Solar Eclipse

On Monday we watched the solar eclipse from our front yard with above 99% totality.  With Wes hating crowds and me hating traffic there was no chance we were leaving our house.  Luckily Wes didn't have to go into work in the morning so we got to experience it all together.

We sat in our front yard, eating nectarines, shouting "TOTALITY!" every few minutes, laughing and goofing around.  It was the best!

It was amazing to watch the shadow bands and crescent shaped shadows from the leaves when the eclipsed reached near totality.  

Afterwards I saw some pictures taken from some of my friends that were in places that reached 100%.  They were so different from even where we were at that I almost wished we drove to a totality zone, almost.

I read online afterwards that a solar eclipse happens about every 18 months, with the next total eclipse happening July 2nd 2019 in the South Pacific.   😎

Pool Time

We found a free pool sitting on the side of the road a while back.  

I've been wanting one like this all summer!

Wes was skeptical but I made him pull over and let me out. 

I felt pretty lucky to find one for free...I didn't even mind carrying it home all by myself a few blocks...haha!

Our little kids love it!  They love the slide whether or not there is water in the pool. 

These little ones are just the cutest!  

I spent the morning hacking back our blackberry bushes and they spent it playing in the pool.

I love my sweet children!

Meeting George the Elephant

The first weekend of August we drove down to Winston, OR to the Wildlife Safari to do a "pet and meet" with the Elephants.

I. LOVE. ELEPHANTS.

So getting to pet one was kind of a dream.  

All the kids came with us and they were all so SO good for both the drive and while we were there. 

Valerie, one of the elephants there painted a picture for us!  

After the safari we ate at Texas Roadhouse. 

It was sort of the best day!

Purple Hair: Don't Care

Novalee used her girl scout money she earned a few years ago to buy hair chalk at the scout store.

This last week I helped her braid it and chalk it purple.

I think she felt pretty hard core.

She loved it!

I loved that it wasn't permanent.

😜

Devils Lake

Last weekend we went to Devil's Lake with the kids and our friends the Bells.

It was kind of chilly there, 62 degrees.  Which was about 20 degrees colder than our last camping trip.

True to form Caleb didn't sleep at night and we (Wes and Me) had two fairly sleepless nights.  The last night he slept in the car with Wes.  And then slept in until 9am...wish we could have slept in.

As soon as we got there the little kids climbed up on the picnic table and started chowing down on junk food.  We don't usually have a ton of junk food around so I'm sure they were in heaven.

 Kinsley once again out fished everyone.  She caught two fish.  The second she let Hite reel in.

 The first night we ate at Moe's.   

Pretty much, really serious "roughing it".

    

 Then we went back to camp and watched a movie.

 We met up with our friends.

 And ate smores.

The next day we went back to Moe's and swam at the sand bar right there.

It was freezing.

As we were leaving two deer started swimming to our side of the beach, even though there were people on the beach and pier.

Then they ran up onto the beach and darted through the crowd.  It was crazy.

They are just in front of the pier in this picture.

I love that Novalee still has some of her baby curls. 

 They just frame her face but they are so cute!

 I totally forgot Lincoln City had an outlet mall, so while that wasn't really in the plan for the weekend, I couldn't resist.  So I took Caleb and Novalee while Wes took the rest fishing at the dock.

 Sunday we packed up and went to say goodbye to our friends, who convinced us to come play one last place before heading home.

Devil's lake has this cool castle play structure thing.  It's massive.  Kind of like the Washington Park Playground but this one is made out of wood.  It was impressive.  Plus our kids ran off the last of their energy and slept the whole way home.

My little caged animal.

I like her.

 We are already planning another trip there next year!