Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2026

Pioneer Day

We didn't do a lot for Pioneer Day, July 24, either.
Lucky helped put up flags and Jr. Jr. helped take them down.
And the walls came tumbling down
There goes Mr. Humbug there goes Mr. Grim
C is for cookie is good enough for me.
To you! To you!
It's time to light the lights.
People talking without speaking.
All that glitters is gold
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh. 
R.E.S.P.E.C.T find out what it means to me. 
Never gonna run around and desert you. 
For the good of all of us
Usta!
Back there is my hairbrush
Cause you're his cheeseburger. 
Can't touch this
And I don't think I'll be coming back again, oh noooooooo
It's the circle of life.
Waffle king. 
But baby it's cold outside.
But I'm still happy just me and my poodle. 
With someone to give and someone to HEAVY CAKE!
Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na BATMAN! 
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
I made a fool of myself. 
Your granny lied
Our friendship will never die. 
Is like barbecue
Just imagine how much cooler I'll be. In summer! 
 
O.K. So we didn't do much for Pioneer Day, but apparently the boys wanted to share plenty on my blog. They got a hold of this post and after reading, "Jr. Jr. helped take them down," it made Lucky think of, "And the walls came tumbling down," and he and Jr. Jr. started putting down random song lyrics because... why not?
Have I mentioned I love creativity in my family?
So... we didn't do much for Pioneer Day but we had plenty to say.
We did watch fireworks set off at the mall with our neighbor. No personal fireworks again. Still too many fires.
 
Oh wait. While looking through pictures I remembered I got out in nature to do some juggling and Jet and I danced in the kitchen that day.  

Friday, July 31, 2026

Camp

Jr. Jr. and Lucky went to Young Men Camp for 3 1/2 days. This was Lucky's first time going because last year, he came down with a stomach bug right before they were supposed to leave. Poor kid. He was fine this time.
When Jet saw us getting them ready for camp, he was in favor of getting ready for camp himself and was disappointed when I told him just his brothers were going. That little guy likes to be involved. 
We came to a compromise. I told him we could do camp stuff at home while the boys were away at camp. We had their schedule for camp so we could do similar things, although we had some of our own things to do as well. Let me tell you about it.
The day the boys left was Monday, July 20, Global Hug Your Kids Day. They got a big hug from Jeremy before I took them over to meet with their group and head out.
Later, I got to hug the rest of the kids. 
While the boys were setting up camp at camp, I had the kids at home cleaning up the living room so there would be room to do camp activities. Jr. even made a makeshift tent for Jet for a little while.

Apparently there was a lot of free time at camp. My kids at home were definitely okay with that.
There was a scheduled time for Game Center so we at home played Rummikub. 
When Jeremy came home, he and Jet had their special drink together. Refreshing when it's been so hot.
We did Family Home Evening and had phases of the moon cookies because July 20 was Moon Day. We opened up mint Oreos because I didn't think we had any regular Oreos then the next day I realized that we did still have regular Oreos. Sigh. So we had green moons. 
 
Jeremy: There. I made half moons, waxing and waning. I also made Muppet eyes.
 
My phone told me earlier that day the moon was a waxing crescent.
Earlier in the day we had an egg that looked like a moon. 
 
Tuesday, July 21, one of the camp activities was Rock Wall. We weren't going to actually climb any rock walls or go repelling down any, but we did go out to the canyon and went to Bridal Veil Falls where there was water coming down a rock wall. We set up the selfie stick tripod so Jet could use the remote to take pictures of the waterfall and us.

That afternoon, we did a service project. We went to a park and picked up trash to make it a little nicer.
 
Later, Jet asked for chips, even though he'd had a bag already. I told him no and there was no reason to eat junk food then I realized, "Oh no. It's actually National Junk Food Day, " so I told him after he ate his chicken, he could have another bag of chips. He did.
We also had woo-woo which Nichole wanted for Junk Food Day. 
 
