FL Trip Day 4 Cont.

So we get the crew of kids and Glenn all ready for the Antonelli astronaut reception. The cool part of it is that they have it at the Kennedy Space Center in one of the buildings so we are surround by space stuff. We make our way to the gates and get let in as the kids are immediately recognized. Their is a large Soyuz spacecraft hanging in the main entrance hall and it really adds to the atmosphere. We check in at the main table and then take our photo with the "flat Tony" a life-sized poster of Tony in his orange flight suit. Tonight all the crew is in quarantine and it it the astronauts family and friends who gather tonight to celebrate this monumental event for the Antonelli family. We also get to sign a special page that is going to be made into a book for Tony to take with him when he goes up. It has all the names and well wishes of his guest from the reception. We also got a bag of cool swag, wrist bracelets, STS-119 mission tattoos, pictures, stickers and other NASA stuff. Glenn gets a metal pin of the patch, and I get one with loop on it so I can wear it as a necklace. The friends and family had a great time, very casual and sharing stories of how they know the family or are family and their excitement over tomorrows launch. We also get to see a fun slide show of photos of Tony growing up and going into the astronaut core. At around 8:30 PM most the kids had eaten their fill of the hours devours and got some good play time in. We ended up taking all 5 of them back to the hotel to wait for Janeen. Then we had an impromptu sleep over so she could do the night viewing of the shuttle. This is when the family (at like 1:30 AM) gets taken over to see the shuttle lit up on the pad, while the crew looks on (at the same time) in a different location. It is a real neat NASA tradition kind of thing. The kids, Glenn & I then made it back to our hotel at around 8:00AM, looking forward to the launch later that day. The kids get their break and play in the pirate pool/ then a quick dip in the ocean on Coco Beach, me with astronaut Michael Foreman (family support for Antonelli's), us with the flat Tony, kids in front of the reception poster at KSC.