"It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes"

When Grandpa comes to visit and brings a bunch of hot sauce, it's time for a hot sauce taste test. We cut up some chicken nuggets to dip in the sauces (and had chocolate milk as needed) and we had a great time. Even though Grandpa likes them "watery eyes, burn your taste buds" spicy, none of these had quite that level of heat. We were all able to enjoy the experience with burning tongues that didn't last too long.

 

We gave Jet a container with regular ketchup to dip his chicken nuggets in because he wanted to be involved. A couple of family members decided not to participate and that's just fine.

 

Bread Bowls and Ogre Stew

As previously mentioned, Jeremy's parents came for a visit. It was lovely to have them here. We got to see them when we went to the baby blessing in Idaho the week before. They got some good time with their grandkids there then came to spend good time with their grandkids here (and their son and daughter-in-law).

One meal we had while they were here was Ogre Stew (you know we love it- most of us) in bread bowls. Yum. 

The recipe for the bread bowls I use is Italian Bread Bowls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I wanted to make sure I made enough bread bowls so I doubled the recipe but I neglected to separate it into two different bowls for the first rising time. Ha Ha Ha.

I went about my business with a timer set and when I finally looked over, it was so high then a little bit later it was dripping down the side of the bowl. Ha Ha Ha. Everybody got a kick out of that since everybody was there hanging out on Hanging Out Day, April 19.

The bread bowls turned out and the stew in the bowls was sooooo good, of course. I love the recipes in The Fablehaven Cookbook. 

By the way, April 19 was also Garlic Day and Ogre Stew has garlic powder in it. 

Velociraptor Awareness Day 2026

I made sure this year that Jet's velociraptor was involved in a lot of what went on April 18, Velociraptor Awareness Day. I haven't always been as diligent as some years.

 

In no particular order, the velociraptor helped with:

 

Food prep (although I don't know why I don't have a picture of it with our dinner)

 

Dishes

 

Encouraging us to eat our cheeseball that we didn't eat the day before (we were busy that night)

 

Taking care of a sick little boy

 

Video games

 

Recording voice for a school project

 

Recycling 

 

Thank you, velociraptor. We are aware of how helpful you are and are grateful you helped us get ready for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa.

Jr. Jr.'s Oregon Trip

Jr. Jr. had a great trip to Oregon with my parents last year. They took him places, they put him to work, they had a great time.  

Don't take my word for it. Here's what Jr. Jr. had to say about his trip:

We did a bunch of stuff.   

Grandma gave me a vest. It was the vest. 

 

The lighthouse was cool. So was I. It was freezing out there.

 

 

I don't know where that is.

 

 

This is where I found out I'm not as afraid of heights as I thought I was, though the wall was less than waist high, which I hate.

 

 

Look, Mom. Grandma gave me sharp objects. 

 

 

I made up a card game with Todd. Grandma and Grandpa bought me a set of mushroom playing cards, which was really cool. One of the days, I got bored, so I decided to make a bunch of random patterns with them.

 

 

Yeah, the falls were really cool. That's another place I thought I would be scared but I wasn't really, and thankfully the wall was more than waist height. 

 

 

Flowers. Flowers are cool. 

 

 

 

We went to the High Desert Museum.

 

 

I had to get Grandma to take a picture of this because it's so good. 

 

 

 

This was at the Umpqua Discovery Center. There were birds. Lots of birds.

 

 

I made a windmill. I could not get it to stay together.

 

 

Kristin here. We were thrilled, of course, to have him come back. I just love that kid so much. I am so glad he had a good time. 

When he got back he was also excited to teach us the game he created which my brother helped flush out the rules. Those two have very creative minds that work well together.

I like the game.

A Little More September Catching Up

We found out September 6 was National Hummingbird Day. How did we not have that on our calendar before now? It has since been added. First Saturday in September.

To celebrate, Nichole created this picture. I do a lot of celebrating with food. She does a lot of celebrating with art. I love it.

September 7 was the anniversary of when the first fully electric TV set was achieved by Philo T. Farnsworth. Now Philo T. Farnsworth was my grandma's cousin so he's kind of a big deal in my family. I have a friend in our ward with the last name of Farnsworth so I finally asked him if he was related to Philo T. Farnsworth. Yes! Me, too. When he found out we were both related he asked if we as kids also all wrote reports about Philo T. Farnsworth for school. Yes! It was funny to find out that my family (including cousins) isn't the only family who did this. Someone I didn't know I was related to did it, too. 

Anyway so this year for the anniversary, I sat down with my friend and we figured out how we were each related to Philo T. Farnsworth and so how we were related to each other. That and Jeremy made a card for him. 

I can't find the card on the computer and I didn't take a picture before I gave it to my friend. Oh well.

 

September 7 was also Grandparents Day. I wished my mom and my sister Happy Grandparents Day.

 

September 8 was the anniversary of the original Star Trek. I wished that happy anniversary to a friend who likes Star Trek.

 

It was also Tim Bergling's birthday so I went around singing an Avicii song.

 

September 9 was Ants on a Log Day. 

 

It was also President Nelson's 101st birthday. I decided not to try to put 101 candles on a cake so we just put one in the middle and Jet got to blow it out. 

Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Great Great Grandparents, You Get the Idea

September 8 was Grandparents Day. I wished my mom... and my sister... a Happy Grandparents Day. Toward the end of September, my niece had her third baby, so that gave my sister another grandchild and my parents another great grandchild.

It was also National Actors Day and one of my children was being dramatic.

Speaking of grandparents, great grandparents, etc., September 9 was President Russell M. Nelson's 100th birthday. 100! There was a broadcast we watched at home. I thought about making birthday cake but I was too busy that day. It's okay because Nichole's ward was doing a big birthday party FHE where they watched part of the broadcast and had birthday cake. 

I loved the broadcast. It felt really good to watch it. One of the people who spoke of what a wonderful person President Nelson is was one of his great grandchildren. Another was one of his daughters. They had such great things to say about him being a Christlike person.

A few days later, our stake had a service day. I was able to go help tie some quilts. I haven't done that in a while. I remember doing it with my mom for Relief Society activities when I was a kid. Ah, memories.

I was only going to stay for half an hour or so. I ended up staying three hours.

September 9 was also Wonderful Weirdos Day (celebrated just by being us) and International Sudoku Day. Lucky took time to work on a sudoku puzzle.

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 13

Road Trip!

Goodbye, Grandma and Grandpa. Goodbye, evergreen filled mountains. Goodbye, Washington.

Welcome to Oregon.

Welcome to Idaho.

Hello, Snake River.

Welcome to Utah.

We made it to our final destination- home. Hooray! Sigh.

Traveling all day kept us from celebrating Embrace Your Geekness Day on July 13 (though we did listen to video game music on the drive) so we celebrated it the next day "observed." We like to call it Embrace Your Geek Day. I even wore my Mario shirt.

I have no more of our wonderful vacation to share. It really was wonderful, though. We got to enjoy the vacation, God's creations, and spent some good quality time with our relations. I'm so glad Jeremy got a real vacation instead of just a few days off. It was awesome!