Rocket Man

Every year, my parents get the guys in our family (my Dad, my brother Trey, Brett, and my brother-in-law Eli) a special present. It started a few years ago, and so far, the boys (or the Long Board Mafia, as we have come to call them) have gotten long boards, trick kites, remote control cars, and rockets. The year the boys got the rockets, we were all scattered, so the boys decided to launch them while we were all in California. (Brett had to leave his rocket here in Minnesota since we didn't think it was the best thing to try to fly with.) We went to a park next to the Rose Bowl Stadium and set up camp.

The kids were so excited to launch rockets. All of them are big Little Einsteins fans, so when it came time to launch a rocket, they would pat their legs and say, "Pat, pat, pat, pat, now raise your arms as high as you can and say Blast Off!"

As soon as the kids said blast off, my Dad would launch a rocket and the kids would all scream. It was so much fun to watch.

The nose of the rocket has a computer in it that would tell us how high the rocket had gone and how fast it was going. I am not sure how it all worked, but at a certain point the nose of the rocket disengaged and a parachute would bring the rest of the rocket back to the ground. There was no parachute on the nose, it had a foam tip to protect it. Of course this meant that everyone was running around trying to catch the rocket or the nose. We attracted a group of kids, and pretty soon they were running around like we all were. Colin really wanted to catch a rocket (the nose would fall too fast for him) and was really upset when another kid caught it instead. So after that, my dad let Colin launch the next rocket, and we told everyone that it was Colin's to catch.

He absolutely loved it when that rocket ended up back in his arms.

After Colin got to launch one, Ian wanted to push the button as well. So my dad let Ian push the button,

and he and my brother Trey ran around to catch the rocket.

It scared him so bad that Ian decided that he needed to sit in the stroller for the rest of the rocket time. My niece Aubree was too nervous to push the button, so my sister did it for her. Colin had such a fun time that he asked Brett if we could go to the park in Minnesota and launch rockets with his friend Sam. Thanks Long Board Mafia for a wonderful afternoon!