Star Gazing

Last night my kids and I got up at 2:30 a.m. (that's not a mistake) to watch a meteor shower.  The Perseid Meteor Shower was able to be viewed all over the U.S. from about 1 a.m. until sunrise. My kids REALLY wanted to see it after they heard about it on the weather portion of the news. I wouldn't let them stay up until then, but I told Taylor he could set his alarm to get up to see it. He asked Claire if she wanted him to wake her up.  She said yes and asked him to wake her up by rubbing her back and if that didn't work then to "pinch the fool out of her."

So -  Taylor set the alarm and off we went to sleep.  At 2:30 I heard it go off.  He pushed snooze. Four minutes later, the alarm went off.  Again, he pushed the snooze button.  It was so funny, because I think he really wanted to go back to sleep but couldn't figure out how to get the alarm to stop beeping.  Anyway - the third time it went off he got up and brought it to me to turn off.  I got up with him and then we went to wake up Claire.

We all grabbed blankets and headed outside.  I got two Harris Teeter chairs and we planted them in the middle of the culdesac away from the bright street lamp.  We leaned our heads back and proceeded to look up at the stars.  It was a perfectly clear night and it took about five minutes for us to see a meteor streak across the sky. Some were brighter than others and we ended up seeing about 15 between us in the 35 minutes we stayed outside.  

After a while we decided to go back inside.  We all enjoyed the beauty and majesty of God's creation, but I think my kids thought it was cooler to get up in the middle of the night and go outside  - kinda like they were breaking the rules.  I am trying to go "outside the box" more with my kids in order to make some memories.  I think this is one they'll remember for a while.