An afternoon with rocket scientists...

One of the highlights of our weekend was the open house at United Launch Alliance, where Julian works. 

They put away all of the top secret stuff and let us regular people come in and take a look around. 

We were greeted by Rocky the rocket, Max got a kick out of that. 

After a tour around Julian's office, we got to visit the mission control room (just like Apollo 13) and watch a video detailing the Curiosity launch and mission to Mars. 

I never cease to be amazed by the fact that humans have put their minds together and come up with a way to propel objects into space...and in this case land them on another planet. 

Incredible.

Amidst the daily grind it is so easy to lose sight of what Julian really does each day. 

Managing the requirements for upper stage rocket engines is a pretty cool job.

Our alma mater, The California Institute of Technology, was also highlighted in the film.

It definitely brought back some fun memories from undergrad. 

Go Caltech!

Eli was a natural at mission control.

And our Max, he has such a heart for science already. 

He often builds rockets with his blocks and I hear his countdowns...

"5

4

3

ignition main engine

2

1

LIFT OFF!"

The first time I ever felt him kick, when I was about 20 weeks pregnant, I was sitting in an 8th grade science classroom watching the film "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions". I wondered if he particularly liked the sounds of the rocket launching.

He tells me every day he needs to go to work with Daddy to work on the rockets. 

I tell him he needs to start learning some physics. 

Only time will tell if this dream will hold, or if it will be replaced by another. 

I am so proud of Julian, the long years of education and hard work it took to reach his dream job.
It makes sense to me that our boys would want to be just like him.