A Day At Kennedy Space Center

The day after Thanksgiving was "Space Friday" for our family. We got up early and headed not to the mall, but to Kennedy Space Center. The men in my family all LOVE science and technology , so they were excited about the trip. My dad took my sister and I to watch Apollo 13 launch when I was a little girl, so he was thrilled to share the experince with his grandsons.

Besides touring the facility, we also watched two IMAX movies. One about the International Space Station and one about traveling to the moon. Sound boring? I forgot to mention that they were 3D movies! ! I have decided that the early astronauts were either really brave or really crazy!! (Matthew is ready to sign up!) It was a fun day.

Andrew and his robot friend.

Matthew stands at the bottom of the massive Saturn V rocket that was used for the Apollo Missions.

Many of the astronauts are Boy Scouts.

Matthew boards the G Force simulator...the rest of us watched!

Goodbye Grandfather Oak

When we moved into our 1940's house 21 years ago, we had 8 beautiful oak trees on the property. They were home to birds, squirrels, frogs and lizards. Hey, we have even spotted a possum or two up in our trees! In the past few years we have lost a few of these grand old trees. The first was lost to a tornado. The 2nd was diseased. And the third one was uprooted during the summer of 2004 when Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Jean visited central Florida. Recently we lost yet another of our trees. A beautiful Live Oak. We were amazed at how quickly this majestic tree died. It was located behind our barn right next to the blueberry green house. To make things even more fun, the power line ran through part of it. We realized it was dangerous and had to come down. Here our a few photos of what is left of this "grand old gentleman" that once provided shade and shelter. I guess the good thing is that we will have plenty of firewood this winter.


Matthew,

also known as "Chain Saw Man" is ready to get started.

Andrew climbs the tree!

Wendell and Maggie

We have two new addition's to our household. Wendell and Maggie. Wendell is a 4 month old kitten and as you can tell from the photo, he has one blue eye and one brown eye. He has 6 toes on each foot. He is Andrew's cat and he is a rascal! He has a lot of energy and is into everything!!

Maggie is his mother. She was a stray who wondered up to our neighbors house and and promptly gave birth to 4 kittens. She also has a blue eye and a brown eye and as you can tell, she is a bit unusual looking.

Wendell

Miss Maggie