We had dinner in the dark and then we said goodnight to Aaron, Gus and the dogs. I wanted to go out and take photos of the stars and I asked Reed and Lena if they’d like to go. I got two very enthusiastic yeses.

We went on a little walk to get to where I wanted to take photos. We took some test shots, and I got everything set up for star trails. Star trails require an exposure of at least 30 minutes or at least 30 minutes worth of multiple exposures edited together. So, this was going to take awhile.

The three of us just saw down in the grass and talked.

I asked them what they had questions about. Fascinated with the Big Dipper, the questions began. “Are all dippers the same?” “What if the dippers were connected, would that look funny?” “Are all dippers in the same place or are they all over?” No matter how many times I told them that it was just the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and even pointed them out, the questions went on and on. Eventually, I successfully changed the subject.

Instead, we talked about our host girl. We talked about our favorite things about everyone in our family. We talked about school. We talked about what I can do better as a mom. How even grown ups make mistakes. We talked about so much. There is something about being in the dark that makes everything come out. It was really good and I think we all walked away more connected.

I chose the option of many 20 second exposures, and was able to put this together from our time talking. 128 20-second exposures.

They really wanted to take some photos with a flashlight, so we did that before heading back to our tent. I was really glad that we got that time together.

I ended up staying up for awhile after returning them to the tent. Just looking at the stars and taking some shots. It is such a wonderful thing to just look up at the stars and pray. It was a really great night.