Solar Eclipse

All last week we heard about how Albuquerque was going to be one of the prime spots in the US to watch the solar eclipse on Sunday and that if you could get to a high spot with view of the western horizon you would be able to have an awesome viewpoint of this rare occurance.  Since we live on the western-most part of Albuquerque just a few hundred yards away from the Mesa, we decided to hike up the petrogylphs across the street from our house and check out the view.  We only had one pair of "eclipse-viewing glasses" (people went after the ones available like crazy and every place was out of their supply), but we had plenty of time to take turns and we were all able to see the eclipse.   The pics are a bit fuzzy since Hads, who was on me in the baby bjorn, kept grabbing the camera but we were still able to capture the night's events. . .

The girls were super excited when they realized they could see our house from atop the petroglyphs. They wanted me to take their picture in front it (ours is the house in the background facing the girls with the red-tile roof and the red and white cars in the driveway, right behind Maggie's head)

Half-way there, with the reflection of my camera lens with the glasses

Ella discovered this ladybug on a plant while exploring and waiting for the "ring of fire" and wanted me to take a picture so she could remember.  :)

The Ring of Fire

We then watched the moon leave from it's place in front of the sun, and headed back home.

**Just as we were leaving the petroglyphs and back on the street Ella fell, and her hand landed on a catcus.  A first for anyone in our family and we spent a whole lot of  time plucking the cactus spines from her hands.  It was no fun for any of us!  Poor Ella. . .