Palindrome Days

It's always fun when there are interesting dates on the calendar. Remember 2-22-22?

Or 12-31-23?

 

I recently told my brother of an experience I had.

Me: Happy 04-14-24

Paco: That's a good one! Happy sequential day to you, too!

Me: Thanks. It was funny how I realized it. I was putting away dinner leftovers and as I was putting the date on the label, I saw 4-14-24, thought it was cool, and quickly added a 0 to the front.

Palindrome dates are fun, too. We had fun in January of 2021 with 1-21-21 and 1-22-21, etc.

 

My brother and I texted each other a few times during recent "palindrome days." 4-20-24 through 4-29-24 or 42024 through 42924. Palindrome days!

 

4-20-24 I'll blog about later. But here's a hint.

 

4-21-24 Tuna Rights Day. Lucky ate tuna. Bwah ha ha ha!

I walked home after choir after church.

4-22-24 Jelly Bean Day. I had a handful of jelly beans.

 

4-23-24 Cherry Cheesecake Day. I made Cherry Cheesecake from a box. Jr. Jr. loved it. He ate more than anyone else.

4-24-24 Pigs in a Blanket Day. I made Lil' Smokies in a Blanket.

We also got Nichole home from BYU!

My brother texted me: Happy 42424! Not as cool as the last one, but is a palindrome for Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

 

Speaking of Life, the Universe, and Everything, Jeremy and Nichole went to that writing conference in February. During these Palindrome Days, they watched some videos online from another writing conference for fantasy. And Nichole shaped a cheeseball that looked like a dragon for them to snack on while watching classes.

4-25-24 Telephone Day. Nichole used a cell phone in a video game. 

Zucchini Bread Day. I made zucchini bread (and the next day I took some to a friend who I knew liked zucchini bread). 

World Penguin Day. We had fish sticks (and zucchini bread). 

National Plumbers Day. Jr. played Mario music on guitar. 

Perfect Date Day. It was nice weather until it rained. My sister and brother-in-law went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. I didn't but here's a picture of tulips.

4-26-24 I text my brother again to wish him Happy 4-26-24

 

4-27-24 I made baked donuts but... filled the batter too much so they had muffin tops. So Lucky and I pulled off around the outside parts to make them a little bit more donut shaped.

4-28-24 Terry Pratchett's birthday. Look for a blog post about that soon. 

4-29-24 We had family home evening while I was making dinner so the kids colored pictures while sharing the table with ingredients.

 

Those were our recent Palindrome Days.

Celebrating Someone Else's Anniversary

You know I love my brother, Paco. He's awesome. We like to be like Paco.

I also love Paco's wife. She and I used to go for walks together and just chat about all sorts of things. I learned a lot from her.

This year we decided to celebrate their anniversary, not with them since they live in a different state, but I wished my brother a happy anniversary (I hope he passed the message on to his wife), and we celebrated ourselves.

Nichole and I went for a short walk. I wanted to go on a longer walk later (like my sister-in-law and I used to do) but ran out of time.

The kids were excited about the idea of having a "Confuso" again (our version of it) so that's what we ate. 

 

We drank Tang to go along with it because Tang was kind of my brother's drink years ago.

We didn't have any cans of lemonade to shake up like we did when we celebrated Paco's birthday last year, so we danced around with the Tang container.

Birding Field Trip

I miss getting together with other birders. It's been a while for obvious reasons. It was nice to meet up with one of our birding friends when we had our two day date. We ran across another birder we knew looking for the same bird. 

Utah County Birders have had less in person meetings and field trips the last couple years. It makes a difference when you have octogenarians in your club and want them to be safe. We've been having virtual meetings. Plans for field trips this year are mostly Saturday trips, not so much carpooling, and not too much crowding when we're outside. Jeremy and I took the opportunity to get out for a field trip to Burraston Ponds and Mona Reservoir recently. It was cold but worth it. I loved seeing more birding friends in person. There were approximately 14 vehicles and it was nice to see that quite a few of them had multiple people in them, spouses or families or close friends.

It also happened to be my brother's birthday the day Jeremy and I went out so we took the time to let him know we were thinking of him that day.

 Happy Birthday, Paco!

 

Before we headed on the field trip that day, we stopped by Thanksgiving Point and set up a balloon caveman at the Museum of Ancient Life for an event they had that day.

 

After the field trip was over, Jeremy and I stopped for lunch then headed to another spot to see some birds along the Provo River. 

We had a nice walk.

Going for a walk with the ducks.

 

Toward the beginning of our walk, Jeremy kept saying how he thought he heard brown creepers. We saw several other birds but didn't see brown creepers. However as we were walking back we heard the sounds again and Jeremy looked up and spotted a brown creeper. Then we spotted another brown creeper. So he was right, he recognized the sound and we got to see two.

It was a good birding day.

Celebrating with Family at a Distance

July 22 was National Hammock Day. I wished my brother a Happy National Hammock Day. He makes his own hammocks and goes camping with them. He's put together several YouTube videos about it.

 

July 23 was National Gorgeous Grandma Day. I wished both my mom and my sister Happy Gorgeous Grandma Day. It was also National Vanilla Ice Cream Day.

 

July 24 was National Cousins Day. I wished lots of family members Happy National Cousins Day.

It was also Pioneer Day. We sent the kids to bed but I ran out to get a few fireworks pictures (I love that we can see them so well right outside our home). It was a laid back Pioneer Day (and Cousins Day) even though I got up early to go up Nebo Loop to the same place Jeremy and Nichole went to celebrate her birthday. Lots of birds, no crossbills, though. There were also squirrels, chipmunks, and a weasel (and plenty of cows and deer on the drive). And lots of bugs.

Oh, it was a lovely morning.

Itsa Gooooood!

I love my brother, Paco. In a lot of ways growing up I wanted to be like him, to do things he was doing. I got into drama because he was doing drama. I learned some balloon animals because he was learning balloon animals. I got into juggling because he was juggling. I'm sure glad I did that because I got to know my husband through a juggling club in college. I've mentioned before that I've videoed myself juggling in different places because I copied my brother with that.

My brother and I definitely have differences and I don't follow him in everything (I don't build skateboards or walking sticks for example). My brother is fun, though, and my kids and my husband also think he is fun. Since we don't see him in person very often, living in different states, we enjoy watching "Paco videos." Every year he puts up a New Year's video on YouTube and we get a kick out of watching those as a family. He has a lot of other random videos and we get a kick out of those, too. Sometimes we even celebrate Paco's birthday... two states away. Sometimes we eat cake, sometimes we put together a little video for him. This year I contacted him while I was working on the menu plan and asked what he would suggest we eat for a Paco-themed birthday dinner. He suggested eating a "Confuso" while wearing fake mustaches. Of course! I told the kids the idea and Jr. Jr. told me we should also get cans of lemonade to "shake gently before opening."

So that's what we did. I spent the day before and the day of preparing ingredients and on Paco's birthday, we followed his instructions to assemble the "Confuso." Then we turned on the "Shake Gently" video and copied Paco's movements while shaking our lemonade.

It was a fun evening and all the kids actually ate the food. "Itsa gooooood!"

I love my brother. It's fun to celebrate his birthday since he is such a fun person.