A year and a half ago Dad asked Stephanie if we could stay at her house in Idaho Falls on August 21, 2017. She was a little surprised and confused, but she agreed. But in the last few months, the hype began to build for the Great American Eclipse. People were renting out houses and even sections of their yards for hundreds of dollars. We were glad we had planned ahead.
The eclipse was Monday morning, and school started on Tuesday. Dad had to take a personal day to get out of his school meetings, but it was worth it. He got his class all ready on Friday and we left early Saturday morning. Idaho was predicting Armageddon traffic, but the drive up wasn't bad at all. There sure were a lot of people there, though. We had a great time staying with Steph, and we like to take our boys to Church on the road. On Sunday night, Melanie showed up to camp in the backyard, and Brittany came on Monday morning, so it was quite the party.
We chuckled at these signs on the way up, but we were a little bit scared of the traffic.
We ate at Rupe's with Grandma and Grandpa on the way to Idaho Falls.
Stephanie always plans the best activities. We painted Harry Potter rocks!
Mom loves to take naps with Katelynn.
Stephanie made homemade Moon Pies that were delicious!
The eclipse started about 10:20 and peaked at 11:34. It would be in totality for only two minutes, and Dad planned to leave Steph's house by 11:40, so everything had to be ready. By 10 o'clock, the van was packed and we were in the backyard with Italian sodas, Starburst candies, Eclipse gum, and Steph's homemade Moon Pies. The buildup to the eclipse was awesome. The kids ran and played in the yard, we ate, and used our eclipse glasses to watch as the red disk of the sun was slowly overtaken by the moon.
We were so excited for the eclipse!
Stephanie created quite a spread for us! Fancy drinks, starbursts, Eclipse gum, and homemade Moon pies!
Mom loves getting together with her sisters.
The oldest and youngest grandkids are best buddies!
It was unbelievably cool. Mom had serious doubts, but she is a believer now.
We noticed some really cool changes as the eclipse drew closer. The first thing was that it started to look like twilight. But it wasn't regular evening twilight, instead, shadows grew sharp, and it seemed like we had sunglasses on, but the sun was overhead. Eventually, it got darker, and we noticed a few planets and stars in the sky. This was when the sun was just a sliver in the sky. Though it was 82 degrees by 10 o'clock, the temperature dropped all the way to 66 degrees! The kids really wanted their jackets! This was as far as the eclipse got in Utah. Finally, we looked and there was a sunset all over the horizon. Then, we watched as the last sliver of the sun disappeared and we were pitched into darkness. Of all our adventures, this had to be the most amazing for all of us. We took off the eclipse glasses and gawked! Though Mom took an amazing picture, no picture could capture what we were looking at. The thing that made it so dramatically impossible to describe was the look of the moon. In photos, it looks flat, but in reality, it looked like a massive dark orb with a glowing corona behind it. We had a wide array of emotions but mostly, it was the most thrilling two minutes of our lives. Mom looked at Dad and said, "Texas, 2024?" and Dad just smiled. It was something we will never forget. It really had to be experienced.
The sun before the eclipse starts.
Eclipse begins!
Don't worry, there are only 100 pictures as the moon moves across the sun!
Also, in case you were worried about my eyes, I put my eclipse glasses over the lens of my camera to take these pics!
As the sun disappeared, the temperature dropped a ton.
There was a lot of cheering when we saw this!!!
The Great American Solar Eclipse was so awesome!
It was so dark outside at 11:40 am!
We will never forget this moment.
Dad let us watch for one more minute as the sun slowly reappeared and then he had the car loaded and we hit the road. Because Steph lives north of Idaho Falls, we really needed to get back to the I-15 before the traffic got thick. We just made it. It was stop and go at every freeway exit through Blackfoot, and it took us an hour and a half to get to Pocatello, a drive which can be done in less than an hour. But Melanie left just one minute after us and was a half hour behind when she hit Pocatello! From there, the traffic wasn't bad at all, and we made it home at around 4pm. We made it in just a half hour longer than usual. We were lucky! Some friends stayed to the end of the eclipse at one o'clock, and they didn't get home until after midnight. Dad's sister Sandy got back to her house in Salt Lake Valley at 4 in the morning! It was a good thing we hurried out, because Dad had to teach school the next day. But none of us had any doubt that it was worth every minute!
I’m so glad you guys got this experience! It sounded amazing!!
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