AUGUST 21st. 2017=TOTAL ECLIPSE

We went up to Idaho this past weekend to be a part of history.  We were able to view the solar eclipse at complete totality in Swan Valley, Idaho.  The news stations were predicting total chaos in Idaho so we were a little nervous to go up.  We got extra diesel for the truck and took tons of food.  We drove up Friday night after work, and luckily nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the drive.  On Saturday morning Shawn and I did a mt. bike ride up pine creek pass.  It kicked my butt but it was so beautiful, the wildflowers were still out.  In the afternoon we went out on the lake and we took Bud, Penny, Jeff, Matt, Wendy, Lynn (Wendy's mom), and Dawson.  It was a fun afternoon.

 Lu still isn't feeling great and she fell asleep on grammy!

On Sunday we went to church and it seemed kind of like the 4th of July weekend, so not totally crazy.  We were kind of in shock and how "not busy" everything seemed.  That afternoon Shawn, Cruz, and Grammy went on an ATV ride with Jeff back by the ranch Grammy grew up on.  My mom LOVED it.  We had a yummy dinner that night followed up by CREPES.

MONDAY-ECLIPSE DAY-we were so excited but couldn't decide where to watch it.  We finally decided it would be fun to be on the boat.  So we packed up and headed over to Big Elk (Palisades seemed really busy but there were no boats on Big Elk).  When we first put in, the water was fairly calm so Shawn barefoot waterskied.  Shortly after he skies, we looked up to the sun with our eclipse glasses and you could see a tiny bit of the sun covered by the moon.  We kind of watched off and on for the next 45 minutes while the moon moved across the sun.  Not until there was about a sliver left, did it start getting dusk and then darker.  I thought it was going to be TOTAL darkness, but the ring of light did make some light in the sky so we couldn't see the milky way.  It was so totally cool-in an eerie way that is hard to describe.  It was totally incredible when the moon was right in the center of the sun and you could see the sun around the outside of the moon and we could look at it without our glasses.  It was such a short time though that I really didn't get any great pictures or anything-I wish it could have lasted longer.  Then the minute the moon moved over more and more of the sun shone, you could tell instantly when you needed to put your glasses back on, and it started to look dusk again.  The temperature dropped dramatically and we were pretty cold on the water.  It was such a cool, amazing experience!!!  Cruz said it was the best 2 minutes of his life.  It really was indescribable.

 A family that eclipses together, stays together!

 Eclipse Selfie!!

 I tried to get the ring but it didn't really work

Our Heavenly Father made a pretty amazing world for us!!!



So after the moon started moving across the sun we decided to get off the water.  Which was weird because the wind kind of picked up as the moon moved across the sun but then it was completely still when it was the total eclipse and then the wind stayed away, but we were all so freezing we wanted to get warm.  When we got home we decided to pack up and go home since the crowds didn't seem as bad as they were predicting.  Little did we know-we stopped in Idaho Falls and got dinner but hit the road at 7:10 p.m.  We got to our house at 2 a.m.  It was a long, stop and go drive home-but to tell you the truth I would do it again in a heartbeat to see the total eclipse of 2017!!!