2017 Catch Up - August

August 1 - First day of school. We chose to switch schools and then had to get new colored pants. Uniforms are a good thing, I just wish we didn't have to switch from blue to khaki's. We were interested to see how this new school handles. We've been at Little Flower for four years and though they were good people, we felt like there was a lot of academic time spent in religious traditions. Not a bad thing, but nothing that advances academic excellence. Graigry was excited about the move, Nate and Neta not so much.

He didn't want me to take
a posed photo, so I caught him
making breakfast

August 4 - Went to the temple and came out to get gas, this wonderful sight was in front of me. It looks like a snow capped mountain made out of clouds; made me think of home.

August 8 - Braces are off and she gets her first bite into an apple in over a year! Braces are usually a two year deal, but Xela was so diligent in her orthodontic care, she got off early. Yay!!

August 16 - Annual State Fair trip. Eric rarely comes and I usually take the day off work to take the kids, but this year it worked out that we went after work. Sadly, some of the exhibits and freebies we usually see were closed. We did enjoy ourselves though (especially the elephant ears).

The dog picture above is of Merp,
who belongs to neighbor/aunt Patience

Cow petting

Nice Horsey!

Aurora thinks she's a
horse whisperer

Horses are a big hit with Scotts
(Xela is holding Zoe,
a friend from church)

My five piglets

That POOR sow! (I couldn't handle that many)

Petting zoo of sorts

Graigry bought himself
some feed so he could say he's
fed a camel

I had to take a selfie (even though I hate them)
I was nicknamed "Camel" by a friend in Jr High

It's "Moo-a"
(a family nickname)

I love it when this girl smiles!

Traditional Elephant Ears
to end our 2017 state fair

And then we found free soda's
on our way out the door

August 21 - on this day, the Great American Eclipse took place. I was so excited to participate, and Indianapolis was not in the path of totality (it was only 99%) and I wanted to see the total eclipse, so with not too much coaxing, Eric agreed to take the kids out of school to travel to see it. We thought about Kentucky and Tenneessee where the eclipse lasted two and a half minutes, but knew those places would be crazy busy, so we decided to head to ...

ST. LOUIS!

The eclipse didn't start until about 1 or 1:30, so we decided to make a day of it and go to the St. Louis Zoo (which is free). We got there early enough that the parking was free, as was the carousel. We hadn't been to the St. Louis Zoo in four to six years. We had a great time looking at the animals.

My monkeys in route to the zoo.

This is the seal statue that welcomes you to the zoo.
As we were the first people, aside form workers, in the zoo
kids decide it would be fun to mimic the statue.

Nate and the Snake.
He thought the anaconda was awesome!

Such a COOL water wall to see the seals...

...who were so playful.

They, or maybe this particular one,
would follow the kids' hands across the window
and they would go up the window 
and the seal would flip.
It was FANTASTIC!!

If I had had the early picture,
we would have more accurately
repeated it, but we did the
best from memory.

Then the kids wanted
individual snapshots.

Aurora and the camels

There are wires
instead of glass for these bird cages.
We got chastised for sticking
our fingers in between them.

Eric took the camera
so that I could be in a picture

Nate with a 
GIANT BEETLE

We left the zoo around noon and made sandwiches at the car. We headed toward the St. Louis Temple as that was our predetermined spot to go to watch the total eclipse. Surprisingly, we found a small city park where the kids could play on a tennis court and a playground while we waited for totality.

We played catch-ish in the tennis courts for a while. I kept my eclipse glasses on me because, one, I thought it was amazing to be able to look at the sun and not go blind, and two, because I wanted to monitor when the moon started to cross the sun. As soon as I saw the small cut out of the sun, I called Nate, Neta and Graigry over to look through my glasses and then we ran up the hill to let Dad and the girls know (they were watching Star Wars in the car).

In between sun glimpsing, 
Neta worked on math homework.
I wrote in my journal and oft times,
just laid on my back on the cool grass and looked up.

Minutes left on the countdown to totality;
Dad and kids got out of the car, 
brought their pillows, slapped on their glasses
and we watched the shadow eat the sun.

Nate and Eric sun staring

As soon as the shadow completely covered the sun,
we took off the glasses and were in AWE!
It was only for one minute and 20 something seconds,
but it was one of the most celestial experiences ever.
We were calling out "That is soo cool!" repeatedly.

The just over a minute total eclipse went quickly;
we played a game of tag on the playground,
then headed home.

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL 2024, when INDIANA is in the path of totality.

August 24 - Kevin Smith, my supervising attorney, invited me and the family to go tubing on Morse Lake. Xela decided to keep her feet on solid ground at home, but the rest of us had a great time bouncing behind his jet boat at high speed. Nate and Graigry, I think, did the best job of staying on their tubes.

It was a school night and we got home around nine, but it's something I'm fairly certain the kids will remember for a long time. Oh, and Aurora, in her excitement, jumped into the lake (on her way to swim to the tube), with her glasses on. Her glasses didn't come home with us. Thankfully, she had an extra pair at home.