Saturday, December 19, 2020

Always Do The Crazy Things

 

Our crazy times in life make THE BEST memories. I fondly remember the year this Santa bought a large playhouse for her kids because it was on sale. She stored it in the backyard shed for two months. Then,  on Christmas Eve, once her elf was certain the kids were asleep, he went to get it to put it together and found the shed frozen shut! The craziness that ensued in the following hours are some of my favorite Christmas Even memories. As are every long road trip to do something random, 4 a.m. wake up calls during a pandemic to go star gazing, and this particular night we attempted to see the Northern Lights.

Seeing the aurora borealis has been on my bucket list for years. It's now on the middle mini's list as well. When we heard there was a chance of maybe seeing the lights on this clear night, we made our way to Whiterock Conservancy. After spending nap time that day reading about where we should go, we learned this is the place in Iowa for star gazing. We gathered all the info we could, made sure the skies would be clear, and at 9:30 p.m., well past bedtime, we drove over an hour.

It should come as no surprise that we didn't see the Norther Lights once we arrived (apparently, the lights never made it this far south), but we were able to do some superb constellation finding. We got magnificent views of the Milky Way, laughed as we stumbled around in the dark, and then realized that we were cold and needed in a snack...in the middle of nowhere. 

Since we got a late start, we stopped for coffees at a gas station. The dog cried because he could see Hubs in getting our coffee and then he cried because he didn't get anything.




At this point is was 11 p.m. I think we were all so tired, everything was funny. This one decided she wanted her blanket from the back of the car, but didn't want to put the seats down to get it. She crawled over, got stuck on the seats, and was failing around, shouting, "help me! Help me! My little legs are stuck!" My sides hurt from laughing so much.

The best selfie we could manage.

I didn't go to sleep until 2 a.m. and had to be up at 6 a.m. I was feeling rough, so I ordered donuts and coffees. Kids were happy, I was happy, and well caffeinated.

This was most definitely not our typical Wednesday night, but it might be one of my favorite ones we've ever had.