Family Weekend

Some things couldn't go better if they were planned.

We told the kids we had gift cards to Cafe Rio so we were all going to go out to eat. When we got to the area, Jeremy parked near the movie theater and got out to "see where the restaurant was." Oh, it was within walking distance so the kids and I got out and started walking with him. As we were walking, I saw the movie poster outside for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. I just "happened" to be wearing my Mario shirt that day, so I made everyone get in a picture with me with the poster. Isn't that fun?

As we walked past the doors to the theater, Jeremy went inside briefly and told everyone there was a bigger poster right inside so I made everyone go inside for another picture because I was wearing my Mario shirt and it would be fun.

Then Jeremy spotted an even bigger poster by the podium where they check tickets, so I convinced the kids who were already outside again that we just had to get another picture together with that one. I was wearing my Mario shirt after all.

Then Jeremy continued on to the podium and we all followed, where he showed our tickets for... you guessed it... The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. We kept following him to the auditorium and our seats. 

Once we were inside, Jet kept asking if we were getting our food. The kids knew about the restaurant but not the movie. This was Jet's first time watching a movie at a movie theater so I had to explain that we were going to watch a movie first. We figured this would be a good one since he likes The Super Mario Bros. Movie and he's getting better at events. He used to try to wander around during orchestra concerts. He's been learning, though, and he did well watching Lucky's play. He did well with this movie and there were enough other little kids making noises that it was fine if he made noises or asked questions, too.

We all enjoyed it. It was a fun movie. It was a good one to watch as a family since we all like the first movie and Mario video games. It was a good surprise for the kids.

Jeremy and I didn't know about all the posters so that just added to the surprise because the kids really didn't know what was going on until that last poster. We've been known to take pictures with posters without going to see the movie before.

 

Afterward, we did go to Cafe Rio to eat and that was fun, too.

We went home for bathroom breaks then since we still had time in the day, most of us went to the library for a bit. People had movies and books to get and Jet got to do a library activity and earn a sticker. 

Then we went to a park because it was off and on kite flying weather. Nichole brought her kite she made in high school.

 

I got a walk around the park. Jet (and kids) played on the playground. It was a lovely evening. 

 

The next morning we got up early to drive to Idaho because our newest niece was getting blessed by her daddy, Jeremy's brother, so we wanted to go to support them. 

Jet was happy to shout out, "Road Trip!" every time I got a picture of us in the van.

We made good time and it was so nice to see family again. Jeremy's parents were also visiting for the baby blessing, so I made (asked nicely) my father-in-law take pictures of us since we don't have any family pictures yet this year (besides selfies- as you see from this post). Jet learned from someone at school I think to do the peace symbol in pictures, so that's what he was doing in all the pictures this weekend, until we made him stop briefly to get a nice family picture. I didn't think it counted if your fingers are in front of your face for all of the pictures. He's such a ham. I love it.

On the drive home, we went through a dust storm. Low visibility. Before we even got to the low visibility point, it was windy enough that tumbleweeds were tumbling across the road. So when it was low visibility and high wind...

Some of the kids were playing video games in the back and I commented how I was playing my own video game- dodging tumbleweeds. I got to the point where I slowed way down and put on my hazard lights so I could adjust my driving based on the tumbleweeds. Apparently I didn't dodge them all because I found this the next day.

We did make it home safely. The dust storm we were driving through only lasted a little while. I could see the headlights of the vehicle behind me so I knew they could see my hazard lights. I couldn't see the vehicle in front of me even though I knew it was there, but if they didn't slow down as much as me, then there was even more space between us. It was crazy but not too scary. We've been in scarier driving situations. I think it wasn't as scary because the traction on the road was fine- different than icy/snowy roads. We did comment how if we saw flying cows (get that reference?), then it would be more of a problem. I didn't want things flying at our van, though there were a few tumbleweeds that flew across the road instead of rolling. It turned out all right.

  

It was a wonderful family weekend.

Lucky showing his balancing talents in a moving vehicle.

Jet's First Trip Out of State

We had the opportunity toward the beginning of the month of March to go to our niece's baby blessing in Idaho. We got up really early in the morning to make it. Because of the roads, we were worried we might not make it on time. There were areas we lost a lot of time and some we made up time and in the end it balanced out. We walked into Sacrament Meeting during the opening song. Woohoo.

Jeremy's parents had driven there from Washington so we got to spend time with them and since it was Jet's first trip out of Utah (and my first trip since before he was born), several of us got to meet my sister-in-law-in-law and niece and nephew for the first time. Jeremy and our two oldest had visited them on their way back from a fair a couple years ago and they went to Washington when they got married a few years ago.

Lucky was good at entertaining his new cousin by making faces. She loved it.

 

It was a nice trip. I told the kids stories about Winter when I lived there so many years ago. Jet had fun stomping around in the snow calling out, "Idaho! Idaho!"

This was not the deep snow.

It was cold so I hopped in the trunk to make sandwiches for lunch to eat on our way home. Jeremy spotted a tree filled with waxwings. Most of them were Bohemian Waxwings. We're used to seeing Cedar Waxwings in Utah. We've only seen one Bohemian Waxwing before. And of course we hadn't brought our birding camera or our binoculars. Sigh. But we saw them. I saw them after I was let out of the closed trunk.

