Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 10

Sunday, June 28 was Mel Brooks' 100th Birthday. I wore my bow earrings.

After church, my mom wanted pictures with the tree they planted for our wedding reception so many years ago. It was itty bitty at the time. It was hit and miss with how the pictures turned out because of Jet. He is still a wiggly little boy.

 

My mom made sure to get her short girl picture. She says she has so many pictures like this of young men this age who she teaches at church or she used to teach and they're getting ready to go on missions. My short mom with the kids who stand heads taller than her. 

I have plenty of those pictures with my own children. My children did not get my (and Grandma's) short genes.

 

That evening, we played Rummikub with Todd. We like playing games with Todd.

One time, everyone was able to put tiles down but Jr. Jr. could not. He kept adding more and more until he couldn't fit them on his board.

After this picture, he picked two more tiles, the last one was one he needed. Right before Jr. Jr.'s turn, Todd put his final tiles down and finished. Oh man. We all looked at Jr. Jr.'s tiles and saw that he was indeed correct. There was nothing he could do to get started. And just to show what could have happened if Todd hadn't put his last tiles down, Jr. Jr. started putting his tiles down and realized he could have gotten EVERYTHING down on that one turn and he would have won. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Sigh.

While we were playing, we noticed the lighting was gorgeous on the trees on a nearby hill. 

We stepped outside to see and realized there was a rainbow (double rainbow). A bunch of us piled outside to get pictures in the rain. It was lovely. Absolutely beautiful.

I can't get over Jet's frolicking. That's how we all felt out there that evening.

Panorama function on my phone for the win.

Panorama function on Jr.'s phone for the weird. 

 

This is what my mom caught.

We had a beautiful end to the day. 

Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 4

June 21 was the Summer Solstice.

Goodbye, Spring. Hello, Summer.

It was also Father's Day. We got to spend it with my father-in-law. I wore my bow earrings to celebrate and took a selfie. It was also National Selfie Day.

And... it was a family member's birthday so I also wore my bow earrings for that.

 

Jeremy finished up at his fair in California the night before and drove to spend the night at my brother and sister-in-law's. He went to church with them Sunday morning and made sure to wear his Father's Day tie. He also got chocolate.

I appreciate the selfies they got.

 

Jeremy drove the rest of the way home to find a card and a couple Father's Day gifts which we left for him. We weren't able to be with him (though we did call and sing "Daddy's Homecoming" to him on his trip) but we were able to let him know we were thinking of him.  

Tick Tock Tick Tock- Time to Talk about Christmas

Since it's Tick Tock Day (December 29), I might as well catch up on the last few days. I said the days around Christmas Eve/Christmas Day were pretty big days so I didn't really blog much because of the busyness then the next few days were kind of chill so I didn't blog then either because I wasn't doing much productive. Today I'm being productive, including blogging so here we go.

 

Jet: My turn!

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Christmas Eve, I got my morning walk in and Jeremy and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen and spent a lot of time trying to catch up on last minute things. I didn't get everything done I wanted to both with food and other stuff so we ate late and I just had to scrap some of my ideas.

Jet: My turn! 

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Jr. Jr. and I did manage to finish and wrap juggling balls for everybody in the family so we all got to open those on Christmas morning.

 

Jet: My turn!

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Before bed Christmas Eve, Jet set out cookies for Santa.

We hung our stockings by the fire- the Darth Vader Yule Log this year. 

I got out for a walk Christmas morning because Jeremy needed some sleep that morning so we got a late start with everyone coming out to the living room. 

Some year's past, Jet has been still asleep when it was time to go out or just slow going. This year, though, he was so excited and was the first person to run out to the living room when it was time. He was very excited about everything. He is so cute.

The week before Christmas, Jet came home from school one day after Santa visited and let us know Santa was going to bring him a scooter for Christmas. That's what he told Santa he wanted and wow, that was the first we'd heard about it.

Apparently Santa delivered and he got that scooter for Christmas with a Spider-man helmet. That little boy got several Spider-man things for Christmas or around Christmas. Christmas Eve the kids opened up pajamas from grandparents (Jet's were Spider-man pjs). 

A few days before Christmas, each family member came to Mom and Dad and we talked about spiritual gifts and let them know what gifts we saw in them. Then they opened up a present from grandparents- this time, a blanket (Jet's was Spidey and His Amazing Friends, of course).

The day after Christmas, December 26, was Wren Day and it was National Candy Cane Day. Jeremy, Nichole, and I took Jet to the Provo River Delta so he could try out his new scooter on the trail and we could look at birds. I thought Jet would be slow but apparently he picked up on riding a scooter really quick and zoomed along the trail.

I did take a moment to capture a picture that celebrated both holidays. Birding on Wren Day with a candy cane.

Jet was content to go home when it was time. He got hot chocolate with a candy cane in it. 

Saturday was a lazy day and it was so nice. I didn't even go out for a walk.

 

Sunday, December 28, was Stan Lee's Birthday so I wore my bow earrings. It was also National Chocolate Candy Day. We definitely ate chocolate candy. It was also Card Playing Day. Jeremy and I played a card game. 

This morning, I went for a walk in the park again with the lights. It was cold.

And since it's Tick Tock Day, I'll also mention that we celebrated Lucky's birthday earlier in December.

For the balloons for Lucky's class, he decided on penguins, narwhals, but couldn't figure out the last design. Jeremy made his suggestion. Everyone was confused (a rocket?) until he called me over.

Ohhhhh. Missile-toe! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

It was finally decided that the last design would be a mouse with a Santa hat (not the missile-toe). It was a popular design.

 O.K. Enough of blogging.

Balloon Bonding

Real quick- August 22 was Be an Angel Day. It's become tradition to have angel hair pasta that day with alfredo sauce and chicken. Yumm. 

 

Now to what I really wanted to blog about.

 

Every year, Jeremy volunteers to build a balloon sculpture in the children's section of the Orem Library for the Summer Reading Program. He's been doing it for over 15 years. This year, because of construction, they didn't have him do that. He and Lucky did teach simple balloon animals at the Kid's Art Gala and in August, they built a balloon sculpture to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the children's wing of the library.

I'm very impressed with how Lucky is picking up the balloon sculpting. He built the number 30 and the hat. Way to go both Jeremy and Lucky. I love that Lucky's getting into this and they are getting to have this bonding time together.

Since they were building on Gene Kelly's Birthday on August 23, when I went to deliver some missed items to them (I'm also a helper), I found Lucky dancing around to celebrate.

Later to also celebrate Gene Kelly's Birthday, I wore my bow earrings and pirate ship necklace and we watched "The Pirate" which Gene Kelly was in with Judy Garland.

 

That evening, we went to an end of the Summer neighborhood barbecue. I had a great time socializing. I love our neighborhood.