Solar Eclipse

The Solar Eclipse was on August 21, 2017 and it was a HUGE deal here in Idaho Falls.  Our town had been preparing for it and everyone talking about it for months.  We were in the path of totality which was a big deal.  It was almost like they were preparing everyone for a disaster.  We were told thousands of people would be visiting and to be prepared with enough food and water for a week and to plan to not travel during that time because it was going to be that crazy.  Honestly we got kind of nervous about how it was going to be! 

My dad decided he wanted to experience the eclipse so he drove up to hang out with us for a few days.  The Saturday before the eclipse he took Preston and Abby to Mesa Falls for half the day.  The funny part was that it was not busy around town at all!  We didn't have the huge influx of people the weekend before and all the locals stayed home to stay away form the crowds.  So Steve and I actually took the 3 little girls out to lunch at Red Robin and then a little shopping at Target.  It was a nice break of a day!

 Eclipse glasses were passed out everywhere around here for months so we were definitely prepared.  I saw this hack to add them to a paper plate since little kids would probably have a hard time keeping their glasses on or wear them properly.  The kids loved decorating them that morning and they worked great.  

Are you kidding me with these cute girls?!?  Oh I love them.  Riley on the left with the ponytail.

 We camped out our chairs in the driveway (as well as our neighbors in this pic!).  You could see people up and down our street with their chairs too.  It felt like a big community party!  Oh and most people got the day off work too which was nice.  

 We watched the progress of the eclipse which was fun.  It was fun to watch it slowly cover the sun and it get darker.  When it was getting close we watched the shadows do cool things like the light shining through was all in crescent shapes.  When it got really close you could feel the excitement in the air.  

The total eclipse was seriously amazing.  Magical is the word that comes to mind.  It got almost completely dark and it got cold!  The temperature dropped about 15 degrees!  We could take our eclipse glasses off and look right at it.  It was beautiful in a spiritual kind of way.  You could here cheers and gasps from all over the neighborhood.  We only had less than two minutes of totality and we just wish it could've keep going!  We watched as it faded back to normal and then it was over.  I have to admit that in the months leading up to it I just didn't understand the excitement.  I didn't think it was a big deal.  Holy Moly was my mind changed!  Totality of an eclipse makes a huge difference and I felt so grateful that we were able to experience this just by chance.  

My Grandpa and his new wife Carolyn, my aunt and uncle, Lisa and Rees, and their daughter Rachel had come to Idaho for the eclipse and then came to our house afterward to hang out and hopefully wait out the crazy bad traffic heading south to Salt Lake.  It was fun to hang out with them for most of the day.  (unfortunately, even though they waited out the traffic past dinner time, it still took them forever to get home.)