Eclipse 2017 - My First Vlog!

Well, I figured it was only a matter of time after I started doing YouTube before I decided to vlog something. I've been blogging for years, so I guess this was the natural evolution. One could argue that my movie reviews are a kind of vlog, but this was me, actually going out into the world, filming something I was doing.

My cousins and I were planning on going to see the total eclipse for a few weeks before it actually happened. It wasn't until a few days before the event that I actually thought about vlogging it. Until that point I hadn't given vlogging much thought. I thought it might be fun, but it wasn't, and still isn't, something I was planning to do as a regular thing. But for something as big as the eclipse, what better thing could there be to do for a first vlog?

Sarah and I were planning on going by ourselves, but about a week before the eclipse, we found out that Shaina had the day off, so we convinced her to come. The only problem was, by that point, we still hadn't gotten eclipse glasses. I had planned to buy them on Amazon, but then there was that whole scandal with scammers making fake glasses to cash in on the hysteria, so I never got any there. The store I work at had apparently gotten some in, but they had sold out before I even knew we had them, (allegedly, to one person who bought them all, I'm assuming to resell to desperate people) and they weren't planning on getting any more in.

(Side note, that last week before the eclipse was so much fun at work... *sarcasm* SO many people coming in to ask if we had any of the eclipse glasses left. They all said they'd been all over town and we were their last hope. Apparently my store could have cleaned up if they'd had the foresight.)

The Friday before the eclipse we were down to the wire. I started calling all the local stores, going out wider and wider, until of them told me that they'd heard that the Hy-Vee in Council Bluffs had just gotten some in. So I called them and was told that yes, they had just gotten a shipment, but they were down to the last couple hundred pairs, and they weren't able to hold any for anyone. So Sarah and I jumped in the car right then, and drove to Council Bluffs to get some. We had to wait in line for a lot longer than I expected to, at a register where all they were doing was selling glasses, but we got some!

Monday morning was the day of the eclipse, and since I vlogged all that, there's no need to blog it! You can just watch it all here!



As you could probably tell, I was taking pictures while we were there, and I plan to blog them at some point, but I haven't gotten around to editing them yet. I've actually done a LOT of photography this summer, I just haven't gotten around to blogging any of it. You might have noticed, but YouTube has been my main creative focus this summer. :p

While we were driving, we filmed another episode of Wonderland Wednesday, which has quickly become my channel's main series. We had listened to a radio adaption from 1948 while we drove, so I thought it would be fun to do the review as we drove too. :)



I have no current plans to vlog again, but I did enjoy doing it, and I had fun editing the video, so I will probably do it again someday. I definitely don't want to become a daily vlogger, that just sounds exhausting, but if I'm doing something fun, or going somewhere interesting, I could easily see myself doing it again.

Minnesota Adventure!

In August my cousins Shaina and Sasha and I went to Minnesota. We wanted to go to the Mall of America, and visit my cousin Kyle, who works at an awesome graphic design company. My cousin Mandi also lives near the twin cities so we stayed with her for almost a week.

The first day we were there we ended up babysitting while Mandi was stuck at the cell phone store getting her phone fixed. Which apparently didn't even happen and they kept her there for hours. We didn't go anywhere that day, but we ended up having a lot of fun anyway.

The girls took to Shaina right away. They were like instant best friends. :)

Trinity insisted I take a picture of her handiwork here for some reason. :p

And also herself.

She is a ham. :p

Here she told me that this was a mother carrying her baby in her mouth.

It did not look that way. :p

Sasha went to Walmart and came back with coloring books and craft supplies for the kids.

Trinity and Afton ended up coloring with Shaina and Sasha, while Tanner, Cody, and and I played video games on our DS's. I think we accidentally segregated ourselves. :p

On one of the days, not sure which, Mandi and I noticed that we accidentally wore matching shirts.

I didn't get a picture, but she posted on Instagram, so I borrowed that. :)

The next day we went to the Mall of America, where I finally broke down and bought what would become my first Funko Pop figure. The first of many. I bought a bunch more before the end of vacation. I should do a blog post about those one of these days.

