NASA Camp Out

Elina and I just camped out with her Girl Scout troop at the NASA Space Center and we had an amazing time!

Originally, we were supposed to spend 4 days in Houston as a family, but both Eli and Eulee had the nerve to get sick right before the trip, so it had to be just me and Elina for the weekend.  It was a total bummer, but we've already rescheduled our family trip so we're definitely going back!  I felt so badly that we couldn't all go together because I had gotten the kids all excited about Houston.  Now they constantly ask about going to Houston!  I hope it lives up to their expectations.

Elina and I left on Saturday around noon and we drove the 3.5 hours straight to Houston.  It was nice to have only one older kid on the drive.  We listened to books on CD, played car ride games.  Then while she played on the iPad, I actually got to listen to some NPR.  It was a totally different road trip!

The camp out theme was energy so the Girl Scouts all worked on energy-related activities after dinner until 10pm.

By the time 9:30pm rolled around all the girls' eyes were glazed over.  They all looked like they might pass out.  The only one who looked sharp was Elina.  She was right in the center directing the girls with their wind power activity.  It was so funny!

Then we got ready for bed and lights were out at 11pm.  We really lucked out and got to sleep in the exhibit with all the stars in it.  The museum kept the star lights on and it was such a nice setting to sleep in.

This was my view when I laid down!

It took Elina and I quite awhile to fall asleep that night.  I could hear all the girls moving around in their sleeping bags.  Then right when I was about to fall asleep, one of our troop moms started snoring VERY loudly.  Wow.  So it took me some more time to fall asleep.  I'm not even sure what time I finally fell asleep.  And the sleep I had was the type of sleep where you feel like you didn't sleep any all night....you know, that light sleep where you still hear everything around you.

I finally woke up at 6:30am and when I sat up, there were already 3 girls sitting up staring at me--and Elina was one of them.

After breakfast, we watched a short movie and then went on the tram tour of the Johnson Space Center.  It was SO neat to see the mock-ups of the International Space Station and the Orion capsule.  It's hard to believe how big everything really is.

After the tram tour, we visited a few more exhibits.  Then we were lucky enough to meet the Director of Exhibits (friends of one of the troop mom's husbands) who gave us a tour of this airplane in the front of the museum that will be added to the exhibits in the future.  It was a cool behind-the-scenes tour!

And the best part of the whole trip, according to Elina, was that she got to get frozen yogurt from a robot.  It was $6 for a cup of frozen yogurt, but she thought it was the neatest thing ever.  Wow!
Then we met some friends for dim sum in Bellaire.  Totally delicious!

Then it was time for our long drive back.  I was SO very tired.  After the drive the day before and sleeping on a floor for probably 5 hours of light sleep, I was not in good condition to drive.  I had to stop about 3 times on the way back just to keep myself awake.

Definitely a tiring, but awesome experience!  We can't wait to go back in a few weeks!!