Playing hooky - Friday 1/20/06

Since Mommy had already worked more than enough this week, she took the day off from work and Jack took the day off from school. We went to a place called Tumbling Toddlers and Jack had a lot of fun.




Jack started the day with a good healthy breakfast of yogurt and fruit. He fed himself the yogurt, which was a little bit messy.

Shelley in Costa Rica

Unfortunately I have to stay in Costa Rica for one more day. We are working on a mission called CRAVE - Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment. The other WB-57 is flying a sensor for the Pluto New Horizon's rocket launch in Florida and since that mission slipped, so did the arrival of my replacement and subsequently my return home. I'm ready to get home to my boys. I miss them very much!


Here is a group picture of everyone in Houston for the instrument integration work. There are many more people down here in Costa Rica because the group includes more aircraft instrument scientists, balloon instrument scientists, Aura satellite instrument scientists and meteorologists.

Here is a picture of me in the cockpit during the preflight instrument upload before yesterday's flight.

Here is a picture of the WB-57 before takeoff yesterday with beautiful Costa Rica in the background.

Monday MLK Holiday 1/16/06

Daddy says Jack has been playing under the kitchen desk today. Mommy is in Costa Rica for work and is missing Jack very much!

Sunday – Playtime at the park

Sunday was a beautiful day in Houston. The high temperature was 77, so we went to the park in the afternoon. Jack loved the swings and smiled a lot when we played on them. We also played on the slide, on the see-saw, and on the merry-go-round (until Daddy got dizzy).

Saturday – Emma’s birthday party

On Saturday, we all went to Emma Wagenknecht’s 6^th birthday party. It was held at a local gymnasium called Acrosports and there were probably 20 kids there age 6 or younger. It was crazy, but the kids had a great time and burned off a lot of energy. Jack was able to bounce around on some trampoline-type things and hang off the parallel bars. Other than that, he mostly just ran around and played with some plastic disks that were on the floor. They had a big foam pit similar to one in Austin. At the end, the older kids played with a big parachute and Emma was the star of the show.

Mischief in the highchair

When we were in Minnesota, Jack loved to slide down in Grandma’s old fashioned highchair (the same one his Mommy sat in!). We made the mistake of laughing the first few times he did this, so he continued to do it many times at every meal. This morning in his own high chair, Jack would clamp down on the spoon when eating his yogurt so Daddy couldn’t get it out of his mouth. We all thought that was funny.

New Years Day

The Baccus boys got sick after Christmas, so we had to cancel the party we had planned for New Years Day. Luckily, they felt well enough to host Nana, Granddad, and Auntie Melanie for dinner. We got take-out BBQ and had a nice evening.

Jack's new house

One of Jack’s new toys from Christmas is a Fischer Price doorway. It is so cute. It has a working porch light, doorbell, mailbox, rainspout, radio, and many more fun items. It comes with three balls that you can put down the rainspout and then they roll around in a little dish that catches them at the bottom. There is even a little lever that gets activated when the balls fall down that counts the balls and plays a little song. I’ve been trying to teach Jack how to put the balls down the rainspout, but he won’t do it on his own. He quickly figured out, though, that he can slide his hand in the spout sideways to activate the little lever to get it to count and play the song. Smart kid.

More pictures from Minnesota

Grandma bought Jack a great sled and he loved being pulled around the living room in it.

Cousins meet for the first time!

Comin' at ya!

Although you wouldn't guess from his expression, Jack loves bathtime. We just need to get some baby gel and make his hair stay this way all of the time.

Pictures from Minnesota

Here are some pictures from our Christmas trip to Minnesota. Enjoy!

Grandma and Jack watching the cars go by from the sunroom.

Daddy and Jack in their matching outfits. :)

Jack's first experience with dogs - Hobey licked his hand like crazy!

Sisters with their boys on Christmas day!

Grandma with Espen and Shelley with Jack.

Welcome to the Baccus Family blog

Happy New Year! This is the beginning of the Baccus Family blog site. Here is a picture of us playing in the snow in Minnesota during our Christmas vacation. Feel free to post comments!