I also took this picture to send to my cousin Sarah who wasn't with us. We both love Kid President, and I found this doll of him at the mall.

The next day we went to visit Kyle at Ultra Creative.

Shaina found their arcade machine from the 80's and was hooked.

Shaina has a huge thing for all things 80's. :)

Before we took the tour, we went out to eat at an awesome brick oven style pizza restaurant.

Trinity was more interested in playing with Shaina than eating her pizza. :p

Later that night, back at Ultra Creative, we all got the grand tour.

Kyle's brother, Trent came along too. :) Uncle Dick was there too, but I've been through my pictures like three times, and apparently I didn't get any pictures with him in them!

Ultra Creative has all kinds of awesome surprises. :)

Kyle showed us some things that his company has been working on.

And some stuff that he's done himself!

If you see any of these halloween monster cereals out there, just know that Kyle drew the box art!

There are so many cool rooms around Ultra Creative.

This room has soundproof padding, windows that turn opaque, and a TV hidden in the table!

These look like wood or something, but they're actually kind of a soft foam.

Ultra Creative has a huge library of creativity boosting books and magazines.

There are also scooters that you can use to quickly get around the entire office. I rode one, and I managed to do a full circle around the entire floor, but I don't have any pictures of it. Which is probably for the best. I was probably within inches of killing myself. I felt like I was anyway. :p

And that's all my pictures! We did other things on our trip, but a lot of it was just shopping and playing with the kids, so I didn't have my phone out to take pictures. I guess we were just having too much fun. We loved spending time with Mandi and the kids, and everyone loved hanging out together. Mandi and Shaina were instant kindred spirits, just like I knew they would be. (Seriously, I'd actually been saying they should be friends since I was a kid. :p) We all had so much fun that we're already thinking about going back. We'll see what happens next year! :)

Chicago 2015 (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1 of these photos, you can click HERE to catch up.

Last time we went to Chicago we went to the Willis (Sears) Tower. We didn't want to do that many repeats this trip, so this time we went to the Hancock Tower.

It's cool to look down over the city and see places that you had recently walked by or visited.

Classic cityscape.

We also just kind of walked around the city that day, and we found a really cool candy store. Everything was way too expensive and we didn't buy anything, but it was cool nonetheless. :p

On one of our last few days we went to the Museum of Science and Industry with Becky, Ethan and Lucas. Ethan loved hanging out with Shaina. :)

It was a rather long trip to get to the museum, 2 trains, and a bus.

Lucas fell asleep before we even got there.

This museum was one of the coolest places we visited. They had an indoor tornado!

And a mirror maze

This place was so trippy and cool.

An endless maze of me.

They had a bunch of incubators with chicks and eggs at various stages.

They were so cute.

Lucas may be rather camera shy, (See last post) but Ethan isn't. :p

On our second to last day we went to the Field museum, which was cool as always.

Shaina has been fascinated with lichens ever since she watched Labyrinth, (which we had just recently watched) so we had to go see their new, temporary lichen exhibit.

The dinosaurs were my favorite part. :p

While we were there I had to find this exhibit. I watch the YouTube channel, The Brain Scoop, which is now based out of the Field Museum, and they recently had a fund drive to create a whole new exhibit for these hyenas. Apparently they have been in the reptile room for decades, and they have been wanting to make a better home for them for a long time. They did eventually reach their goal, and the new exhibit was recently completed. I will have to find that the next time I go.

On our very last day, Sasha was too exhausted to do anything, so Shaina and I went to Navy Pier by ourselves. The Ferris wheel was our favorite part. :)

We also rode the carousal.

We rode the Ferris wheel a few times.

This ride was so much fun.

We also road it more than once. :)

This was our view on our last night there. Chicago is such a cool place. :)

That's all the pictures I have from this trip! In two weeks my cousins and I will be in Minnesota, and I will do my very best to get those up as soon as possible after we get back. :)