Trains, Planes and Automobiles...

...Except without the trains. We didn't ride in a train, but we probably saw one. It should be called 'pink eye, planes and automobiles'...who goes on vacation and gets conjunctivitis?

Oh wait, that would be me. I have never in my whole life had ichy, burning crazy red sclerae, until the one time we just happen to be out of state...awesome!
I'm jumping ahead of myself. I guess I should mention that the Brown family went on vacation. A real-life vacation. The 'fly on a plane to somewhere' kind.

Yes, we went somewhere out of state and slept in a hotel, not a tent(although backpacking in the high Uintahs is one version of my perfect vacation).
We flew to California...I really don't like to say why we went to California because up until this point, you were thinking, "Oh Cali, that sounds nice." Then you hear what we did while visiting Cali and you think to yourself, "Oh boy, they really are dorks."
It's no secret that I like horses.

Horses are pretty, they run fast, they are fun to ride...sounds normal so far right? There is the 'I like horses,' kind of people. And then there's me. I thought I was a horse for the first 6 or 7...okay, okay, maybe it was 8 or 9 years of my life. I read every horse book, watched every horse show. etc. etc.
I'm just going to say why we went to California, so you can just start judging...We went to Californa to go to 'The Horse and Soul Tour'. It's kind of like a horse training seminar put on by Parelli Natural Horsemanship. That's not the only reason we went. We wanted to go to all the hot architecture spots also(see Chris is a dork too, although I'm pretty sure he wasn't a skyscraper the first 7 years of his life). And of course, the beach for the babyface. Aren't you dying to know all the amazing details of 'The Brown Family, Horse, Architecture, and Beach Retreat?'

Total Eclipse of the Heart

I love space. I'm pretty sure in my previous life I was an astronomer. Unfortunately in this life I have retained not a single iota of the math needed for this profession. But my love for space and its mysteries and beauty, are fully intact.
Tonight in honor of the eclipse and for everyone's viewing pleasure, I busted out my third grade skillz and built a very sophisticated eclipse viewing box.

I got a box and cut a square out of it(which was hard to do because silly Nora wouldn't stop climbing in and out of it) and covered the square with aluminum foil. Then I poked a pin hole into the aluminum foil. I taped white paper to the inside of the box opposite the aluminum foil square...and there you have it a very sophisticated eclipse viewing box.
Unfortunately I burned the crap out of my retinas looking at the eclipse because I thought that I was supposed to look through the pinhole but really I was supposed to look at the white paper and see the shadow of the eclipse. Details, details.
Luckily our neighbor Richard had a welding mask something or other. It was just perfect because you could look right at the eclipse. It was awesome!
Before the mask thingy

After the mask thingy

We had some of the fam. come and we enjoyed an impromptu eclipse watching party...which of course included some hot dog roasting over our fire pit!

Because I wanted to prove that I was smarter then a 3rd grader, I refused to give up on my sophisticated viewing box and finally we figured it out. It only took 4 hours and a total eclipse of the heart...I mean sun

On a random note, look how tan my nieces are compared to Elanora, unfortunately she has my skin and will need 100SPF sunblock and still burn.

No one got sick of me singing this song