Rebekah and I went to a lecture at the library about the upcoming eclipse. We learned several things, like how to make sure your eclipse glasses are actually approved and safe. We also learned there was a 40% chance of having a clear sky on the day of the eclipse. We also learned how cool it will be if it is clear, and how rare these events are and how awesome it's coming to our own back yard.
And it brought family - Kayla and crew - and long time friends to town. Haven't seen this girl in almost 6 years. She came over and I tried to walk the neighborhood with her, only feeling unstable once or twice. Then we sat in the back yard and chatted. On her way out Don took this picture. Courtney mentioned we've been friends for almost 17 years. Insane.
The crew was at mom's all morning breakfasting; choosing ones breakfast cereal takes time...
and part of the afternoon, but they made it back for the eclipse.
We fooled around with the camera settings trying to get the perfect picture. (If I knew then what I know now, I would have just relaxed and enjoyed the moment. More on that later.) But here's one of our shots.
While the moon was passing the kids took a little walk around the pond.
It got closer to totality and the kids came back. It was crazy how the temperature changed. Even the atmosphere felt different.
Totality.
I have another app on my phone called SkyView that shows you what you are looking at as you hold your phone to the sky. Knowing a few planets were close to the eclipse, I turned it on. The app showed Mars, Venus and Jupiter close by.
This is the same shot without the app. Mars shows up pretty well, the others are somewhat harder to find but they're there if you zoom in.
I think Kayla took this picture.
Rebekah celebrated with the help of the Beatles: Here Comes the Sun.
And then I figured I needed one of the moon on its way out.
It was an amazing experience. I should have simply been in the moment. And the reason why is the following pictures I collected off the internet:
One can see Baily's Beads.
A supposed time laps:
This one's very artistic:
The Diamond Ring:
An artistic Diamond Ring with a few Baily's Beads.
Once they found out the eclipse was happening in Indy, Kayla said they were coming for it. They arrived late Thursday night. Rebekah wrote a nice welcome letter for them.
Friday I got a very bad case of vertigo, but while my world was spinning, the kids went over to grammy's and eventually Don picked Rebekah up from school and they played the day away.
The plan for the next day was to visit the Indy Zoo. My world was still spinning and conference was on, so I stayed behind. Don sent pictures though:
I heard Rebekah went on her first roller coaster ride. Wondering if this was it?
Don looked like he had some fun.
Meanwhile, I took the fancy chair and a blanket out back and listened to both sessions of conference, napping in-between.
We didn't do a whole lot for Easter but I scheduled a few things for the Bee, including a cookie decorating class.
Easter morning we went to church and my ward choir sang during the meeting. It was somewhat frantic since my accompanist didn't show up until after church began, however Don suggested I check my phone and sure enough she did text to say she was on her way. Everything came together and the choir sounded wonderful.
Although I made sure to have a few Easter eggs ready the evening before - I packed them and Don hids them - He got overwhelmed at work and forgot. So after Easter dinner he hid them.
She found them all relatively easy.
I did a few with candy but the Harry Potter figures were the main event.
Rebekah was asked to cat sit during the second week of spring break by our neighbor who also happens to be Rebekah's art teacher. She would cat-sit for a week for five - yes that's right, 5 cats.
She did very well. I only had to help out a few times. And the cats, for the most part, were pretty cute.
We have these amazing friends who live in Columbus. Usually I'm able to take Rebekah down to see them whenever she has time off but since I'm still not sitting very well they decided to come up to us, which is rathe hard considering Miss Sherrie has 4 children. So she found someone to watch the 2 little boys and brought Adelaide and the youngest boy with her to join us for a day of fun.
They all played at the house and eventually we went out to the park. I went with and took the following:
Eventually they wanted to check out the falls and we walked over.
It was rather high.
Usually one can walk out pretty far but it was all covered in water.
I think Adelaide reached up to touch a branch and it came down. Both girls were shocked into much laughter.
