January 2024 through April Solar Eclipse Trip

In early January I drove up to the Palmer Park overlook after an appointment. It was gorgeous! They often close the road for snow, so I was a bit surprised it was open on January 3rd! We had a fairly warm winter this year.

We certainly still had our share of cold, windy days. We'd make the most of them by making homemade chicken gnocchi soup and bread sticks.

Here was a funny experience: 

Allison - (calling to me upstairs) "Mommy, Tyler took the remote out of my hands
Oscar - (who was currently downstairs within a few feet of them) "Tyler give her back the remote and don't take it out of her hands."
Allison - "Tyler, mommy says you have to give the remote back to me." (I'd said nothing)

During one of their days off school I took them to Great Wolf Lodge. They offered a good deal that included both a day pass to the water park and unlimited attractions.

Here they are doing rock climbing and playing mini golf. We did the ropes course too, but I don't have any pictures since I was up there climbing with them and couldn't have my phone on me.

We also played 10 Paw Bowling

And met a few characters.

Here's a video of Tyler's school project on the different States of Matter and me playing "Variations on Cannon in D."

Here's a cute video of Allison singing Wee Willy Winkie while preparing for her 2nd grade showcase the next day.

The picture on the right is the new color of the kids' rooms. They got to pick their paint color.

Allison was very animated at her 2nd Grade Showcase

On one of the kids' days off Oscar took the day off so we could do a pretend disaster day. We pretended a big gas explosion had happened down the road and that we couldn't return to our house. We played mini golf and went to Olive Garden. 

During January Tyler worked out in the weight room with Oscar, I saw a coyote and a black squirrel while out on my walk, and the kids had fun playing "Apples to Apples Jr."

For Valentines' Day I got a few fun surprises for the kids.

In March we celebrated my 42nd (40 second) birthday. Oscar had been waiting years to make that joke, especially since he forgot on my 32nd birthday.

Nibbler was incredibly cute as always. Oscar covered the recliner while he painted, yet Nibbler still insisted on sitting on it. He was not to be deprived his favorite spot.

Leela was sweet too, though definitely starting to show her age. This would end up being her last winter and spring with us.

The Primary girls put on a fun talent show. I tried to make cake pops for it, but it turns out that is not my forte'.

Tyler insisted on having a pie for Pi day, but he didn't say anything until the day itself, and it was snowy and crazy windy that day. School was cancelled both of the two days before Spring Break, and I had no interest in going to the store in that weather.  Instead we made do with some chocolate pudding mix and I made a pie crust out of chocolate graham crackers and chocolate hazelnut cookies from Trader Joes. It wouldn't have held itself together very well on it's own, but it at least looked enough like a pie in this round cake tin. The crust was delicious but rock hard and very difficult to eat. We also made a pizza pie and made bread sticks that looked like the pi symbol.

For St Patrick's Day Oscar made green pasta for the kids. Mom came soon after for Spring Break. She got Nibbler cuddles, saw my mock performance of "Lamb of God," and we celebrated her and dad's anniversary at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. The kids and I played and finally won "The Game."

Later that week we went up to the Denver Children's Museum and Tyler finally met in person the therapist he's been seeing virtually. We liked it enough that we now have an annual pass.

Here they are on the Zipline in the outdoor area.

Tyler discovered rocket launching and spent around 3 hours here.

For Easter I took them to a local egg hunt the day before, and mom and I filled eggs for them to find the next day. With all the Yoshi eggs from Allison's birthday party plus the eggs we got at the local egg hunt plus whatever eggs we had before, it was too many eggs for just two kids. They got a bit bored. 

The kids got haircuts the next day just before returning to school.

Tyler's 5th grade showcase got postponed for the show and was unfortunately rescheduled for April 8th. That was the same day we had a trip planned to see the total solar eclipse, so I asked if I could attend the dress rehearsal the Friday before. 

The next day we set off for our eclipse trip. It was amazing, but it wasn't all pretty. I didn't take any photos the first day, so these ones above were from a truck stop/restaurant where we ate breakfast the next morning.

We'd been planning this trip for nearly 7 years ever since deciding not to drive to totality during the solar eclipse of 2017. We had planned to stay with friends in Portland then drive the rest of the way to Salem early the next morning, but as the date got closer we got a bad feeling about it. We'd been told if we couldn't make it to totality by the night before, we could be stuck on the freeway when the eclipse happened. Even if we did manage to see the eclipse, we'd be stuck in even more traffic on the way home. Allison didn't travel well at that age (she'd scream if the car wasn't moving), and the more we thought about it the more we decided it wouldn't be worth it. The kids were too young to get anything positive out of it, and we'd have a screaming child in the car for who knew how many hours. We were still going back and forth on it when we learned that the next US eclipse would be in 2024. That decided it for us. We'd wait to go to totality when our kids would be old enough to appreciate it.

