9/22/12 Two Birthdays

So, on 9/22/12 we had two birthdays that day. Maile had a birthday in the morning for one of her first friends at school, Kevan. It was at Laserquest, and it was Maile's first time there.

When you check in, the players give a code name. Maile said "Maile." I tried to give her ideas, like if you could be a superhero what would your name be. But she said she just wanted to be Maile.

I went in with her to hear the rules, which was in a completely dark room. I think to get them adjusted to the dark.

We had planned to pick her up at 11a at the start of the lunch portion of the party, so we could all go to Tyler's 3rd birthday party. We found out from Maile that they played two rounds -- the first was every man for himself and the second was kids vs Dads (some Dads were just as eager to play as the kids). For the second game, Maile chose the code name of Anika, the name of a friend also at the party. Need to work on Maile's creativity.

Tyler's party, as we expected, was a lot of fun -- bouncy house, awesome play structure, good eats, and great people. I love Mady's smile in the photo.

9/21/12 Endeavor in the Bay Area

So, the space shuttle, Endeavor, was flown around the bay area before making it's permanent home in Los Angeles. When I exited Moffett on my way to Mathis' preschool, there was a line of cars at the start of the exit ramp on their way into Moffett field. There were also cars all the way down Moffett until Middlefield. Good thing I was going away from the air force base.

My co-worker, who normally works at home on Fridays, came in to watch the spectacle since we work very close to Moffett. At the time the shuttle was supposed to be flown over Moffett, we made our way outside. You cannot see Moffett from where we are and we didn't want to miss anything in case the shuttle was flown right over Moffett, so we walked to the end of our street, where a lot of people were gathered in the Violin Memory parking lot. There were even families.

After waiting 10 minutes or so, the Endeavor finally arrived. Kevin got a great shot. It looks like a toy model. We waited around for a few minutes afterward to see if it would circle back. But when all the helicopters starting flying into air space, we figured it was over.

The plane didn't even fly over Moffett; it flew by it. I felt kind of bad for all the folks who went to Moffett and waited for hours, but it was exciting for us and a nice break from work. When we walked back into the office, we found out that the shuttle flew right over our building.

Friday family pic!

 

Captain Mathis