Total Solar Eclipse

Doug, Bri and I witnessed the total solar eclipse on August 21st - and it was AMAZING! I had not planned on driving to see the total eclipse - even though it was just a couple of hours from my house. I figured 97% totality where I live would be enough. Doug really wanted to see the whole thing and convinced me to go. I was worried about lots of people and lots of traffic, but I put my anxiety aside, decided to keep Bri out of school that Monday and we went.

The day before the eclipse was my nephew's 9th birthday party. So, we hit the party and then headed up to Chattanooga to spend the night.

N1 had his party at a laser tag/gaming center. That is right up Bri's alley...

She "suited up" to climb some ropes...

She had so much fun climbing all over the place. She of course wasn't scared at all...

After laser tag, rope climbing and gaming, it was time to head to Chattanooga.

We had our favorite pizza in Chattanooga for dinner at Lupi's...

Doug luckily found a great hotel room. Hotel rooms were hard to find...

Bri liked her surroundings. She had a test to study for, but she was still smiling...

We had a good night sleep and we stopped at a Subway super early to grab some sandwiches for our lunch...

We spotted a restaurant that had a panda drawn on the wall. Had to take a pic...

We drove to Athens, TN - there was going to be 2 minutes, 35 seconds of totality there...

We got into the park with like a billion other people and found parking. We found a nice spot under a tree and staked our claim for the next several hours. We got to the park around 9 and the eclipse wasn't going to start until around 1 or so...

We were going to make the best of it...

Bri playing iPad and also studying for a test...

I snapped this pic on the way back from the bathroom. See that tree in the middle? That is where we were set up...

Doug and Bri playing some soccer to pass the time...

More and more people started to arrive...

We must be crazy...

We had our glasses and we were ready...

Finally, the eclipse started (there were hardly any clouds in the sky and we had open space to see - perfect)...

I put my glasses over my phone to get this shot...

Some more soccer - waiting for totality...

Hot, sweaty, tired and waiting...

Still smiling...

You could see the grayness and haziness start to take over the park...

And then it was showtime (it was actually pretty exciting hearing everyone's reactions)...

And it looked like this for 2 minutes and 35 seconds...

The total solar eclipse...

It was really amazing (the temp dropped, the animals were restless, the bugs were making all sorts of noise)...

Bri tried to get some selfies with the eclipse behind her...

It was an amazing experience. I am so grateful that Doug talked me into doing it. It really was something to witness.

Traffic getting out of the park was crowded but not too bad. Doug used Waze to get us home. We took a bunch of back roads - and though it took a bit longer, we didn't sit in bumper to bumper traffic.

I had ordered a shirt for Bri before the eclipse, but it didn't make it in time (grumble). It didn't really matter because we ended up seeing the eclipse in TN and not GA - LOL! The shirt is a great reminder of that day, so Bri wears it anyway...

It was a very LONG day, but it was totally worth it!

U12 Soccer - Fall Season 2017

The new fall soccer season has begun! Briana has moved up to U12 and luckily a few of her U10 teammates and her coach moved up as well. They are still the Golden Eagles! The Golden Eagles gained a few new members - these are girls played U12 last year. We now have 12 girls on the team.

Coach Javier threw a team pool party before the season started, so the girls could get to know one another and they had a blast...

Coach getting the girls to tell funny stories about themselves...

There were relay races...

Bri and Ella ventured over to the tennis court toward the end of the party...

Soccer practices started at the end of August.

The girls have had some really solid practices...

Last Saturday, the girls had their very first game. It was the first time these girls have all played together. We were curious to see what would happen.

Bri was ready...

The girls played amazing...

Bri's corner kick...

Talking with coach during Bri's break...

This particular field was tough because the grass was very long and there were lots of divots. Don't know why the Y doesn't fix the field. Despite that, the weather was beautiful and the girls played hard.

Golden Eagles won 5-1!

Our next game is going to be tough though. We will be playing a team that we played two years ago in a tournament that played super dirty. I've heard that the team still plays super dirty. All I worry about is our girls getting hurt. So, I will be keeping my eyes open and if anything looks bad, I'm pulling Bri out of the game. It just isn't worth it to me. Not for rec soccer.

So far, the season is going great! Go Golden Eagles!

Briana's 11th Birthday Party - Sleepover

Now it's time for the sleepover part of the party!

Briana (my big time gamer) wanted a Pokemon theme for her party...

I decided to have a craft for the girls to work on - drawing on pillowcases...

As soon as they walked in the door, they immediately started coloring...

The girls were so creative! They seemed to really enjoy it. Briana uses her pillowcase every night...

Then it was fun and games time...

We took a quick break to sing "Happy Birthday" to Briana. Instead of making a big cake (since the girls already had gorged themselves on chocolate), I made birthday brownies. That way they could snack later in the evening if they wanted to...

Happy Birthday Bri!!!

Time for more fun and games (including Mad Libs which the girls thought was hilarious)...

I finally told the girls to get in their jammies and they started watching a movie...

I then tried to go to sleep (probably around 12:30 or 1). I slept for a few hours and then I was awoken by giggling, shrieking and bumping.

I had to finally had to go downstairs and tell the girls to GO TO SLEEP (probably around 4)! LOL!

They got in their sleeping bags and fell asleep. When Doug went downstairs around 7:30 (to go get donuts), they were all still sleeping. It was adorable because they all clumped together...

Breakfast of champions...

Most of the girls were smiling that morning at breakfast...

This was my kid - Miss Morning Sunshine (heh)...

The girls got dressed and Bri opened her gifts...

 This is the gift that Chani gave Bri (BFF panda necklace)...

Sweet friends ~ Bri, Katie and Chani...

 One of Bri's friends decided not to spend the night (left around 10PM) and another friend left in the morning before I snapped one last picture. I did manage to get six of them together that morning though...

A huge thank you to all of Bri's sweet friends that came to the party and made Bri's birthday so very special.

Sleepover success!!!!