Wednesday, July 22, we kind of strayed away from the boys' camp schedule and did our own things. We went to the BYU Paleontology Museum. It counted for a Summer Reading activity and we'd been promising Jet we'd take him. He wore his pteranodon wings.
He had a blast and made a new friend. There was another little boy running around who had apparently been there a few times (this was Jet's first time there) and wanted to show Jet everything. It was fun. He had his own little tour guide. 
We were proud of Jet only touching things he was allowed to touch and being respectful. We can definitely take him back there.
That afternoon/evening, we had some more outside time.
Then we went inside to set up a "tent" in the living room for Jet and Jeremy made a balloon campfire (with glowsticks) like we did back in 2009. Wow. That was back when we only had two kids. So Jr. Jr. and Lucky still have not had that experience but Jet got to do it this time. We did not roast hot dogs over the fire. We cooked those in the kitchen but Jet and I did "roast" marshmallows before I stuck them in the microwave to make s'mores. Jet loved it all.
 
 
Thursday, July 23, was Gorgeous Grandma Day. I wished that happy holiday to my mom and sister.
I went out in nature by myself that morning then helped tie quilts for humanitarian aid until Jr. Jr. and Lucky got back from camp.
That afternoon since Jet didn't get to go "fishing" like some of the Young Men did at camp, Lucky, Nichole, and I helped him do that. Jeremy put together a fishing pole and printed out some fish for him. I added some snacks and trash (old sock, empty candy wrapper, crumpled up piece of paper) and the last item, a stuffed shark.
Here are some of the things that were said.
Jet: I better put it in my bucket.
Jet: Oooh, Candy.
Nichole: Looks like the fish are jumping. That's the best time to catch them.
Nichole: I think the shark ate the rest of the fish. That was probably the last one.
Lucky tossed a paper fish a few times to make it look like the fish were jumping. One accidentally fell outside the "lake" and we all got a big laugh out of that.
 
So Jr. Jr. and Lucky had a good time at camp (and got very wet because it rained a lot) and the rest of us had fun with camping activities at home.
I'd call it a successful camping week. 
 

Monday, July 6, 2026

Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 9

For our Utah County Birders newsletter, I wrote a "Bird of the Month" article about the Green Heron. I wrote it while we were in Oregon and spent so much time trying to find photos on our external hard drive that would work.
Since we were in Oregon, Nichole and I decided to go out and see if we could find a Green Heron to photograph since we always see a Green Heron or several when we go to the nature park near where my parents live.
The forecast was for rain and we had plenty during the night. My dad sent us out with a couple umbrellas that stayed in our bags. We didn't get a lot of new rain while we were out but got great pictures of nature after a storm.
If you look very carefully you can see a spider web with rain drops on it. 
 
Unfortunately we didn't see any Green Herons but we did see something I didn't expect- a spotted sandpiper in a wooded area. 
Nichole's picture of the spotted sandpiper
 
I had to send my article in with a good picture of a juvenile Green Heron Nichole took years ago and a not so good picture I (or Jeremy) took of an adult Green Heron years ago. Sigh.
 
I was able to console myself with brownies (even though June 26 was Chocolate Pudding Day. It's still chocolate, right? I'm not going to complain) and playing another game with Todd that night. 

The next day, Nichole and I went to the nature park again and this time we didn't bother with umbrellas.
Guess what. There was a light rain while we were there. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Enough that we didn't stay out long after seeing... a Green Heron. This one was closer to adulthood (more the coloring I wanted) so when we got back I asked if we could use the picture Nichole got that morning instead of the not so great one we had sent in previously for the newsletter. No problem. Yay.  
That day, June 27, was National Sunglasses Day, which we did not wear. One, it wasn't bright enough. Two, they would have gotten wet. 
That evening, instead of playing a game, we introduced my mom and my brother to Seeking Persephone. I needed to watch it in June and introduce someone new. This monthly tradition has been going since December
I still love that movie. 
I was wearing my Gentlemen's Gamble shirt earlier that day. "That's a romance shirt." I needed to do laundry, though, so I changed to a different "romance" shirt: my Jurassic Park shirt. C'mon, it's my date shirt.