Catch of the Day

 

The KAT's Meow

Jet (in June): Wake up, Daddy! It's time for Christmas!

Chocolate Ice Cream Day 2024

Two of our kids got wisdom teeth pulled so we had to figure out soft things for them to eat. Well, June 7 was Chocolate Ice Cream Day. Ice cream is soft food. We had vanilla ice cream, we had chocolate syrup. I told everyone they could celebrate whatever way worked for them. I personally made my treat into a banana split.

June 8 was Name Your Poison Day. We missed it but Nichole celebrated it observed the next day. She started listing different types of poisons she's studied. Polonium, foxglove, hemlock, strychnine, cyanide, arsenic, aconite (also known as monkshood or wolfsbane- you can learn that from Harry Potter). Interestingly, Nichole can name more actual poisons than alcoholic beverages which is where the saying, "Name your poison," came from. I'm okay with that as long as she doesn't put either to use in real life.

You may be wondering why Nichole would know so many poisons. Well... you know we are a family of readers. We are also a family of writers. Nichole is interested in learning about writing mysteries. Many mysteries deal with murder and one way to kill someone is with poison. So... she had been learning about poisons and lately she's been learning about forensics because mysteries should also be solved. It's interesting to look at the books we check out from the public libraries. Anything from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? to A Guide to Forensics.

He Came Home!

Tuesday, June 4, I got out for a morning walk again. Walking along the Provo River, I enjoyed nature and enjoyed seeing the cliff swallows nesting under bridges. They're fun to watch and listen to. 

And oh man, the cotton stuff coming from the Cottonwoods? Crazy how much there was.

Speaking of crazy, check this out. Remember when we had that power outage and we threw rocks in the Provo River (see my blog post from September 4, 2020)? Later we took Flat Stanley there to throw rocks in the river (see my blog post from April 11, 2021)? The boys went down a little embankment to be next to the somewhat shallow river? Remember that?

This is what the Provo River at that section currently looks like. There is no climbing down to the somewhat shallow river. There is no shallow river. The area they were standing in the pictures from those blog posts is completely covered in water. We've had so much snow runoff the last couple years- wow.

June 4 was National Cheese Day so I ate something with cheese.

 

That night, we got Jr. back from his trip with grandparents and cousin. He had a good time. We were happy to get him home, though. Love that kid.

Summer Reading!

Monday, June 3, was Repeat Day so we went to the Summer Reading Kickoff event at the library again.

This time, it was actually at the Provo Library. The kids and I got to see a reptile show then do some activities. 

They had an obstacle course with toy horsies. Lucky used a horse and Jet and I just followed him around. They got temporary tattoos out of it, though.

They also had some arts and crafts so the kids did a bit of coloring before we picked up a prize for Jet for a library program he's participating in then headed home.

Earlier that day, the kids and I hiked to the Alpine Poppy Fields. We got some good advice from Utah's Adventure Family who let us know that this year they had little flags along the trail to show which way to go. I'll admit last year we had some trouble finding the right trail. We eventually got there but not on the trail that is suggested. This year, it was so handy to have the flags to follow.

It's always fun to see the "purple" bees in the flowers.

We also got to see some birds.

This is a house wren.

It was a pretty good day.

Summer Reading!

We got Jr. Jr. back from camp on Saturday, June 1, and... went to the library again. 

The theme for both Orem and Provo Libraries for their Summer Reading Programs this year is "Adventure Begins at your Library." So Orem's Kickoff was a "campout" in the library with storytelling and a sing-along, s'mores, a mystery to solve, crafts, different areas decorated with tents, and places for just relaxing and reading. Loved it.

"Fish Craft! Fish Craft!"

And of course a balloon sculpture created by my favorite balloon artist, Jeremy Telford.

It was another successful Summer Reading Kickoff at the Orem Public Library.

National Utah Day 2024

So, Jr. was all the way in Oregon but Jr. Jr. was camping in Utah when National Utah Day happened on May 31. It was also National Smile Day so we smiled at each other.

As usual we decided to make foods known for being "Utah" foods.

Funeral potatoes, lime green jello with carrot shavings, and... pastrami burgers?

Apparently pastrami burgers are a Utah thing? Never heard of that until we were getting ready for this holiday. We did put fry sauce on the burgers, though. That is for sure a Utah thing.

I don't drink caffeine so we skipped the Diet Coke. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Goodbye, Jr. Jr.

Why do I ever think that things will be less busy once school is out? They never are.

The day after Jr. left, Lucky had an event at the Orem Library. He got to watch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and have popcorn. We played in the library while he was at his event. Jet loves playing with the puppets.

The very next day, Jr. Jr. left for a camping trip.

I tell you. It's weird going from five to three kids in such a short time.

That evening, Jet and Daddy had their bonding time while Jeremy took a break from working on balloons for the Summer Reading Program kickoff at the Orem Library. Oh, the cuteness.

Memorial Day 2024

Memorial Day this year on May 27 was also Grape Popsicle Day. Lucky saved a purple popsicle he had to eat on that day.

The kids and I went to a Memorial Day breakfast that morning and made sure to get some American flag selfies. It's a good thing we did because later we missed Flag Day on June 14. Too busy.

That afternoon, my parents came for a brief visit then whisked Jr. away with them. They did the same thing with Nichole back in 2019. They took Jr. and one of his cousins to spend about a week with them in Oregon. He had a good time.

We celebrated Jr. leaving with S'mores made with giant marshmallows. Bwah ha ha ha.

Celebrating My Birthday With My Husband

Besides my birthday "goals," Jeremy and I also celebrated my birthday on a different day.

We went out for lunch and later we went up to Salt Lake City. We stopped by Buskerfest and said Hi to several of Jeremy's performer friends. And of course Marcus, Funny Man Who Does Tricks, is also my friend.

 

Then we went to the Capitol Theatre for "an inconceivable evening with Cary Elwes" where we watched The Princess Bride on the big screen, clapping and cheering and booing and quoting, then got to hear some stories about the movie from Cary Elwes himself.

Thank you, Jeremy, for the great day.

P.S. You can't tell but I did wear my Jurassic Park date shirt for our date.

ROFL

Jeremy told me he got a message from the school district saying that if students read a book this Summer, they could enter to win prizes. This was my response:

A book? A book? As in just one?

I could not contain my laughter. We are a family that joins Summer reading programs at two different libraries not to encourage reading but to be rewarded for what we'd do anyway.

The funny thing is one of the prizes for the school district reading challenge is a Brandon Sanderson book. Jeremy commented, if there are kids that don't like to read and are reading one book for the chance at these prizes, they wouldn't want to win a Brandon Sanderson book.

Birthday Goals

We reached the last day of school. I remembered to get last day of school pictures of the boys.

Last month I got a picture of Nichole while she was taking her last final. So I got her last day of picture, too.

When I told Jeremy that I got last day of school pictures of the boys, he sent me a "last few minutes of break" picture so I could add that to the collection. I love my husband.

I also celebrated my birthday.

When Jeremy asked me how birding had gone, he asked me if I'd spotted anything rare. I told him, "Nothing rare. Juvenile robins and starlings." It gave him the impression that those were the only things I'd seen. I had to quickly mention that I had seen a lot of other birds but those were the ones I don't see as often. I did see Western Tanagers for the first time this year. It was relaxing going birding that day.