Later in the day, after the Super Blue Blood Moon, Samuel reached the point of his Reading book that I could specifically remember Evie covering when she was in Kindergarten in 2014. I had written a post on Evie about four years prior so it stuck out in my mind. The lesson was a review on all the long-a sounds he had learned. I made cards of all the words and after he correctly read each one, he ran around the house labeling the various things. Here he's pointing out "train."
About a month ago, when Evie and I were studying Astronomy, we happened to be reading the chapter about the moon. After explaining how eclipses are formed with rotating balls, I recollected the partial solar eclipse we had seen back in August. That brought to mind the Blood Moon Terry, Noah, and I had seen in April of 2014. We looked up my old photo which made me wonder when the next one would be. To my surprise, it was only two weeks away and it was a special Blood Moon indeed! Since it was the second full moon in a month it was a Blue Moon, but it was also a Super Moon since it was closer to the earth and appeared bigger. On top of that, the earth moved directly between the sun and moon, thereby casting it's shadow over the moon, and refracting the red light in the atmosphere, and that's how it appears red. On Wednesday January 31, we got up at 6:30am and I rushed up the hill in my pajamas and slippers and cell phone. Unfortunately this was the only photo I managed to capture. When I went back down the hill, retrieved my good camera, and climbed back up, the clouds had covered the moon.
I woke Evie and we drove up next to Stevens high school so try to get higher to view it. It didn't matter though, the clouds were the problem, not the sinking moon. It was a total bummer Evie didn't get to see it.
We came back home and climbed the hill once last time but came up empty once again.
During lunch that day while sitting at the table, there was a bright light bothering me from the corner of my eye. When I looked outside for the source I discovered there was a sundog! I had never even heard of these until a couple years ago, probably from my knowledgeable sister. The sunlight refracts off of high cloud ice crystals. Beautiful little rainbow too!
I had been here only once before, last year on Luna's maiden hike. And curiously, when Kendra and I went on January 27, it was actually the exact same weekend that we went with Luna last year!
When Terry, the kids, and I came before, we didn't know how to get to the primary lookout, but Kendra showed me. :)
Kendra set up her phone for this photo. I like it.
And I took a selfie for us. Eeeee.
It was a super bright and clear day but frigid. We were both underdressed so thankfully Kendra had backup layers in her trunk.
After we finished at the lookout we continued west to the rim trail that we had taken last year.
Cute Luna Loo.
Kendra took our picture.
Luna can't be touched or petted without trying to get a lick in, the silly girl.
When we reached the end of the rim trail, we didn't want to go back yet, so we meandered down a half lost Jeep trail, and then sort of got lost (between miles two and three). We used Google Maps to try to figure out how to get back. It was fun!
Samuel, Grace, Ezra, and Sarah all competed last year. But since Samuel and Grace are seven this year only Ezra and Sarah participated.
The date was Saturday, January 27. We arrived amidst chaos, picked out a stick horse, pinned on a number, and got in line like cattle. There's Ezra with the arrow pointed at him.
Shari and Rebekah in the stands.
Terry's family sat up in the top of the stands and my folks sat at the bottom on the other side. I didn't manage to get a picture of them though!
Noah loves the babies.
Here's Ezra starting out on barrel racing. Evie did run him through some practice exercises at home again this year.
Sarah barrel racing.
They waited for the five year olds to finish, then for the three year olds to pole bend, and then the four year olds were brought out again. There's Sarah.
Ezra entertained himself by drawing in the saw dust with his stick. Ha ha.
Then he instructed the girl next to him how to get the horse make sounds.
On to pole bending.
They had set up the "poles" much differently last year so I think he was confused initially.
Sarah mistakenly thought it was her turn when she ran after this little girl. It was cute.
There she goes.
They went off and came back on again for the free style portion of the rodeo where they just let the kids go wild.
Ezra and Sarah found each other.
It was quite cute.
Here is a more close up video of Ezra winning the rodeo for the four year old boys. It was adorable how he just stepped out and stood there after they called his name. I think he was a little confused, waiting for someone to tell him what to do, but he looks like he's eating up the attention.
Terry's cell video version.
