Sunday started out really crazy, but we pulled off getting 30-some odd people to 9:00 church and came back for an afternoon birthday party for Justin. Justin's actual birthday was on the day of the eclipse, so the space/astronaut theme worked out perfectly. As usual, Candy decorated beautifully and had a wonderful birthday plan...I will never be able to handle the number of things she crafts together and upcycles on a regular basis...I am definitely the mom that can't live without Amazon Prime, so I have a lot to admire :).
I love the candle-blowing assist from dad :)
When Amber saw our sweet 6 year olds sharing a chair, she had them recreate a picture from 6 years ago when we spent part of the summer with the Grovers and they were both babies :).
Carter's eye got more red and swollen throughout the weekend, but never turned black or blue :). Sunday afternoon was about the worst when it was about 50% swollen shut, but the poor guy never complained :).
And this 'cheese' face ... playing games with Dan :) Makenzie has always had a special place in her heart for Uncle Dan, and I think the feeling is mutual.
Afternoon swimming :). This was the happy picture, but as the pool got more crowded (I think we ended up with about 12 kids in there) the faces got a little grumpier. It was a great way to cool down though!
In the afternoon, Uncle Tim went out to judge the car decorating contest. This was one aspect of the trip that I just ignored. The idea of camping with all the kiddos and no Alex, as well as another (5th, by my count) big trip for the summer was just about as much as I could handle, so I didn't prepare at all, and I let the girls go crazy on the car with a marker before the judging :).
Here is the Stay's... their sayings were awesome, and they travelled the farthest to get here.
Grovers... I love their use of this yellow valence :) definitely the most artistic
Meachams... funniest sayings :)
And our van. O loved that she got to decorate a window!
Haha...maybe I shouldn't have given them free reign :)
And for the Kindergarten translation... 'the eklips (eclipse) is ossum (awesome)'
Grandpa T Buzz busted out the darts...a scary activity for this particular age range, but no injuries were incurred, except maybe to Bryan's garbage can.
I love Caleb's nephew armrest while all these boys are waiting for their turn.
When darts got a little crazy, we headed inside for a fun group trivia game that you played using electronic devices. I was initially hesitant about the phones coming out during family time, but it was a great game and would be great for groups of any size. If I can find where I wrote the name down, it's going on my Christmas list for sure.
Afternoon card games and jumping :)
And just in case it didn't feel enough like Twin Lakes, there was some corn husking :)
Candy had a bunch of fun crafts and printables for the kids to use and teach school with, including a fun headband that everyone made on Sunday Afternoon.
After all their headbands were complete, they made a kid parade!
This was a funny moment when Ali, Jon, and Teck couldn't figure out the baby gate :) All the other grownups stood back and laughed, but Maggie and Olivia came to the rescue :).
After a yummy steak dinner, we settled out by the fire pit for some s'mores. My lighting was funny this entire weekend, but here are some fun and sticky kids (and their grownups).
Zach had the best non-fire technique for roasting marshmallows, until he was told by Candy that the bottom of the fire pit is insulated and probably wouldn't be cooking anything :).
Later that night, Amber and the kids taught me the game Garbage, which has quickly become a family favorite. I love a game that takes very little skill can be played by all ages (down to Makenzie) and feels like a real game :).
This is why camping isn't my favorite...in case you were wondering, that's my bed, at about 5:30 in the morning...
On Eclipse Morning (Monday...) Jon, Adrienne and Melanie came out really early to account for the horrible traffic that was projected. They didn't hit any traffic whatsoever, so they arrived before anyone without a baby was up :). Luckily, Ali, Amara, Hunter, and myself were awake and playing in the house when they got there. It was so great to catch up and finally meet Melanie, who is over a year old and I hadn't met her yet!
Here is the roof view of our 7 tents, 3 canopies, and 9 or 10 cars (couple aren't pictured). It really was tent city back there, and we wouldn't have had it any other way..
We spent the morning being lazy and hanging out, so before we knew it, it was time to bust out the eclipse glasses! Here is the Stay Family, minus a couple.
When these two are bigger they will be their own leaders of a cousin entourage, but for now, Makenzie is thrilled to have a baby to hold and they both just sit there looking like dolls.
Grover family...
Johnson family...
And everybody! I didn't try to get a picture of me with all the kids, they were all a little tired and less than cooperative with their glasses :).
Nikki made a complete set of eclipse cookies!
