August 2022! Failure to Launch.

This month was a busy one! Ben started kindergarten on August 1st. He LOVES it!!! He's always happy when we pick him up :). He already knows most of what they're covering, but he has learned a few new things like sight words and practicing tying his shoes. Nora's doing great. We discovered this month that she likes raw spinach - she calls any salad/salad greens "leaves" :).

Besides starting school, we visited the Phoenix Zoo with Ben's BFF, Max. We tried to get together with Max a few months back, but Ben kept getting sick :(. Ben and Max are two peas in a pod - it's so fun to see them together. We finally discovered the origin of the made-up term "bogzegabs" that Ben has been saying (Max was the originator), but we're still working out the meaning.

We also traveled to Florida for the Artemis I launch! We met up with Grandma TT, Nonna, Craig's friend Grant and his dad, Steve. The initial attempt was scheduled for August 29th (Craig's birthday!). We woke up around 3:30 am to leave the hotel around 4:15 am or so. We picked Grant and Steve up along the way in Titusville. Traffic was awful, so BARELY made it to the Kennedy Space Center Gate 3 by the cutoff (~6:30 am). At the viewing site Ben was upset because we weren't close to the rocket. We think he expected to be right next to it during launch (lol) and didn't think to explain that we'd be far away. Unfortunately the launch was called off as a result of a hydrogen leak.

We decided that our consolation prize would be a trip to Disney World's Magic Kingdom with Grandma TT and Nonna. We had soooooo much fun! We discovered that Nora likes roller coasters (Ben, not so much). At some point Ben was talking to Nonna about their respective ages. After hearing how old Nonna was he said "That's huge!!! Why are you so small???" LOL

Ben was soooo happy to start kindergarten. He went in happy and came home happy!

Trying out the International Space Station at Kennedy Space Center. Nora was down for a space walk. Ben not so much (he has a well-developed sense of his own mortality and didn't want to crawl through empty space :) )

Countdown clock and closeups with SLS and the Vehicle Assembly Building!

Some silly (I mean, very serious) promo shots of Craig at KSC.

Dinner with the LunaH-Map team prior to the first launch attempt.

First launch attempt! It was humid AND grassy (two things we don't normally deal with in Phoenix).

Lots of fun at Magic Kingdom. The kids weren't happy at first (they were hungry). Nora LOVES the characters and her first roller coaster. She picked out some sparkly Minnie Mouse ears and made sure Grandma TT didn't go hungry by feeding her fries! Ben loved the tea cups and sharing strawberry sorbet with me (we both got brain freezes!).