Merry Christmas 2017!

The calm before the storm.  You can't tell but it's still dark outside.  

Merry Christmas!  I'm sitting on the couch with Reina while the guys watch Dunkirk in the den.  Reina and Will woke up crazy early this morning (5 something) and dragged us all out of bed.  Reina took a break from unwrapping presents to briefly throw up, rallied to open presents and play and then barfed again a few minutes ago.  So now we get to experience that lovely purgatory of "does my stomach hurt, does anyone else's stomach hurt, does that burp mean something" until it either does or doesn't.

Stomach issues aside, we had a great day.  Vicky and Matt and the baby/toddler cousins were over bright and early because their wakeup call was even earlier than our's.  Pop-pop and Grandma weren't too far behind them.  It was a flurry of opening presents and paper and some minor toddler meltdowns, delicious food and good company.  The morning was over with way too fast but then we all got to nap.  We had a white Christmas with bitter temperatures (I think 14 degrees was the high?) so we had good reasons to stay inside and watch movies.  Even the dogs weren't looking for a walk.  For dinner, Glenn and I cooked up an elk roast with a side of leftover Christmas candy and our stomachs are full. Well, except for Reina's.

I asked everyone about their favorite parts of the day and here are their responses:

Reina loved opening presents and being with family.  Reina's favorite present was her twin Hatchimal but she wants it known that she loved all of her presents.

Glenn is watching Dunkirk so I can't ask him his favorite part of the day but he said earlier that his favorite present was the French Press coffee maker I bought him at Target for $19.99.  Shhhh... don't tell him it wasn't more expensive.

Will is also still watching Dunkirk and he told me earlier that he couldn't decide what his favorite present was but I've been hearing him ride his skateboard around the den all afternoon when he's not playing with his new Lego's, sitting in his beanbag chair listening to Sports Jamz while wearing his new clothes.  I think that about covers it.

Coco loves her catnip and is currently sleeping off her cat high.

The two dogs loved all of Reina's leftover dinner.

I had a great time watching all of the kiddos open presents and Baby Cousin fighting Toddler Cousin over her new cash register that was suddenly the present du jour.  My nap was pretty awesome too.  My favorite present is my Rockies jacket followed closely by a new cookbook and an Outlander adult coloring book that makes me giggle every time I see the cover.

What a happy day!

Someone else is enjoying the new bean bag chair too. 

How we spent our Sunday afternoons

We took a break from holiday preparations to spend a little time watching some football.  Will and I headed to Denver for our final Broncos game of the season.  It hasn't been a banner year for Broncos football but the team showed up today and we watched a fun game.  Will and I have yet to attend a losing game together so our streak continues!  The weather was unseasonably nice - we were jacket-less until the sun fell behind the stadium.  We cheered and had some snacks and watched a shutout - Broncos won 23-0.  

We might be the Broncos good luck charm!  

 Will filled up my phone with shots of the field and the scoreboard.  He even tried taking a picture by holding up the phone to the binoculars.  Yes, certain parts of the game were less than exciting. 

Who's big kid is this?!

 While we were sitting in the sun in Denver, Glenn took Reina duck hunting.  It was a little chillier in Wyoming but they bundled up and spent the afternoon sitting near an iced-over pond.  Reina was a trooper and Glenn proudly told me that she had packed her own snacks!  The ducks won this round but a good time was had by all. 

Wearing big brother's camo... shhhhhh don't tell him!  

It's beginning to look a lot like something

So it's December and didn't we just have Thanksgiving?  This month is flying by.  Surprisingly, I'm almost finished my Christmas shopping.  I'm mailing packages on Monday, a big chunk of the baking is done, I've wrapped a few presents and it's all coming together.  My weekend projects include cranking out a Christmas card and going with Will to the Broncos game on Sunday. This blog has been short on football news mostly because there is nothing fun to report.  I'll wear my Super Bowl 50 shirt on Sunday and look forward to brighter football days.  

Back on the homefront, the house is decorated.  We brought the tree home last Friday in what is Coco's favorite day of the year.  She loves that tree.  I think she's slept under it every night since we brought it home and every day after work I have to put back up a bunch of ornaments that have mysteriously landed on the floor.  Today, she somehow unwound a couple of laps of the lights.  Luckily the lights were unplugged.  

Yes, we see you.  

