Solar Eclipse and the Hogle Zoo

Monday was the day of the big Solar Eclipse.  Sunday evening over dinner we had briefly talked about it (moon in front of the sun, don't look at at, etc.) and Monday morning Hayden came down dressed in his sun shirt and had his sunglasses on, all ready for the eclipse!  I can't believe he remembered!  Kylie was going to be at school while it happened.  Her teacher took her outside and they got to look through glasses at it.  Then they kept them inside during lunch so none of the kids would accidentally look up and burn their eyes.

I had no plans on what to do with Hayden, though.  I started dinking around online, thinking of maybe making a pin hole box to look through, or maybe the library was having a special party we could go to, when I saw that Thanksgiving Point Garden's was having an eclipse party!  On a whim, I called up Grandma Shari and asked if she was free, and then we all went over to the gardens for the eclipse party they were having.  It was a fun idea, but it was also CRAZY busy.  We waited a long time in line just to get in, but the good thing about so many people is that so many people offered to let us look through their solar glasses, since we didn't have any.  Eventually one kind family just gave us a pair!  It was really cool to be able to see the eclipse, and Hayden really got the concept down.  Plus he loved this one-on-one time with Grandma Shari.  We enjoyed the beautiful gardens and the few activities they had as well as feeding the fish.

Kylie was NOT happy that she didn't get to go, but she still had fun at school.

The rest of the week was quite normal.  Hayden is getting used to going to Daycare a few times a week while I go to an exercise class, and after school both kids just play outside with all the other kids until I have to drag them inside to eat and take baths.  I even had to force them to go swimming on Friday since the outside pool will be closing soon at the Rec Center and I wanted to go one last time.

Saturday we got up early and went to the zoo with Grandma Shari!  Aunt Connie was supposed to come too, but she broke her toe and wasn't able to make it.  The kids had so much energy running from one animal to the next, as well as pushing our stroller with all our lunch and snacks on it.  There were also huge mechanical bugs everywhere that the kids loved seeing.  We also got to go to the elephant show and bird show.

We came home so worn out!  It was super fun and the kids are the perfect age for enjoying the zoo.  Hayden had such a good eye for finding all the animals and Kylie as very helpful with the stroller and keeping us all together!  Thanks Grandma Shari for such a fun day!