Thanksgivings

We had a little Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this year to celebrate Charles Schulz' Birthday on November 26 like we did a couple years ago. Besides toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks, and jelly beans, we had peppermint patties and lemonade.

The day after, November 27, was Thanksgiving. Wednesday and Thursday we had several helpers helping Jeremy and me make food for our big Thanksgiving dinner. A while before, Jeremy and I had a discussion about how you can buy butter shaped like turkeys for your Thanksgiving table. We talked about how you could do it cheaper with your own mold. We don't have a turkey mold but you know what kind of molds we do have? Frogs. That's right. We have frog molds to make chocolate frogs. Man, now I want to make chocolate frogs. We decided because we're awesome that we would make butter frogs to go on our Thanksgiving table. We did. Jet and Nichole helped fill the molds and I was happy with how they turned out.

Kids also helped with rolls and deviled eggs and setting the table and it was just a nice dinner.

Jeremy and I did the turkey. Jet decided to name it "Gobbler." I love this family.

We had pumpkin pie and apple pie. 

We have so much to be thankful for and I'm glad I've tried to focus on that this month.

Mommy, Look

Jet: That cookie looks like a frog.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 11

July 10 was Don't Step on a Bee Day and National Kitten Day. Creativity took over.

Jeremy's sister came to visit that day. It was nice to catch up with her.

Jet uncovered some slugs in grandparents' backyard. They weren't banana slugs but one was a leopard slug.

 

July 11 was Blueberry Muffin Day.

Road Trip!

When we went to Mount Rainier we saw where the Nisqually River came from the glacier. We wanted to see where the Nisqually River emptied into the Puget Sound so... Nichole, Jeremy, and I headed to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. We love Nisqually Wildlife Refuge anyway. It's one of the places we always try to visit when we're in Washington.

 

Some highlights of this trip:

Bald eagle hanging out in what people told us was its usual spot, where we could walk right up to it... or right under it.

From its spot, we could look out and see seals sunning themselves on a sandbank. They were so fun to see. Adults and youngsters.

We also saw seals swimming in the water. There was a mama and baby swimming together that were so cute. Baby kept climbing on mama's back.

There were so many great blue herons out that day, both adults and juveniles. So many.

We went all the way to the end of the boardwalk, about a mile. 

From there we looked back at Mount Rainier which we had visited just two days before. So we went from where the Nisqually River started one day to where it ended another day. 78 miles.

As we were walking back through the forested area of the refuge, we stopped at a pond to see if we could find a frog. We found a frog then another then another. There were so many. I loved it.

We found out while we were there that this year was the 50th anniversary of the refuge so we just had to get a souvenir mug as it is one of our favorite places to visit in Washington.

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Pacific Northwest Trip- Part 3

Jet got his first haircut while we were in Oregon. Mostly to get the hair out of his eyes (and there's only so much you can do with a wiggly three year old). His curls stayed. Phew.

 

The day we left was Gorgeous Grandma Day, July 23. 

We got pictures with my children's gorgeous grandma in Oregon then we drove to Washington to see my children's other gorgeous grandma who gave us ice cream for Vanilla Ice Cream Day. I love that we have relatives who like to help us celebrate.

 

July 24 was National Cousins Day but we celebrated that later in the week when Jeremy's sister and brother who live in Washington came for a visit and brought their kids. We visited Jeremy's other brother and his family in Idaho back in March.

July 25 was National Hot Fudge Sundae Day. Guess what Grandma gave us. More ice cream!

 

Jeremy flew to Washington. He brought me flowers. Awww. Although I'd take my husband over flowers any day, I still enjoyed them. It helped me celebrate Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day on July 27.

After taking pictures for that holiday, we put the flowers back and Jeremy and I went on a nice walk around the neighborhood, just the two of us. Sigh. That's a contented sigh. I was so happy to have my husband with me again.

July 27 was also National Sleepyhead Day in Finland. Thanks for the use of the squirt bottle, Mom.

I didn't actually squirt him. It just makes for a good picture. 

It was also National Chili Dog Day. And Refreshment Day.

 

July 28 was Beatrix Potter's Birthday. We watched the movie, Miss Potter, after a long day of seeing animals like you might in Beatrix Potter books. There was a rabbit and a squirrel in the yard and lots and lots of wildlife at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge where we took all the kids this trip.

I must admit I am amazed at the different colors of the tree frogs we saw. We spent I don't know how much time looking at them.

My brain must have been working just right that day because we played an impromptu game as we were walking where someone would call out a date on the calendar and I would say off the top of my head what holiday or "reason to celebrate" was on that day. Some would take a bit longer to remember than others but I was getting them all. I couldn't believe it. My family couldn't either. I've just been calendaring celebrations for so many years that a lot of them stick with me. Maybe the exercise of running around Nisqually helped get the oxygen to my brain and helped me think better. It was fun.

While we were there, Lucky did activities in a workbook so he could become a Junior Refuge Manager. He was "sworn in" and got a badge.

It was like the Junior Ranger patches the three oldest earned at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge way back in 2016 (we had to buy their patches then). There are Junior Ranger programs you can do all over the place.

July 28 was also Milk Chocolate Day. Again we had chocolate milk.

 

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. Mmmmm, do I love lasagna.

 

Our Pacific Northwest trip was awesome and well needed for all of us.