I guess, in a strange way, we did all these things.
Flashback to 2017. In August of 2017, Dallas was in the 75% eclipse ban for an eclipse. I was on maternity leave after having Charlotte and I remember I was at a Mommy & Me exercise class. We paused class for 15 minutes and all went outside. I just thought it looked / felt like a cloudy day & didn't quite understand all the hoopla. The news that evening talked about how in 2024 Dallas would be in total eclipse zone and it would last 3 minutes and 52 seconds. I then remember talking to my parents and telling them this and saying they should come up to visit me in 2024 for it. My dad quickly pointed out that where they lived it would be 4 minutes and 14 seconds of totality so really I should come down to him (and bring his granddaughter with me). I laughed and said that Charlotte would be in first grade by then, but maybe I'd pull her from school for it.
This conversation was pretty much forgotten about as we packed up and left Texas in 2022.
Flashforward to 2024 when we were trying to figure out when to go home. Charlotte gets two weeks off at Easter which this year was March 28 - April 14 and we decided that was the best for us to travel home. When we told the families that we were coming back, my dad quickly reminded me that the eclipse was on April 8th and I'd promised to come to his house for it. I did point out that the longest duration of totality was near Torreón, Mexico, lasting 4 minutes and 28 seconds. He was quite convinced that the extra 14 seconds of totality was not worth traveling 600 miles to see.
In the meantime, six of my aunts/uncles, five cousins & their children and my brother & sister-in-law also decided to come ... to see me? to see the eclipse? to not be left out of the party? Pick your own ending of the sentence.
Can you fit 19 people in your house for dinner?
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| Don't mind my confused look. I was trying to capture everyone in the photo & still missed a cousin! |
It was a busy weekend leading up to the main event. We playground, we read books, we "raked leaves", we did crafts, we played dominos & card games, and we ate. ALOT.
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| Grandmother would have been so proud of everyone's flower arranging (then quietly fixed them in the background). |
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| Aunt Kristy loved it when all the kids got excited about science! |
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| This is called "helping". |
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| In the 20+ years Adam has been part of this family, this is his 2nd win at dominos |
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| SPLAT! was one of my favorite games as a child. I'm so grateful my parents saved it for the next generation! |
We made it to Monday the 8th. The eclipse began at 12:23. We all headed outside see what we could (or couldn't) see.
Over the weekend we had made eclipse viewers (Pinterest for the win!). We also made several attempts on explaining how Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits the Earth to those who haven't taken 7th Grade science yet. The reenactment portion of this explanation may have lacked the backing of the general science community.
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| After attempt #1 of the eclipse viewers, we decided more instruction might be necessary. |
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| We got there ... eventually |
Between 1:36 and 1:40, it was completely dark. The strangest part to me was all the birds stopped chirping. It was completely silent. An eerie, what is happening here??, type of silence. The sky was pretty cool too.
Though I don't know that I would consider myself an eclipse follower & doubt I'll ever travel internationally to see another eclipse, it was a pretty cool 4 minutes and I'm glad this event brought 15 of my family members + my crew of 4 together so we could see everyone.
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