Solar Eclipse

We made a super quick trip (under 24 hrs total in S. Utah) to go and be at the center line of the annular solar eclipse.  Okay, we didn't go to Kanaraville, but we weren't far away.  No crowds to lose children in, convenient bathrooms and yummy goodies all easily accessible.  It was a quick trip but it was really fun!

Here is Jared sporting his foil hat to protect him from . . . something.  I forget now.  Michelle just told me something about Jared and the aliens so it probably had something to do with that but I don't remember.  The kids liked his hat and played with it if he wasn't wearing it.

Justin made a pin hole viewer.  Pretty cool.  The image is different than if you were looking right at the sun through the solar viewers (and I don't remember exactly why, something about how you view images and focusing them, etc, etc).  Justin and his friend Bill contemplated making the garage into a giant pin hole projector but the garage didn't get dark enough and they opted to not put a hole through his parents garage door, smart boys.

Here are the kids sporting their viewers and showing how much fun they were having just playing with each other.  Especially since they got to play in the back of Grandpa's truck. 

The biggest bummer for Justin was forgetting his camera so these pictures all came from my cell phone.  This one was really cool, in the red spot you can see the eclipse.

We took this opportunity to learn about eclipses and the kids were very excited that we would get to see the "ring of fire."  Sam, who regularly looks through the newspaper saw an article about the eclipse and what you would see from SL area versus S. Utah.  He was very happy we were going to S. Utah.  And we were able to use our solar viewers later on to see the Venus transit.  Again, no photos, but this tme the photographer was working late.  Sam and Hannah ran down the street to get to a place without shadows since the clouds didn't part until about 8 pm.  It was cool to see.  I'm quite happy that my children like these science things.  It's fun!