Swimmingly

INTO THE DEEP: A sure sign of summer coming is the outdoor community swimming pool opening up. In our case, that means Pop Mounger pool in 'downtown' Magnolia. It wasn't exactly hot (63 was the high) today, but it was sunny, so the kids jumped at the chance to have Christian take them for their first swim of the season there. It was a good call.

"You couldn't ask for a better day at the pool," said Christian, afterward. 

Hardly any people (just seven or eight besides the MPA crowd), no wind (unusual for that location) and the water was warm (85 degrees). And the best part - the kids both passed the deep water swim test, which required swimming two widths of the pool, nonstop. Having passed the test, it means now they can go in the deep end without Christian having to be literally within an arm's length.

Christian captures some action shots. Here's CJ sliding head first into the pool. 

Better yet, here's a link to an animated GIF! http://i.picasion.com/pic77/fe2b559c2ddd66f600f005be7d4cf370.gif

Of course, Annabelle had to do it, too.

And here's her animated GIF...http://i.picasion.com/pic77/fc0b373f117849cb196abbd249b21742.gif

ROAD WARRIORS: We took a field trip from Friday through Sunday, down south to Vancouver, USA. Christian and I had a little construction project there. The kids had some quality grandparents time, which included the gift of a new game, a Tetris-themed version of Jenga. 

On our way home, it was May 18, the anniversary of Mt. St. Helens' enormous eruption in 1980.
Our path took us over the Toutle River. We pointed out the ash deposits still on the riverbanks, and tried to explain to the kids what the river looked like in the aftermath of the eruption. Pictures do a better job of that, like this one, from the United States Geological Survey.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: NASA announced today that it's ready to begin construction on a future Martian lander under the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. Scheduled to launch in March of 2016, the lander will pierce the Martian surface and dig down, to study its interior. 

Image Credit: 

NASA

Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) of France and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) of Germany are partnering with NASA by providing InSight's two main science instruments. Per the announcement, "The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) will be built by CNES in partnership with DLR and the space agencies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It will measure waves of ground motion carried through the interior of the planet, from "marsquakes" and meteor impacts. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, from DLR, will measure heat coming toward the surface from the planet's interior."

In today's press release, NASA also reiterated its goal of sending a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.
WHAT A VIEW: We have been reminiscing this week about the fourth anniversary of STS-132, the one and only space shuttle launch we witnessed with our own eight eyes. A few days ago, NASA posted this look back shot at the mission, taken on May 16, 2010, from the ISS. 

It's Atlantis, with its payload doors wide open, in orbit. Can you guess where over Earth they were at the time?

(credit: NASA-JSC)

Did you guess the Andes Mountains, near the border of Argentina and Chile? You can also see Rio Atuel in the valley in the lower right of the photo and Caldera de Atuel Caldera near the center of the image, by the port payload bay door.