The Dow Family: August 2017

Over a year ago dad had told us that central-Missouri was going to be in the path of a TOTAL solar eclipse in 2017; a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity for us AND the kids. I looked up the date and quickly realized that this event would take place during one of the most challenging times of the year: the 1st week of school (including Owen's very first week of kindergarten).

BUT both mom and dad's houses were in the direct path of totality-- hotel rooms were already booked (and sold out) a year in advance and we would have a free place to stay and view this spectacular event.

After waffling for weeks:
YEAH, we should TOTALLY go!
Driving for 24-hours would be crazy, right? Will the kids even remember?
Will the sun even be out that day or might it be cloudy?
It would be dumb NOT to go!
But would we still be able to see 78% of it in Amarillo?!?

We asked our friends who wanted to join and in the end Julie and I (with our 5 kids) decided to load up the van and leave on Saturday morning with our fingers crossed for a fun adventure.

trucker hats and truck stop dining...

...we made it to dad/Dawn's house in 1-piece WITHOUT a flat van tire (just a nail protruding).

We were ale to visit with family on Sunday:

Gracie finding a chicken egg in the morning AND a turtle in Steve & Dawn's sand box!

trampoline time and 2 hours of digging

and then everyone got 1/2 necked... to get the sand off.

a themed dinner of "rocket dogs", moon pies, Sun drop soda... you get the picture

and making sure everyone had their protective eyewear

MONDAY-- August 21, 2017

People were worried about us (the kids) taking their glasses off and looking directly at the solar eclipse so Julie, David, and I had the kids decorate a paper plate that we attached to their glasses to TOTALLY block out the light.

and it seemed to work!

over the course of an hour or so we kept sending the kids out to watch chunks of the sun disappear...

and gradually noticed it getting (ever so slightly) darker outside.

colander view-finder

protected iPhone vs. protected video camera viewfinder

grandpa helping Grace

(NOT staring directly into the sun... Haha!!)

All joking aside... this may have been the COOLEST natural phenomena I've EVER witnessed. By far. I was only sad that Ben wasn't there to be there with us.

getting darker...

panoramic 360-sunset/sunrise

THIS is what it actually looked like.

We were able to take off our glasses and stare directly at the sun for a full 2-minutes; the fastest 2-minutes of our lives and then it was over. The SECOND the moon moved out of the way, glasses HAD to go back on because you could feel how strong the sun's rays were.

But during those 2 minutes:

the air cooled off

cicadas started humming

birds were chirping like it was sunrise

and all of the adults and kids were going nuts...

it. was. awesome