I love star-gazing so much. While Scott and I were dating, and even up through some of my pregnancy with Melia, the nights we couldn't sleep and were bored we'd go find a spot (mainly Provo temple since we lived in Provo) and stay up, or fall asleep, star-gazing. We'd pack up a few blankets, lay out on the grass, snuggle and talk about a lot of different things and just watch the stars. I'd always been looking for the shooting stars and always made a wish. I've wished on shooting stars ever since I can remember and I just am filled with excitement and joy every single time I see one.
You can imagine, now, that the Perseid Meteor Shower last week was an exciting thing for me and something I didn't want to miss. However, since having Melia, Scott and I haven't had a chance to go star-gazing. It's just hard to do when bedtime is 8:30pm for Little Miss. Fairly last minute, I just decided we were going to make it work. I asked my parents if they would watch Melia overnight so Scott and I could have a late night date star-gazing. They said yes, and off we went. We had a couple blankets in the car, and were off to one of our star-gazing spots from when we were dating. This place is in Pleasant Grove and it's a trail head. The last time Scott and I were there, we actually witnessed a fire break out and watched all the emergency vehicles as the workers did their jobs. It was pretty exciting. We pulled up to this place at about 9:20pm and realized we didn't have any flashlights...so we drove all the way back to our home and got back around 9:45pm. We went to pick out our spot and as we were just finally settled down on our blanket we heard, about 20 feet away from us, a rustling sound and a sudden barking growl. It was short, loud and gravelly sounding and it was terrifying. I hadn't heard anything like it and it felt so close to me I immediately shot straight up, looking in the direction of the sound and asked Scott what it was. He replied with, "We're just leaving. Right now." No questions asked, I snatched a blanket and we rushed to the car. As we were walking, Scott told me it was one of two things; a cougar or a bobcat. This frightened me even more. We were definitely in their territory and the spot we chose to lay down was right at the tree line of the mountain. So naturally, we googled "Sounds of bobcats" and "Sounds of cougars" to compare. We ruled that it was definitely a bobcat with the level of force behind the growl; not as strong or loud as a cougar but too strong to be a cat...or an idiot kid trying to scare people. Totally freaky.
So at this point, it's 10:00pm and the shower starts in two more hours. I know we had a lot of time to kill, but we didn't know where to go and wanted to be out as long as we could stay awake for. We decided to go back into Alpine and go up Box Elder Dr. to the used-to-be park grounds that have overgrown. We pulled up, and as I was getting out the car I was greeted with, "Are you kids here to watch the meteors?" My heart jumped so hard I thought I was going to fall back in my seat. I didn't see the car or the older woman as we pulled up so I was completely caught off-guard by her. I chuckled to myself and we told her yes. This woman had to have been at least 75 years old and was out on a camping chair by herself to watch the shower. She explained to us that her husband wasn't interested in coming to watch with her and he stayed home, but that he would be very glad to know that she wouldn't be alone for the night. We chatted for a little while and talked about the shower and the two moons happening at the end of August. After a few minutes of quiet, this woman suddenly spoke up again saying, "You know...I brought popcorn. Did you bring popcorn?" We told her we didn't bring any snacks and she of course offered us some of hers. I replied with, "Well, popcorn is one of my weaknesses..." Which is true. You are more than welcome to give me popcorn at any time. I went over to her car where she opened a Costco size bag of Kettle Corn and filled an ice cream bucket full and handed it to me. I was thrilled!! Here I am with my favorite person, my husband, waiting up for a meteor shower, eating my favorite snack ever. It was going to be a good rest of the night!
While the shower wasn't supposed to start until midnight, for the next two hours we watched dozens of shooting-stars fall and burn in remarkable ways. Every now and then, aside from my "WOW!" and "That was a good one!" comments, the older woman would address us and we would have a brief exchange. I was snuggled up to Scott with my leg over his knees and my head of his chest, snacking on kettlecorn every and talking about constellations and watching the stars fall. I was so happy and all I could think about were the times we would do this during out dating stage and engagement and early marriage. It made me feel like we were just right back in that totally bliss stage of new, young love. Then, a policeman drives up. He turned his lights on and got out of the car. Scott and I had sat up by that point, mostly because we were totally blinded, and waited for him to kick us out. It was past curfew for Alpine and we were still out. The policeman asked us what we were doing up to so late. I told him there was a big meteor shower tonight that we were all staying out for, to watch. He asked about that a little more and told us we could stay. He then addressed Scott and I and said, "I just wasn't sure about you two. I saw you laying down like that and thought it was pretty weird..." I told him, "No, no, no. We're married." and he replied, "To each other?" Scott and I both, "Yes. To each other." The policeman left us with, "Well, you just never know around here." and wished us goodnight and left.
So that killed the mood.
But we knew we had a great story to tell. And we do! We were able to stay out until just past 1:00am. Watching as the stars dove through the sky and commenting on how wonderful it all was. We figured since Scott had dozed off and I was dozing off, we should probably go home to get some sleep. It was an adventure filled night and packed with great memories. No matter what was thrown at us for the night - a bobcat, a policeman - we made the best of it. As the end of August approaches quickly, we find ourselves hurrying through packing as we get ready to move. We have a lot of big changes coming at us full force, but we know we just need to Keep Moving Forward
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