Earlier in the week, I started a batch of the Spritz - a recipe from the Pauley side of the family.  The spritz has to be pushed through a cookie press and Glenn helps me because honestly, I can't ever get the dough to come out.  So we started on the first batch and the dough was too cold and lo and behold, the handle on the press snapped.  We tried to glue it back in place but the press was broken.  Here's the blog-worthy part.  Glenn hopped in the car and drove to the store to buy a new one.  Be still my heart!  AND he filled up my gas tank while he was out.  Swoon!   

Lastly, meet Brownie, our Elf on the Shelf. I've made it a decade of parenting without bringing home an Elf until this year.  Thanks to my darling aunt (who couldn't resist Reina), Brownie is visiting us for the month.  So far, she's shown up in the dollhouse, the Christmas tree, the mantel, and one night she even took a few selfies.  Coco's interest in all of the Christmas decorations has so far not included Brownie, and let's hope it stays that way. 

Odds & ends

Lots of Thanksgiving pictures coming soon but I'm still in a slight turkey haze.  So let's talk about chickens instead.  All three girls are still going strong.  We had an unpredictable summer of egg production because two of them went broody, meaning they really want to sit on eggs and not make any new ones.  We made it through that and then they started molting.  A quick google of 'molting' and it turns out that it's not a quick or pretty process.  It seems strange to me that an animal would lose most of it's feathers in a cold part of the year, but I'm not a chicken and it works for them.  All three are going through various stages of molting and I think one of them is finally done.  Black Chicken as we lazily call her when we can't remember which on is Lolly or Dolly, is smack dab in the middle of it.  Isn't she something?  Up close, you can see the new feathers coming in but her shiny black feathers are few and far between and the absence of fluffiness makes her look scrawny and slightly crazed.   But she's still interested in treats. 

Are you looking at me?  

Early Turkey Dinner

Last week, the kids' school hosted their annual early Thanksgiving dinner. I had another friend describe it as turkey slurry over instant mashed potatoes but honestly, I'm just there for the pumpkin pie with crunchy crust dessert thing. It's delicious.  Oh, and I'm there to spend quality time with my favorite monsters, of course. I've had other friends tell me that fifth grade was the start of when they were no longer invited by their children to attend but Will was happy that I was showing up.  He and Reina have different lunch periods this year, which worked out well because I was only about halfway through my meal when Will's bell rang and it was time for Reina to come in.  During Will's lunch, we made changes to our fantasy football team.  And by 'we made changes' I really mean that Will undid all of the changes I had already made and made his decisions.  But we are in second place in our league so I should probably just keep my mouth shut.  

He did turn down my request for a selfie and was not super excited about this picture but at least I can prove that we had lunch together!  

 During Reina's lunch, we opted to head down the hall to the art room where it was a little quieter and we could chat.  She picked a table by the window so we could look out onto the playground.  Fancy!  We talked about her day and her plans for the afternoon.  I had to head out of town for a work trip right afterwards so it was a nice treat to get to spend a few minutes with them both.  And there was pumpkin pie. 

Someone is happy to take a mom selfie!  

Girl(s) on the Run

We signed Reina up for Girls on the Run at her school earlier in the summer.  She wasn't too exited about that decision but I'd heard great things about the program and not-so-secretly, I think Reina could really enjoy running in the future and I think she's a natural!  She's tired of hearing me say that but her stride is so natural and it looks effortless. So anyway.  She started the 12-week Girls on the Run program in September and ran her final 5k race this morning.  She finished in under 45 minutes and I'm so proud of her!  The path was icy and it was a really chilly morning but she kept putting one foot in front of the other and crossed the finish line.  I hope there are a lot more family 5k's in our future.  

Before the race - Reina and her official running buddy - our friend Shelby.  

Race pics thanks to Shelby's mom!  Here's Glenn and Trigger.  Reina and I aren't too far behind and Will is w

Reina and I starting heading towards Mile 2.  

Will racing towards the finish line.  He ran by himself for most of the race because our pace well.... was not his.  There wasn't an official race clock but I'm pretty sure he beat my dream time for a 5k.  

Reina making the turn towards the finish line.  Once she saw the flags, she wanted to get that race over with and left me in the dust.

Officially done!  

Reina and Shelby post-race.  Look at those pink cheeks!  

Twelve

Reina says that I had "love eyes" that day.  I think she's right.  

