Lagoon 2009

Every year the company I work for has a family Lagoon day. This year I was able to bring my Parents, Melissa and her family. This year it was also my parents stake Lagoon day so Troy and Angie were able to come as well. It was pretty fun. Jake and Zoe had a blast. They are finally getting big enough to ride some of the funner rides.

Missy and Zoe on Puff

The Tilt-a-whirl was a blast. The kids were big fans.

Waiting for the train.

Jake and Zoe on the Train.

Me and Jake on the scrambler. Another one of his favorite.

Missy and Zoe were stuck on the ride.

Missy couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of the ride.

Fortunately for them Jake walked right up to them and was able to let them out.

Jake showing grandpa his new favorite ride.

Zoe still loves the Merry go round

Zoe did really good on in the bumper cars. She was able to avoid getting hit most of the time and had no trouble with the controls. I guess driving her jeep in grandpa's back yard taught her a few things.

At the end of the night we just couldn't resist playing in the fountains. Troy started it by trying to go through them without getting wet. Zoe had to try to and did pretty good following him around. Although she didn't exactly stay dry while doing it.

Perseid Meteor Shower

The Perseid meteor shower should start tonight for anyone interested in that sort of thing. According to the article the best time to watch in North America will be between midnight and 5am tonight. Although meteors can be seen throughout the night.

Here is a link to an article that explains the origins of the Perseid meteor shower.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090811/sc_space/strongmeteorshowerexpectedtonight

I did a little research into the Perseid meteor shower and found it quite interesting. Here are a few of the facts I found.

"the Comet Swift-Tuttle, whose debris creates the Perseids is the largest object known to make repeated passes near Earth. It's nucleus is about 6 miles across, roughly equal to the object that wiped out the dinosaurs"

"astronomers calculate that the comet Swift-Tuttle and Earth might experience a cosmic near miss (within 1 million miles) in the year 3044"

"When a Perseid particle enters the atmosphere it compresses the air in front of it which heats up. The meteor in turn can be heated to more than 3,000 degrees fahrenheit. The intense heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars. Most become visable at around 60 miles."

"the Comet Swift-Tuttle was last seen in 1992, prior to that, it had last been seen in the year it was "discovered" by american astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle in 1862"

"the Comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit has been traced back nearly 2000 years and is now thought to be the same comet that was observed in 188AD and possibly even as early as 69 BC"

"the Comet Swift-Tuttle is due back in the year 2126"

Nature Camera Pictures

We bought my dad a nature camera for his birthday this year. It's a digital camera that has a protective case so you can mount it outside. The camera has sensors that when triggered will take pictures. We thought this would be a fun idea with all the tracks that we have found up on their property this year. Below are just a few pictures from the camera. Looks like they have a mom and twin baby deer running around the property.

We are going to try and move it to a different location soon and see if we can get some shots of the moose too.