Getting to Idaho, and a Solar Eclipse Campout!

To get to Idaho we took a direct flight from Orlando to Salt Lake, and then borrowed Charly's brother's Jeep to make the drive the rest of the way. Eliza was a total champ and didn't cry once, and didn't even need to be taken out of her carseat the entire flight. I mean, we all just watched movies, and since no other day on the entire planet do I get to watch a movie at 9am it was basically a mini vacation. The only time she whined a little was when we were getting fast food and they were taking too long, dang Arctic Circle! (but is there any other a grosser, more idahoan way, to enter the state than eating Arctic Circle?)

We stayed in Blackfoot for a night, then headed to Rexburg to go to our old ward for church as well as see family there before we headed to camping grounds for the Eclipse. I wasn't sure what to expect camping wise, I was nervous there'd be way too many people! While there were too many for a regular camping trip, when you took into the fact that it was during a big event, I was pleasantly surprised. There were a ton of tents, but we definitely had our space to just be outdoors without constantly bumping into strangers. Also, the lighting on the ridge was just right during sunset! Eliza loved getting cousin time and I loved watching them run around together and their little interactions. She still constantly tries to tell them to follow her or not follow her and they still never *listen.

^^The kids were super excited about the mouse skull they found.

^^Getting cold as the sun goes down.

^^My brother in law's first baby, who has the bluest eyes!

Em was throwing rocks off a cliff with two of her cousins (pictured a little earlier), but she was having a hard time balancing the line of "close enough to throw a rock and close enough to fall off," so I took her over to this tree to take some cool photos and she immediately turned around and made this face haha! I never just snap away when she's upset but sometimes she gets upset right as I am about to take the photo and the end result always makes me laugh!

^^I was trying to take sunrise photos of Em and the Tetons but she wasn't stoked so we abandoned that. Had to document her with her "baby," though.

The next morning we positioned ourselves on the ridge and watched the Eclipse- it was awesome! We are already planning to see the next one in seven years! I knew we'd be in the path of totality for about two and a half minutes, but I had no idea that it takes hours for the moon and sun to completely overlap and then move away from each other. Throughout the process the air became cold and we could see a dark shadow moving towards us at the very end. We saw the Hailey's beads but not the shadow snakes...hopefully we'll see those next time! I had a lot of friends talk about what a spiritual experience it was when it happened but where we were, it was just chaos! Everyone was screaming and shouting things, and just so, so excited, and then all of a sudden it was over. Fastest two minutes of my life! Afterwards we stopped and visited friends in Rexburg, and they told us they had family who just left and the the highway was a parking lot. We took empty country roads back to Blackfoot and it was kind of serene.

^^You can see the shadow coming in these last two photos, half the picture is darker than the bottom!

*I watched this interaction go down on the family campout the next week that I found really amusing. Heber, who is about the same age as Em, was standing a few feet from the door of the cabin and I looked over just in time to see Eliza shove him. He didn't budge and instead of going over there I just watched her- it's really not like her to be physical. After she pushed him she was like "go!" and Heber just said "noooooo, uh uh." Then she went into the door way, held out her arm, and opened and closed her fist and said "come, come!" and Heber just said "noooooo, uh uh." Then she opened the door more and started waving her arm and pointing towards the inside, saying "here, here!" and Heber was just like "nooooo, uh uh." She wanted to play with him in a certain way and he just not having it! We are glad she got to have more learning experiences that make her realize not everyone will just give her her way! And even more glad she has seemed to have gotten used to it a bit more than she has in the past.