Dinosaur Day

We've been celebrating Dinosaur Day on May 15 for many years. You know I like dinosaurs. According to Google, a more well known Dinosaur Day is June 1, so... we get to celebrate both now. I'm not complaining.

This year on May 15, though, while dropping Jet off at school, he let me know that he didn't want it to be Dinosaur Day (he used to be more into dinosaurs), he wanted it to be Leprechaun Day. I explained to him that Leprechaun Day was two days before that. Sorry we didn't do anything to celebrate that day (May 13). He made it clear that he preferred leprechauns to dinosaurs and I let him know I preferred dinosaurs to leprechauns and it's fine that we prefer different things. He let the teachers/aides know that leprechauns were green and he liked leprechauns. It really is okay for us to like different things.

After dropping him off, Nichole and I went for a walk to Bridal Veil Falls. We took binoculars and cameras so it ended up being a lot longer walk than it usually is. 

Earlier that week, I either walked by myself or Nichole and I walked to the falls, got our selfies, and walked back. Every time I thought, I should really bring camera and binoculars. So many yellow warblers and other birds but mostly yellow warblers. When I told Jeremy the time before this, I really need to bring camera and binoculars, he commented, I thought you were already planning to. Yeah, but I finally did on Dinosaur Day.

Nichole and I listened to Weird Al Yankovic's "Jurassic Park" on the drive there then got to try out my new selfie stick tripod at the falls. Note my shirt.

On the walk back, we saw lots of birds. Some posed for us and we even spotted a nest with a bird who kept flying away then coming back to it. I'm pretty sure it was a Warbling Vireo.

I love birds.

This Song Sparrow posed for us so nicely. It even sang for us.

 

You know that part in the first Jurassic Park movie where the power's been off at the compound so two of the characters are eating melting ice cream while having a discussion. Nichole and I continued to celebrate Dinosaur Day by eating ice cream later on.

That night, Jet wore dinosaur pajamas.

While we're talking about holidays, "On the 15th of May, in the Jungle of Nool..." we discussed watching Horton Hears a Who but remembered that our DVD of it doesn't work the best. Sigh.

We celebrated National Pizza Party Day. I made dough, Nichole rolled it out, Jr. put the toppings on. Teamwork for International Day of Families.

It was also National Chocolate Chip Day so I ate some chocolate chips throughout the day.

Celebrating lots of holidays is fun!   

Cosmo!

Since Lucky didn't have school during Spring Break, he was able to help Jeremy build a giant Cosmo Cougar balloon for BYU Grad Bash again this year. Way to go, guys. Jeremy took Lucky out for ice cream afterward.

A couple days later, Lucky and I went back with Jeremy to set Cosmo up for the celebration. I helped last year and wanted to do it again this year. This is how Jeremy put it:

Lucky, the short one, built the legs, Jeremy, the big one, built the torso, and Kristin, the cute one, did repairs.

Yay! I'm a helper. I love that Lucky is learning the "family business."

 

When we got home, we had more ice cream, in the forms of... root beer floats and/or on top of apple pie.

Farewell Summer Reading

At the end of July, we finished up our Summer Reading Programs at Orem Public Library and Provo City Library. So the beginning of August, Nichole, Jr., Lucky, Jet, and I went to the closing event for Orem's held at Scera Park. Jr. Jr. didn't feel like going and Jeremy was gone at another fair, this time in Wyoming and this time without a hurt back.

Lucky, Jet, and I got to ride on the Orem Express train that drove around the park. We got there early enough to miss the long line waiting for it.

We played some games then spent a lot of time on the playground. Lucky was a big helper with Jet.

After we finally left, we made a quick stop at the Orem Library then went home and had ice cream.

Summer reading fun!

So You Want to Know More About August, Huh?

August 10 was Lazy Day. I tried to be lazy. In the middle of the night, however, Jeremy and I had to deal with something. Jet wanted his mommy first thing in the morning. Lucky had an appointment. I could only be so lazy.

It was also National S'mores Day so we had ice cream with crushed graham crackers, bits of marshmallow, and chocolate syrup.

 

August 14 was National Creamsicle Day. We pulled out some Orange Cream ice cream from the freezer to celebrate.

August 15 was National Relaxation Day. Ha! It was busy busy busy that day because it was the first day of school. I did get snuggles with Jet, though, saying, "Happy Relaxation Day."

When Kids Remember Past Creativity

Getting back into things after vacation isn't always the easiest thing. Luckily, I put together some freezer meals before we left so we were able to have food ready to go and Jeremy picked up a few things at the store such as fresh spinach so we were able to celebrate Fresh Spinach Day on July 16. We got tamale casserole out of the freezer to go along with it. 

Since it was Ginger Rogers' Birthday, Nichole remembered a time when Jr. Jr. got creative with letter rearranging (see my July 26, 2022 post about it) so we had a choice between ginger ale and orange soda to celebrate her birthday this year.

Since it was also Personal Chef Day, Jr. was our personal chef and made us pancakes. Later we watched the movie Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn because in it she is at cooking school. "One two three, crack. New egg." At one point she is also going to make food for him- be his personal chef for an evening.

 

July 17 was National Hot Dog Day and Yellow Pigs Day so of course we made pigs in a blanket with yellow mustard. Nichole wore her racing pigs hat which she won on Yellow Pigs Day 10 years ago (see my July 17, 2014 blog post about it).

 

July 18 was Sour Candy Day. Some family members ate sour candy.

July 20 was Moon Day. I had every intention of getting out Oreos for us to make phases of the moon cookies then I forgot. I do that sometimes. We did have astronaut sandwiches with dinner.

July 21 was National Junk Food Day and National Ice Cream Day. When kids came to me asking if they could eat certain foods, I would tell them, "I don't care. Eat whatever you want," to paraphrase Muppets Most Wanted.

July 23 was Vanilla Ice Cream Day. Jr. made S'mores Milkshakes from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. 

We are definitely getting a lot of use out of those books. It's actually pretty amazing how many recipes that work for certain holidays are near where I'm already menu planning from in the books (within a few weeks). I'm not talking about Easter and Halloween (though there are recipes for those holidays), either. It's holidays like Vanilla Ice Cream Day like I mentioned or Eat Brussels Sprouts Day (I blogged about that one on February 1, 2024).

 

Well, there you go. Creativity and meal planning.

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.