He's so confused. :D
There's a smile finally.
There were no reporter inquiries for interviews this year so we went right over to the place they were instructed to come for a photo op with the First Interstate Bank people. While we waited for them to organize, I put Ezra on the saddle. His eyes crack me up!
I didn't get a single smiley photo out of him, but these are better than that. :D
Then we waited for the bank folks.
Finally ready. That vest ended up being too small, a 2T, so we all trooped upstairs to find the correct booth in order to exchange it. Saturday morning was the most unideal time to do that but we finally got it done int he end. And now Terry's jealous of Ezra's new sweet blue vest.
But first we went into the Rush arena and viewed the huge horses. They were impressive.
The escalator is the number one draw for our kids.
We paused for a photo op on our way out before we headed to Culvers for lunch.
On Monday, January 8th, the kids once again began 4H shooting sports, otherwise known as B.B. gun shooting. This is Noah's third year and Evie's first, which is mostly due to Moses' sister and her friend Abigail also taking part. This photo is from the second week with Moses modeling the standing position.
A couple nights later on January 17th, Samuel finally lost his second loose tooth. A week before he had been yanking and pulling with all his might to pull it out, but it just wasn't ready.
So after later inspecting it and discovering it was hanging on by a thread, I insisted he pull it out. It came out incredibly easy.
The tooth fairy left him this note and a dollar!
The following weekend brought another pizza movie night, which we do every week. Have I talked about this before? Probably. But this night Terry was teaching Samuel and Ezra to play chess while I was busy in the kitchen.
Since Samuel and Ezra have been gluten free for a couple months, I've been making Bob's gluten free pizza crusts. I discovered that night that the boys like the crust better if it's thin like this.
They found a more comfortable location to continue another game.
The boys' first thin crust pizza.
And our pan fried pizza. DROOL. It never gets old. I do hope I don't have to go gluten free. Pizza night would be the only hard part.
A selfie with Samuel during school the next week.
Evie shooting animal crackers January 22. She's actually doing very well.
And Noah. Sitting is his best position.
We went on a walk every day during the second to last week of January since it was actually pretty nice and sunny. This the kids' favorite path to take, the "secret way."
I thought Ezra was just so darn cute skip counting by tens on January 25.
After lunch that day we drove down the road to the nearby park because I didn't have time to walk and go to Sams afterwards. The kids love going there with Luna because she's the Lava Monster they all run from. I think it's funny that she runs up the stairs and then down the slides.
Luna won't go down the spiral slide so that's why they're all huddled together on that one while she's on the landing sniffing around.
That Lava Monster is scary.
That night I kept running in and outside to watch the sunset. First it was all golden light...
...and then beautiful pink.
The following day, January 26, was a Friday and we sort of sat around after breakfast and the Price Is Right. Daddy went through the box of old childhood things that his parents gave him while cleaning up their basement and storage room. Here's his college full marathon medals! He's even bought a metal engraver to put his times on the backs. :D
Also some adorable early elementary school class photos. He's SO cute!
I think he was able an eighth or ninth grader here...
High school basketball.
A few weeks before we had gone through a box of old things in our closet and came up with a few oldies. My parents at Spearfish Falls after tree hunting when we were dating or engaged; so around 2002 or 2003
We couldn't even read the letters that we had written each other back then; they were way too mushy and gross, like this photo. When we visited me at SDSU in 2003 we went to a garden and took pictures with each other. Boy I was young though.
This was the day after we got engaged, April 20, 2003.
And finally, I have several videos, the dates of which I cannot remember, but are cute and fun.
Ezra wanted to make a video with me and surprised me with what he wanted to say.
Luna has been learning to do tricks each night with Daddy. This is actually the pinnacle of her training thus far. At first she could only roll one way. She was an ambi-turner like on Zoolander. HA! But now she can go both ways.
Evie pushes and spins those littles with what seems endless patience.
Staying and Shaking were two of Luna's first tricks.
Next came Lay Down, which seemed to take forever for her to figure out.
After moving away from home in 2007, I became weary of emailing recent photos of our kids to the grandparents. So I started a blog. And even though we moved back home in 2012, I still really enjoy keeping track of our lives!
