We went for a long walk.

When we moved to Eugene we learned about a place where they have a model of the solar system done to scale. (I think it's 1: 1Billion, but I don't know for sure.) My two younger sisters both went to school here, and they said they had seen it, but were never able to find Pluto, even though they had walked all over the city. They didn't seem to believe it could be done. I took this as a challenge and set out to prove them wrong. Of course I needed photographic evidence. One lovely afternoon, after Isaac got off work, we began our quest. The inner planets were easy. Standing at the sun, you can see these first four, so it was just a matter of getting our grumpy kids to stand still long enough to get a picture.

The Sun

Mercury

(I don't think you can even see it in this picture, it's so small compared to the sun.)

Venus

Earth and its moon

Mars

Once we finished the inner planets, it was time to call it a day. We had gotten a late start, the kids were not feeling cooperative, and everybody was hungry. Several weeks later, Isaac suggested we spend Saturday looking for the outer planets and completing our goal. We packed some snacks, grabbed the wagon, and headed out. We parked near Jupiter, which cut off about half a mile from our trek.

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

In this picture, Lizzy is wondering why the actual planet is missing from its pedestal and why the information plaque is missing. I don't know. It gave me a bad feeling about finding Pluto, though.

Neptune

Neptune was also missing its planet and information. Now I was really nervous. I really wanted to prove my sisters wrong, but if someone was going around ripping planets off their pedestals, could I really expect Pluto to be safe? It's not even considered a planet anymore!

Well, we walked quite a bit further (a total of about three miles) and we knew we would have to eventually turn around and walk those three miles back to the car, so our resolve was fading a bit. Actually, the children's resolve was fading. Sometimes a mother has to make sacrifices. So when the path suddenly forked and we weren't sure which way to go, we left it entirely and went to McDonald's. After our late lunch, Bear couldn't take it any more, and simply went to sleep.

In order to lay him down in the wagon, Lizzy had to get out, which did not make her happy in the slightest. Lucky for her, she has a nice strong daddy, and she was still riding in style.As we were passing through the park on the way back, we found something very neat. I'm not sure how well you can see it in this picture, but there is a perfect circle of mushrooms around this tree. We were pretty sure it was a fairy circle, so Lizzy and I jumped in it. She says she saw a fairy, too.

So, no. We have not yet found Pluto, but I have not given up. We're pretty sure now, which fork in the path will lead to the last of the planets, and we were ridiculously close when we turned around. We will find it.