outta this world

Literally!  My papa works at ATK where the rocket boosters are make for the space shuttle.  On Saturday they had a "once in a lifetime" open house and I just couldn't turn down the opportunity to spend time with my dad and sister so I ditched Coby {he had class :( } and drove up north for the afternoon.

that's my papa and cute little sister and behind them are the transporters that  are used to move pieces of the rocket booster.  That is HALF of the transporter for ONE segment of rocket booster...you do the  math.  These things are HUGE!

Legit moon rock.  I know, you're jealous of my ridiculous photography skills...

ATK has their own fire department, their a pretty big deal.  I'm pretty sure that everything up there revolves around avoiding explosions/taking care of explosions once they've occurred, which may be a good idea considering the amount of explosives they work with.

This is the control room where they run the test launches.  Let me tell you, those rocket boosters have some umph and they take every precaution to prevent something bad happening.  This room is underground and has like two foot thick cement walls.  There was also a large red abort button in the center of the control panel.  NBD.

And this, folks, this is a rocket booster.  It's flippin HUGE!  It hold something like 180 tons of explosives or some crazy amount like that{my dad told me but I can't remember}.

See those white deals with flames?  Rocket booster.  It makes me pretty proud that my papa has helped people go into space for the last 20+ years.  he's a pretty awesome dad and I'm so glad I got to spend the day with him and see a little more of what he does.  Thanks Dad!

Summatime!

...is kinda over.  Sorry we have been MIA, we have just been having too much fun soaking up every minute of our last few weeks of freedom...that are now over.  Before I completely sell my soul to my masters program, I thought I would post a summer recap of pics {minimal effort ya know?}

We wanted to go camping all month but could never find a free weekend so we made due with what we had and roasted s'mores over our easy-bake-oven.  The red burners didn't quite have the same effect as a campfire but they did roast the marshmallows more evenly than any campfire I've ever seen.

At the beginning of August we went up to Bear Lake to Coby's parents' cabin for a little reunion and some R&R.  It was beautiful up there and so much fun to spend a few days away from the city and enjoying family and the outdoors.

We went on a little hike with the family up to an old, big tree.  I can't say the tree was super thrilling but the hike was pretty!

We went on a pretty long four-wheeler ride with Coby's sister and brother-in-law.  It was the perfect day for four-wheeling and we had tons of fun them.

I was driving but then Coby switched me...I guess he was just not up to my crazy four-wheeling skills...

We went to a Beez game with our friends, The Wojo's {nice face by the man in yellow} and Coby explained all the secret rules of baseball to me.  I swear that baseball, for being such a boring  slow sport, has the most crazy rules of any sport, ever.

We went to Seven Peaks where we saw a squirrel rummaging through some ladies backpack.  I really was gonna scare it away but I HAD to get a picture first.

We also rode the blue slide.  I rode once and pretty much thought I was gonna die but Coby went three times cause apparently he likes free-falling and water up his nose.  He was actually on the slide when I took this picture but, thanks to my amazing photography skills, you can't actually see him...

We ended the summer with a barbecue and wiffle ball tourney with friends and a few late night movies.  After such a fun month I was definitely not ready for it to end but I guess all good things come to an end eventually ya?  I just have that much more to look forward to for Summer 2014.