoyed a very nice meal.
Since we were directly across from the Imax theater, we decided to try to catch the movie that was just about to start. We got in just as they were starting to shut the doors. I don't remember which movie we saw, but I like them both, so I'm sure it was good! Everyone else enjoyed it as well. Lydia fell asleep while we were in there, which was good for everyone.
The boys wanted to go to the Shuttle Experience, so they headed over there and the girls and I thought about going to see the show "Mad Mission to Mars" (a show that they put here just to torture parents, it is SOOO STUPID!) However, on the way over there, we spotted a camera crew setting up for a commercial around this big water ball thing. (like the one they have at Disney)
So, the girls wanted to go check it out. They weren't stopping anyone, so we went up and I let the girls play there while they got ready for the commercial. Several other guests did the same thing. One of the people working on the commercial came over and chatted with us for awhile. He told us how much the ball weighed and how much water was underneath it (very heavy and not much)
We were hoping to get to see them shoot something, but it takes a very LOOONG time to set up for a commercial!
So, we headed over to the show. But, on the way, we were sidetracked by the ginormous gift shop! So, we went on in! I wanted to get Lydia a souvenir, so we looked around quite awhile and she found a cute little knit a-line dress in brown and pink with the NASA symbol embroidered on the front. So, I bought that for her. Almost as soon as we stepped out the door however, she grew about 4 inches, so the dress is now a shirt....But she still loves it! She begged me to let her wear it for picture day at school the other day, but mean Mommy that I am made her wear the First Day of School Ever dress that I had made her.
We went by Mad Mission to Mars, and I ignored the lady motioning for us to come inside and told the girls, "Oh shoot, it looks like it's already started! Bummer! Hey, let's go play over on the playground!" Which, they did. They were having so much fun climbing around in this thing!
Very cute
Hi girls!
While I was watching them play however, I saw a big old mouse, bordering on rat, run into a bush near the play land! Some other guests saw it too, and the ladies screamed while the men laughed! I kept my eye out for it, and then when I went to get the girls out of the play land, I saw the thing run under the play land!!! Icky!
So, I gathered the girls up,
and we took a little walk through the rocket garden and then back over to where we were meeting the boys.