Moms in Spaaaaace!

I have a friend.  In fact, I have several friends.  But tonight I will discuss one friend in particular.  Many of you may know her as Andrea Flynn, but to me, she is my captain.

Andrea likes adventure.  A few weeks back my very politically active, conservative father called me.  A well known conservative in the state of Utah had asked his assistance in looking for someone to temporarily fill in as a producer for a weekly radio program.  He asked me, did I know anyone who might be able to do that?  Actually, I do know someone who loves new experiences, isn't afraid of anything and might be available.  Andrea!

Now I don't want to brag or anything, but okay... I can't help myself.  This is me glorying in something I had absolutely nothing to do with and is no reflection of any effort on my part whatsoever.
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The guy who rang the bell-- who is the guy standing next to Steve Wozniak is our good friend, David Flynn.  He's married to Andrea.  His company, Fusion-io went public on June 9th.  It's very exciting.  And once again, I had nothing to do with it, but am glorying in it nonetheless.  Andrea looks so professional, so classy, so arrived.  Here's the great thing about her-- I think she was just as excited to do a space camp mission with her friends as she was to be up on the platform at the NYSE.  Maybe not quite as excited, but she was excited.  Talk about unaffected.

So when Andrea told me a little while back that she wanted to gather a group of her mom friends and go to space camp--- I was super excited, but not the least bit surprised that Andrea would think of such an adventure. 
Our boys have gone to space camp for years together.  They love it, they rave about it, they try to build their own simulator and write their own missions.  Quite frankly, I don't think they thought we mamas were smart enough for space camp.  Were they right?  We were about to find out.

We were assigned our positions and given our uniforms.  Andrea was the obvious and correct choice for Captain.  She is our leader.  She is cool under pressure.  I wasn't actually assigned my position as I volunteered for the position with the most action.  Come on, you know I don't get out that much.  I needed excitement.  Fire power, preferably.

Christine is glamorous wherever she goes.  Entry on the the U.S.S. Voyager was no exception.

  I was the Left Wing Officer.   I was in charge of defense (aka firepower!), engines, shields, and power distribution.  I loved my job!   I'm thinking of giving up the home-schooling-mother-gig and joining Star Fleet full-time.

Jennilyn and Erin were the security crew.  Don't let those sweet smiles fool you.  These mamas had laser guns and they weren't afraid to use them.  And yes, the ship was invaded and they saved us!

Grace (left) had serious work to do.  She was damage control.  This is muy importante, as you know a ship cannot operate safely if the port side shields are down!  I thought my mind would explode when the warp engines went down!!!  But she was diligent and allowed us to complete our mission.  Stephanie (right) was the sensors officers.  Her job was to raise her arm and shout, "Captain!" a lot and give important information.  

Adrianne (middle tier) was the Right Wing Officer-- mostly in charge of navigation and transporting.  The year was 2384, so of course we had that kind of technology.  She saved the mission a few times with her quick transporting.   Becci up top was the ship's engineer.  She made sure we had enough power to the ship.  Clark specifically told me I would not be right for engineer.  Once again, did he think I was not smart enough for that job? Actually, he told me I should be a security officer because, "I like putting people in the brig (time-out)."

Clark, did it ever occur to you that I would rather not have to put people in time-out?  I would rather everyone behaved themselves so I never had to put anyone in time-out?  But I digress.

Christine (bottom tier) was Uhura.  You know, the beautiful communcations officer in Star Trek.  You all know what a trekkie I am.  Anyway, she was lovely and she said charming things, like okie-dokie, to the alien space forms that contacted us. 

On the captain's deck we had Captain Andrea and her First Officer, Tewie.  They were fine leaders.  Oh, Captain!  My Captain! James Tiberius Kirk has got nothing on Andrea Flynn!

All right, seriously-- this was fun.  I admit it was hard for me to wrap my brain around when Clark would come home so excited.  I just didn't quite understand what they did and why was it sooooo fun.  I get it now.  I want to go on a group date with Abe for more space camps.  There are other missions.  There are other ships.  There are other galaxies to explore!!!!!

Dinner afterward with fancy drinks-- ooh la la!  What a beyond enjoyable afternoon and evening.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Andrea!!!!!