Remember that time we built a rocket?

It was the Estes 1469 Tandem-X Launch Set. I bought it for my 6 year old nephew. I thought it would be fun for a Christmas Day project to build and launch a rocket. He opened it on Christmas morning and shouted "It's an Estes Rocket!!!!" so I was excited that I had bought a good gift. I had done research and read all the reviews, so I knew I needed to buy engines and recovery wadding. As soon as we were done with breakfast Charlie wanted to build the rocket. AWESOME!!!

It was awesome for about five minutes, until my brother realized that we needed plastic cement glue. Well... that wasn't something I read on the reviews and my parents didn't have anything that would substitute. So, I went on a trip to the only place that was open on Christmas Day - CVS. Yup, I'm THAT person. They didn't have a super glue that I could use, so I had to go to the OTHER CVS in town (so I'm THAT person twice). I bought the two types of super glue, had a nice conversation with the guy about the rocket, and headed to Dunkin Donuts to buy everyone some coffee/cocoa/milk/diet coke treats on the way home (and I'm THAT person three times, though I did give a nice tip to the D&D people since they were working on Christmas).

Ok, so now we had the glue and, at this point, Charlie had lost interest in the building of the rocket and was more excited about the rocket launch.

Rich and I began building the Amazon rocket. We went step by step following the pictures. HINT: Make sure you READ the notes that go with the pictures... we ended up not lining up the little hinges and used super glue, so we had to cut the rocket SHORTER because of this. So we made the cut, shortened the rocket and re-glued in the correct position! Bonus!!!

We finished the rocket and were getting ready for the rocket launch. Rich took a run and met us at the school. Charlie and Dad walked to the school while Scott rode his bike, and the rest of us met them at the school with the rockets and the cars. We walked out to the field, prepared for our rocket launch, and after we placed the rocket where we wanted it, we realized that the bottom that you take off to put the engine in, somehow ended up glued onto the rocket, so we couldn't put the engine inside. So... rocket launch #1 was a fail.

The field where we were going to launch the rocket!

We all piled in the cars and drove back to see if we could get it unstuck. Negative and I'm pretty sure Rich tried EVERYTHING to get it off... seems like that super glue from CVS was a win... So we did what we now knew how to do and we CUT the rocket AGAIN to force the engine in through the weakest link. At this point the rocket was about 2 inches shorter than originally, the stickers were no longer lined up, but we were able to get the engine in, and planned to do our rocket launch on Friday morning before we all left town.

Aunt Zilla, Charlie, and the rocket!

Friday we all got up, got packed up (Rich, Charlie, Lea and I were all leaving that day) and then headed over to the "launch site". Ignore the fact that I merged two videos together... you can tell which one is mine and which is Lea's, but it gives you the full rocket effect!

Next year we have the other rocket to build, and hopefully we will definitely read all the instructions in full before using the glue! All in all, though, it was a FUN project for Christmas day, so thanks Estes for entertaining the family for a day!

Oh and just another cute photo of my nephews in the Red Sox
shirts I got them!

How was YOUR Christmas?

Iceland Day 3 - Family Vacation 2014

Alright, here's the second Iceland post. You can read the family vacation summary here or the first Iceland post here.

On the third day of our vacation we did a little driving tour of Iceland. We started off by taking a scenic trip around a lake of some sort.

Stopped at the lake and decided to throw some rocks

We actually stopped because Charlie wanted to measure the sheep... too
bad he couldn't catch them to do that!

More rock throwing

It was really pretty

We then made our second stop at Þingvellir, which is where the continental divide is located... between North America and Europe! We did a little hiking, lost mom and Lea for a while, and ended up having lunch near the waterfall.

You're looking at Europe, we were standing on North America

This is when Mom and Lea decided to walk to the waterfall

We walked there later (What you can't see in this photo is the mark on my
forehead from taking my camera off, I caught it on my forehead... oops!)

The theme of the trip was photobombing... because really Charlie wouldn't smile in a
photo unless he though he was photobombing

After leaving Þingvellir, we drove to Geysir, which is where the first geyser was named/discovered. Charlie and Scott both got a gift from the shop. Charlie got a "dude" and Scotty got a T-shirt. Then we walked over to see the geyser.

This is the bigger Gey-sir. :)

Hopefully the video works. We had to wait there for 10 minutes for it, but it was really cool!

