***WARNING…VERY long post***
wow!!! it was amazing!!
we left friday because we had an early morning tour scheduled for saturday. evan did incredibly well on the plane. it may have helped that he didn’t bother to take a single nap until we got on the plane at 130!!! he slept through take off and woke up with about 45 minutes left on the flight. we gave him his bottle during descent and never heard a fuss out of him! what a good boy!! there were just so many people to see and entertain that he didn’t have time to be upset :)
the next morning, we got up early {we even had to wake e up!}, to go on our tour.
we met our group at the mall and rode the bus onsite where we had a Q&A with the shuttle operations directors.
missions brian has worked on… 
then we headed over to the VAB {vehicle assembly building} where they get the shuttle ready for flight. the building is huge!!! one stripe on the flag painted on the side of the building is as wide as a lane of traffic & each star is 10 feet wide just to give you a little perspective!
we got back on the bus and drove along the route that the crawler uses to take the shuttles out to launch pad A.
we were allowed to get out at the launch site and take pictures. it was amazing to be that close to the shuttle and truly see everything!!
i know this one is sideways but i forgot to flip it before i uploaded it…oops!!
evan with his astronaut friend 
saturday afternoon, we relaxed, napped, ate, and basically rested knowing that we would have to get up at midnight to catch our bus to our viewing area onsite. we ended up walking to the beach and letting e play in the sand. he liked it until he wiped his eyes with his sandy hand. i think he was more bothered with us trying to get the sand off of his hand than what was in his eye but whatever!
that night, even fell asleep around 545 and only woke up when i had to change him into his warm clothes for the launch. he stayed awake for about 30 minutes before falling asleep on me again. when we got to the banana creek viewing area, brian and i headed inside to load e into his baby bjorn and wrap him in his blanket.
unfortunately, the launch was delayed due to cloud cover during the 9 minute hold so we got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. brian, ashley, and cindy scrambled to change our flight, extend our rental car, and get another night at the hotel while i took our still sleeping child and went to sleep {knowing he would be up and ready to go soon since he had slept the whole time!}.
once everyone was up on sunday, we headed out shopping for a few random things we needed. we had a fun day out and then went to the hotel to shower and get ready to watch the super bowl. we ended up watching it in the lobby of our hotel at the cafe down there. the second it was over, brian, e, and i went to sleep {e was actually asleep well before it was over:)}.
again, we woke up around midnight and headed out to catch our bus. it was like deja vu! this time, e didn’t even wake up on the bus although he did wake up for about 10 minutes while we were inside. he managed to fall asleep about 20 minutes before launch and slept through the whole thing!! impressive really!
when it was obvious we were a go for launch, they had someone sing the national anthem.
and then it was go time! {excuse the language – it really was that awesome but my camera picked up everyone around us :) }
this video doesn’t come close to doing it justice! it was absolutely amazing!!
we then headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours of sleep before loading up in our car and driving to tampa {the only flight we could get to houston was from tampa which was a 2 hour drive}. we ended up at the airport for awhile so we made a play area for e and he had a blast {of course!!}.
i have to brag on my kiddo a little {shocking i know :)}. we heard throughout the entire trip how sweet & good he was being and it’s true. we threw a lot at him this weekend and he took it all in stride. never really got fussy and just enjoyed being out and about. makes me feel so much better about all of our trips coming up!!! we just love that little boy sooooo much!!!
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