Terry Pratchett's Birthday

April 28 was Terry Pratchett's Birthday. We decided that morning to celebrate with a Terry Pratchett themed dinner so we used what we had on hand to create what we did. #shelfcooking

We also played a Discworld video game from the 90's and our oldest son played "Thud" with his siblings, a homemade game he got for Christmas.

We made a Vimes BACON lettuce tomato sandwich, 

Dibbler's sausage in a bun (with onions and mustard), Captain Carrot sticks, bananas for the librarian at Unseen University (ook), cheese trolley, sludge from the river Ankh to drink, and Dirt.

We also had "the fifth elephant" as a centerpiece.

My favorite thing was the luggage cake we made. I am not a cake decorator but I think it turned out well. 

And of course there were Terry Pratchett books all over to read.

And... dwarf bread to fight with.

I love celebrating with this family.

What is Wrong With This Picture?

 

Hogle Zoo

I'm pretty sure the last time we went to Hogle Zoo was when Jr. was little, before Jr. Jr. was born, before I had started this blog. I remember my in-laws taking us and yep... I just found pictures from that trip from 2009. This is going to be fun.

 

First of all, the lion drinking fountain. I remember coming to Utah to visit relatives when I was a kid and we all went to Hogle Zoo. One thing I remember was the lion drinking fountain... from when I was a kid. Obviously it's had some changes to it over the years (compare 2009 to 2022) but the lion drinking fountain is a thing that has been around for many years.

Next let's talk about the gorilla statue. I don't remember it from my childhood. I do remember it from when Jeremy and I were dating and when we were first married and when we had just one child. I'm not putting the effort into finding those pictures but it is tradition (from even before we were married) to get a family picture with the gorilla statue. So I have pictures again from 2009 and 2022 to compare.

 

We had a great time this trip seeing a lot of animals. And just because I can, here is a comparison picture of an elephant from 2009 and from 2022.

Jet had fun flapping his ears like the elephant.

 

We saw a gorilla taking a drink so Jet decided to take a drink at the same time.

 

Because we are Dino Dan/Dino Dan: Trek's Adventures/Dino Dana fans (it's an Amazon Prime Video thing. Look it up), when it was time to move on to a new area of the zoo, we would say, "And we're moving," because that's what Dan and Trek's grandma would say when they visited the zoo and later a reptile house with Dana. When they were at the reptile area, they talked about how the crocodiles were like Deinosuchus, so when we saw crocodiles at Hogle Zoo, I kept telling Jet about them being like Deinosuchus. You know that kid likes dinosaurs (and prehistoric reptiles).

  

It was a fun trip to the zoo. We didn't see everything because it was getting hotter and hotter (It's been a hot Summer) and we decided to go home after a while, but it was awesome.

And I'm so glad we were able to get our family picture with the gorilla statue.

Balloon Delivery

One day, Jet, Jeremy, and I went for a drive so Jeremy could deliver a balloon sculpture. The person receiving it is a Terry Pratchett fan so Jeremy created the Discworld out of balloons. I love how it turned out.

We've Been Busy

What's that?  I haven't blogged in a while?  We've been busy.

Remember when Jeremy made "Starry Night" for the Orem Library the Summer of 2014?  This is the scaled down version but it still took a lot of work.
Balloon art for the kids' elementary school art show.  Isn't it great?

Towel Day 2016

May 25 is Towel Day.  To celebrate, I made the kids do laundry- washing towels.  Heh Heh.
Lucky decided to celebrate by unrolling an almost full roll of paper towels.

I also got pictures of the kids with a towel- a towel that was later used to mop up a water spill on the floor.

Aren't towels great?


I don't have pictures, but May 23 was World Turtle Day.  I split up my celebrating into two days by watching a Terry Pratchett movie set on Discworld, which is a flat world on the backs of four elephants on the back of a giant turtle in space.  A "world turtle."
I fell asleep the first night watching the movie so I finished it the next night.

Arches With Friends

The day after Scarlet and Dorothy left our neck of the woods was the first day of Fall Break for our school kids.  So we made the drive down to Moab, met up with Scarlet and Dorothy, and all went to Arches National Park together.  We didn't make our annual trip this Summer because Jeremy was doing the balloon wonders so this was a fun treat for us.

Our family at Balanced Rock and their family at Double Arch

 They were still so good with our kids.

 Kids with arches

Hey, kids.  Pose like elephants with the elephant in the background.  (Elephant Butte)

We made it to a lot of places in the park this trip.  At times we separated so we could explore different places and hike at different speeds.

Looking up we could see so much beauty.  Lucky only wanted to look down and play with the rocks and sand on the ground.

At one point, Nichole started making whistling sounds... and something responded.  We're thinking it was a bird, but it happened a few times in the same spot.

Jeremy and the older boys saw several bunnies as the sun started to set.  Nichole, Lucky, and I saw one.  Scarlet and Dorothy didn't see any, but they did see a group of deer.

It was a great trip and I'm so glad we were able to share it with friends.

First Modern Circus

Here's one for you.  Today is the 245th anniversary of the first modern circus.  Yep.  January 9, 1768.  That was even before I was born.

To celebrate, I went on a quick hunt in our home for some things you might see in a modern circus.  Here's what I found with the time that I had:

We also have juggling objects (obviously), but I couldn't get them out of the closet. 
I'm sure there are plenty of other items in our home that would fit this category, but I only had so much time.  I had a Relief Society activity to get to.