Back to School!

5 eager kids this morning were up early and ready for school.  Only one was disappointed... kindergarten doesn't start until the day after Labor Day, so Jace has to wait almost a whole week for his turn to start 😡

Aside from the various middle school teachers, all of my kids have teachers their siblings have had, so we know them all!

4th grade with Mrs. Smith:

8th grade:

2nd grade with Mrs. Cochrane:

I was more than a little surprised that she chose pink to wear today!!

 *Almost buddy!*  He thought maybe if he put on his backpack he could just blend in and stay...  Regardless, 3 more days until kindergarten with Mrs. Hawk:

6th grade with Mrs. Mega homeroom:

Jace was feeling some conflicting emotions when it really hit home that he didn't get to start today 😩

 This girl was excited though!

Dallin practiced using a pad lock at home during the last week, and had no problem getting his locker open this morning... he even helped a few kids out with theirs...

Jace was pacified by lots of time on the playground-

Eli with Mrs. Smith:

Lined up for the day!

I could only get a picture of one of my kids once the bell rang!  Hailee's class was in the building so quick that I missed her- Dallin didn't have to line up, and of course, Bryson would have nothing to do with pictures once we got to school...

Geronimo!

Bryson had band camp and Daddy was on his high adventure, so the rest of us played!  We did a little back to school shopping and then got ice cream-

 

Eli asked if we could do the bungee bounce... and apparently it was his lucky day!

He was sooo excited... until he had to start jumping and then he got a little intimidated!  He jumped, but didn't do any flips...

Dallin was all about jumping high also, but only did a flip at the very end...

Surprisingly, Haille jumped and did some flips

Jace was crazy- jumping all over, flipping, he loved it 😎

Total Eclipse... Well, 95% Eclipse

For months we'd been hearing about the total solar eclipse that would be visible in North America- finally the day arrived... and I had no eclipse glasses!!  I ended up going out at 6am to buy some off craigslist since all the stores were sold out- they were 10 times the cost of what I could have paid for them a month ago... so I got creative and cut each in half- each of us got to watch the eclipse with one eye... HA!

 Spokane was only at 95% totality, which was still pretty interesting to experience.  Looking back, I wish we'd have driven the few hours south to be in totality, but it didn't work out.  I'm so glad I forked out the money for the glasses because without them, it wouldn't have been very exciting...

Letting the light filter through cracks in your fingers left a crescent mirroring the eclipse, which was neat-

 We also did a "pinhole viewer", which was cool to see, but it all would have been very uneventful without the glasses.

If it had been 100 years ago when they didn't predict and publicize eclipses, I can't imagine what I'd have thought- the sun 'looked' the same in the sky- it's so bright that you still couldn't look directly at it so you couldn't "see" that it was 95% covered by the moon, nor could you see the moon at any point in the sky that morning, but the temperature dropped very noticeably and it was eerily dim outside- the shadows turned 'bubbly' too.  We all thought it was pretty cool. 

The sun at the fullest part of the eclipse:

With glasses at the nearest part of the eclipse:

When the eclipse was nearly over: 

Through the glasses with the eclipse nearly over:

Such a neat thing to experience!

Not so coordinated...

Almost 11am before I realized my flip flops didn't match 😂

Apparently working 16 hour shifts is affecting my judgment 😖

Ross Family Reunion Part 3

What would a family reunion be without kid olympics?!?  The big kids thought that they might be too big this year... that they'd probably just 'help' the little kids... but nope, they joined right in!

The hula hoop action was my favorite!

We finished it off with a water balloon fight!

The last night in Klamath Falls, Troy had a cops show on, and it turned out it was a live chase going on in Spokane!  The kids were glued, and afterwards, Hailee and Jace took turns arresting each other 😂

Ross Family Reunion Part 2

Despite the long drive, Lava Beds National Park was one of the coolest things we've ever done... but since we drove with Mimi and Papa, it was pretty awesome all around 😉

Most the kids chose to be bored in the visitors center- even though there really was some cool stuff to see...

Since we had so many kids in our group, the Park Ranger deputized Kristi so that she could deputize all the Junior Park Rangers- he took it all very very seriously.... as did Kristi *snort*

Jace could see "nuffin"

Brilliant boys...

We finally got into the caves... and they were amazing!!

Crazy how it was so hot outside, but chilly just a few feet down into the cave...

Sydney was the first kid to become a Junior Ranger

Hailee loved that this sign said that pumice was obsidian's "gassy" twin-

What can I say?  She has all brothers!

Jace was very proud to have his 'Junior Park Ranger' honors bestowed upon him later that night...