Starry, Starry Night

Being the budding astronauts that we are{not that I can actually spell the word without Spellchecker}, we went to a Starfest Saturday night to learn more about the sky above us. The first talk was about Kepler. The man informed us that what he was about to say wouldn't include any math, but then he proceeded to show us this:

That looks like math to me.

The Starfest was held at Katie's college but unfortunately, she couldn't go because her Saturday calendar included bridal showers and cook-outs. She's such a social butterfly. However, her parents came and brought children numbers 4,6,7,8,9,10 and 11. Anna blessed us with her cuteness.

We went on a very interesting walk where a basketball representing the sun was placed on top of a trashcan{very classy} and we'd walk ___ number of steps away to visualize how far each planet is from the sun and from the other planets. The guide would then show us a teeny, tiny ball that was scaled{in relation to the sun basketball}to the size of that planet. We only went Saturn due to the fact we'd have to walk all the way to another town to have the other planets accurately measured, but it was so cool to see how little the planets really are compared to the sun and each other.

Anna didn't understand that portion of the night and found it much more entertaining to make faces at me.

At the end of the night, we were able to look through binoculars and telescopes out in the field. It was slightly disappointing because it didn't seem as if I couldn't see much more than when I looked straight at the sky, but it was interesting nonetheless. One thing I discovered on Saturday night was yet another bonus of having a large family...your chances of winning prizes sky-rockets. Between the 9 O's there, they won 5 of the items being raffled. The rest of us didn't even have a chance.

In other weekend news:

* I received a reply letter from James who's in training in Georgia. Here's how the letter started: "Hello,Sarah, I wasn't expecting to get a letter from you". I don't understand that. I mean, I'm only the person who drove him home from school at least 60 times last year so he wouldn't have to walk home in the cold. I'm only the person who took it upon myself to become his self-appointed sort-of sister because he has four brothers and needed a little help in life. How could I not write to him?

* Joanna and I went to her sister's/our friends church on Sunday morning to hear reports on the missions trip some of them just took to the Dominican Republic. Joanna was holding her little nephew Nathan during the service and every time the music would start he'd raise his little arms and wave them all around. He'd make a great Pentecostal baby.