Yesterday, Glenn and I celebrated our twelfth wedding anniversary.   We went out to dinner the weekend before and Glenn surprised me with a gorgeous pair of super sparkly earrings.  I see that the traditional gift for 12 years is silk or linen but I'll take my little jewelry box instead!  Glenn didn't want anything for the anniversary, we are in the midst of redoing some stuff around the house and even bought new toilets so apparently, he's good with that?  

At breakfast, Reina drew a picture of our wedding on the envelope of the card that my mom gave us.  Between my veil and long dress, Glenn's dapper suite and the googly eyes we are making at each other, I think Reina captured the spirit of that day very well.  And our hair looks fabulous.  

Veteran's Day Concert or A Series of Pictures of Will Looking Uncomfortable

The fifth-grade classes at Will's school performed in a Veteran's Day concert last night.  The students were instructed to dress nicely and Will agreed to wear his suit jacket "one last time" because it's getting a little too short in the arms.  I bought that jacket in late January and he has grown like a weed.  He wouldn't agree to a tie, just a button-down shirt.  Also, a little gel in the hair completed the look. 

It's a well-known fact on this blog that Will is not a fan of singing, singing in public, being on a stage, smiling while on a stage, or any of the rest of it.  He told us about the concert a few weeks ago and when I asked him Monday night what songs they would be singing, he replied with "songs about American, Mom."  Duh right?  The kids sang The Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, Amazing Grace and My Country Tis o' Thee.  A few of the kids recited some lines about the branches of military service (Will opted out of that project).  It was very patriotic and a good reminder of what Veteran's Day is all about.  

I had my zoom lens on my camera but the light was a little low so these pictures are blurry.  But I think they appropriately chronicle Will's experience.  

Glenn and I started giggling right away. Will was in the back row, smack dab in the center and looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.... 

He did sing, or at least mouth the words.  

Is there an escape hatch on the stage floor?  

Wait, I believe that's somebody singing!  

Oh buddy. 

The students were given battery operated candles for "Amazing Grace" (tangent - mom crying alert) and Will's flickered on and off which led to him shaking it aggressively whilst not singing.  Good stuff.  

Let's go ahead and file this one under "things that will make him angry at me in the future" but oh Will, we love watching you sing, even if you are hating every minute of it.  You look so grown-up up there and I appreciate you participating in something because it's the right thing to do, even if it's way outside of your comfort zone.  And thanks for helping us remember what Veteran's Day is all about. 

Go Cowboys!

Last Spring, for Mother's Day in fact, Glenn bought me season tickets for UW football.  It was a lovely present and I was delighted.  It wasn't too much of a surprise because I said something along the lines of, "for Mother's Day, can you get me season tickets to UW football?" So he did and we are the proud owners of Section J, Row something, seats something and something and it's been fun.  Except for the Oregon game.  That wasn't very fun.  Some combination of the four of us, plus one grandparent, have made every single game except one that interfered with Will's football game.  A few weeks ago, Glenn was hunting so we bought an extra kid ticket and the kiddos and I headed over the summit to watch the New Mexico game.  Spoiler alert, Wyoming won 42-3.  

She wasn't wearing a stitch of school colors but she willingly cheered when the scoreboard implored the crowd to and she kept herself busy with trips to the snack shack and my phone.  

Not sure why we framed this picture with that sign but here's a field level view of my little superfans.  We were on our way home at this point because it was chilly, we'd run out of snack money and the Cowboys scored all of their 42 points by halftime.  

Football isn't Reina's jam as the kids say these days so she entertained herself by taking pictures on my phone and slapping all sorts of whatever you call those on there.  I had about twenty similar shots waiting for me after the game.  

My favorite superfans.  

Happy Halloween!

The Halloween spirit rolled into the Pauley household as soon as the calendar flipped to October.  Reina loves to decorate as soon as possible and we had nice weather for most of the month that helped us get into the late Autumn spirit.  Reina waffled between her final costume choice and a witch for a few weeks before deciding on her pick (you'll see it in a few pictures).  

We added to our Halloween decorations with this black cat.  Reina and I were shopping and saw it and we knew she (of course) had to come home.  Glenn put the kibosh on a giant metal chicken at the beginning of the summer but I didn't wait for his veto this time around.  

Trigger says "why?"  

