Unbirthday

Jet: Is it my birthday?

Mom: No, it's not your birthday. It's your unbirthday.

Jet: It's my unbirthday? Yay. We should make cake for my unbirthday. 

 

Later he told me we should make pizza and cake for his unbirthday. So we made a cake. We made pizza. We blew noisemakers. We sang "A Very Merry Unbirthday." When he asked if there would be presents, my husband pulled out some swag from one of his fairs and put it in a box. We didn't go so far as to wrap it. It wasn't his birthday, after all. It was his unbirthday.

 

We are the Telfords and we love finding reasons to celebrate.  

 

P.S. This was on January 23, Pie Day. Since we were already making pizza pie for dinner, it just all fit... except that we made cake instead of pie for dessert. 

Why Did I Take This Picture?

You know how sometimes you're looking through pictures and you're like, "Why did I take this picture?" Sometimes you remember. Sometimes you don't.

While preparing to blog, I was transferring pictures from my phone and I got a glimpse of one of me with Christmas lights in the background. 

I looked at the date. It was January 22. That was a Thursday. I know the kids had school that day. How would I have gotten a morning walk picture that day at City Center Park? 

Then I remembered. That night, as part of the Orem Library Adult Reading Challenge, I went to an event- Favorites of 2025 Book Club Night. A big group of us sat around sharing our favorite reads from 2025. It was nice. I got some ideas of books that I wouldn't think to pick myself. I got a sticker for my junk journal. I got some refreshments. 

On the way out, I took a picture of me with lights near the entrance to the library. Ah ha. Because not only are the lights on at the park in the morning and at night, they are outside the library as well.

Mystery solved.

By the way, January 22 was also Polka Dot Day and National Hot Sauce Day so I went around wishing people Happy Polka Dot Day and I made pasta and encouraged family members to eat pasta with rotisserie chicken and hot sauce.

Bonding Time: Museum Trip

January 21 was National Granola Bar Day. After school, Jet and I went down to BYU and sat in the van eating granola bars while waiting for Nichole to meet us after her class.

Then the three of us went into the Bean Museum to celebrate Museum Selfie Day.

While we were there we also celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day

and National Hugging (National Hug) Day.

We let Jet be in charge to lead us around the museum until it was time to go. It was enjoyable.

I love bonding time! 

Bonding Time: Hiking

Since it has been a mild Winter, I wanted to take my nature loving boy out hiking one day in the hills.

Jr. Jr. and I took the afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, since he didn't have school, and we hiked up to Battle Creek Falls. We took binoculars and the birding camera with us.

Just up from the parking area, we heard scritch-scratching in the underbrush, which I would have assumed was a spotted towhee but I could see robins, so not a spotted towhee (be careful about assuming). Jr. Jr. has really good eyes when it comes to spotting things so he helped me notice the bird that was not a robin. I got a look at it in the underbrush with binoculars and this is how things come out of my mouth since I'm a birder-

Me: You're right. That's not a robin. That's a thrush! Robins are actually thrushes but this one... if it has a reddish tail, it's a hermit thrush. Do you see the tail?

Jr. Jr. confirmed the reddish tail (I would use the term "rufous"). 

I love birding.

Besides the birds, we also enjoyed the hike together. We had plenty to talk about, including the ice we kept seeing in the stream and the water flowing under the ice. 

Nature's cool, man.

 

We made it all the way up to the falls and a little above the falls before turning around. I only slipped twice, once on the way up, once on the way down, both in the same location. Ha. Nothing scary. 

When we got back down to where we saw the hermit thrush on the way up, we saw it again with the robins. It decided it would be a good sport and posed in a tree so I could get some good pictures of it. I was very pleased with it sitting there for so long.

Jr. Jr. and I enjoyed that time together. I love that we have that love of nature in common.

  

I love bonding time! 

 

Earlier that day, I got out for my morning walk at the park with the Christmas lights. The city says they're going to leave them up until Valentine's Day like they did last year.

Lucky, Nichole, and I made cheese ball that day, too. Nichole shaped it into a witch's hat. It didn't last long. Mmmmm, cheese ball. 

 

January 19 was also Whisper "I Love You" Day. There was plenty of that going around. It was National Popcorn Day. The kids had popcorn. It was also Brew a Potion Day. We had hot chocolate and I told everyone to put whatever they wanted into or on it.

 

The next day, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day. Jet and I watched "Surf's Up" together. I haven't watched that in a while. It was fun.

  

I Love Birding Challenges

Besides the annual reading challenge I'm doing, it is another year for a birding challenge through Utah County Birders. Books and birds. Aren't they great? And yes, I will sometimes listen to an audiobook while I'm looking at birds.

Jeremy and Nichole (who are also doing the birding challenge), got out one evening for some bonding birding time to the Provo River Delta and saw a barn owl among a few other birds.

Jeremy and I decided to go the next week for a morning birding adventure to see if we could find the owl.

We got there nice and early. You know I love mornings in nature. It was cold, we didn't see the barn owl, but we saw so many other birds. It was worth it.

And somehow I turned the exposure way down on the birding camera so all the bird pictures we took are dark. Sigh.

Oh well. We still enjoyed seeing them... together.

 

I love bonding time! 

 

That day, January 17, was Popeye Day and Hot Heads Chili Day so we had spinach salad and chili on cornbread (I added hot sauce on top of my chili).

The next day, January 18, was Winnie-the-Pooh Day. We had foods with honey: Honey garlic chicken, salad with honey mustard dressing.

It was also Thesaurus Day so we had fun figuring out different way of saying things. Lucky wanted to make Kool-aid. I corrected him and told him it was "Colored Flavored Sugar Water." He needed to put crystalized sweetener in it (aka sugar). The funny thing is the honey I used for dinner was crystalized (crystalized sweetener) so I had to heat it up in order to use it. Heh Heh Heh. 

Appreciate a Dragon Day 2026

January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day. While Nichole and I were out running errands that day, we listened to the soundtrack to Pete's Dragon in the van. Of course then we just had to sing the songs even when we weren't in the van. Love it.

That night we watched the live action version of How To Train Your Dragon as a family. Fun family time. 

Nichole got Douglas out (that's the name of this dragon) so we could appreciate him.

I also checked out the soundtrack to the animated version of How To Train Your Dragon from the library that day. Love the music. 

Nichole did some dragon art to celebrate but didn't send me a copy so I can't put it on my blog. Oh well.

I Like Celebrating with Food

January 11 was International Thank You Day. There was plenty of thanking going on.

It was National Milk Day. Milk was used in mashed potatoes that Jeremy made for our at-home potluck to celebrate Sunday Supper Day.

Here are the contributions, from oldest to youngest:

Cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, potato chips, grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies (not pictured), chicken pot pie, Koolaid, grilled cheese sandwiches. 

 

January 12 was National Curried Chicken Day. I made curry chicken with rice and aloo gobi. Mmmm, Indian food is comfort food.

 

January 13 was Korean American Day. We had Korean Beef and Rice.

 

January 15 was National Bagel Day. I made homemade bagels which made everybody happy. We all like bagels.