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.  

Uncle Sam Wants You... To Have a Good President's Day

President's Day was February 16. I got a selfie with the American flag that Jr. Jr. and Lucky helped set out with the Young Men that morning.

At Jeremy's most recent fair convention, he created an Uncle Sam balloon. A lot of fairs this year are celebrating the 250th Birthday of our nation so that's what he created.

Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day 2025

I am thankful for pizza. I'm also thankful for excuses to make pizza.

November 12 was Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day.

I had a big helper who volunteered to help and he did a great job. I'm thankful for him. 

 

The day before, November 11, was Veteran's Day. 

I spent some time thinking about family members who served in the military in the past. I am thankful for them.

The day after, November 13, was World Kindness Day. We tried to be kind that day. I am thankful for kindness.

A Little September Catching Up

September!

September 1 was Johann Pachelbel's Birthday. I watched something with Pachelbel's Canon playing in the background.

It was also Labor Day so I got a selfie with the American flag. 

September 3 was Skyscraper Day. Nichole very obligingly took a picture of a 10 story building near where she was for me because I wasn't going to get out to see anything taller. 

 

September 4 was National Wildlife Day. I took some time for myself to go for a drive and a little walk to see some Fall colors starting to turn and to look for birds. I saw some birds (nothing exciting), a squirrel, and lots of yellow jackets.

 

September 5 was Lazy Mom's Day. I tried to be lazy. I only succeeded a little. I decided to let myself sit down and watch a movie but of course I fell asleep during it. This was in the morning after the boys were off to school. I'm usually awake in the morning. Then again, I'm usually moving around and not being lazy in the morning.

July Holidays 2025

July was busy and crazy. Life is crazy. We skipped a lot of holidays the last couple of months but we did celebrate some. I won't remember them all (you know, pics or it didn't happen), but here are some.

Independence Day was on... the 4th of July. We actually didn't do anything to celebrate. It was that kind of month. I didn't get any pictures with the American flag and we heard fireworks through the window but didn't go out to look at them. 

International Kissing Day was July 6 and Jeremy was at his fair during that time so we didn't celebrate.

This was not meant to be a what holidays we didn't celebrate post. Sigh.

We did celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic Day on July 10. 

Gummi Worm Day was July 15. I bought gummi worms in advance of this holiday. I forgot about it. Jet has had some gummi worms from time to time since then but no celebrating on the holiday or even "observed."

Yellow Pigs Day was July 17. Mustard and li'l smokies.

Stick Out Your Tongue Day was July 19. I confused the kids a few times while sticking my tongue out at them that day.

Moon Day was July 20. Astronaut sandwiches.

National Junk Food Day was July 21. We got dino nuggets and french fries out of the freezer to celebrate.

I wished my mom and my sister Happy Gorgeous Grandma Day on July 23. 

Pioneer Day was July 24. We had green jello and sourdough bread (both things you expect from Utah, though the green jello doesn't really fit in with pioneer times). We also had chicken and potatoes and baby carrots so I didn't have to put carrot shavings in the jello.

I also go a picture with the flag that day. 

I like to celebrate National Sleepyhead Day, the Finnish holiday, on July 27, but we missed it this year even though I was thinking about it in the days leading up to it. Did I mention things have been crazy so we didn't celebrate as much as we often do? 

National Chili Dog Day was July 31. I made homemade turkey chili to put on our hot dogs and homemade buns. 

Yeah, not a lot of holiday celebrating this July. That's okay, though. That's life. We're not completely missing out not celebrating here and there. We still celebrate more holidays than the average family. 

 

 

On a completely different note- 

Jet: Can I help you with your blog post? 

5582582518718518441587481284955555556556145136 

42651451478518717459114697714552578154853.6

 

63725184517485654918417155754187787745787575481571147815871514548184745487587175484

47844848484845444747487444844445445444544817817848184818484187428115841741451747544

541

506571252152115215185127517517545745712415451454125124511211112212454454541452241

4245212214145451451454111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111116+6++33

.26592598651540 

Memorial Day and More

Memorial Day. May 26.

Hot air balloon sighting, Memorial Day neighborhood breakfast, and American flag selfie.

May 28 was National Hamburger Day. We ate taco salad.

