Photo Bomb

 

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 3

The next morning I was awake when I started to hear robins, then Swainson's thrushes, then other birds like Steller's jays. Amazing how loud birds can be in the middle of the woods in the early morning. I loved it. We wanted to get up early so we could pack up and get to Stout Memorial Grove before the parking area got too filled up.

 

Road trip! 

 

When we left the campground we did see a deer. It was fun to see something other than mule deer like we get in Utah. It's ears were so small.

 

After checking to make sure everyone had their jackets/hoodies before we left Oregon, we realized the one person who didn't have one was me. It was back at my parents' house. When we packed up in Utah, we left Jr.'s jacket behind but my parents had an extra one they gave him.

We got creative with me. We recently got a couple of car blankets and I was able to wrap one around me under my vest. We thought with how it fit it made me look like a character on Endor in The Return of the Jedi, which was appropriate because that was filmed in the Redwoods.

When I visited the Redwoods as a child, I remember looking up and thinking, "Wow. These trees are so tall." It was the same this time. Wow. Those trees were so tall.

Banana slugs! You saw my shirt, right?

The Redwoods are awesome.

We celebrated National Camera Day on June 29.

Family picture!

Have I mentioned the Redwoods are awesome?

It was a good thing we did go early because when we left, the parking lot was completely full and cars were parked all over along the roadway. We managed to get out, though, and drove up along the Oregon Coast on the way back to my parents' house, stopping at several places along the way.

 

Welcome to Oregon.

Harris Beach

Arch Rock

There was a Western Gull that on the car next to us when we pulled up and just stayed there for quite a while. Later, it flew off and the car left then it decided it was our van's turn. We had some fun before it flew off again. 

We also stopped for some nostalgia for me. Growing up, one of the places we liked to visit along the coast was Bandon. When cousins came to visit we would often go to the cheese factory there to get ice cream and squeaky cheese (cheese curds). The cheese factory is now Face Rock Creamery but we stopped to get ice cream and squeaky cheese. We found a flavor of cheese we like- Vampire Slayer and it's good as cheese curds as well. Since it was National Waffle Iron Day, we let the kids get their ice cream in waffle cones.

When I was younger we would also go to the beach at Face Rock in Bandon. It was tradition to get pictures of us facing up like the rock. This trip I shared with my family the legend behind Face Rock. Then I made my kids face up like we would with cousins growing up. Ah, family history.

Walking like crabs.

Don't you just love the ocean?

We eventually made it to our final destination of my parents' house again and we were exhausted after such a long but wonderful day.

 

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.

Pi Day 2022

3/14 is Pi Day. As often happens, I made impossible cheeseburger pie. We ate potato chips with it because 3/14 is also National Potato Chip Day.

I made apple pie (in our Pi plate) too late to give anybody any (though Jet tried). We had to wait until the next day.

 

The kids had school off that day again so... we went on an expedition. We went to the lake to skip rocks (Jr. Jr.'s request). I forgot to have us sing, "Sing ho for the life of a bear." Oh well.

When we got there, I was worried about being in the gulls' way when we skipped rocks but we were able to find a spot away from the gulls that had plenty of rocks so no problem. 

Jet was so thrilled that I was actually giving him permission to throw rocks. 

He was also so happy to be out and running around with his siblings and watching the small planes fly overhead as we were so close to the airport.

It was nice weather and we had a good time.

You Know You're a Birder If...

Your 1st grader corrects another 1st grader when they point out a bird near the school. 

"It's not a seagull. It's a gull."

Ice Cream for Breakfast

February 1 was Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. It's not on our calendar because it's every first Saturday in February, not the same date every year.
I enjoyed some ice cream in a mug of hot chocolate for breakfast. Yumm.

I don't feel bad at all about having ice cream for breakfast. I also don't feel bad about letting Jr. Jr. and Lucky both veg in front of the TV. They both had coughs so TV is a distraction when people are sick.
Sweet little Lucky, when I went to set up the humidifier for him in the early hours of the morning, he told me not to get too close because he didn't want to get me or Jet sick. Awww. I love my children and I will be grateful when cold/flu season is over.

The weather was good that day and Jeremy and the two oldest went to a gull identification clinic like Nichole and I went to last year. Yay for birding.

While they were looking at gulls, they ran into some friends who were out looking for bald eagles. Birding is fun for the whole family.

It's a good thing Nichole didn't have the boys' cough because that evening she went to a girls' night at a friend's house. She had dinner and watched a movie and took brownies to share. She had a great time. The boys were happy that she had leftover brownies to bring home. Yumm. We like brownies.

Penguin Awareness Day 2020

January 20 was Penguin Awareness Day. Since the kids had that day off school, Jeremy took the two oldest on a birding field trip to look for gulls. 

At home, Lucky helped out by doing laundry without complaining so I let him watch Penguins Spy in the Huddle. He had so much fun making me aware of things he was learning while watching the video. I love it.

Jr. Jr. made a penguin out of play-doh. Lucky helped take pictures of it.

Later on, we ate our traditional fish sticks since penguins eat fish.

On a different note, that evening we went over to have Family Home Evening with the couple who were helping us get ready for the Book of Mormon in 2020. We talked about Lehi and Nephi and their family. They sent us home with some scripture figures that we can use in our scripture study and Family Home Evenings.

One of the things that happened in Lehi's family was that Nephi was commanded by the Lord to build a boat so they could cross the ocean. His brothers Laman and Lemuel murmured and told him it was a bad idea. There's a great Primary song about this called "Nephi's Courage." You can find the account of Nephi building the boat in 1 Nephi Chapter 17 of the Book of Mormon, which can be found in the scriptures section of churchofjesuschrist.org (it used to be known as lds.org, which I have mentioned that name in previous blog posts).

Anyway, at one point Nephi showed his brothers that he was filled with the power of God by reaching out and shocking them- enough so they wouldn't continue doubting who the command came from about building the boat.
We had our own shocking activity. The boys took turns sliding down the stairs on mattresses that were set up. As they slid, they built up a static charge so that they could shock whoever was at the bottom waiting. Later, they were able to send balls down as well. They had a blast and I of course enjoyed the social time chatting while they were playing.

It was a pretty good day I'd say.