a night at the observatory

How to get a great picture of a group:
1. Go to the observatory and get some of these nifty glasses and ask all of your subjects to put them on
2. Have a camera with a flash at the ready
3. Point that camera, with a flash at your peeps
4. Watch them smile and shout with joy over the beautiful rainbow colors shooting all around their eyeballs!!

I was in the second shot which is the top picture in this post, I was expecting the cool colors but was still so surprised when they happened, which was twice since I have a preflash (for redeye) and then the real flash, I thoroughly enjoyed them both. What a crack up. Truthfully I wish I had video of this moment because after I was just cracking up over all the comments and sounds that everyone made once the picture was over.

This was the beginning of an amazing evening. It began with a very cloudy and rainy day. I had been praying since the day before this trip that the skies would clear so we could behold the majesty of the heavens that God created...and you would not believe it but it was cloudy all the way down and when we reached Seattle, specifically the U of W campus, it was COMPLETELY CLEAR for us! I felt in awe as we reached there because we would be able to see the heavens! WOO HOO! We were treated to a funducational (as my kids say it) talk on Einstein and the imagination by a sophomore psychology student. As the darkness moved in we were moved outside and into the observatory. There were a couple of students with telescopes set up outside and since the line was long inside that is where we headed first. What an incredible moment, looking through that lens and seeing SATURN!!! So beautiful, so awesome, so much better than a photo in a book. I cannot explain why, but it filled me with awe of my creator, how He hung this beautiful gem in the sky for our enjoyment. We had an opportunity to also go up to the observatory and see the planet again. This is something we definitely plan to do more through the summer, it was a wonderful outing and a joy that we went with friends and family!