Solar Eclipse

Our second weekend adventure arrived early Monday morning- 4am-as we dressed and loaded up Albert to begin our drive to view the eclipse.

Plans for experiencing the eclipse had been in the works for many months but the final decision of where to watch it (and who would be going) was not decided until later Sunday night when the weather could be confirmed to be clear.

The final decision was for the entire family to go and experience the phenomenon in Carthage, Tennessee.

Our day of travel included 17.5 hours start to finish and over 600 miles.

There was a lot of sleeping, a bit of grumbling, and many memories made.

We arrived a couple hours before it would begin to ensure we could scope out the best spot, set up the 3 cameras and be ready when it began.

Its GO time

 Attempting to use the cereal box pin prick viewers... interesting to use, Once

First views

Snuggles in the shade

 Daddy... way out in the field taking more pictures

Its an eerie feeling to have darkness descend on you in the middle of the day, creeping across the sky, cooling the scorching heat and leaving you wondering is this really happening.

But it did!

 WOW!!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.
In the midst of the eclipse the Sparkles wanted a family picture- best i could do was a Momma selfie with Daddy in the background (there was no way he would leave his camera)

 What I didn't realize was that Daddy was taking the same picture of us (you can just see the light from my phone in the right corner of the picture)

We were both able to capture different aspects of this amazing experience and are blessed to have shared it together.

After totality, we stayed another hour in our spot watching the remainder of the eclipse, packing up Albert and reading the first Harry Potter as Daddy wanted to photograph the entire experience. Then we headed to Pizza Hut (which we found on our earlier surveillance) before beginning the long trek home.
Unlike many of the horror stories we heard from others or the fears of the news, our drive home was uneventful and the same length as our arrival (thanks to Daddy's amazing navigation skills and willingness to forge along roads and routes less traveled)

A stop for dinner and fuel was our only delay and we were home around 10:30pm.

Was it worth the 12 hour drive... most Sparkles would agree it was not
But who can really put a time limit on family memories