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.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 1

Let me tell you about the best vacation I've had in a long time. I love Jeremy's suggestion for the title of the post.

First off, let me mention that the last couple times the kids and I went to Oregon (last year then 5 years before that), Jeremy was not able to go with us so it had been 8 years since he had been in Oregon. Both times without him we kept things kind of chill and didn't do a lot except of course to go to Shore Acres last year and on a nature trail near to where my parents live both times. Tradition.

When we went to Washington both times Jeremy flew in then drove back with us, last year only getting a few days there.

This year, Jeremy took enough work off that he had a real vacation. And it was wonderful. 

The day before we left as we were packing our car top carrier, it started sprinkling. We had to get our tarp out of the trunk to cover it up "just in case." It's a good thing we did because it started pouring down. Heh heh. Jet and I got soaked then I had to wash our clothes because we were wearing some of what we were going to wear on the trip. Heh Heh. Jet was very happy to play in the rain and I figured he deserved to. The rain felt really good, cooling things down after it had been hot for a while.

The next morning we packed our wet tarp back in the trunk along with the rest of our trip stuff and headed out in the rain.

Road Trip!

Waving at my sister as we passed by on the freeway.

Welcome to Idaho.

Waving at my mom's hometown.

Waving at our friends' home as we passed by on the freeway.

We weren't quick enough to get a picture of the "Welcome to Oregon" sign as we crossed the Snake River so I got creative.

Apparently the doll head made the trip with us and kept popping up in different places.

We made sure to celebrate on the drive. National Sunglasses Day and National Handshake Day were both on June 27.

We finally reached our final destination at my parents' house in Oregon.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Onions Have Layers, Too

Since we had parfaits on the 25th, it was only fair that we had onions on the 27th, keeping with the Shrek thing. Actually, June 27 was National Onion Day so Nichole made us jalapeno pasta (with onions, of course. Yumm).

As it was also National Sunglasses Day, Lucky decided to do a little sunglasses modeling for us. He's awesome. Which picture is your favorite?

Happy Birthday, Jr. Jr.

We recently celebrated Jr. Jr.'s birthday.  He brought balloon animals to the kids (and teacher) in his school class and brought home some treats himself, including a pair of huge sunglasses.

After the learning experience with the candles on Jr.'s birthday cake, I went out and bought a bunch of candles.  I was so proud of myself for being prepared for Jr. Jr.'s birthday.  I even used a variety of colors among the five birthday candles on his cake.  Did you catch that?  The FIVE birthday candles on his cake.  I think I may have even lit them and was about to take the cake to him to blow out the candles when I realized... Jr. Jr. wasn't turning 5, he was turning 7.  Sigh.  We'll just say I'm cute again.

I added the right number of candles and everyone was happy.

The End

Don't Want To Miss It

 Happy 12-12-12!

Not too bad for the wiggly 2 year old.

The sunglasses were his idea.

Happy celebrating!