Solar Eclipse Day 1

When Ryan mentioned he wanted to go to Utah to see the solar eclipse, I was extremely hesitant. But then I thought that if we could make it a party--why not? So add the Seversons and the Trumans and we had a spontaneous road trip.

We met in Cedar City where they were having an eclipse festival at their aquatic center. We were supposed to get solar eclipse viewing glasses there, but they only had enough for the first 300 people. We were people 301-310. Oops. We still enjoyed the festivities and there was still hope of winning a telescope...
Kids spent a lot of time coloring. They were supposed to draw the planets--they were told to include Pluto. That made me happy.

What were the boys doing during this activity you might ask? Well, they certainly didn't take no for an answer...

"I'll pay $10 for your solar glasses"

"Will work for eclipse glasses. Don't let me burn my retinas"

They got a lot of attention and a lot of laughs...but no glasses. So the sign soon read, "Will pay $20 for glasses." Lo and behold, a lady came to the rescue. And we purchased one pair of very coveted glasses. She said, "I'm pretty sure I'm taking advantage of you." Yeah, you think?

We arrived too late to decorate cookies, or to get a cool star chart, but we did get to wait in line for face painting. We waited. and waited. And colored. And waited. And went to the bathroom. And waited. And watched a star documentary. And waited. And bugged the people about the telescope about 20 times. And waited. And then the paint lady took a break. So we waited. And then, finally...the faces were painted...

Although in our hearts we knew we should just leave, we couldn't until they drew the name for the telescope...it wasn't ours. Enough said. 

 The kids didn't mind though. They played a nice, quiet game of duck duck goose. Can't you tell?

Obviously that didn't burn off enough energy, so off to the park we went...

Heather was our expert ice cream scooper. She will claim she didn't do a good job. I disagree. 

We could have stayed for a lot longer, but a drive and dinner and beds were calling our names. So to Gunlock we went...

 For these city folks, it was so nice to be able to let children roam free in the desert, only calling once in awhile to make sure they could hear us...

 and ringing a true dinner bell...

But this, was probably my favorite part of the whole day...

Doesn't that just warm your heart?