Solar Eclipse

I'm not much of a science whiz but there was A LOT of talk about the upcoming solar eclipse and about how perfect our location was for viewing it.  All of the grocery stores and even coffee shops and fast food restaurants were selling solar eclipse glasses and we even considered renting out sections of our pasture for campers.  Unfortunately by the time we entertained the idea almost 6 months prior to the eclipse there wasn't a porta potty left to be found and we quickly realized we were WAY behind the ball.  According to the news hotels in our area had been booked out 3 years in advance.  WHAT?!?!  So we decided to just consider ourselves lucky and enjoy the show!

What I read trying to understand why everyone was so excited about this was that this was the first time in U.S. history that a total solar eclipse was going to cross our country from coast to coast and it was the first time since 1979 that a solar eclipse has been visible from the United States.   On August 21, 2017 at about 10:20 am the moon was basically going to slowly move across the sun and for about 2 minutes leave us in darkness.  Pretty cool right?  And apparently Jefferson Oregon was directly along the path of the totality.  So while many cities and states would only get to see a partial eclipse we were going to get to experience this extraordinary event at its fullest.  Though Jefferson, Oregon may not be large enough to find it's way onto this map we are between Salem and Albany, which is pretty much right where that red line falls.

Anyway, so it was a pretty big deal and although I'm not sure how much the kids will remember we were all really excited.  Brandon worked from home that day as many businesses had actually asked employees not to come in as traffic was expected to be absolutely horrendous and sure enough by 6 am we could already see crowds beginning to gather across the street at the Ankeny Wildlife Reserve.  Before long, cars lined our road as far as we could see and Robert said he saw people paying to park in fields along the way to our house. 

Here we are "spying" on all the spectators parked along our road and out in the refuge.  

Playing as we wait and taking notice of the afternoon like shadows though it is only 9:00 am.

Check out all the cars and people lining up to watch!!

Still waiting and watching as the moon is slowly passing over the sun.

We were excited to have Great Grandpa, Caleb and Uncle Robert join us!

 We faced the kids all away from the sun to make sure that they didn't look as we'd heard how dangerous it is for your eyes and then they took turns with our help to look at it with their glasses.

It really was an amazing once in a life time kind of event!