Blueberries

The boys have been bugging me to take them blueberry picking for months, and I have been putting them off telling them that we had to wait until they were ripe to pick them. Well, they are finally ripe so we packed up and drove to Mims. We met 3 of our friends and between the 4 adults there were 14 kids. We got some looks, but had a great time. I kept Merek in the front pack to keep tabs on him, but he was killing my back, so I let him down. He was having a great time. He picked, ate, ate mulch, stuck his finger down ant holes and wandered where ever he wanted. To say the least he quickly went back into the front pack and I endured the pain. We picked 12 lbs of berries. Tyler was on patrol for any berry that went into the bucket that wasn't ripe. He scolded me many times for picking green berries. Corbin disappreared with his friends. Rylan picked half a mini bucket and sat down and played in them. I really love picking blueberries. Especially with good friends. I might be able to attach pictures sometime...

Poetry

Corbin wrote a poem the other day. I think it is pretty good for a 7 year old.

I sit still in a quiet house
It is dark in the quiet house
The wind blows hard
All the leaves fall off the tree

Tyler

Corbin taught Tyler to ride a bike yesterday. I've never seen anything like it. Tyler did a great job. We went for a bike ride today to give Tyler some practice. He had no problem.

Corbin's Work

Corbin found a notebook I had laying around, and he has been hard at work.  Here are some of his entries...

Baby Update

Merek is walking.  I've been ordered to take a video, so someday I'll post that when I take it.  He is so funny about it.  Still not very sure, so he walks about 4-5 steps, gets down crawls for a couple feet, stands back up and walks 4-5 more steps.  He is most likely to walk outside.

I missed a great photo op today.  I took the kids to the park, Tyler and Rylan were blowing bubbles (soap kind) with the cutest little girl.  They were being so sweet. Rylan did have a major meltdown when I took the bubbles away from him to give back to the little girl. I also got to see Corbin interact with his good friend from school. Very interesting.  When he first noticed him, he came straight to me to report that he was there. Then he would run past where his friend was playing.  When his friend, Alex, talked to him, Corbin would keep on walking.  He kept Alex in  his sights.  It took about 30 minutes before they started to play together.

X-37B Launch

X-37B launched tonight.  Here is a little info about it...

Rocket Carrying Test Spacecraft Launches
Thursday, April 22, 2010 8:40:11 PM  
Reported by Margaret Kavanagh and Greg Pallone
 
CAPE CANAVERAL -- An Atlas V rocket carrying a new test spacecraft blasted off Thursday night, but what exactly it will do remains a secret.The Air Force has called the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle its newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft.The test vehicle remains shrouded in secrecy regarding exactly what it will do once it’s in space.
 
The Orbital Test Vehicle is nearly 10 feet long, has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet, weighs 11,000 pounds, and is the world’s second reusable spacecraft. Compare that to the first reusable spacecraft, the shuttles: Each shuttle is 184 feet long, has a wingspan of 78 feet, and weighs 4.5 million pounds. Shuttle payloads can go up to 64,500 pounds, while the OTV can only handle up to 500 pounds.
 
This “new” vehicle is not completely new. NASA laid the foundation back in the late 1990s, and handed the reins over to the Air Force in 2004. It was originally planned to launch from the payload bay of a shuttle, but that changed after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Tests were done in the mid-2000s, leading up to Thursday’s launch. The test vehicle is just like a shuttle in the way it returns through the atmosphere, descends and lands on a runway, but instead of astronauts controlling it onboard, it’s controlled remotely from the ground. In the future, planners said they hope to conduct experiments and rendezvous with other spacecraft, and stay in low Earth orbit for up to 270 days. This test falls under the Air Force umbrella, which means it is classified by the military. With that, much of the mission is secret, with no word on where the space plane is being controlled from, nor how long it will be in orbit until it lands in California.

Today's Landing