 A few weeks before Halloween, Reina and I went to an autumn festival with Aunt Vicky and the baby cousins and some friends.  I didn't take my camera but I managed a few phone snaps of one cute little witch. 

And one cute little pumpkin.  Baby Boy Cousin wasn't interested in the arts and crafts or kids' games, instead I spent my time chasing him around the pumpkin patch.  That kid can move.

Catch me if you can Aunt Lucy!  

A week before Halloween, Grandma H came over to our house and helped me get Reina's costume done.  Okay, let's be clear.  She made the costume with materials that I purchased, that was the extent of my creative participation  Reina helped us and when we were done, we had a few extra pieces of felt.  What does one do with extra felt?  Turn a cat into Wonder Woman of course!  

Coco's face says it all, doesn't it?  

Here's the official unveiling. Reina decided to be a piece of pizza!  

She helped design the costume with Grandma and those are hand-colored pieces of pepperoni are original works of art from the pizza girl herself.  

So we move on to Halloween itself, finally.  The night was a little chilly but we bundled everybody up and headed out.  We had great friends come over and trick-or-treat with us and take turns manning the door.  

After the friends left, the kiddos and I took a few more walks around the block to fill up the candy bags.  

Will's dressed as Nolan Arenado and he started off the night trick-or-treating with our friend Jenna, one cute kitty cat.  

Only two pumpkins this year.  A football and a cat.  Naturally.  

After we all got cold enough, we came home and manned the door until bedtime.  This is probably Tootsie's favorite part of Halloween because sometimes candy falls on the floor and little kids think she's cute.  

More October stuff

This month, heck this Fall, has flown by for me.  Tomorrow is Halloween!  True to Wyoming form, the temperature is dropping and we have a high wind warning going into effect tomorrow night but at least there isn't a foot of snow on the ground.  Lots of cute kid pictures coming soon.  I find myself wanting to carve out a few minutes for blog time because we've really had some fun adventures and kid anecdotes and photo opportunities but finding even a scrap of time to blog about it any of it has proved impossible.  I've had a few work projects hanging over my head and any time I turned on the computer I felt like that was my priority.  But I turned in a big report today and here I am on the computer for fun stuff!  And a cat just landed on my lap so I guess I'm here for a while. 

Enough about boring Bronco Mom work stuff.  What are the stars of this blog up to?  Reina is participating in Girls on the Run and ran a practice 5k last week.  I am so impressed with her! I don't think I ran 3 miles until high school.  Running isn't her favorite activity but she seems to like each week more and more and gaining some confidence.  Reina's also still taking piano lessons and jazz and ballet once a week.  She's a busy girl! 

Will's football season wrapped up a few weeks ago.  He played tackle and flag at the same time and I think both seasons wore him out a bit.  His tackle season was fun - his team ended up around .500 and Will really made some strides in tackling.  He played on a team with 5th and 6th graders and was on the smaller end of the size spectrum.  I might've closed my eyes any time he was getting ready to tackle or be tackled but everyone survived.  Will played flag football for the school. His fifth grade team went undefeated and he got to play with the 6th grade team for the city championship, which they won!  It was pretty exciting - way more exciting than I thought flag football could be. Will played center.  He wasn't excited about that position at first -despite my encouraging speeches about how the center is a crucial part of the game, you get to touch the ball every play, blah blah blah. My rah-rah's went in one ear and out the other but Will came home from one of the last practices beaming because the coach told him that he was doing a good job and the center is an important part of the game and the offense doesn't happen without a good center and blah blah blah.  I didn't even bother to say "I told you so."  Okay, so I probably said it a little bit. 

Glenn's been hunting a few weekends, watching kid and UW football, cleaning chicken coops and helping manage the chaos at Bronco Baby Headquarters.  We have some deer meat and antelope burger in the freezer and probably more to come before the seasons close.   We try to jog together on the weekends, it's what passes for a date around these parts.  It's also a great time to catch up on stuff and tire out a couple of dogs in the process.  I've been busy with house stuff and work stuff and cleaning up the garden, doing something with the giant box of squash that we harvested, watching sports that don't make me angry and laundry.  This family can produce some laundry. 

On that exciting note, I'll sign off until tomorrow.  Halloween costumes!   

