Thursday, August 15, 2013

A Meteor Shower Memory



What kind of crazy parents go wake their kids up just after midnight and pack everyone in the car and head to a boat landing to lay down in the muggy fish-smelling air and look up to the heavens? Yep - we did it, and God bless David, he came with us - that is love.

We had the car packed with blankets and pillows and an August sky chart so we could see a constellation and hopefully a sign or two of the meteor shower. There was great anticipation in our house, especially among all of the females, about getting up in the middle of the night to go see the stars! And, hopefully see one zooming across the sky as we witnessed one of the marvels of God's amazing creation.

Before going to bed the night before, we read Zoo in the Sky and talked about constellations and what to expect. I painted white paper bags and had candles, a flashlight and my camera ready. {see my Pinterest inspiration board here}

In the end, I think we decided that the excitement of going was a bit more fun than the actual going - but we certainly did make a memory together! In the middle of the dark night under a partly cloudy sky, we did see the streaks of light and beauty we had hoped for. Not in the quantity our minds had worked up to hope for but they were there. We lay down side by side and smelled the marshy sour air and heard cars go by on the bridge next to us and wondered what all these other people were doing out in the middle of the night!


I tried to take some pictures - but it did not work well - here is the only picture that shows a star. Yes, one single tiny star is the light spot on the completely black rectangle below although of course our eyes could see many more stars!


I lit these candle luminaries when we got home! Just had to at least experience them - took these photos in the middle of the night :)




Moon photo at the top is from the next night between the trees from our front yard! The sky is so amazing! And, what a fun memory! Though the next morning, I asked Samuel if he remembered getting up in the night to see the stars and he said, "No!" I'm not sure he ever fully woke up!