Sayonara, Kansas!

This pretty much sums up September for us. Dancy fell asleep in the couch like that. We were all exhausted all the time.

We went to Tim Cumming's house for the first football game of the season. Dancy got all dressed up for the occasion.

Also, at the football night, Samson actually sat down and watched TV for the first time in his life. In one and a half years, I couldn't get him to sit and watch for anything, not even cuddling with me. But when he saw the football stuff, he was glued, pumping his fist in the air, yelling, "Wooo hoooo!" I say football stuff because the game hadn't started yet. The players hadn't even run out on the field! But he was hooked. And then because he was interested in football, he was suddenly interested in Moana. Such a lifesaver to have him suddenly interested in watching something, even for a few minutes, right when I needed to be packing and selling everything!

And we still took breaks from the chaos. I had the 6-in-1 Rebecca book from the American Girl series borrowed from Chris Clark.

So this is how our September went: First weekend, we decided to move. Second weekend, we continued to pack and purge. Third weekend is always a statewide Highway 36 garage sale, where we got to sell everything that I hadn't already sold on Facebook. Pris came that Sunday to help us pack. Fourth weekend, we moved. First weekend in October is when everyone in Norton puts all their junk on their curb for citywide cleanup. Anything left on the curb gets picked up by the garbage company, if not by scavengers first. The timing of everything was perfect!

Katie said goodbye to her adopted grandparents, Laurel and Mike McDonald. I only got a real smile out of her when I told her to think of unicorn or monkey farts. Something like that.

Samson said goodbye to our neighbor dog, Salvador.

We took the kids to play at the playground at the lake. Samson stole the football Shad and I were tossing.

We had a final play date with the Clarks.

{Samson and Bonnie, Thora, Emily, Katie, Dancy, Tommy}

Katie had a tearful goodbye with that one. We all love Emily and Bonnie! And I'm a big fan of Chris.

I love this picture! Samson only ever sucks his thumb when he's got his blankie. However, this time, he's got just the tag that came off his blankie. He's become accustomed to holding the tag while cuddling his blankie. He also isn't allowed to have his blankie out of bed, so this was real creative and cute on his part!

And finally we were ready to move! I left a day early with the kids to get out of the way for Shad and helpers to load the truck. Pris stayed to help Shad clean things up, then she hit the road in the afternoon. On the way out of town, I stopped by Ed and Barb Ballinger's to say goodbye to them.

Ed's got this cart the kids had fun sitting on.

Happy kids with their buddy, Ed.

Mountains! Sayonara, Kansas!

Labor Day Camping

The Thursday before Labor Day, I emailed Shad in the morning and said, "Hey! Whatcha think about going camping tonight?" Because that's a thing that a sane person with 5 kids says. But we did. We pulled it together when Shad got home from work (I forget what I was doing while he was at work that I didn't get things prepped. Probably playing with Isis.)

This was the last time we saw Isis.

We found a nice spot right by a little inlet from the lake.

It was our first time camping together and all of the kids were very excited!

Li'l boy with wispy white-blonde hair!

Tom and Katie helped Shad set up the tent while I made sandwiches for everyone.

Sundance loves her orangie!

And Thora's just all over the place!

We didn't do much that night because we got out there so late. We did build a fire and had smores, though. After Shad and I put all the kids in the tent for bed, we sat out in the chairs, talking and watching the clouds move over the moon and stars. Shad mentioned that Dan was looking for something to do with his house in Colorado Springs since Dan was now living in Denver in the house his wife already had. We discussed the possibility of taking Colorado Springs as a way to escape Kansas. Shad wasn't finding any CISA jobs he could really apply for, and even if he did, it's not like we had great accessibility to travel to interviews, especially not once winter set in. While I had been so set against moving back to Colorado, I desperately wanted to leave Kansas, and acknowledged that Colorado Springs was still new and different enough to me that it wouldn't be returning to where I'd already been.