October Stuff

I'm sitting here at the kitchen table while Reina does math homework.  Every once in a while, she'll ask for help but most of the time she just powers through her addition and subtraction and tries to sneak the calculator over to her side of the table so she can preemptively check her math.  I thought I'd use these few spare minutes to finally write another blog post.  October has flown by.  We've had a trip to Nebraska, another round of sickness, the last tackle football game, the last flag football game (city champions!), Reina doing some running, Glenn doing some hunting, me running and finishing up some big work projects.  On top of that, some cousin time, Broncos and Cowboys football, Halloween costume planning, baseball excitement for a little while (thank you Rockies!), finishing up gardening for the season and phew, what else could we pack into this month? 

I have a stack of pictures from our quick trip to Nebraska to put on here. I have a bunch of shots of my favorite football player that need to be immortalized.  Reina keeps stealing my phone and taking selfie after selfie, that sometimes feature Coco.  Those need to go up here.  Here's hoping for a quiet weekend to have some computer time! 

Mom/son bonding time

No pictures in this post.  No shots of us hanging out at a sporting event or catching a movie.  Maybe working on a project for school. Nope, none of those.  Our bonding time today involved the two of us, two couches, a few cans of sprite, one tv and one bad case of the stomach flu, which Will shared so generously with me. This blog features a few instances where both kids were home sick at the same time, one memorable weekend when 3 of the 4 of us were barfing, but it's been a while since we had a day like we had today. 

Will and I did go to the UW football game on Saturday which had an 8:15 p.m. start time.  We didn't make it through the whole game because sleeeeeep and by the time we got home, Will had a bad stomachache.  The longest night in recent memory followed with him getting up every hour or so to head to the bathroom and yelling for my company.  By Sunday afternoon, however, he was perking up and watching some football and nibbling on dinner.  He went to school on Monday and played in a flag football game. More on that sport later.  I felt fine, I had a volleyball game last night and had fun and came home to a concerned Glenn and a super sick Will, again.  Earlier in the day, I had foolishly told my co-workers that I was pretty sure that Will had food poisoning because I felt FINE.  Really!

So I sat with Will for a little while and tried to get him to do some homework, thinking he'd wake up feeling fine.  I had something unmentionable for dinner (unmentionable to me because I'd see it again later in the evening) and then noticed that my stomach was starting to make weird noises.  Will went to bed early, I went to bed early but long story short, we saw each other in the hallway a lot last night.  It was rough. 

So today, we camped out on the couches, watched some tv and frantically tried to change the channel if any commercials with food came on.  We nibbled on toast later in the day and started to get our feet back underneath us. It's not my favorite way to hang out with my kid, but if I had to be home trying not to barf, he was pretty good company.

So far, Reina and Glenn are fine.  Here's hoping they stay that way. 

Reina's writing assignment

I'm so far behind on my blogging goals.  September is flying by and our free time is crammed full of football and dance and piano and more football to watch and a garden to harvest and man do I need live-in help, but until I can catch up, here's a brief glimpse in to the mind of a third grader.

Reina has a journal at school that she writes in every day.  She brought it home so we could talk about her writing goals (she has writing goals!) and I got to peek at some of her assignments.  On the first page, she wrote about her dad.

My dad.  
*loves to hunt
*loves me and my brother
*is really funny
*loves meat
*loves veggies
*wants to eat healthy
*loves running

My dad is really good at shooting a bow.  He was shooting his bow he shot it so well it broke.  And he kept breaking the bows.  So let me tell you my dad is a really good shooter.

My mom.
*loves running
*loves cats
*loves all of my family
*good at cooking
*loves sports
*is really sweet/funny

My brother (spelled bother...)
*strong
*cool
*loves sports
*good at sports
*loves to play games
*loves phone/DS/Kindle
*In 4th grade

*****
I think she described us pretty well, except for Will's grade.  And she thinks I'm a good cook!!

First day of school 2017

Remember when it was easy to snap a few pictures on the first day of school where everyone smiled and looked halfway happy to be there?  Yah, me neither.  Last Tuesday morning, I hustled everybody out there door a few minutes early to get pictures of a FIFTH grader and a THIRD grader.  How did that happen?  And who are these big kids standing on my front porch?  

I said "smile" and got 1 1/2 smiles and the chin model thing.  

Can you tell from this picture who was excited about the first day of school and who was lukewarm?  

And.... picture taking time comes to an end.  I have a strict no-wrestling-on-the-lawn-the-first-morning-of-school rule.  I'm such a party pooper.  

