Planned Power Outage Adventure

Remember that power outage we had a couple years ago where we all headed out in the van and had some fun throwing rocks in the river and stuff? I do.

Recently we were told of a planned power outage. It could last up to all morning and afternoon (or less). The kids would be gone to school most of the time and Jeremy would be at work the whole time. So that left Jet and me to make plans. He had an appointment at the pediatrician's office that morning so after he played Peek-a-boo with another toddler in the waiting room (it was so cute), we went to the Orem Library for a little while and read several books.

After our library trip, I figured a drive to Bridal Veil Falls would be good. You know I love Bridal Veil Falls. As we were driving in Provo Canyon, we found there was an accident on the other side of the road. I hope everyone was okay. Since the traffic was getting backed up on that side, I didn't want to contend with that so Jet and I stopped briefly at the viewpoint for Bridal Veil Falls then continued up the canyon. 

We turned on the road that goes up to Sundance then just continued on and drove Alpine Loop coming out of American Fork Canyon. I like driving up in the hills. As I drove, Jet and I sang, "I love the mountains. I love the rolling hills. I love the flowers. I love the daffodils..." It's fun to sing with Jet. We sang a few songs, saw some turkeys cross the road in front of us, looked at the trees with their green leaves, enjoyed that the air was cleaner up there than in some places down in the valley, and eventually Jet fell asleep after I continued driving around a little more. The power was back on by the time we got home so it was on when the kids got home.

That day was September 12, Hug and High 5 Day. There was a lot of hugging and high five-ing going on in our family that day.

That day was also Boss/Employee Exchange Day so Jr. suggested he and I trade jobs that evening. So I did his chore while he made dinner.

Owling with Jr. Jr.

Written by Jeremy on October 17:

My 9 year old son and I went owling up on Alpine Loop last night. It turned out to be a very successful night! We packed up snacks, took a blanket and a powerful flashlight and headed out. The drive up was fun, we talked about all sorts of things on the drive up Provo Canyon. Once we were on the loop we'd pull off on the side where the road allowed and searched the aspens. My son took ownership of the flashlight, I controlled the phone that had the owl calls on it. I would play a series of hoots while he would turn the flashlight to any sight of movement- real or imagined. We continued through the night. Every time we got out of the car he would snuggle into me for warmth. He would whisper questions and I would whisper back pulling him in tight. We did this for hours enjoying every minute. We saw a racoon as it crossed the road. We saw shooting stars and looked at the tail of the milky way. Soon it got too cold for my son and we turned around and headed back. We talked for a while until, snuggled in his blanked, he fell asleep. We didn't see any owls. We heard one respond faintly in the distance, but none came in. My son thought maybe he saw a pair of eyes reflecting from out of a tree but we weren't sure. We may not have seen any birds but the trip itself was very, very successful.

Mommy Bear's Day Off

Lucky has a couple of Care Bears. He named them Baby Bear and Mommy Bear. I'm not sure what their real names are. I learned of yet another new holiday. Care Bears Share Your Care Day is September 9. That is also National Teddy Bear Day. Soooooo easy to combine the two. But how easy is it to combine a third. Wonderful Weirdos Day is that same day. Now for this family, pretty much anything we do celebrates Wonderful Weirdos Day.
So I'll let you know how the Care Bear teddy bears shared the care of the wonderful weirdos. Phew. Try saying that out loud (and I don't mean "that." I mean that sentence. I told you we were wonderful weirdos).

Baby Bear helped out at home and Mommy Bear took a day off (just like I did when Jet and I went up Nebo Loop). She took a ride up Alpine Loop and Cascade Springs and just like on my day off, she shared the care of Jet while he was awake (and a bit while he was asleep- note the teddy bear blanket).

Thanks, Mommy Bear. And thanks, Lucky, for letting us use Mommy Bear and Baby Bear in this way, kind of like when Jr.'s dragon helped us for Appreciate a Dragon Day back in 2013.

Here's Baby Bear helping at home.

Here's Mommy Bear on her day off (with a bit of Jet thrown in).

Tibble Fork Reservoir

Various pull offs and overlooks

Deer Creek Overlook

Cascade Springs

Up close with the Fall colors 

 

Quick stop at Bridal Veil Falls on the way home

 

It was a good but exhausting day. Lucky wanted to make sure he got a picture of the bears in bed at the end of the day.

Bonus: Pictures of me juggling in those various places.

Really Seeing the Fall Colors

A week after the Women's Broadcast we went for a drive during the second session of General Conference.  It was National Public Lands Day (free entrance to National Parks and lands) so we went up American Fork Canyon for free.  We listened to Conference on the radio and looked at the Fall colors.  There were Fall colors, lots of Fall colors.  Gorgeous.

We drove the Alpine Loop with a detour to Cascade Springs.  I wanted to get some close-ups of the colors so I got out to walk down the trail a bit.  I made it all the way to the Springs before finding any decent vegetation for close-ups.  Sigh.  But I was able to get my pictures.

 

It was a beautiful drive and again Conference was great.