First day of school

Off to 7th grade, 4th grade, and 1st grade! Simon started his second (and last) year of preschool the following week. I also finally got a chance to take Simon on his summer date (Pelican's and mini golf).

Beach trip

We headed to the Wilmington area for a quick beach trip before summer ended. We visited the aquarium and got Britt's donuts on the boardwalk. We played at the beach, swam at the hotel pool and had yummy food at a burger place. We also visited Carolina Beach State Park and went on a few trails there in search of venus fly traps which grow in the wild there (they're native to North Carolina!).

Solar Eclipse!!!

We drove down to South Carolina so we could be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse (which occurred on August 21). It was one of the COOLEST things we've ever experienced. Traffic was predicted to be terrible since so many people were heading to the same general area to be in the path so we took some back roads down. We stayed at a hotel about an hour away from our viewing spot (because all hotels that were actually in "the path" were booked up way in advance). We woke up early to make sure we got to our viewing spot without any problems. We found a small SC state park and it turned out to be a great place to hang out all morning, waiting for "totality" which was about 1 p.m. We were one of the first to show up but by mid-morning the place got pretty full. We staked out a spot by the lake and had fun swimming and hanging out and enjoying everyone's excitement. The lighting got really eerie as we got close to the eclipse and the cool crescent shadows started showing up. We had our glasses ready and then watched as it got completely dark outside in the middle of the afternoon!! It was so crazy. I have never experienced anything like it. Everyone cheered and gasped and some started singing. And then it was like sunrise in the middle of the day. Such a crazy, cool thing to experience.