So we survived the first week of school.  Both kids like their teachers. Reina has the same teacher from second grade (we think she is great!) and Will's teacher seems really nice, despite being a Patriots fan.  Will told me that he'll miss studying Wyoming history like he did in fourth grade so we talked about all of the interesting US history he'll learn in 5th grade.  The fifth graders used to do a Revolutionary War reenactment but we're not sure if he'll get to do it this year (budget cuts.)  While Will was describing the battle reenactments, he made a machine gun noise.  Yep, there's still a lot to learn about US history buddy.

Bring on the school year!

The Great American Eclipse 2017

On Sunday, we packed up the camper and headed northwest with a bunch of friends to a ranch near Casper, WY for the eclipse on Monday.  Full disclosure, I was lukewarm about the idea. I was worried about leaving the pets at home (they couldn't come to the ranch but they had Aunt Vicky checking on them frequently). I was also concerned about traffic because news reports indicated that Wyoming's population could possibly double from all of the people coming to see the eclipse.  I just felt uneasy but we headed out of town.  Spoiler alert?  I'm so very glad we got to see the eclipse.

After we unpacked and set up the camper, we headed to Miracle Mile, a great fishing spot on the North Platte. Some of the kiddos fished.  Our two just stuck their feet in the water.  

It was a little chilly.  

Glenn offered Will $20 if he'd submerge himself.  Pay up Dad.  

Reina preferred a submerge-less experience. 

Will warming up in the truck afterward.  

A juvenile pelican that didn't get that close - thanks zoom lens.  Glenn said he was a juvenile and I usually believe everything he says that's bird related.  

Shorts drying on the fenceline because someone (me) only packed Will one extra set of clothes. I forgot about the water factor.  No swimsuits either.  

The view from our camper.  We were camping on a ranch that's now owned by a corporation and all of the buildings except the main house are currently unused.  It was a peaceful place.  

Boys exploring a little creek that ran through the ranch yard.  We'd been warned about rattlesnakes but luckily we didn't see or hear any all weekend.  

I got to see an owl!  Two of them actually but I couldn't get them both to pose for the picture.  Glenn says this is a juvenile great horned owl.  All I know is that its giving me a very judgmental look.  And I'd like to snuggle it.  

Kids and parents fishing and catching crawdads.  

Day #2 and it's time for the eclipse!  We had to travel a few miles from the camping spot to completely be in the path of totality.  We pulled off the road on some BLM land and set up a temporary viewing area.  I took this picture right as the moon touched a sliver of the sun.  It would be another 80 minutes until totality.  

Smile!  With those glasses on, you can't see a thing except for the sun. 

Will passed the time playing a little football.   

Reina got comfortable.  

After we stopped,more cars and trucks started pulling in.  You can see some cows enjoying the spectacle too.  

The kids would take a break, put their glasses on, check out the sun and then go back to their game.  This one involved a soccer ball, points and a lot of yelling.  

A herd of horses were in the pasture we picked and that resulted in the Great Stampede of 2017.  Some of the kids jogged down the road to check out the horses, the horses decided to come up and see why the small humans were running, the small humans got scared of the horses running towards them and then chaos ensued.  No one was stampeded, there were lots of giggles and one barefoot kid.  Reina was just happy to have all of the horses hanging out.  

Getting closer to totality. It's a little hard to tell in this picture but the light was starting to change.  As the eclipse got closer, the light became more diffused and almost green. It was a weird thing to watch.  

Totality!  I didn't try to take any pictures of the sun with my camera until this point because I was worried about the lens.  It was such a strange sensation to peer through the glasses and see the fun partially covered, mostly covered and then this.  

Here's my zoomed in shot.  

Where we parked, totality lasted about a minute and a half.  All of the stress leading up to that weekend, the worries about traffic, etc., evaporated in that 90 seconds.  I keep using words like strange and weird but it so eerie to be standing outside at 11:42 a.m. on a Monday in the middle of August and have the temperature drop 10 degrees, the crickets start chirping and the world go silent for just a minute.  Glenn said later that it looked like dusk, except the sun was still high in the sky.  We all marveled at those few seconds, waited for the sun to come peeking back out, piled everyone back in the car and headed home.  We lucked out.  No traffic to speak of on our drive home, pets and house waiting for us and a great way to wrap up Summer 2017. I just might have to go see another eclipse in my lifetime.