Walks

I have been enjoying getting out for walks in the mornings when I can. I've done a lot along the lake. It's been fun to see the changes in the lake from Winter to Spring, from frozen to unfrozen.

Here are some of my morning pictures from my walks or brief stops by the lake to get a look.

 

January

 

February

March 

Sometimes I take walks along the river or the Provo River Delta.

This wildlife viewing tower is where I was in the last picture. I took the picture of the tower from over by that tree way behind me.

Sometimes I walk at local parks. I love living in a place where there are mountains all around.

 

While we're talking about the lake (or let's go back to talking about the lake), Jeremy and I went out to Utah Lake State Park one day and got to see some cool ice stacks. Here are some pictures of them.

I already mentioned ice stacks I saw on Valentine's Day.

 

And while I'm going back to talking about things, somehow I missed mentioning on my blog (probably because I was falling asleep while trying to catch up) that on March 3, besides being National Cold Cuts Day and Soup It Forward Day, it was also World Wildlife Day and I went to the Provo River Delta for a walk but also got to see a long-tailed duck, a duck I don't see that often. Yippee! 

Another day, Jeremy and a couple of the kids were able to go see it. Also yippee!

 

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 12

Road Trip!

Jeremy's parents and we met up with Jeremy's brother and his family at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Jet really enjoyed it.

"Fish in the water. Look at the cool baby fish."

"Roar!"

"Look at the crab."

Touch pools are always fun. Jet learned to be gentle with the starfish.

The animal show was fun, too. It's hard to get an in-focus shot of a vulture when it's flying right at you, though. 

We didn't get to see any puffins in the wild during our coast trips but we were able to watch them at the zoo.

We got closer looks at common murres, too, which we did see out in the wild.

We always get a picture with the gorilla statue at Hogle Zoo so it's fun when we can get a picture with Ivan. If you've read (or watched) The One and Only Ivan, the statue at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is of that gorilla.

Uncles and cousins are so fun. 

1,2,3, Whee!

Jet really took to his cousins. He did not want to be separated from them. So much so that when it was time for them to go home to get things ready for us to visit their house after the zoo, he was in tears, hand outstretched, crying for his cousins. Ahhhh.

After the zoo we did indeed visit them at their house and Jet loved meeting their ducks and helping feed them.

He also helped collect eggs.

Jr. Jr. helped, too, including cleaning. Thanks, boys.

 

Back at Jeremy's parents' house, we celebrated Eat Your Jello Day on July 12 and were tuckered out after another full fun day.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Screen Free Week 2024

I did a good job again this year and scheduled posts to be published during Screen Free Week.

Now it's time to tell you what we did during Screen Free Week, May 6-12.

 

May 6 was International No Diet Day and National Beverage Day so we had chicken nuggets, fries, and root beer floats. Lucky and Jet had fun blowing bubbles in their drinks. We gave Jet water in a cup like we used. 

It was also No Homework Day but shhh, the kids didn't need to know that.

The kids did use computers for school work. It's kind of necessary nowadays. And Jeremy and I had some work stuff to do as well. But it was nice not having the TV on and no video games. Jet didn't even ask for TV all week.   

 

Jr. Jr. had his last orchestra concert. Good job, Jr. Jr.

May 8 was Have a Coke Day. We learned that any soft drink in the South is called Coke. So we all got to pick our soda pop (I picked Caffeine Free Coca Cola) and had them in our Coca Cola cups.

 

Lucky helped out with a service project with other children in the stake. They also decorated Mother's Day cards. Awwwww.

We celebrated our anniversary. On our actual anniversary we had our traditional anniversary dinner with the kids. Another day that week, Jeremy and I celebrated our anniversary with the two of us. We didn't even have to wait three months like last year. I'll tell you about the way we celebrated in a separate post.

We love each other.

 

And the random:

Who needs screens when Bluey and Bingo can go for a ride on a dinosaur?

Making faces with Daddy.

Just a duck walking down the sidewalk at the high school. I took Jr. early one day for an AP test and there it was just waddling along.

Dinos with Daddy.

It's tradition. Jeremy has his little things he does with his kids. Jet and Daddy share a big cup each using their own straw. That's their thing. 

Spontaneous dance party.

Big helper Jet. He saw me cleaning off the table so he poured water out from his water bottle then wiped it up to help.

He also helped make buns to go with Classic Meatball Subs (with homemade meatballs) and Addictive Veggie Dip. We're still getting use out of A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page.

I also took a moment one day to drive down to the river and just relax. As soon as I turned off the van, I could hear yellow warblers. There were several and it was so nice to hear them. 

Several people saw the Northern Lights Friday of that week. We didn't realize because... Screen Free Week. We tried going out Saturday night but didn't see anything. It was cloudy but had some clear spots so we did get to see some constellations since we drove out to Bridal Veil Falls then Deer Creek Reservoir. Ah, nature.

It's the Big Dipper (try clicking on the picture to make it bigger).

We explained this trip out in the middle of the night was like birding. Sometimes you go looking for a specific bird (or atmospheric condition or celestial event) and you don't see it but you enjoy the adventure.

And family history- we were able to tell the kids about the time Jeremy and I saw the Northern Lights when we were visiting my sister in Idaho (like 20 years ago).

O.K. That's all I'm going to say about Screen Free Week in this post. I'll talk about celebrating our anniversary and Mother's Day later.