Wednesday, September 30, 2020

First Day of Fall

Everybody say, "First Day of Fall!"

September 22 was the Autumnal Equinox. I had Jeremy close the windows the night before... just in case.
It rained the morning of the Equinox. Ah, fresh. Jet and I went for a drive up Provo Canyon.

After school we drove up to Cascade Springs as a family, enjoying the Fall colors.
I commented to Jeremy recently how I'm not missing the Fall colors this year. I've been out so much in nature lately. I love it.
 
What a nice baby brother holding his sister's homework.
 
Jr. Jr. saw a few places where he wanted to get videos of me juggling. I love that he wanted to do that.


"You can't see me."
 
We all brought face masks and ended up using them. It wasn't too too crowded but there were enough people we passed and the paths are narrower than some places where it's easier to just keep to the side and turn your head. It worked out.
It was so pleasant. I love getting out in nature with my family.
 
We stopped at Deer Creek Overlook briefly so I could get a few pictures of a view you might imagine in a Tolkien novel. September 22 is Hobbit Day after all.
 
On the drive up, I commented to Jeremy that what I really wanted on this drive was to see moose. On the drive back down there were a few cars stopped on the road at one point and Jeremy called out that they were stopped because of the moose running along the side just down below us. They came up and crossed the road in front of us. Woohoo! We got some horrible pictures but I got to see moose like I wanted!
For a while on the drive down I kept exclaiming how excited I was to see the "meese," which sparked a little conversation about plurals of certain words. Goose geese. Moose moose. Mongoose mongooses. Octopus octopi or octopuses (either one is correct).
On the drive down Jeremy also told us a Jackerina story about the leaves on trees producing spores that make the Telford family sleepy. Jackerina called the North wind to help blow the leaves off the trees and when it got dark, the leaves couldn't photosynthesize and went to sleep. Yay! We were saved once again.
 
When we got home, we had caramel apple cider, a recipe I got from Stephanie O'Dea's slow cooker website, ayearofslowcooking.com

Mmmmm. Fall.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Family Home Evening

Lucky put a lot of work into preparing a Family Home Evening lesson. He created symbols representing different letters of the alphabet to spell out a message. Yay!
The message: 
Jesus loves us! Yay
Love others Yay!

Monday, September 28, 2020

A Couple Quick Birding Excursions

One morning, Jeremy, Jet, and I made a quick jaunt up to Squaw Peak. Beautiful Fall colors. 
It wasn't the right time of day to watch for migrating hawks, but it was a good time for lots of other birds. We saw some rock wrens and towhees and a flycatcher that was flittering around. We also saw a bumblebee hugging a flower. It was so nice to be still and let me take pictures.


Another evening, Jeremy, Jet, and I went down to Lincoln Beach to see some common terns that we hadn't seen before. It was nice to get to see a new to us species but the bugs were annoying. Blahhh.


We could also see smoke from fire down near Santaquin while we were there. I hope all the people who were evacuated were able to go back to their homes.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Weekend Nap

Jr. fell asleep on the couch...
and woke up on the floor.



Saturday, September 26, 2020

Triple Celebration

September 20 was National Punch Day. We've celebrated that in the past and Lucky made tropical punch Kool-Aid for us to go with dinner.
September 20 was also National Pepperoni Pizza Day and National Fried Rice Day. Guess what we ate along with our punch. We made English muffin pizzas and the rice was so good. It was boiled/steamed but the rice was sautéed first so I count that as fried. Tee Hee. 
The rice was based off of Budget Bytes' One Pot Teryaki Chicken and Rice with our own adjustments.
 

Friday, September 25, 2020

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2020

As you know, because we celebrate it practically every year, International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19. Nichole made sure we knew that it is also Hermione Granger's birthday though we didn't do any Harry Potter themed activities that day. We did talk like pirates from time to time.

We ate salmon burgers with "red stuff," carrot hooks, and drank orange juice to stave off scurvy. 

Jr. drank his from a "tankard."

We also ate butterscotch pudding to celebrate Butterscotch Pudding Day. Jr. Jr. really liked that stuff.

For dessert we made banana boats since pirates sail on boats, well, ships.

After they came out of the oven, Nichole picked the only one that was upright. "It seems to be the only seaworthy one."

"Man overboard!"

Earlier in the day, one of the kids mentioned how since it was Talk Like a Pirate Day, we'd get donuts. Certain things do become traditions. We didn't this year, though. Sorry, kid.

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Unicorn Headphones

We needed to get headphones for both Jr. and Jr. Jr. for school. Jeremy found these light up unicorn headphones from the store and had to get them.
When Jr. got home from school, Jeremy told him the headphones were on the computer desk. He pulled them out of the box, commenting how awesome they were. He tried them on then said, "I'm going to put these away and then go search for my old ones."


When Jr. Jr. got home, Jeremy again told him the headphones were on the computer desk. He pulled them out of the box and asked, "Is this a joke?"

Since neither of them were excited about taking them to school, we got out the other regular headphones that Jeremy bought. Now we can use the light up headphones for our computer as sometimes it's hard for people to hear what's going on with six other people all making noise. And a lot of people need to use the computer for school and work (and blogging).

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Dragon Tile

Nichole took an art class last year where one of the projects was to paint a ceiling tile which would be put up this school year. Nichole didn't finish her tile in class and because of school shut downs, Nichole was able to take the tile home and work on it over the Summer then Jeremy dropped it off at the school toward the beginning of the school year.
Here is her finished tile:
Of course it has books and a dragon.
She's come a long way since she first started drawing dragons five years ago.