Jena

 This post should probably be titled cousins, cousins, cousins.  We went to Jena Tuesday and spent a lot of time with cousins including their newest cousin Lane (who is not in any picture!)  We stopped and had lunch with Nana and Grandaddy when we passed through Jackson in each direction.  Wednesday we had lunch at MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman's house.  Cara and Mollie Grace got out the books of clippings about Cara and me that MawMaw had cut from The Jena Times over the years.  And then Wednesday, my name appeared in the 25 years ago section of The Jena Times.  Wednesday evening Zac took Ben and Cash fishing while the girls went with MawMaw to watch Marlee and Reiny at VBS commencement.  Thankfully Zac did not put a hook on the end of Cash's line.  I don't think we would have survived.  Thursday the kids swam at Will and Danielle's house and Thursday evening Aunt Connie, Aubrey and Ella Kate came to visit. 

Challenge Water Fun

We invited all the kids from our CC Challenge community over for water games.  We played a few organized games, ate ice cream, and they spent two hours shooting each other with water guns, dumping buckets of water on each other, and sometimes someone even got hold of the water hose.  They had a lot of fun and were very, very wet.  I should have taken an after picture.

 

 

The Rest of the Week

You can't tell from the pictures but it has rained and rained and rained this week.  On Monday it stopped raining for a bit in the afternoon and the kids went up the hill to play.  KK did Annie's makeup.  Tuesday we drove (in the rain) to Southaven for our annual Harry Potter book club.  We discussed book three.  Wednesday we played at the park with CC friends.  According to the radar we were sitting in the only patch of dry weather in Morgan County.  Thursday Mollie Grace and Annie completed the Harry Potter LEGO set MG got for her birthday while Ben finished the Hotspurs stadium he got for his birthday.  This afternoon we had the Challenge classes over for water games and water gun fights.  I'll post pictures when I get them from someone.  And once everyone left the bottom fell out and it poured.  We were thankful for the sunshine while we played outside.  

Eleven

 

On Sunday we had Sunday School for the first time since last spring and we celebrated Mollie Grace's 11th birthday!

Dress Rehearsal Video

 

Dance Recital

Friday evening Annie had rehearsal for her dance recital with the recital Saturday night.  Most of these pictures were taken at the dress rehearsal when I could get close to the stage.  Only the last picture on stage taken from a distance is from the actual recital.  The video is from rehearsal.  Annie was very unsure during the rehearsal because people all around her were doing different things.  When we got home I streamed the video I took of the dance in class Wednesday while she danced in front of it not looking at the video.  She performed the dance perfectly.  We talked about having confidence during the recital because she did know her dance and not to worry about what the people around her were doing.  They danced to Spanish Hot Chocolate from the Nutcracker.

Space Academy

     Hi! It's Ben. A little over a week ago, I returned from Space Camp. Even though I did it last year, there was a lot different with man things being done this year that we weren't able to last time because of tighter COVID restrictions. We still had to social distance and wear masks but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the week. We built rockets that went hundreds of feet in the air, we went on simulators designed to replicate moon gravity, the freedom of movement available to astronauts during spacewalks, and a device similar to the one NASA trained the first set of astronauts in case their capsule spun out of control, we did teambuilding challenges, went on mock missions to Mars and the ISS, learned a lot about the artifacts in the museum, and even talked to a real astronaut via Zoom about his career in growing microscopic proteins as well as his time on the ISS. I made many friends from across the country during the week as this year I bunked with only people from my group.

The three pictures above this were of my Mars mission. I was placed in mission control which was something I had wanted to do. Our mission did not go as smoothly as we would have liked but the astronauts made it back to Earth safely.

These are pictures of the Moon gravity simulator. NASA trained the Apollo astronauts in these to help them get experience working in low gravity

This is me in another simulator experiencing how it feels to be on a spacewalk. I got to use one to work on the Space Station in my second mission which was quite fun.

Here is me on the Multi-Axis Trainer. Your center of gravity states in on place so you don't get nauseous which is an odd sensation.

       As I said, there was a lot not captured that I really enjoyed. Like I said earlier we got to speak with former Shuttle astronaut Dr. Lawrence DeLucas. He has a masters degree in chemistry and doctorates in Optometry and Biochemistry from UAB. As well as being a payload specialist on Shuttle mission STS 50, he was NASA Chief Scientist for the ISS from 1994 through 1995 and was later a professor at UAB. While in space, he studied how protein crystals grow better without gravity which as the cost of payloads being sent to space drops, could significantly help the effectiveness of many current and future medicines. We were also able to talk to a Space Center docent who worked on parts of the Shuttle. He told us a lot about the Saturn 5 rocket and how it was built and operated and answered lots of interesting questions. Less notably, we were able to go to the planetarium and IMAX theatre and watch shows there. 

    At the graduation ceremony, my team was given the award for teamwork and communication. We definitely weren't amazing at either of those qualities but we were excited to get an award. Were both crew trainer's first group ever so they were very excited too. It was an amazing week. I might branch out and try something different next year but I have really enjoyed my trips so far.