A year ago I booked three hotels - one in Dallas, one in West Plains, MO and one in Pinkneyville, IL. Poplar Bluff, MO and Carbondale, IL were on the center line of totality, but they had already raised their hotel prices for the eclipse a year in advance. West Plains and Pinkneyville were still within totality, and their hotels had more standard pricing. Since the eclipse wasn't until around 2pm, I figured we'd have plenty of time to drive to the center line if we ended up going into that area. Of course I didn't think we would go that direction since Dallas looked sunnier based on historical weather patterns for early April. As the date got closer, however, Dallas was not looking good. News reports were saying stormy and overcast for Dallas and partly cloudy for Missouri and Illinois. Both Missouri and Illinois looked about equal according to the forecast the previous Thursday, so I reached out to the Moore family to see if they were available on Sunday. Tyler's friend Luke had moved to the Springfield, MO area this past August, and if we went to West Plains, MO, he'd be able to see Luke along our way. They were indeed available, so I cancelled the other two hotels and we left on Saturday morning.

Our drive started off well, but by the time we got near Hays, Kansas, things were getting bad. There'd been intense wind causing giant dust storms along the freeway. We passed several car accidents which delayed us about 90 minutes. One was two big rigs that had been completely knocked over. I assume the wind took one down and that one knocked the next one over in a domino effect. I'd never seen the underside of a big rig before! I hope the drivers were okay! Another accident had damaged at least 12 cars on both sides of the freeway, including a big car carrier trailer. You should have seen the giant tow truck they had to bring in to tow that thing! Once we were out of that mess, it was pouring rain. Eventually we made it to Independence, MO where we visited with Oscar's sister and the kids' cousins. They'd had a nasty stomach bug run through all 10 of them that week, but they were on the mend and wanted to see us. We decided to hang out with them outside to be on the safe side. The kids had lots of fun with their cousins, we had some good conversations with their parents, we picked up pizza, they made cookies and ice cream, and a great time was had by all.

 
As much as we didn't want to leave, we still had 40 minutes to get to our next hotel, so we hopped back on the freeway and drove to Harrisonville, MO. After a good night's sleep we grabbed breakfast at a nearby truck stop restaurant. I used the bathroom, and every stall had it's own high quality bidet that warmed up the seat and the water! I've never seen a bidet in a public bathroom before, but these folks go all out! 

From there we drove down to see the Moore family and go to a nearby park with them. Tyler had so much fun with Luke that when we left he said "I want to move here!" Against his wishes we continued our drive down to West Plains and checked in to our hotel (that I only paid $75 for).

On the way down we'd seen several signs for a "party in the path" festival being held in West Plains, and we passed it on our way to the hotel, so we decided to go back and check it out. It said there'd be fireworks that night! On our way over we saw a little church offering free parking. We parked there and asked for more information. They said the festival was ticketed and you'd also have to pay for parking, but that they had free parking and you could see the fireworks from there. We decided to just stay at the church rather than going over to the busy festival. They had concessions, a bucket train for kids, some outdoor toys and sports equipment, and a playground. Tyler and Oscar aren't the biggest fan of crowds, and we figured this would be a much better fit for us. The kids had fun, and we had an excellent view of the fireworks. I honestly don't think being at the actual festival would have given us a better view than the one we got. As we pulled out of the parking lot, we passed (going straight) a gigantic line of cars leaving the festival trying to turn left at a stop sign. We're so glad we got to avoid that!

That's when things took a turn for the worst. At 3:00am Allison woke up throwing up. She'd caught the cousin's stomach bug. We thought we were safe being outside, but I think the kids had too much face to face contact playing with their cousins. We got her cleaned up and she slept some more, but she threw up more in the morning and wasn't able to eat anything for breakfast. I didn't sleep any more after that since I was on full mom alert and trying to figure out where the best place to go for the eclipse would be. The forecast called for 30-50% cloud cover in West Plains, but they would be high clouds unlikely to obscure the eclipse. Poplar Bluff, however, said it would be mostly clear (0-20% high cloud cover). Since we had to check out of the hotel anyway, there was no traffic going to Poplar Bluff, and Allison seemed a little better, we got in the car and drove the two hours to get there. It turns out West Plains would have been fine. The cloud cover cleared for the eclipse, but Poplar Bluff had an additional minute of totality, and the two hour drive was worth it for that extra minute.

For the first half of the drive Tyler was an annoying big brother, poking and teasing Allison. During the 2nd half of the drive he said he felt sick. We didn't believe him since we thought he was just trying to get attention (something he's done before), and we more or less ignored him. Allison was starting to feel sick again as we pulled into the town, and we weren't sure what to do. We'd planned to go to the big "Total Eclipse of the Bluff" festival at the local high school, but on our way we saw a Baptist church offering free parking. I figured she'd be better off at a church full of helpful volunteers than at a festival, so we pulled in there. They had free food and kids' activities too. Again, it was a low key, much better fit for our family than a big festival would have been.