Friday morning was wet and chilly, but we still loved it!

{Dancy, Katie, Samson, Tommy, Thora}

Always running somewhere.

Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Thora, Samson

We love these humans of ours!

{Tommy, Katie, Dancy, Thora, and Samson on the ground}

We went for a walk down the road from our campsite. Thora loves her Dadda buddy.

Thora is always prepared, little diva. There was no sun that morning.

After we got home, at lunch, put kids down for naps, and showered, we discussed the possibility of being spontaneous again: driving to Dan's house to check it out, check out Colorado Springs and the church ward, and decide if we really wanted to go for it. Dan said it was fine with him. We figured we could be out the door in an hour. Sleeping bags were already ready to go, just grabbed a few more pairs of clothes for everyone and ran out. We were there by 7 pm!

Katie washed her hands herself at our bathroom stop. The struggles of being short and independent!

After Saturday and Sunday, we knew we wanted to jump on this move. We were enjoying the city, loved the ward, and figured we could make the house work for us, despite being at least half the size of our Kansas home. We took measurements to know what all we could keep and what would need to sell. 

On Monday, we went to Garden of the Gods to have a fun outdoor, active activity before driving 5 hours home. Not all of our kids (Dancy) were very fond of it, but we're working with her to enjoy hiking.

We took the trail to the Siamese Twins.

The view through the opening in the rocks.

Like I said, Dancy, my timid mouse, was not fond of the hike. Thora and I enjoyed it, even though she had her share of slips.

As soon as we got home, I went straight to work disassembling the Discovery cardboard bricks so I wouldn't have that mess to clean up or stumble over daily while we packed. Our moving date was set for September 23, just two and a half weeks away.

Total Eclipse

The total solar eclipse was a week after we got home from Colorado. I hadn't considered going anywhere to see it because I had only noticed Kansas City on the path map. However, when I learned the night before that Lexington, NE was just barely in the path of totality and that our friends, the Clarks, were going, I decided we'd go too. I already had a pair of glasses for each of us that had been handed out free at the library, but I loved the idea of making a paper plate mask around it to make sure the kids' eyes stay covered. I gathered all the supplies to take in a bag and make once we got to our place in Lexington.

No matter what I did, my phone just was not cut out for taking pictures of the eclipse.

Kids with eclipse masks!

{Back: Thora, Katie, Emily, Tommy; Front: Dancy, Bonnie, Samson}

We sat in a grassy patch in the parking lot at the Walmart. We got there right as the moon started to pass in front of the sun. I took all the kids into Walmart for bathrooms. Lexington is an hour away from Norton and I didn't want to miss eclipse time if someone decided they needed to pee. We set up camp and I set to creating the masks while we waited for Chris to arrive with Emily and Bonnie. Chris brought SunChips to have a themed snack, but she couldn't find the Moon Pies to go with it.

Thora wasn't happy with her mask.

The beginning of filtered light.

Notice how it's getting dark enough that the Holiday Inn sign is glowing. This is around 11:45 am.

The birds started flocking around, swirling in strange patterns in the sky and squawking.

This. This is totality. At approximately 11:54 pm, the moon fully eclipsed the sun, allowing us two minutes to gaze with our naked eye. Again, no real picture. I don't have that camera with those skills.

{Thora, Katie, Emily, Tommy, Samson, Dancy, Bonnie, Chris}

It was amazing. The birds went completely still. There was a 360 degree sunset at NOON. A noticeable drop in temperature. That diamond ring of sun glow around the blackened moon. A deep, internal sense of wonder and oneness with nature and the universe.

And then the moon slid just past the sun and the spell was broken. Light returned. Birds continued their strange flights. Warmth flooded back in.

This picture is at something like 99% totality after the moon had passed just that one hair. The lighting was still weird and the best way I could describe it is that it was like being at a sports stadium with all the bright flood lights. There was light, but it felt artificial.

Still darker at noonday than any other time.

The Great American Total Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017