It was also Whooping Crane Day. When Jet and I were out driving (I was driving. He was in his own seat), we were stopped in traffic and we saw a crane. I told him it was not like the bird crane. It was a construction crane. It can lift things up high and move them around.  

Screen Free Week

I'm so proud of myself. Screen Free Week was May 5-11 this year. I prepared early and had blog posts scheduled for while I wasn't on. Yay. 

Of course, there was a lot of screen time because everything with school is screens nowadays, assignments, emails (including me having to check emails), texts, etc. Sigh.

Back in my day (insert old person speak), we didn't send all our homework assignments over the internet. We didn't even have the internet when I was in elementary school and middle school. Why, I remember having to pull the encyclopedias off my dad's bookshelf to look up information for my report on cats. That's right. I did a report about cats- domestic cats. You know the reason cats always land on their feet? Well, I do. I had it in my report, my handwritten report that I turned into my teacher in class. These kids nowadays... they write a report and the teacher can instantly see it. All this newfangled technology. It's everywhere.

O.K. That's enough of that. This newfangled technology is actually very handy with family history. I was able to have blog posts scheduled and get caught up even when I wasn't on the computer myself. Nice.

 

So... about Screen Free Week.

 

Monday, May 5, was Cinco de Mayo. We had pork salad bowls (kind of like at Cafe Rio). Yummmmmm. I made tortilla bowls to put them in, had rice, beans, lettuce, pork, cilantro lime dressing, and whatever else. We didn't all have the same in our bowls. 

That day was also a rainy day (we've had several rainy days in the last couple weeks) so the snails were out. I actually found one crawling down the van door. That means it had to somehow get up for it to be crawling down. I moved it off before driving as I didn't know what would happen to it otherwise.

I went for a brief walk at the lake. Definitely stormy with all the choppy water. 

After dinner, we had Family Home Evening. Our activity since it was Screen Free Week was going to the Orem Library and picking out a book each (and some of the kids picked out a board game as well). 

Libby the Librantula was out so I said, "Hi," to her while we were there.

 

Apparently nothing of significance happened on Tuesday, May 6. The lake was still choppy. 

Wednesday, May 7, was a busy day. Both Lucky and Jr. had performances that day. 

Lucky joined a whole bunch of 5th graders to do "Hope of America." See him in this picture? Right there. Right there in the red shirt. 

Actually Jeremy could point out which one he was because they were there early enough he could see him before all the seats got filled and memorized which row and how far in he was. The students made an American flag.

And here they are all shining. 

 

Jr. had his last orchestra concert that same night. I went to watch him in that.

He also got a couple awards. One for being "Most Consistent Cellist" and a paper plate award for being "the beautiful newsboy" since he played in the pit orchestra for both Beauty and the Beast (twice) and Newsies.

 

Ha Ha Ha. Now that Screen Free Week is over, I haven't had as much time on the computer for blogging. This is all I'm able to blog about for now. I'll talk about the rest of Screen Free Week later.

 

Jet: Can I write for a little bit?

This is his typing (abbreviated by me).

9999999999999999999999999959999999999999....................000000000000000000///////////\\\\]]]]]]]]]]]]]]777777888888999999999222222222222220...........................................................+6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666++

 

A Busy Weekend

Let me tell you about a busy weekend we had recently.

We're still trying to work on the UCB challenge so Lucky and I got out Saturday morning to Powell Slough Wildlife Management Area. Every time I go there I hear Virginia Rails. Jeremy saw one once while we were there but I missed it. Lucky and I did hear rails and one gave us a quick glimpse of it. Yippee! 

Can you see it just peeking out in the center of the picture?

 

What was also fun but I wasn't expecting is that there were also soras who were out a bit more than the rails so we got better looks at them. Fun fun fun. I like birds.

Later Lucky and Nichole had a couple appointments, several of us went for a drive around the lake, then we went home and ate biscuits and gravy.

The next morning, Jet decided to be up with me really early in the morning while I put some final touches on my Relief Society lesson I was teaching later. I got a new calling- Relief Society teacher. That day was also the Primary Program and the kids were so cute as usual.

Some of us went for another drive around the lake that afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful evening.

Monday was Veteran's Day.