We all loved having the New York Spandaus visit us for the Thanksgiving holidays. Kira and Simone got along famously, just as if three years hadn't passed since they had seen each other!
They loved climbing all over the cat climbing toy!
On Friday, we drove over to the San Jacinto Memorial and Museum. Here are the girls standing on the big platform that surrounds the tall memorial building. Here is where
Sam Houston and his army defeated Santa Anna and his troops -- and secured Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836.
After taking the elevator to the top of the memorial tower, we drove "across the road" and toured the
Battleship Texas. The girls had a great time learning how those mid-size guns used to be manipulated!
On Saturday, we took Kira and Parker with us and went to the Johnson Space Center (NASA) south of Houston. Here are Parker and the girls, just before we went on the tram tour of the NASA buildings and saw the training areas for the international space station, the new lunar rover, and one of the huge Saturn rockets.
A practice-version of the lunar land rover used by Apollo crews on the moon.
Here's a mock-up of the international space station -- notice all the blue and other tarps, which were put on the sections to protect them from the furies and rain of Hurricane Ike a couple of months ago!
Here's a look at the new lunar rover -- the one they plan to use on the NEXT trip to the moon!
And here's my attempt to get that Saturn rocket in one picture -- it's way too big to do that, though!
Both girls fell asleep in the back of the minivan on the way home from the Space Center!
Kira and Simone, hugging before the Spandaus went into the airport on Nov 30 to return home.
