National Cooler Day

May 22 I was too busy getting ready for a trip to celebrate well so I told people this is what you get. I didn't even have time to cut up the watermelon. Nichole did. Happy National Cooler Day.

Jeremy did suggest while he was still at work that one of the kids take a frozen Costco lasagna and cook it in the oven. Oh yeah. That was a good idea. So they did. Happy Don't Fry Day.

The kids did help in some ways with getting ready for the trip. Besides taking care of food because I wasn't up to it, and gathering things, some of them also helped clean out the van so we could travel more comfortably the next day. Happy National Road Trip Day. 

Mmmm, Indian Food

Have I mentioned I like Indian food?

Last time I made Indian food, I didn't have what I needed to make raita, the cucumber yogurt stuff. I did this time but I didn't have time to make flatbread or aloo gobi which I really wanted again. Oh well. Guess I'll have to put Indian food on the menu plan again for sometime soon. Yumm.

 

Jeremy walked in the door and was happy with the smell. It's like comfort food without even having to eat it. It tasted good, too. Jet enjoyed the chickpea stuff especially.

After the Indian food we had watermelon that had been chilling in the cooler, just like we did last year for National Cooler Day, this year on May 27. 

Since it was also National Road Trip Day, Jet, Nichole, and I took a road trip to the Provo Library. 

 

May 28 was Whooping Crane Day so of course I had the kids, "Whoop! Whoop!" in front of a crane just like last year. 

I'd been watching for months worried that the crane wouldn't be there to celebrate this holiday but it was. Hooray!

Action Packed Summer Vacation a.k.a. Memorial Day Weekend

School finished on Thursday. UVU Prep began on Tuesday. That meant four days for Jr. to fit in as much family fun as possible.

 

Friday, May 28. This was our list of holidays for that day: Whooping Crane Day. Brisket Day. Cooler Day. Don't Fry Day. Hamburger Day. Road Trip Day.

Hmmm. How to fit all or most of those in?

First of all, Whooping Crane Day.

"Whoop. Whoop."

Do you get it? Do you get it? Look carefully in the background of this picture. We planned celebrating this way for weeks before the holiday.

National Road Trip Day. The kids and I went for a drive to Big Springs and went for a walk and looked at bugs and birds.

While we were driving, we saw cows in a field. It was National Hamburger Day. We went home to grill them (not the same cows) because it was National Don't Fry Day.

National Cooler Day. There wasn't room in the fridge so I put a watermelon in a cooler with freezer packs and took it out of there to cut up to go with our backyard BBQ.

We felt pretty good about getting most of the holidays on our list. The last one, National Brisket Day, we wouldn't be able to until Jr. Jr. asked, "What does brisk mean?" He listened to the definition then got up to run briskly around the yard saying, "I'm going to brisk it." Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

We also had s'mores because c'mon, backyard BBQ.

 

Saturday, May 29. We celebrated my birthday.

The kokanee salmon experience was kind of a letdown last Fall so we went to see June suckers in the Provo River closer to the lake to celebrate my birthday. The fish were bigger than we were expecting (I just thought they were going to be little minnow-like things. I was wrong). 

We went for a little walk and did a little birding while we were there. 

We also looked at flowers and bees. It was so fun to see the bees with the pollen on their legs (remember to click on Nichole's pictures to see them larger).

Later Jeremy made me my birthday dinner (with orange soda, of course) and we had cake and sherbet.

What I asked for for my birthday I got for Mother's Day so what I asked for for Mother's Day I got for my birthday.

We love The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner which I got last year and use it so much, I wanted The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again. Yay!

I also wanted to try out a dough hook (or dough whisk) since I've heard good things about those and that you can use them for so many things. I'm still trying to make up my mind about what I think.

Lucky gave me a Lego sculpture. Each time someone does a chore I can take a piece off and when all the pieces are off we can play video games.

Sunday, May 30. Kids made dinner.

There was quite a bit of creativity going on for Creativity Day. For Water a Flower Day, Nichole forgot to water her flower outside but she made bread so she watered flour. Tee Hee. Dad helped Lucky make a flower out of pieces of red bell pepper. Jr. used lemonade and a mint tea bag to make a sort of mint julep (non alcoholic of course) for Mint Julep Day. Jr. Jr. made chocolate chip waffles for us. Thanks for dinner, kids.

Monday, May 31. Memorial Day.

It was Utah Day. The kids and I went hiking in Alpine, Utah, to see poppies. We brought Daddy along.

There were lots of bees interested in the poppies. These bees had different colored pollen on their legs than the bees we saw Saturday.

The kids all wanted to take pictures with the camera so they had to take turns. We also saw different birds and some snakes.

To continue with the Utah Day celebrating, with dinner we had funeral potatoes and lime green jello with carrot shavings (Utah people should get it). We didn't have fry sauce, though. Ha Ha Ha. We also had smiley face pizza for National Smile Day.

So that was Jr.'s action packed Summer vacation before he started UVU Prep again. I hope he enjoyed it.