A few days before the twins birthday, we went to a park to celebrate Austin, Alaina and Jojo's big day.  Mark barbecued up a bunch of seriously huge hotdogs and Lora made a couple of awesome cakes.

Happy Birthday Austin and Alaina

16 years old!

(and Jojo!  8 years old)

Cousins!

Then, for Austin's and Alaina's birthday, we had our people talk to some other people, and before we knew it, we had NASA and SpaceX come together to arrange for the first American astronauts to go into space from American soil since 2011.

It ain't no thang.

So, we went to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center.  

After going through the center, we joined the rest of everyone in the million degree weather and did our best to keep social distancing a thing.  In reality, with the number of people there, everyone really did a good job giving each other room.

I was surprised at how exciting the whole launch was.  The whole place was electric with excitement. 

As soon as the countdown started, everyone was on their feet, counting down together.  And then....Blast off!

And, poof!  Just like that...The Falcon 9 rocket was out of this world.

As soon as it launched, everyone started shouting 'USA,' 'USA,' 'USA!'  and the feeling was very unifying and patriotic.  Just earlier that month George Floyd was killed and race riots had been rocking the country.  I wish more people could have been there with us, Americans of all races and colors, coming together to celebrate this extraordinary event.  

We certainly don't live in a perfect country, but we have done amazing things.  We have evolved as a young country faster than countries that have been around for thousands of years.  We have gotten better and, together, we have created a country that I have always been so proud to be a part of.  Can we improve?  Of course.  Can we still change?  I'm counting on it.  

Together we can do hard things and together we can do great things.

I was so glad that we were able to share this moment with our kids.

 

When Covid-19 hit China, Lora and her family were on vacation in Singapore.  By the end of their vacation, they were not allowed back to China.  They went first to California to spend time with Mark's parents and then on to Utah to stay with our parents.  At the end of May they went back to Florida to help Mark get ready to return to China, and then to prepare themselves to follow him whenever they would be allowed to do so.  Staying by themselves in Florida and trying to jump through all the hoops that they would have to jump through, we knew that it would be easier if we could go down and help her.  

So we packed up and stayed in a hotel close to their hotel.  It was so fun to see them after so long.

Before Mark left, we took a day and went to the beach.  It turned out to be a lovely afternoon with hardly anyone else on the beach.

Another after we took the kids to Universal.  They had such a good time with their cousins.  And, just like the beach, there were not very many people there either.  Even so, they did a great job of implementing rules and distancing for everyone who was there.