Mommy, Look

I'm a grebe.

National Camera Day

Since it's National Camera Day, June 29, I thought I'd share something our camera captured a few days ago.

 This is a black-crowned night-heron.  This is a side view of the same bird:

Amazing, isn't it?  We were out for a walk with a friend and it was just sitting in the tree right in front of us.  The kids didn't scare it away.  It just stayed there, let us get a good look at it and take a bunch of pictures.  Amazing.
I'd never been that close to one before.  Usually I see them all the way on the other side of a pond.  This one was right there so we got a really good look at it.
It almost didn't look real.  Especially when it was head on.  It's eyes looked like glass eyes you would find in a puppet or stuffed animal.  It was real, though.  It must not have been too bothered by us, either.  It didn't squawk and fly away.  It did close its eyes after a while and adjust its head position.

That was neat.  I'm so glad we visited our friend and she took us to a place she likes to go walking.  I'm also glad we have this camera to take pictures of birds like this.
Happy National Camera Day.

National Splurge Day 2016

June 18 is National Splurge Day.  We bought Winco pizza for dinner.  It was a good idea since we spent a lot of the afternoon shopping for necessities- shoes and socks and various articles of clothing since kids grow out of things.  We didn't have a lot of time for making a big dinner.  Jeremy did cook corn on the cob for us, though.

Eat Your Vegetables

So many things to celebrate.  So little motivation to blog.  So many excuses: I'm tired.  I have to blog about this before I can blog about that.  I'm so far behind, how will I catch up?  There are so many other things to do.  It's past midnight already; it's not even the same day.  The computer's being used.  I just don't want to right now.
Oh well.
March 17 is Eat Your Vegetables Day.  We had a salad bar for dinner.  So many vegetables.  It was lovely.  It's definitely salad weather.  Yeah.

And the kids helped make dinner- peeling eggs, grating cheese, setting the table.  Great job, kids.  It was so much help.

So there.  I blogged.  The End.

The Story of My Life

Mommy.  Mommy.  I'm hungry.  Give me something to eat.  Mommy.  I want food.  Feed me.  Feed me.  Mommy.  Mommy.

S'More Time

Well it's Summer vacation, right?  That means time to play outdoors, build a fire, and cook s'mores.
Jr.'s scout group invited their families to come around a campfire and watch some skits.  Great job, kids.
Then they cooked s'mores.

Jr. needs to learn that the place for the marshmallow is between the graham cracker and the chocolate.

Heh Heh.
Still not exactly sure how that happened to his hair and ears.  I don't think he did it to himself (but maybe).  It's possible someone bumped against him with their marshmallow on a stick (maybe Lucky?).  Heh Heh.

I don't have any pictures but earlier in the day Nichole's activity days group had ice cream sundaes and the girls could each have as many toppings as they had Articles of Faith memorized.  Nichole got all 13 toppings.

Later that day, I also had an ice cream sundae, but I didn't have to pass off Articles of Faith to earn mine.  I had to play fun games with Relief Society sisters and Young Women.  It was enjoyable.  The Young Women put together the activity and they did a great job.

Catch of the Day

The KAT's Meow

I was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while I was doing dishes.  Jr. Jr. heard me sing, "If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh why can't I?"  He started to explain to me that I can't because I can't.  It's obvious to the 5-year old that I can't fly so why would I ask such a question.


Jr. Jr. - Dad can I have some vanilla yogurt?
Dad.- Yes, just let me see what we have. (Opens refrigerator and pulls out yogurt)
Jr. Jr.- I'll just have the rest of it in that container.
Dad.- This is an unopened container, you are not going to eat all of it.
Jr. Jr.- But, it's for true love!

Great Family Evening

We decided that this evening it would be great to go up to Big Springs, cook some hot dogs on a grill, and go hiking after we ate.

We didn't end up going hiking.  The kids had so much fun running around the park.  Jr. and Nichole even helped with the hot dogs.
Jr. went to a cub scout field day yesterday.  One of the things he learned was how to do quesadillas in aluminum foil on a grill.   He used his new skills this evening and made some quesadillas on the grill.

Since June 3 is National Donut Day this year, Jeremy picked up some donuts for us to have for dessert.  Nobody complained.

It was such a fun evening.  The kids enjoyed getting to play outside so much.  We forgot to bring frisbees and bubbles but it turned out the kids didn't need them.  They had so much fun playing together, running around, playing tag, rolling around on the ground.  It was great.  Oh, yeah, they did bring walkie talkies and fairy wings.

It was a great family evening.

Mommy, take a picture of the water.

Take a picture of the bugs.  Take a picture of the rocks.

More Birding Days

Whooping Crane Day was on May 28.  So we had to go birding that day.
We took the kids to the "kite flying beach" and took our time birding along the way.  The kids were anxious to get to the beach, but we told them sometimes we hurry along to the beach for them, but this time, we were going to take our time birding on the way.
When we got to the beach, the wind was good enough for kite flying.  The kids had fun with that.

Lucky was just happy to play in the sand.  Jr. Jr. had some fun flying kites but also had fun playing in the sand.

After a while we put the kites away and went for a family walk along the water.  Yay for aquasocks!  Then we walked back next to the vegetation to watch birds.
On the drive home, I saw a sandhill crane in a field.  It's a crane, right?  Close enough for celebrating Whooping Crane Day.

May 30 was Memorial Day.  Jeremy was hired to do balloons at a family reunion.  His family was invited to come even if we weren't related.  So we had a nice lunch then the kids got to play in a room they had set up with kid activities (including balloon animals).
After the reunion, we went out to do some birding.  Jeremy had some places he wanted to take me where he'd gone before on a birding field trip.  When he went before, there were some birds he didn't get a chance to see.  While we went out as a family, we were able to find those birds.

 Bobolink and burrowing owl

 Yellow-breasted chat

And we got a better picture of a sage thrasher than we already have.

Let The Summer Reading Begin

School's out.  It is officially Summer vacation.  We took the kids to the Teddy Bear Picnic at the Orem Library this morning.  They got to exercise their bodies and learned about exercising their brains with the traditional puppet show.  The Summer reading program's theme this year is "Ready... Set... Read!"

After the kickoff event, we went inside to pick out some books and see the balloon sculpture Jeremy made this year.

Since June 1 is Flip a Coin Day, on the way home we flipped a coin to decide if we would get Winco pizza or make pizza at home.  Homemade pizza won out.  Well, I kind of made pizza muffins- Caesar garlic bacon chicken muffins.  Yumm.
The kids flipped coins to decide on some activities throughout the evening.
Now Jeremy and I are going to flip a coin to decide which movie to watch while he's building a couple balloons sculptures tonight.