Once there I asked if I could take Allison inside the building so she could lay down on their chairs. She was feeling a bit cold, so I went back to the car to grab Oscar's jacket for her to use as a blanket. When I returned I saw a kind woman sitting and talking with her. She was a volunteer at the church who told me she was also a nurse. She encouraged me to get Allison some Sprite and something bland to help settle her tummy (we got her a hot dog bun). I stayed with Allison for a good 40 minutes while she napped, then someone came by with a Zofran they'd got from a nurse (possibly the same one). Zofran is a prescription strength anti-nausea med (prescription since it can cause severe constipation if you use too much of it). I was thrilled since the last time Tyler had had a stomach bug, he ended up in the ER with severe cramping, and Zofran was the only medicine that helped his nausea. I knew it would work, and it did. After her nap and the Zofran, she made a complete turn around. She even wanted to go play. She did the slide bounce house and the obstacle course bounce house, but she quickly realized she didn't have her usual level of energy and opted to play with playdoh instead.

Meanwhile, Tyler had thrown up outside in the grass. He really was sick. It wasn't much, and he felt immediately better and was eating afterward, so we figured it could have just been the drive and/or heat. We were all able to enjoy the eclipse together. When the partial eclipse was happening we watched with our glasses and Oscar made a pinhole viewer out of an extra box from the food the church had provided. The kids put on their jackets as the moon blocked so much of the sun it was getting a bit cold (before the eclipse it was in the low 70's. I think it dipped to mid 60's during the eclipse then went right back up).

Total Eclipse!!! 

In the video above you can hear my "oh my gosh!" gasp of delight when totality began. Our camera did not capture it well, but I found some professional photos online that did a decent job. Our necks were getting tired, so we all just laid down on the ground, held hands, and watched it together. I was in tears during it and for several minutes afterwards. When it was over we had a big family hug, thrilled that it was everything we wanted it to be after 7 years in the making.

The photo above on the left was the very best Oscar's phone could do. Mine didn't even do that well. It still looked like the sun, but smaller. Later I found out my friend Maisy from Alaska had come to Poplar Bluff too and she sent me her photo, the one on the top right.

This wasn't my picture, or even this same eclipse, but I think it best represents what we were seeing with our eyes that day - the black moon against the sun with the corona around it, and the dark blue sky with stars in the background. 

I took the photo above on the right. As you can see my camera only showed the corona, which was much smaller as you can see in the professional photo on the left. However, you can still tell from my photo that it was dark enough to see stars. 

I love this photo Oscar took of the kids and I watching the eclipse!

Afterwards we took some family photos at this photo opp the church had provided. They also provided eclipse glasses, the ones Oscar is wearing in this photo, but they were awful. You could barely see the sun through them. Fortunately we'd bought 4 pairs of glasses at a Walmart in September, one month before the annular eclipse (which we didn't see since we were in Florida at the time). The ones we brought along worked well, but somehow we lost a pair out there at the church, hence why Oscar is wearing one of the awful ones the church had provided. 

I'd intended to hang out for awhile afterwards to avoid the inevitable eclipse traffic, but the kids didn't have much energy, and they said they'd rather be in the car on their tablets, even if it meant getting caught in traffic. At first they did well, but about an hour in Tyler started to struggle. He threw up in the car. Thankfully we had a large bucket for him. Oscar had thought to grab one for our disposable water bottles so they didn't roll around in the car on the trip. We pulled over, dumped out the bucket, and asked Tyler if he wanted sleeping medicine to help him sleep in the car so we could keep driving. He said yes, we gave him melatonin and Benadryl, and we got back in, but after a lot of moaning and groaning, he only slept about 15 minutes then started throwing up again. This time it got on his clothes and seat (he was too groggy to hold the bucket properly), so we had to get him out, clean up, get him changed, and look up a hotel. We were near St Louis by then, but hotels were filling up fast from other families coming back from the eclipse. We booked one that was still 36 minutes away due to the traffic. Traffic in the small towns of Missouri wasn't too bad, but once we got near St Louis and other places leading to major freeways, then it got pretty backed up.

Tyler suffered through the drive, we got checked in and gave him a bath, then as we were helping him get changed he threw up again in the sink. By then it was after 9:00pm, and after he was in clean clothes he fell asleep in the bed almost instantly. 

The next morning he felt much better, though with a bit less appetite and energy than usual. He ate a good breakfast and showed no additional signs of sickness. Our cousins had been much more sick with multiple days of misery, so we think the kids probably got much less of a viral load since we only saw them outdoors. Fortunately Oscar and I never caught the bug. We're so glad we didn't come down with it too or we would have all been stuck at a hotel somewhere just waiting it out.

From there we drove to see Emily and family again. Most of the cousins were in school, so we egged their yard with our abundance of extra Easter eggs and discounted Easter candy I'd purchased from Safeway. We continued our drive from there, making it to a hotel in Oakley, Kansas. We'd gone to an IHOP across the street for dinner at 9:20pm, but the kids were so sleepy they barely ate anything. Allison even fell asleep in the booth. We got a good night's sleep, then continued our drive and arrived home around 11:30am then dropped the kids off at school. It was a great trip with a wonderful once in a lifetime experience, and we saw some of our favorite people along the way, but we were so glad to be back home.