In Which Abe Turns 43 and Goes to Space Camp

In what can only further solidify our position as one of geekiest families on the planet, we went to space camp for Abe's 43rd birthday last night. 
Not the whole family, mind you... we'll wait till Clark gets back for that.  No, we invited a few of our friends who we trusted would still like us after it was all said and done. 

 IT WAS AWESOME!!! Super fun!  I suppose the activity is mostly intended for children (it is located in an elementary school), but they can scale it for adults and it's really quite a riot.  It is stressful at times! I suppose it can best be described as being in a real life Star Trek episode.  If you're into Star Trek, which actually, I'm not, but I love space camp anyway.

Our captain giving us an inspirational speech before we began the mission.

Evan and Jeff--The security team.

Camille was the clear choice for tactical.  She just really wanted to blow things up.

Candice handled communications-- she was kept hopping!

They Thygersons kept busy with damage control.  Who knew there would be so much damage to control!

Keith was a no-brainer for engineer.  He is an engineer in real life and the coach of the robotics team. So...he didn't get much choice in the matter.  Keith and Camille are doing their training before the mission began.

Michelle was the helm (pilot) who safely steered us through some very tricky situations.

Frankly, some most of us had no clue what was going on most of the time, but no matter.  It was still so much fun.  I was the Captain's First Officer.  I was pretty much a waste of space on the ship as far as my usefulness, but once again, no matter. 

I do think they should invest in some adult size captain's uniforms.  These were a stretch (pun intended).

It's a pretty awesome setup.  The whole experience is great for working on problem solving.  Like when our ship got boarded and we all got stunned and had to leave the bridge.  Fortunately we were locked in a part of the ship where our armory was kept.  We got a hold of some guns and we took the Orion pirates down!  Action packed!

Captain Fox with Chief-of-Operations, Kendall.  I loved how Abe had nicknames for all his crew.  Kendall was just "Chief".  Michelle the Pilot was "M" and I was the First Officer "Number One" or "Hot One".

After the two and a half hour mission, we enjoyed dinner at Pizzeria Limone. 
Happy Birthday, Captain Fox!  I do love this adventure with you!