Jim was on a OneWay retreat this weekend with a couple of friends, so I took the boys to the Fermilab Family Open House on Saturday. While the main reason for going was Jake, a.k.a. Mr. Scientist, the rest of us rather enjoyed ourselves too.

Let me just set the scene by explaining a few things:

1. the open house was from 1-5 pm (think like a mom of preschoolers now…precious nap time)
2. they encouraged school-aged children and older to attend
3. I brought the behemoth double stroller
4. the place was packed
5. there were two elevators (necessary to get from parking to open house and beyond)

Recipe for disaster, some might say.  In fact, if I went into every funny story from the day, it would take a week to read this post. But as you’ll see, the day turned out to be a great experience. We arrived shortly after 1:00, and as we were walking in, I was scanning the crowd, looking for any other rebels families with young children. I don’t know why, except that when you know you’re breaking a rule, there is comfort in knowing you’re not the only one.

We endured a long line at the elevator to get up to Fermilab’s atrium, but once we got upstairs, it was like a feast for the eyes. There were maybe twenty booths set up, each with a science related hands-on activity. The kids received a sheet with all the activities listed, and when they completed an activity, a volunteer stamped the sheet. After four stamps, they could pick up an award. As you can imagine, this greatly appealed to our goal-setter, Derek. He was on a mission to earn that award. The downside: after four stamps, he was d-o-n-e.

One of the projects was a tetra-hexa-something-or-other out of paper plates:

Bubbie was permitted to hold it for a while:

Someone gave Peter an extra folded paper plate to carry around:

“Pull the Rug”, another activity (no, Dad, not related to “pull the finger”):

As the boys earned their stamps, I tried to remain as out of the way as possible with the two little guys. We found nearby alcoves where we could watch Jake and Derek from a distance and not make a scene.

The highlight of the afternoon was the CryoShow, put on by Mr. Freeze. Basically, it was a show of how many different things one can put into liquid nitrogen. We saw explosions. Shattering rubber gloves. Shrinking balloons. Shooting water bottles. Crumbling flower petals.

It doesn’t get much better for boys. If you ask Peter what his favorite part of Fermilab was, he will tell you that the best part was the water bottle missile that shot out of Mr. Freeze’s hand.

Jeremy fell asleep on my lap towards the end of the show. Amazingly, he slept through the LOUD water bottle explosion (think sitting on the fireworks boat as the fireworks are going off), and continued to sleep through the next 1 1/2 hours of the field trip. The double stroller came in quite handy. Until we had to walk up the stairs to get out of the auditorium…that’s a story for another time.

Upon learning that liquid nitrogen is sold at a mere $1 per gallon, it wasn’t long before Jake asked if we could buy some. This makes me a wee bit nervous.

All day Jake waited to find a scientist of whom he could ask a couple questions. He never found one who was available, so we were ready to head out–coats on and all–when a volunteer asked if we’d been on the 15th floor yet. She said that’s where the ask-a-scientist volunteers were stationed, so if we had any science related questions, they would be happy to answer them.

So up we went.

We found a scientist for Jake and cans of Sprite for the others. Score one for Fermilab. While Derek and Peter sipped on their pop cans, Jake sat with Mr. Ritchie and talked science to his heart’s content:

As Mr. Ritchie explained things, Jake continued asking questions. They definitely had a connection. At one point, Mr. Ritchie had to actually show Jake the ring (which you can see from the 15th floor) in order to answer one of his questions. So he took Jake on a personal tour…while the rest of us followed behind. In all, he spent about 45 minutes with Jake. I can’t help but wonder how this day shaped Jake for the plans God has for his future. Mr. Ritchie was kind enough to pose for a picture:

Afterwards, he told us about the Saturday Morning Physics group that meets every week at Fermilab. They get together and talk conceptual science. It’s geared toward 10th grade and up, but Mr. Ritchie thought Jake might enjoy it. Looks like Jim and Jake may have plans every Saturday morning for a while!