Family Time

I mentioned in my blog post from May 21 that we took a family outing one night to walk along a trail by the lake. Then Lucky and Jr. Jr. got a hold of my blog post and "finished" it for me. Those boys.

We did have fun that night- the night of the walk- even though we ended up with several bug bites.

We listened to frogs, saw plenty of birds (including a mama duck and her cute ducklings), took plenty of pictures, and enjoyed that family time together.

I love family time.

Power Outage Adventure

Everyone say, "Power outage!"

The electricity went off before I could make chop suey for National Chop Suey Day on August 29. Usually when the electricity goes off, it lasts for a few seconds then comes back on. This time we waited for several minutes before I checked our neighborhood Facebook page on my phone to see if it affected others. It did. The estimate was that power would be back on by 8:30pm. The kids couldn't do chores, I couldn't make dinner, some other things wouldn't work out. Well... even though we had already gone out birding earlier that day to see common nighthawks on River Lane (and other birds- Jr. Jr. loved all the swallows flying around),

I knew Jr. Jr. and Lucky really wanted to go back to Bridal Veil Falls to throw rocks in the river after we did that the day Jeremy and the older kids got home, so I suggested that. Everyone was in favor of that idea so we headed out to Bridal Veil Falls, which was packed, as was everywhere else in the canyon (last Saturday evening in August and a lot of people were having wedding receptions). Jeremy mentioned that throwing rocks in the Provo River where people might be rafting might not be the best idea anyway.

New plan. We went home (power still out) and grabbed granola bars, chips, and some jerky for a makeshift dinner in the van. We thought that since farther up the Provo River wouldn't work, we'd head farther downstream closer to where it empties into the lake, but not at Utah Lake State Park as that would be just as crowded. As we were driving, I thought of a place to try along the Provo River Parkway. Turns out it was a great spot. There was parking available, not too many people on the parkway there, no people floating down the river as it was too shallow (which also made me not worried about the boys falling in), and there was an area down off the parkway where the boys could run around and throw their rocks. Also, as it got darker, there was light shining right on them from street lamps. And the sunset was gorgeous.

At one point, Nichole and I walked to a nearby tunnel and Nichole got pictures of spiders.

Hooray! It worked out and when we got home, the electricity was back on so we could all get ready for bed with light.

Finding the silver lining, we had a fun family adventure.

Since we didn't get to eat chop suey, we still celebrated the holiday by watching the chop suey song/scene in the movie, Flower Drum Song, before bed. I had been singing that song all week in preparation for the holiday and every time I looked at the menu plan.

Mommy-Daughter Outing

For months my daughter has been talking about the Princess and the Frog movie. I don't know what got her so interested in it, but she is. We told her we'd check it out from the library when it came out on DVD, but she was still anxious. She wanted to see it. My husband and I talked about it and how fun it would be to take her to the movie theater to see that movie. She's never been to a movie theater before but we figured she's at an age where she can handle it. So we arranged things and Nichole and I went on a mommy-daughter outing together.

I told her we were going on an outing, but I didn't tell her what we were going to do. It was a nice sunny day when we left our apartment so I was wearing a light jacket. Jeremy made Nichole a balloon frog before we left (I could have done it, but was feeling rushed and Jeremy could make it much faster). She carried that frog around with her the whole outing. We stopped off at the bank and changed coins to bills for easier spending. The teller gave Nichole two princess stickers. As we headed down to Provo, the wind started picking up. The weather was still warm. We passed several temperature signs that said 49 degrees F. It had calmed down a bit by the time we got to Movies 8. We got out of the car and I showed her where we were. At the movie theater and the last one listed on there was the Princess and the Frog. She got so excited. We were going to watch the movie together. She decided it was a girl's movie for Nichole, Mommy, and the frog (balloon frog- also a girl). We stood around for a while, but there was no one selling tickets. There were several other people waiting in cars, so I figured it might be a wait. We decided to go across the street to get some food then come back to get our tickets.

So, we went over to KFC and had some popcorn chicken.

I had sweet and sour sauce and Nichole had honey mustard. Boy did she like that honey mustard. After we finished the chicken, I had to convince her that I could make honey mustard at home sometime, so that she would let me throw away the rest of the sauce to make it to the movie on time.

When we got to the theater there was a line waiting for tickets. We were patient, waited our turn, and got our tickets for our 2:15 showing at 2:13.

There were several little kids watching the movie, but how they could see over the seats is beyond me. I'm short enough that I have a hard time seeing over those seats at that theater. But hey, I'm not complaining. $3 for my little girl and I to see a movie together. Basically, Nichole sat on my lap the whole movie, because there was no way she would be able to see if she sat in her own seat. That just made it more special, Mommy and daughter so close while watching the princess movie. When the actual movie started and Nichole could recognize it (based on previews and online games) as the actual Princess and the Frog movie, she got so excited that it was on a big big screen.

Long story short- it was fun watching that movie at the theater together. It really was special for me with my little girl.

When we got out of the movie, it was snowing. I mentioned before that I was wearing a light jacket. Luckily we put Nichole's winter coat on her before we left home. I had to bundle up Nichole's balloon frog in my light jacket so it wouldn't get wet and we ran to the car. Nichole really wanted more popcorn chicken and honey mustard, but I realized we didn't have any chicken at home. Long story short again- we stopped by the grocery store on the way home and picked up chicken breasts and potato wedges. Just getting those two items, when we got back to the car, I put Nichole in and had to brush snow off the car. That's how much it was coming down at that point.

When we got home we realized we didn't have enough honey to make honey mustard, so Jeremy and Jr. hopped in the car and picked up some from the store. Then because I wasn't feeling up to it, Jeremy made us popcorn chicken to dip in honey mustard. I did put the potato wedges in the oven, though.

I had a wonderful outing with my little girl and I'm so glad we took the opportunity to do that. I love my daughter.