Total Eclipse in Rexburg Idaho
I know you are tired of hearing about the “great American eclipse”. And honestly I wouldn’t blame you unless you experienced it the way I did. We saw the Total Eclipse in Rexburg Idaho August 21, 2017. I just have to share about my experience while it’s fresh in my mind. Honestly one of the greatest experiences of my life.
A few months ago I was at my husbands family party talking to his aunt. We decided to go up to her home in Rexberg, Idaho to witness the eclipse in totality. Honestly I was thinking it was a great excuse to go visit her because I knew my kids would love being at her home. In the end we ended up filling up her home with our family and called it a family reunion. We had about 30 people staying in her home. We spent a few days hanging out around her home and having a great time. Monday morning we kept laughing that we had missed the eclipse or they postponed it. I really don’t think any of us really knew what to expect.
When it started we all sat out around her pond. I know I would look up with my glasses every 5-10 minutes or so. And it was pretty cool to watch the sun slowly disappear. It almost felt like the days we have wild fires in the area and the sun is sort of blocked with smoke. It did get a little darker and slowly colder as time went on. Honestly if that is all we saw it was cool but nothing amazing.
Just after 11:30 it was darker and I pulled my camera out to get a video. The kids started counting down to the eclipse and all of the sudden it was like a switch went off and it got really dark. I couldn’t help but scream out because it was really actually shocking how fast darkness fell. The kids started cheering and screaming their delight.
It was like someone switched the sun off. I honestly thought it would just slowly get dark. I think that speed it happened is what struck me the most. I know people say you should put the camera down and just enjoy it but I enjoy things through my camera. I wanted to document it the most I could so my kids would have a reminder of what it was like. I really hope they never forget that experience.
It’s really hard to put into words a experience like this. It looked like twightlight 360 degrees all around us. It felt like the world stopped. We made the kids quiet down to see if we could hear crickets and honestly it was like you couldn’t hear anything. The birds and other animals were quiet. To look up in the sky and see this glowing circle was amazing. I’m not sure how much the temperature dropped but it went from being warm to cold in a matter of minutes. We could see stars and plants in the sky- in the middle of the day. The magnitude of that moment is impossible for me to really describe but it really does something to your soul. I really see why people who doesn’t even believe in God say it’s a spiritual experience.
I wished it could have lasted longer. As fast as it started it ended. The sun started peeking around the moon again and that little sliver of light. It’s amazing how much light comes from just a tiny bit of sun showing. Which is why you need to see a eclipse in totality. I really thought my friends at home would get almost as good of a view of it as us but it just isn’t true.
My kids have this to say about it “It was cool! It just was different.” “It was awesome.” “when we counted down it just covers up it. It was so cool.” My sweet special needs niece was really scared by it. She cried through it. Then she told us that the “sun didn’t do it’s job!”.
Our group for the eclipse.
Notice the difference in light from the top photos to the bottom in this set. They were taken 10 minutes apart.
These two pictures were taken one minute apart. From light to darkness that fast.
Funny story- I was talking pictures and noticed (from the photo on the left below) that I was getting awesome silhouette photos so I could my husband to throw my son up in the air. The quick darkness really scared him and I guess he was shaking through the whole thing. When he was thrown up in the air he was screaming! He wasn’t a fan. So in these he was totally crying but you can’t tell.
From the first to the last photo they are only 7 seconds apart. You can see how the sun is starting to peek around the moon again. It happened so fast.
Total Eclipse in Rexburg Idaho