Annular Eclipse & Fall Ride

I have had the annular eclipse on my calendar for months. But I didn't make any concrete plans to go further south. Plus we had soccer games, blah, so we didn't go anywhere for fall break and we watched the eclipse from home. We were able to get some solar glasses from a neighbor - Natalie after her game. 

Her game went from 9-10, and the max eclipse would be at 10:28. so we hurried home, grabbed Lily Sophi and Katharine, and went over to my parents house. My dad has his telescopes set up. 

My sister and her family were there, as well as a few neighbors who were grateful to be blessed by my father's astronomy hobby. 

Natalie striking a pose.

He had some binoculars set up too, with solar filters on them, so there were two options. 

The binoculars made the sun a yellow-orange. The telescope made it appear white. I wasn't able to get a photo from my phone, but Jared got two cool shots - this one with the sun through the glasses ~

And this one was cool too, cause you can see the shape of the sun by the little glare that is next to the chimney - do you see it?

So that was fun. It was a cloudy morning, and I was praying for the clouds to pass. God answered our prayers and we were able to see it well enough! Yay! My sister Beka went down to Hanksville and she got some really cool pictures. If I had gone, I was thinking I'd just leave at 1a.m. with Katharine, find a church parking lot to sleep in, and then wait around and drive home. I anticipated there would be traffic, so I might not have made it back home in time to go on a ride, so the blessings of watching the eclipse from here was that 1) I didn't totally abandon Corey to take the kids to their games by himself and 2) I was able to go on a ride tonight and see the lovely leaves. 

I did our usual ride, the quarry trail, but I didn't get any personal bests because I kept stopping to take pictures of the mountains and the trees. 

It was GORGEOUS!

I was soaking it up. I took my time and told myself "There is more to life than increasing it's speed". I didn't beat any of my ride times for any of the segments, but I did enjoy the colors and the trees and the smells. I did techy three times, and I even made it up the hill on my first go, yay! On the way down - on avalanche hill - so pretty seeing the sun shine on the leaves on the mountains on the other side of the canyon.

So that filled my cup. I'm amazed at this beautiful world. God really went over the top with all these little details ~ leaves changing color and the moon and sun showing wonders in heaven. It probably would have taken a human a lot of understanding of physics and biology to accomplish! I'm glad God is in charge. It will all be all right in the end. I listened to the Follow Him podcast for this week - speaking of Paul in Prison made me think of the war in Israel, especially the children who were murdered, and the families in Palestine who are trying to flee to safety. As Paul said, either we are able to preach of Christ here, or we die and get to be with Him there! Either way, it is going to be great.