Scotty, mom and me waiting for Gey-sir

When we left Gey-sir, we drove up to Gulfoss to see the beautiful waterfall. Check out the fun photos, rainbow included!

Dad and Mom

Scotty and Dad

The ladies of the trip

Cute couple!

Photo bomb!

Me, Scotty and Charlie

It was a very nice day to finish off our trip to Iceland. You know when I think of Iceland I think it's supposed to be green compared to Greenland which is supposed to be ice. And while it is kind of green, it wasn't anything compared to the next portion of the trip in Switzerland. It was more of a brownish green and all the plant life was very close to the ground. I think you should take a trip to Iceland if you have the chance. As for me, I think I've checked it off my list :)

Iceland Days 1 & 2 - Family Vacation 2014

Heyyyy friends! So, remember when I gave an overview of my family vacation? Well, now you're going to see it broken down by day or days within the trip. There were so many amazing photos, I couldn't justify doing only one post. So you're going to get several! Sorry about that, I'll try to be light on the words and heavy on the pictures! 

We're going to start with Iceland days one and two, and Rich and Lea's first couple days before we got there. So I flew out of DC on August 19th at about 9PM. It was an overnight flight, so I arrived in the Keflavik/Reykjavik airport around 5:30AM on the 20th. While I was waiting for my parents to arrive, I got a small coffee (about 8 oz) and flatbread sandwich for 1500 Iceland Krona (roughly $12 USD). I was a little surprised at how expensive it was, but that wasn't the worst of it!

Once the parents arrived, we took our car and drove towards Selfoss (near where we were staying). I'm not sure how much you know about Iceland, but it's an island... of VOLCANOES! They have a lot of geothermal energy, which allows places in Iceland to be heated from the Earth's crust! 

First we stopped at the Blue Lagoon, which is heated by geothermal energy. It was absolutely crazy because it was 50 degrees out, but this water was hotter than a hot tub!

Look how light that water is!

That is a geothermal energy plant!

Me, Scotty, and Mom in the Blue Lagoon! It was really HOT!

Do we look like we didn't sleep last night?

After driving to Selfoss, we did a little grocery shopping then met Rich and Lea at the house! Pretty sure the groceries were RIDICULOUSLY expensive!

Love that Coke was doing the Name campaign in Iceland!

Here are a few photos from Rich and Lea's journey before we got there!

Cute fam!

Charlie!

Look at the cool glaciers!

Beautiful Waterfall and Rainbow!

Rich and Lea

Charlie and Lea

Charlie and Glaciers

We had to go to bed a little early that first day, which wasn't unexpected since we spent the whole previous night flying and I somehow managed to acquire a cold while traveling. On Thursday we woke up and drove to Landmannalaugavegur, South, Iceland for a little hike. Yeah I couldn't even BEGIN to tell you how to pronounce that. :) It was a bit of a drive from where we were staying, including some dirt roads that weren't properly taken care of... mom and dad skipped out of this one and instead went to go see the glaciers!

The nephews :)

Ohhhh selfie! Charlie, Scotty and me in the backseat!

Beautiful lake we got to see!

Scotty with the lake

Ok, check out the thing on the drivers side that looks like a snorkel... it IS a snorkel for a car...
apparently driving through water is normal in Iceland.

Scotty waiting for Rich and Lea to get a map

Charlie hanging out

I guess we'll follow the sign!

All that steam is from the geothermal energy. Oh and there's Rich.

Charlie and Lea

Me at the top of the hill :)

Scotty and Lea

Beautiful View, this picture doesn't even look real!

Lea and I made it to the bottom!

Beautiful little lake with a reflection!

Charlie with the reflecting lake!

After completing our hike, everyone  except me took a little dip in the geothermal heated river. I would have liked to take a dip, but since I had a cold and knew I would freeze AFTERwards I opted to take photos instead. I did stick my feet in and it was REALLY warm! :)

My brother and sister-in-law! love them!

Yup, Scott wore his t-shirt and hat in the river

Even though he didn't want to, Charlie ended up getting in

And having a lovely time!

Of course he located some sort of river wildlife :)

On our way home, we located this house that was totally covered in grass and moss. So, of course, we stopped! It was pretty cool!

If you look hard, you can see the house!

Mom and dad took their own little adventure. I'm not entirely sure where they went but I am pretty confident glaciers were involved! :)

Mom and a waterfall!

Mom and Dad

Some pretty view

So that was the first couple days in Iceland. Brace yourself, there will be several more posts on the vacation!