Eagles and Blackbirds and Real Birds, Oh My

 Jeremy is a bird eater, a one eyed, one horned, flying purple birdy eater.

 

O.K. This is what happens when I get started on a post but don't have time to continue blogging. My kids step in and... well, you saw the first line of this post.

 

What I was going to say was Jeremy had a balloon gig coming up where he was building a jet based on one that actually existed so as a family, we went up to Hill Aerospace Museum to see it. 

Research!

 

Here's the story: Back in the 60's, that's 1960s, Murray City acquired a retired jet, a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star. Do you want to know what they did with it? They turned it into a slide. Yep, a playground slide at Murray Park, where kids could climb up one side and slide down the other. Around 1990, it was retired as a slide and taken to Hill Air Force Base. It was repainted (and whatever else needed to be done) and hung in the Hadley Gallery of the Hill Aerospace Museum. Ta-da. So we went to see the real jet and later Jeremy (and Debbie) built it out of balloons.

 

Here's the real thing:

 

Here is the balloon jet: 

 

Here is an informational poster they had at the event:

 

And here is our family at the Hill Aerospace Museum: 

It was a nice family activity. I loved seeing Jet with the jets. Tee Hee. I told the kids that the last time I went to this museum was when I was a little girl myself. One or two of our kids had visited for youth activities but this was the first time as a whole family.

We saw lots and lots of aircraft and Jet and Lucky both picked out pennies to squish. Jet's was an Eagle and Lucky's was a Blackbird. We made sure to get pictures of them with their pennies with their aircraft.

 

After we got home, a few of us went down to Utah Lake State Park to see real birds. It was a windy day, a wonderfully windy day. It was so fun to see waves flying up onto the rocks while we were there. So fun.

Lucky especially loved it.

We saw some birds, too. 

It was a long, busy, but good day. 

We're Thankful For... Jet

"When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way From your first bassinet to your last dying day."

 

We love Jet. He is a huge blessing in our lives. Huge. He is funny, smart, clever, and fits right in with our family.

This year, Jeremy was out of town on Jet's birthday so we celebrated twice. Once on his actual birthday and once on a later day when both Jeremy and Nichole could be there. Jet didn't complain.

He got birthday dinner twice (different each night) and "cake" and ice cream twice and he got to open presents twice. He did not complain.

Since he usually skips the cake and prefers to just eat the ice cream, I decided to make brownies instead since I know he likes brownies (and I could make those twice very easily). He still skipped the brownie and just ate the ice cream. I guess he's just an ice cream kid at birthdays. We can't put the candles in the ice cream however. Brownies worked. He did enjoying singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles twice.

For dinner on his birthday, we had cheeseburger pasta, corn, apples, bananas, and milk. We didn't blow bubbles in our milk this year.

It has become a joke in our family that the boys taught Jet early on to say, "Eyeball soup." I don't know why they did that but they did. For his second birthday dinner, we had eyeball soup. I made more "eyeballs" like we had on Greasy Food Day and Picasso's Birthday (and Pasta Day and Breadstick Day) and put them in tomato soup. He was happy with the Eyeball Soup.    

Jet loved Halloween so much, he is often asking to go trick or treating. For his second birthday this year, we let him. He went to different doors in the house to trick or treat and got cards and presents. It was cute.

 

On his actual birthday, he got to open a rubber chicken because he really liked the one Jr. Jr. got for his birthday.

On his birthday with Nichole and Dad, Jet got to open LEGO Duplos and a little stuffed penguin.

Jet really wanted a balloon Spinosaurus for his birthday so Jeremy made him one. Unfortunately I didn't get decent pictures.

 

Besides the birthday party stuff, Jet and I had a special day with just the two of us. Jet's been wanting to go to the "dinosaur museum" (Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point so while the boys were at school, we went. Afterward he told me we went to the "brachiosaur museum."

He even got a souvenir squished penny for his birthday.

We had so much fun that we went again a couple days later. 

"Hi, sleeping crab."

 

A while ago, Jet wanted to use a cookie cutter so we made gingerbread cookies so we could cut out shapes. We had a good time. Jet is my baking buddy after all.

One day we went to pick Jr. up from school and Jet saw someone carrying a box of donuts. He wanted donuts. I told him we could make donuts together like we made cookies. He got very excited about that idea and said, "Say goodbye cookies and Helloooo, donuts." So for his birthday we made donuts together.

Jet had some fun his birthday(s) this year.

 

Jet, we love you. Thank you for being part of our family. You are such a treasure.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Vacation, Thy Creations, and Our Relations- Part 10

Cow Appreciation Day was July 9. As we were driving, I called out, "We appreciate you," a few times to cows we were passing. Tee Hee.

 

Road Trip! 

We decided a couple days before that day that since we were in Washington, we could go to Mount Rainier National Park using Lucky's National Parks Pass. We also found out that now you have to have timed reservations to get into certain areas of the park... between certain hours. All our kids are used to us getting them up early for trips, so we were able to get to the park early enough we got in no problem. 

 

Welcome to Jurassic Park, err... Mt Rainier National Park.

Jeremy's parents came with us and it was nice to share that experience with them. It reminded me of when we went to Yellowstone with them in 2017. I visited Mount Rainier once when I was a child and it was so foggy, we could only see glimpses of the mountain from time to time while we were walking around. This trip the sky was so clear, we could see so much. It was gorgeous.

We took so many pictures (with our phones and our Nikon camera) that it's hard to narrow down which to put on this post so bear with me.

We got some tips from Utah's Adventure Family about places to go and Jeremy did some research so we had a plan. We went up the Paradise Corridor through the Nisqually (Southwest) Entrance to the park. It's a good thing we went in the morning as it got busier and busier throughout the day. We didn't do some of the things we planned to do and that's okay. We had a full day with what we did.

 

Christine Falls

Ricksecker Point

 

Narada Falls

See the fence toward the top left of this picture?

That's where we are standing in this next picture. And you can see the bridge I took that last picture from at the top right of this picture.

It was a short hike for this waterfall. Jeremy, Lucky, and I decided to go down and back up and it was pleasant. The mist felt so good.

We told our other kids when we got back up that we got a picture of the waterfall. This is the picture. Tee Hee.

 

Nisqually Vista Trail

Look at that smile. Jeremy was happy to be there.

We got to see where the Nisqually River comes from the Nisqually Glacier.

It was definitely a hike, including hiking across snow on the trail that had not yet melted.

How Nichole takes a break in the middle of hiking

How Jeremy takes a break in the middle of hiking

 

Lunch Break

We stopped at yet another overlook (we stopped at so many).

Look. It's Narada Falls again but from a very different angle.

 

Reflection Lake

At first we thought the lake was too choppy to see the reflection, then we reached a point where people were going right up to the edge of the lake to take pictures and when I went there, I could see why. There was a still part right at the edge protected from the wind blowing across the rest of the lake. There was the reflection.

Longmire Museum. 

Outside the museum was a cross section/tree slice (aka cookie) showing different historical events during the tree's life. That was cool.

The museum also had a gift shop. My father-in-law likes any excuse to get me slug themed items (slugs are my thing). They are easier to find in the Pacific Northwest. Go figure. He got me a banana slug plushie which Jet immediately claimed. I'm happy to share. The boys named it Timothy. Jet took his hat off (which he also claimed. It's actually Jr.'s hat) and put it on Timothy but when we got back in the van he took the hat off and said, "No, banana slug. That's not your hat," while pointing his finger at Timothy in a scolding manner. Heh Heh.

It was a long but wonderful day.

 

I'll share more of our wonderful vacation later.