Then we headed home and had an adventure. This is what Jeremy texted to my mom and my sisters as I was driving:

 

This is Jeremy. Kristin wanted me to relate a story. So we took a family trip today to Rexburg, ID to see my brother bless his baby girl. I drove the whole way up and despite the roads we made it with minutes to spare. I was exhausted from the early hour and drive though and asked Kristin to drive home. We needed to get gas and Idaho Falls Costco was suggested by my family. We got gas and Kristin followed the directions on the GPS to get us going home. Only the GPS wasn't talking aloud (something to do with a Bluetooth connection to our CD player in the van). As we traveled Jr.'s book fell to the floor of the car. Trying to reach it his seat belt locked and became uncomfortable. We promised to stop at the next rest area so he could unbuckle and rebuckle. We approached the city of Dubois, stopped at a gas station, and went back to the freeway. But the GPS wanted us to go toward Idaho Falls. We had already traveled more than an hour from Idaho Falls. That didn't make sense! Somehow we must have gotten turned around after getting gas. I can only imagine how many times the GPS was trying to say "When possible make a u-turn." We are almost back to Idaho Falls now. At least we got to see Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, and a few different types of hawks and falcons. :) Kristin wanted me to share so we could laugh together. We left Rexburg almost two hours ago, the roads are clear, no construction, and no traffic, and we have almost made it to Idaho Falls says Kristin.

 

I was not laughing about it at the time. Interestingly, the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before I had joined watching RootsTech online (family history conference). One of the speakers had talked about stories, mentioning specifically a family trip where horrible things happened on the way but they were able to laugh about it later and that became a family trait, recognizing that they might not be okay in the moment but they knew later they would be. I was thinking about that during our trip home.

By the time we got to Ogden, it was snowing in such a way in the dark that it was messing with my brain. You're all familiar with snow that is like the Millenium Falcon traveling through hyperspace. It was like that but I couldn't handle it. Luckily we were able to switch drivers and Jeremy got us the rest of the way home by 9pm. Thanks, Jeremy. So it was a longer trip than expected when we left at lunchtime but 9pm isn't too bad. And of course it was most important that we made it to the baby blessing on time.

I am laughing because this trip was to go to our niece's baby blessing but less than a month before that we went to my niece's baby's blessing. That can happen when between Jeremy and I, one of us is one of the oldest in the family and one of us is one of the youngest. Definitely some babies being born in our family and baby blessings. Jet was blessed in 2020 (in our backyard). My niece's son was blessed in 2021 (which we participated over Zoom). My nephew was blessed in 2022 (which we missed because of the weather). And my niece's daughter and my niece were both blessed in 2023.

Superb Owl Sunday 2023

February 12 was the Super Bowl. We don't care about football. What we do care about are birds. So a nice relaxing walk around a cemetery is appropriate for Superb Owl Sunday. Last year it was just Jeremy and me. This year we brought along all the kids except Jr. Jet fell asleep on the drive so I stayed in the van while Jeremy, Nichole, Jr. Jr., and Lucky looked for owls and collected owl pellets.

They heard a great horned owl but weren't able to spot it. They still got to hear that superb owl.

When we got home I threw a freezer meal in the instant pot because we were running out of time.

 

Earlier in the day we went to church at my sister's ward. Her daughter is in the same ward and my niece's husband was blessing their new baby and my sister was giving a talk. During Sacrament Meeting, Jeremy, Nichole, and Lucky were all drawing a superb owl- a great gray owl. I won't show you the original picture since it's not ours but here are their "Sunday Sketches."

In order- Jeremy, Nichole, and Lucky.

I accidentally ripped Lucky's picture but you can still see it. Well done, everybody.

Baby Blessing

We planned Jet's baby blessing for the end of March since it would be Spring and I could take him to church after cold/flu season was over. What was planned was inviting plenty of friends and family to Sacrament Meeting in our church building. Jeremy's parents were going to fly in from Washington. After church, we were going to invite everyone back for a light luncheon in our backyard.
What really happened was this. We still had it the end of March. We had a small amount of people come (and we don't feel any less love from those that decided not to come or couldn't. We hope those we didn't invite don't feel less loved, either. Under normal circumstances we would have invited you). We had Sacrament Meeting in our backyard. Jeremy set up chairs so families could keep a socially acceptable distance from each other.

He had hand sanitizer available for those Priesthood holders who joined in the circle to bless the baby, both for before and after the blessing. Jeremy's parents were advised by their doctor not to travel so they were able to listen in through Jeremy's phone (we talked to our bishop about all these arrangements beforehand).
We had the Sacrament. Jeremy wore gloves and had bread and water separated out for individual families so people wouldn't be taking from the same trays and Joshua wore gloves while he passed the sacrament.
Jeremy bore a beautiful testimony.
Afterward people could grab a bagged lunch to go if they wanted or eat it there. Jeremy spent a lot of time preparing those with a lot of plastic glove wearing again.

We don't know if anyone had anything they could have passed on (it's been a couple of weeks and our family doesn't show any COVID-19 symptoms) but it's better to be safe than sorry. We felt it was important for Jet to be given a name and a blessing and felt it shouldn't be put off any longer.

Plus Jet's blessing outfit which we ordered through Amazon (with all the other children, we took them to a store so we could check sizes) fit perfectly. If we were to wait until this is all over, it wouldn't.

Family history. This will definitely make a good story to tell Jet when he's older.  

Baby Blessing

Our little Jr. Jr. had his baby blessing. The place where we found his blessing outfit- this was the smallest size they had (2XS). They said it was the premie size. Well, considering this little guy is over 11 pounds now at 2 months old, I wonder what a premie would look like in this outfit, especially before 2 months.


We also had him wear these sweet little booties and white socks Jeremy's aunt sent us. Thanks, Aunt Donna.

And thanks to those who were able to make it to the baby blessing. We really appreciate you coming.