Brothers

Have I mentioned how amazing my children are? Have I mentioned that each one of them are an important part of our family with their different strengths? I love them all so much and when I see my boys being good brothers to each other, I know that I am so blessed. 

Brothers

 

Pacific Northwest Trip- Part 2

My parents were happy to help us celebrate while we were visiting. A couple of my brothers visited while we were there, too, and also joined in. Some of the holidays were celebrated observed because of schedules.

July 18 was National Sour Candy Day. We ate sour patch kids and made sour faces.

 

July 19 was National Hot Dog Day.

 

It was also Stick Out Your Tongue Day. 

We went to Shore Acres, did a little birding while there, then went down to the beach so we could introduce a couple of the kids to putting their feet in that cold Oregon ocean. Jet enjoyed it.

Lucky didn't want to take his shoes off to wade in the water so he "tried" to run away from the waves but just got his shoes and socks wet. Sigh.

We got to see some brown pelicans which was fun. We're used to seeing white pelicans in Utah. We've only seen one brown pelican in Utah before.

July 20 was Moon Day. We ate "phases of the moon" cookies and creativity took over. We had half moons, full moons, gibbous moons, moons with the Cheshire Cat smile. We had the man in the moon and the moon on the man. 

Nichole opened up a cookie and started eating it. I pointed out it was a full moon. And as she ate it she replied, "Yep. And now it's waning."

"It's the moon!"

 

We of course couldn't visit my parents' house without visiting the nature area that is down the road. I got the kids up and made them go out with me. We got our target bird- green heron- as well as plenty of other birds in the area. There were actually 3 or 4 green herons in that area.

My parents' ward had their Pioneer Day picnic while we were there so I got to see some childhood friends and give a hug to the woman who was the Young Women's President when I was a youth. My kids had fun running around and playing (or sitting reading depending on the child) and Jet had fun running around with his uncles.

It was a great trip to Oregon.

Jr. Is So Cool

Jr. is so cool. He's been wanting to make crepes in his crepe pan he got or his birthday last year. He finally got to. They turned out so well. Yummmmmm.

Another cool thing about Jr. is his ability to play the cello. Jr. and Nichole had their Christmas Concert recently. Jeremy and I were both able to make it to watch the concert. It wasn't just an orchestra concert, though.

Those that performed were Symphonic Orchestra, Saxophone Quintet, Jazz Band, Concert Orchestra with Symphonic Band, Jazz Quartet, and the Symphonic Orchestra played with the Wind Symphony.

It was so nice to listen to the musical pieces.

I'm proud of both my strings players. I'm impressed with Jr. who was one of only two cellists performing in his orchestra (and the other cello had a solo so Jr. was holding the background on his own). The other two cellists were out sick.

Once again, it was a wonderful evening.

I also love how much Jet loves Jr.

Jr. and Nichole have been reading classics from Les Miserables to Shakespeare.

Most recently he was reading to Jet Moby Dick.

 

I just love that boy. Jr. is so cool.

Brotherly Love

 

 

Catch of the Day

 

Brothers

Catch of the Day

The Things Brothers Teach Each Other

Lucky was practicing his spelling words by tracing them in sugar. Jet decided to join in. When Lucky finished his words, he decided to eat some of the sugar... or lots of the sugar. Jet decided to join in.

Oh, those boys.

Brotherly Love

 

The Four Jays

May 24 was National Brothers Day. I texted a picture to my mom and sisters and my mom said the photo was darling. The Four Jays.....like a singing group. I told that to Jeremy and he answered with this:
We should dress them all in blue and call them The Blue Jays... or if they all become doctors they could be The Scrub Jays... or if they do well in school they can be The Stellar Jays... or if they all learn to surf they can be called The California Jays.
Ha Ha. He's clever.
Although, he added, to be more accurate, they'd have to be surfing doctors because it's "California scrub jay."

Catching Up on the Last Five Months- 1

July found the kids and me heading to Oregon to visit my parents.  Bye Bye, Jeremy.  We'll miss you.

We stopped in Idaho to visit friends.  Love those friends.  They even sent us with breakfast the next morning.  Thanks, friends.

My parents met us halfway to their home and caravanned with us the rest of the trip.  Nichole and Jr. had fun with Grandpa and the littler boys had fun with Grandma and me.  I love my parents.  Thanks for dinner, too, Mom and Dad.

Things we did in Oregon:
Played games and with toys and with family members

Celebrated the 4th of July with fireworks

Picked and ate blueberries

Played in the bamboo forest

Fed the fish and Jr. skimmed the duckweed off the pond

Grandma put the kids to work helping with yard work

Played piano

Celebrated Nichole's birthday (Jeremy joined in)

Bonding time with my brothers

Here's Paco with his homemade electric ukulele (you can see him in action playing ukulele on his YouTube channel)

Went on a walk with Uncle Travis at the local nature area

Watched plenty of critters around my parents' house including a family of gray foxes

Jr. got a hold of the camera

Celebrated Embrace Your Geekiness Day on July 13 (Again as I like to call it Embrace Your Geek Day)

 That was our trip to Oregon.