So I bought Conner a model rocket set for his eighth birthday. For those of you who have never had the joy of the model rocket experience, let me enlighten you. They’re probably one of the most dangerous and frustrating toys on Earth. You spend hours setting everything up for five minutes of fun, hoping you don’t blast your hand off the entire time. In other words, pure awesome. How many other opportunities do small children have to play with explosives AND send objects hundreds of feet into the air?

I remember playing with these things when I was a kid up in Crystal Lake. We’d go out to this remote field on the outskirts of town to launch them. Invariably we never came back with as many rockets as we left with, but it was always a great time regardless. Come to think of it, rockets are one of the few toys that you really don’t get too upset about when you lose them, most likely because something amazing happened right before it left you. I remember modifying one of my rockets to accept the biggest engine I could find in the stores. Never saw that fella again, he vanished over the horizon in a blaze of glory. I also remember making my own rocket out of a toilet paper tube and some plastic bottles. As it turns out, shoving an engine in something vaguely rocket shaped is not enough to make it behave rocket like. Luckily nobody lost an eye to that one.

I wasn’t sure how well the boys would enjoy this, but they thought it was great. As soon as the thing took off they took off with it, instinctively chasing it across the field as it drifted back to Earth. We never did manage to catch one, but we got close! All told we had six successful flights, and like any good rocket the final flight was it’s last. He also vanished over the horizon in a blaze of glory, never to be seen again. It was a good day.

P.S… The top album has a few pictures in them. The bottom one is a link to the videos I took. Enjoy!