Grover family + Makenzie...she wanted to be a part of their group, and she fits in perfectly :).
Romrell family...
We had a lot of fun playing with the shadows and cool effects of the eclipse. Every few minutes someone else would cry out from a different corner of our group because they had discovered something new
Emma was so sweet the entire weekend, she is seriously the only baby I've ever seen who will lay, content on a blanket for 2 hours at a time. At one point, however, she lost interest in the festivities and just fell asleep on her face :).
Everything a grocery store sells with the word sun, moon or space in the name, as well as a few things that resemble a sun in some random way :). We were pretty set in the snack department.
Eclipse dance party :)
And some sun salutations :)
The mens version of sun salutations. If you want a good laugh, click through the pictures back and forth and just look at my dad :).
We almost set up an eclipse glasses obstacle course (if you haven't ever worn any, they are just pitch black unless you are looking at the sun), and one of the challenges was going to be drinking. Apparently Olivia has this one down :).
Not a fan of his glasses...not at all.
Johnsons...
My dad set up this peephole viewing device, you can see in the top corner of the shadow how close this was to totality, but it was amazing how light it still was outside.
Closest thing I got to a family picture, but we will take it :).
Totality hit, and the men on the roof were trying to watch it coming from around us. As it turns out, it was moving upwards of 700 mph, and pretty impossible to see coming.
My totally non-professional totality shot. Adrienne put together a great set of pictures from our location, but I will have to find it later when I put the book together.
It got pretty dark, and was really cool and breezy. Glow sticks and everything else was cool (look at Elli's face in the bottom of the next picture), but 1:10 was way shorter than I thought it would seem. Before long the moon had passed over and we started warming up again.
We got all the tents broken down and ate lunch, then we just hung out for a while to let traffic die down again. I feel like traffic was a big topic of conversation, but at least in our area of Pullman -- New Plymouth -- Boise -- Pullman, it wasn't a factor logistically at all.
I was so grateful for Dan and Bryan, who pretty much loaded my car and broke down the tent. I was trying to not be a burden on anyone, but I was in charge of lunch prep, and when I got done making it I noticed that my tent was down and in its bag. Later I moved everything to the front and pretty much just directed them to get everything into the car. With 4 car seats, a big tent, 2 canopies, 2 folding tables, blankets, clothes, toys, etc. this was not an easy task :).
Grandkid pyramid! I would say we had a 75% success rate :).
Mom and Dad with all 11 of their grandkids. We missed Bryan and Candy at the lake, so it was great to get all together once this summer, and we hope to do it again soon.
These pictures are out of order, but I'm too lazy to fix it :)
Right as we were getting ready to go, Makenzie was doing some beam work on a brick flower bed barrier and fell down. She got a pretty good scrape on her leg, which was too big for a Band-aid, so she got this impressive bandage. She was thrilled about it, and we left with the only two injuries from the weekend :).
When planning the trip, we were concerned about driving back and getting stuck in traffic in the mountains, so I decided to stay for another 2 days at Amber's house before going home. I am always anxious to slide back into the comfortable life of our kids playing together and us playing together, I miss living close to the Grovers more than anything.
One benefit of Boise is that I always get to add a Target run into my time there! I had to document it, because the absence of Target (or any decent shopping) is one of the biggest downfalls of Pullman
On Tuesday we took the kids to the splash pad (Amber must have kept her kids out of school...I don't really remember) and they had a blast running around together.
Afterwards we had some fun Italian Ice's. It was a mix of ice cream and sorbet...definitely my kind of snack :).
Teag taught Carter how to play Garbage, and they were so cute in their excitement for each other each time they had a good 'play'.
Tuesday evening we went to watch Teag's first football practice. I didn't actually take any pictures of the practice, but I had fun watching Elli spin Hunter around until he couldn't stand up :) I started telling her to be more gentle, but he crawled and fell his way towards her asking for more :). The bigger kids thought his drunk baby impersonation was the best.
After I made them stop spinning (And Hunter proceeded to spin himself), Olivia and Carter made up this game where they would throw both balls to Kade and he would try to catch them at the same time...they didn't make it easy :).
This face was my clue that it was time to take my overwhelmed, overtired kids home to their dad so I could get some sleep :). We seriously miss Alex every time we travel without him, but I'm so grateful for kids who travel well and a super supportive family, which allows me to not miss any events just because they fall during football/basketball season :).
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