Museum Of Flight!

I knew that I wanted the first official day of summer vacation to be really low key, but I also wanted to jump at the chance to go somewhere before all the other schools got out for summer. So that first Friday of summer break we headed out to the Museum of Flight. Our passes that we bought for the Aviation Museum in McMinnville Oregon were good for the Museum of Flight as well. 

The kids were surprisingly excited about going which made our day even better! 

When we got there they had this awesome set up that was all about the moon. There was this special viewing area that had the lunar module in it, but it would have cost $10 per person so we passed on that. At the time I didn't realize that July 20th is exactly 50 years since we first landed on the moon. Since then I've read a book all about Neil Armstrong and I just find the whole thing fascinating! 

Each of the kids got a chance to sit in a fighter plane. 

I love how Ella's body language shows that she is so not into this!!! :) 

Jack, Owen, Zeke and I all participated in this VR where we got to actually get in one of the command modules that went to the moon. One word....SMALL!!!! 

I was looking at the brochure they give out and it had a section that talked about this fun homeschool area. I thought it would be worth checking out. Zeke learned about how airplanes have to balance the weight with passengers and luggage. He had to use these different sized metal washers to balance the plane out. 

Owen and Jack both when through a preflight checklist to see if this plane was safe to fly. It was not!!! 

Other activities included playing a super old flight game, tracing constellations & sorting rocks by type. They even had a 3D printer! The lady was trying to get it to print something so we could see it, but it was giving her grief. She told us to check back later, but when we did she was on break. 

Sitting in an old airplane that smelled musty! 

Re-entry! 

Silly astronauts!!! 

We played in the kid area for a bit. It had a mission control area where you could talk back and forth with the command module. 

After that we went to the tower so we could watch some planes land and then we headed outside to eat lunch. 

After lunch we decided to go over the skybridge to check out the big airplanes! 

The boys are racing! This is before I saw the no running sign! 

I had been over to see all these planes years ago, but a lot has changed!! There is a whole building with a space shuttle inside! Also the planes outside have a nice cover now so you don't get soaked when it's raining! 

Air Force One that Lyndon Johnson rode on. 

A 747!!! I was so excited!!! I've never been in one before. Owen was so happy that one of my dreams was coming true. Sadly they didn't let us go upstairs! 

They had this fun Alaska Airlines area for the kids to pretend. 

Driving the fuel to the plane! 

Oh no...the pilots asleep on the job!!! 

I'm pretty sure the fuel guys don't actually ride on the trucks like this! 

Pilot & Co-Pilot! 

That is definitely NOT safe!! :) :) 

Checking in! 

Going through security....look at that line! :) 

Ella would make a great Alaska Airline employee! 

Once we were finished looking at the planes the kids were ready to leave. I was hoping they would be!!! I told them the nice thing about having passes means we can come back anytime until the end of August. I'm pretty sure we'll go back one more time and check out the WWI and WWII exhibits!