Musk ox and Venus

Gabriella’s scanning the action at the Large Animal Research Station, while Adam keeps Shane in check.

There may be nothing in common between the two, but our family had the cool opportunity to gawk at some twin musk ox babies and view Venus as it made its transit across the sun. Our family is making a dogged effort to take in some unique and (especially) free events together and we’re on a pretty good run!

Last weekend we visited the Large Animal Research Station, just north of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. LARS was offering an open house where the public could view the recent babies, both musk ox and caribou, with face-painting and loot to boot. Gabriella had a blast! She made friends running up and down the backside of the earthen amphitheater and posed for pictures near the musk ox pens and was relatively easy to deal with. Shane, on the other hand, was a hot mess! The boy is entering a defiant stage and likes to do the exact opposite of what Adam and I would like him to do. We go forward, he goes backward. We ask for quiet, he screams. We’d like him to walk, he wants to plop down in the middle of the path. It’s often a tug-o-war. Eventually, poor Shane had to sit out the rest of the LARS visit in the truck with his dad, while Gabriella got her face painted and played with friends. Poor Shane. 😦

Shane wasn’t too happy at this point, it didn’t matter if the musk ox twins were just right on the other side of the fence.

When Adam and the kids picked me up from work on June 5, none of us were really up for a family outing. I was pooped from work, Gabs wanted to go to the park, Shane was crying and Adam was grappling with a headache. We had planned to go to a public viewing event of the transit of Venus at our local library, but almost talked ourselves out of it. We begrudgingly weaved through town, parked in the crowded parking lot and followed the masses of people to the lawn at the back of the Noel Wien Library. Thank goodness we went! As soon as we stepped onto the grass our moods improved. Gabriella fell in love with the grass and was wowed by the kids launching rockets. Shane and his dad hung out and watched autonomous robots wheel about, I saw friends from work and spotted the transit through a Sunspotter. It was great! We tootled around for a bit, let Shane run aimlessly through the

A musk ox and Gabriella (sporting her brother’s puppy hat).

park, while Gabriella did log rolls across the grass and just relished this cool experience of seeing something that will not likely happen again in any of our lifetimes.

BTW: If you Google “Venus and musk ox,” the top pick of more than 700,000 results is the famed Chauvet Cave in France. Although the Venus in this context is a womanly figure drawn in charcoal, both Venus and a musk ox are located in the same chamber. I guess I was wrong. There is a connection after all!

Enjoy the photos…

Getting her face painted was THE highlight of the LARS visit. Gabriella opted for a butterfly in Nanook colors — blue body and yellow wings!

Sunspotters are cool! Do you see Venus in the projection? It’s the tiny black speck.

I was happy there was good weather and that I could proudly say, “I saw Venus!”

Gabriella told me, “Mom, this grass is SO soft and tickley.”

Adam, Shane and the robots at the transit of Venus event.

My two favorite little people!

People waiting in line to view Venus through one of the telescopes at the public viewing event at the Noel Wien Library.

After nine tries, I finally got a shot where all three were smiling!