We live only a couple of hours from the path of totality for the solar eclipse that happened in August, so Steve being the science teacher / adventurer that he is, there was no way we were missing the total eclipse. We drove to a small park at the base of the dam at Palisades, Idaho the morning of the 21st. We got up and out the door early, not knowing what kind of traffic we would come up against based on all the warnings on the news. We actually had very little traffic on our way to the park. Steve's friend had given us some eclipse glasses long before and we even managed to find them. That meant we had lots of time to play around and then see the eclipse come and go. The eclipse started not too long after we arrived though. It was chilly with the wind, and of course we forgot jackets - again - but we did have blankets this time around!
Everyone (minus Mom) and excited for the eclipse to start!
Kassidy didn't look at the eclipse much, which was probably for the best as we were worried about her hurting her eyes, but she was excited to see the eclipse when Steve or I helped her look. (We still occasionally hear her randomly ask if we can see the eclipse.)
Gavin was completely oblivious of course, and just enjoyed crawling around in the grass everywhere.
Kassidy is always happy to find dandelions.
I have pictures of MG smiling, but I just loved this one. Classic Mckayla.
I also love the joy on her face here as Daddy helps her see the eclipse.
Gavin was so happy to find sticks and bark from a nearby tree to investigate.
Annnnnd...... Kassidy. She was trying to crawl under her blanket over and over all over the ground. We often just saw a lumpy blanket shape somewhere on the ground.
Or laying on the picnic table. To be fair, all the girls were sitting on the concrete wrapped in their blankets pretending who knows what at different times...
Daddy made a great wind block while the kids ate their picnic lunches.
The secondary show while we checked on the eclipse was all the osprey hunting fish below the dam. We watched a LOT of fishing as the birds dove into the water and carried off large fish.
Just a fun picture of Mckayla checking on the progress of the eclipse with her collection of sticks from the day. It's hard to capture it in photos, but you can kind of see here with Mckayla and the grass behind her how the light was changing. It was so strange to see the light progressively dim and just - change - there's no explaining the different quality to the light just before totality. Strange and kind of creepy, but so cool too!
Ellie popping out from her blanket hiding from the wind.
And then we got to totality. The temperature dropped, although not for us like many people described - because of the wind. Everyone started cheering at the dam and it was just incredible!
Just before totality as the sky darkened the lights on the dam went on, which was pretty cool to us.
One of my favorite pictures - just as totality started to end. It was just so cool.
Here is a picture of where we watched the eclipse as Steve brings the last of our supplies back to the durango.
Although we didn't have much traffic on the way to Palisades, we did have traffic while leaving. You can see the cars lined up behind us. We really only had about an hour, hour and a half of bad traffic, and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.
I have to say, I give Steve a hard time sometimes about his restless nature (I'm too much of a homebody in comparison) but I am always so grateful when he gets these crazy ideas for adventures because our family gets to have the most amazing experiences together. Seeing the eclipse in totality really was so incredible and I'm so grateful Steve took the day off so we could share that with our very excited girls (and oblivious little boy). Bucket list item if you ever get the chance!
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