Austin and I were both raised here in Central Florida, and neither of us has ever been to a shuttle launch. It's something we both have always wanted to do, but it's so easy to just walk into the front yard to watch. :) Once we realized there were only three shuttle launches left, we decided it was important to us to take the girls to see a shuttle launch from the coast. Our first attempt was a few months ago. We were all packed up, literally walking out the door, and the launch was scrubbed for technical issues. At least we weren't already in the traffic! That one was rescheduled for a week day, and so was the next launch, so Austin wasn't able to take off work so we could go.
That left us with the final space shuttle launch, Atlantis. Austin took the day off work, and we hit the road at 7:30am for the 11:26am launch. With a 70% chance of being scrubbed, we were pretty certain we were wasting our time and would have to try again on Sunday. But we went anyway, and it's a good thing we did!! It was a very cloudy day, and we wouldn't have been able to see anything back home! We met up with my stepbrother Steve and his boys, and then my mom dropped in just before the launch. Austin knew of a great spot for us to be, and it turns out not many people knew about it. There were only about 20 of us total!
The kids spent the time before the launch throwing rocks into puddles. Madi was in absolute heaven. :)
Finally it was time!
The rumble that followed about 15 seconds later was amazing. It was like thunder that you could hear rolling towards us as it got louder and came right over us. I only wish there hadn't been so many clouds, because we could have seen the shuttle for quite a while! Madi kept signing "more airplane" when it was over! She's watched the footage on the TV several times since we got back!
The smoke trail is right behind our heads
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