As I lay in bed (yes- being lazy and pregnant- my privilege as a stay at home mom) yesterday morning and listened as space shuttle Discovery landed, I realized that I didn't post anything about our 4th of July.

July 4th 2006 - forget fireworks and grilling out. It was blazing hot and fireworks still scare Juli. So we piled in the car to see the launch of Discovery. It was our second trip out to Titusville since the first scheduled launch was canceled. The kids got Burger King and I had my Subway and we scoured the river across from the launch pad in search of the best spot to see from. We ended up directly in front of the entire NASA island sitting on a dock with our feet dangling down over the river. A picture perfect spot! We arrived about 15 minutes before the shuttle was set to go off and in about 5 of those minutes the kids were bored out of their minds! We continued to explain why we were waiting and how worth it the launch would be. Yeah right...at what age do kids actually start believing their parents about anything? Finally someone in the throng of people behind us started a countdown. Ben is a number expert and counted along with us.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Nothing...ok maybe we were a little off.
Then a pile of smoke. Both children were riveted!
And fire and lift off!
The launch is always so quick and you wish you could replay it. But as we stood on the dock in silence with our necks craned back watching the shuttle begin to disappear into the clouds, the roar of the explosion began to reverberate across the water! It had taken a good 40 seconds for the sound to travel to our ears and when it did it rattle us to our very bones. The baby inside me jumped and the two in my arms opened their mouths in disbelief! The ground shook and Ben said "My heart is pounding!"
Worth it? I'd say so!
For the next ten days we watched videos from space and listened as the astronauts spoke with men/women still here on earth! They explained technical procedures, and showed us some space walk moves and even had to know the soccer scores on the day of the playoffs!
We thought of heading back to see the shuttle when it landed and opted to watch the TV instead. But mom didn't get up in time. When the sonic boom hit our house I smiled.
Welcome home Discovery...we were with you the whole time...our hearts pounding!