Parents Day Off

September 14 was National Parents Day Off. My sweetheart and I went on a date... to get gas in the van... and to go bowling. 

That was fun. I don't know that we'd ever gone bowling together before and it had been years since either of us had. 

This is me trying to ask the magic eight bowling ball if I'll knock down the last two pins.

 

And of course for this real date, I wore my Jurassic Park shirt.

I love spending time with my husband.

 

Since it was also National Eat a Hoagie Day, the kids made dinner since it was our day off. They made Chilly Pheesesteaks (because I can't pronounce Philly Cheesesteaks correctly) using some provolone cheese we had in the fridge and some canned roast beef from the pantry (and other seasonings, etc. that we have). I made homemade buns/hoagies the day before so they would have those to work with and we didn't have to buy hoagies. 

What They Missed- August 3

Jeremy's fair in Montana was canceled last year for obvious reasons. This year it happened. We're still not traveling long distances with our whole family so Jeremy took just the two oldest with him to the fair. It was kind of like when the three of them drove to Washington last year. Just like last year, I kept track of what they missed so they can read about it (with pictures).

 

Tuesday, August 3-

The day they left... early in the morning. I helped them get out the door that morning.

There they go. 

Jeremy gave me updates throughout the day of where they were and what they were doing.

There they are.

Stopping at Swan Lake.

Taking pictures of mountain bluebirds at the rest area at West Yellowstone.

Jeremy made sure to say Hi to Yellowstone for me. He told me, "Yellowstone says Hi." I want to go back someday. That was one of my favorite family trips when we went in 2017. I think we all assumed we would come this year since Jr. Jr. would have a National Parks Pass (which he does) but as I said, we're not doing any long distance traveling with our whole family yet so he hasn't been able to use his pass much.

 

Anyway, enough about them. This is what we did.

Lucky got up before Jr. Jr. and Jet and decided he wanted to do service so he and I started laundry so Jr. Jr. wouldn't have to.

That day was National Watermelon Day but we celebrated a day early so the others could eat watermelon with us. We also ate some on Tuesday.

As it was also Night Out Day on August 3, the boys and I decided to do activities that could be associated with a night out... at home.

We went bowling... on the Wii.

We watched a movie with popcorn and pop.

We also ate mixed nuts for Grab Some Nuts Day. Jr. Jr. and Lucky enjoyed trying different nuts because usually we just have peanuts. They liked the variety.

Jeremy and the older two made it safely to Montana and got some sleep.

What They Missed- August 13

Thursday, August 13-
I had another rant I wrote down on this day's notes that I am again not going to put on here. Instead here is a sculpture Lucky made out of puzzle blocks.

It's a person sitting on a couch watching TV. It even has couch cushions.

We sat down to dinner of sweet and sour chicken (since Jeremy wasn't there and he can't stand pineapple but I love it) and talked about The Food Nanny and sitting down to dinners together (as a family, not with the food nanny).

We also talked about a little riddle thing from the Gospel Living app. It was originally from The New Era magazine from June 2017.
You figure out a word that fits two different clues with different meanings. The example they gave was "1/60 of a minute and a silver medal." The answer is "second." Get it?
Jr. Jr. got creative after we went through all of them and came up with a few of his own. They all ended up being about bowling but that's just fine. He's clever. Themes are fun.
Here's what he came up with. See if you can figure them out and I'll put the answers at the end of this post.
1. "Water comes out of me when it rains."  "Dang it! I missed all the pins."
2.  "Could you leave a few cookies?"  "Yes! I got the last two pins."
3.  "Ow! That really hurt. You hit me with a bat."  "Yes! I got all the pins in one try."

After dinner, we celebrated Alfred Hitchcock's birthday with cupcakes. We put a candle in one and took turns blowing it out after singing "Happy Birthday" to Alfred Hitchcock each time. I took pictures.

I had too much fun trying to get different angles with the knife and reflections, not unlike how Alfred Hitchcock would direct the cinematography in his films.

I also watched three different versions of The Lady Vanishes (one of my favorite Hitchcock films). One in the middle of the night/early morning, one in the middle of the day, and one late that night/early morning.

We fed the birds at sunset and saw the evening star while it was still pretty light out. The evening star is actually a planet- it's Venus. That's always fun.
We didn't stick around or come back out to look for meteors or UFOs that night.

Did you figure out the answers based on Jr. Jr.'s clues?
Here are the answers.
1. Gutter
2. Spare
3. Strike

What They Missed- August 8

Recently, Jeremy's brother got married so Jeremy drove to Washington for the wedding. He took the two oldest with him to help keep him awake while he drove and because we knew they could handle the social distancing on a long trip like that. I kept track of what they missed while they were gone so now they can read all about it (with pictures).

Saturday, August 8-

The day they left.
Jeremy gave the boys the responsibility of feeding the birds while he was gone. Jet and I supervised with only minimal help from time to time. They're good at it.

They finished off the bag of peanuts for the jays so they got to open up the new box.

The jays are used to Jr. Jr. and will come up close while he is near the feeding station.

Lucky made a list of things he wanted to do while the others were gone. One of them was to make paper shields then use them in a squirt gun fight outside. That actually went along with scripture study since we were starting to talk about wars in The Book of Mormon. And we used paper plates for the shields.

Even Jet got involved, though the others were under strict instructions not to squirt the baby and Mommy.

At the end, Jr. Jr. dumped a bucket of water on himself so Lucky carried everything else in.

Also that day the three boys had fun playing under a blanket. Jr. Jr. and Lucky are good at making Jet smile and laugh. He loves his brothers.

That evening we played Wii Bowling to celebrate National Bowling Day and even Jet got to play with a ball.

Lucky wanted me to keep track of many of the helpful and nice things he did so besides feeding the birds, don't be surprised to see a list of ways Lucky served from time to time on these posts (the ones I remembered to keep track of or that he reminded me to write down).

That first day he peeled an egg for Jr. Jr. and for Jet and gave Jet a ride on a blanket. Wheee.

Lucky got a hold of my phone as I was trying to keep track of things so this is what he added (mostly by clicking on the options that were presented above the phone keyboard):

 Remember, you can click on the pictures to see them larger.