More About Screen Free Week

O.K. Let's see what I can remember from Screen Free Week based on pictures. Let's see. Where did I leave off? Wednesday of Screen Free Week. O.K.

Thursday, May 8, I took pictures of a jumping spider on our wall and Bridal Veil Falls. Sometimes Jet requests we drive to the "waterfatl."

Jet helped me make dinner. My baking buddy.

And... we made faces. 

I adore that little boy.

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This morning, Jr. let me know that he woke up to a spider crawling on him. Ew. I asked him if it was a big one or a little one. He told me it was a big one. Yuck. I told him I can relate to spiders crawling on me. Then he told me, "April Fool's!" Ho Ho. He got me on that one.

For after school snack, I made "muffins" for the kids. Ha Ha. Joke's on me. They were more like drop biscuits than muffins. Oh well. Nichole watched as I put a couple chocolate chips on the top of each muffin before putting them in the oven. "Oh, chocolate chip muffins. Yumm." Then she kept expressing how they smelled so good and she and Jr. were anxious to have them. But I made them wait until the younger boys got home from school so they could all eat them together. Heh Heh Heh. Joke's on them. They were cheddar and dill muffins (with chocolate chips on top). Ha Ha Ha. Joke's on me again. The kids didn't have a reaction. Finally Lucky asked what kind of muffins they were and people expressed their thoughts about them but in the moment, nobody said anything. Sigh.

I also told the kids, "Joke's on you. Mom's not making dinner. Fend for yourself. You can have colored flavored sugar water, though." Nichole got the pitcher out of the fridge and tried to pour herself some then stopped and said, "Ha Ha," sarcastically. Ha Ha, indeed. I couldn't believe I got her. She said it wasn't colored flavored sugar water. I assured her it was colored flavored sugar water, just gelatinous colored flavored sugar water. The kids enjoyed eating it with a spoon. I've been doing this jello/koolaid thing for so many years, I'm amazed that I actually do surprise the kids.

Jr. Jr. came home with a word search for his parents to do. None of the words listed were actually in among the letters. Ha Ha Ha. He didn't get me, though. I suspected it. He said his teacher did it to them at school.

Later in the evening, we told jokes and listened to jokes. Family joke night. Woohoo.

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.

A Failed (and not so failed) Adventure

When Jeremy and I were teenagers, we both had the experience of seeing Hale-Bopp comet that passed Earth. It was a bright comet easily seen with the naked eye.
Recently we heard of another comet, NEOWISE, that could be seen with the naked eye. A friend of ours got pictures one morning up Nebo Loop so we thought it would be awesome to go as a family to look for the comet.

We all got up really early because the sun comes up earlier in the Summer and drove up Nebo Loop. We got up to the spot we planned to look but unfortunately we couldn't find the comet. The sky was getting lighter and lighter. We drove to another spot and still couldn't find it. 

Sadly, sometimes plans don't always work out. The children were so tired, they fought, but I tried to encourage them. "You don't always get the blessings you expect but you can recognize blessings in your trials." We were up there for a beautiful sunrise. We were able to hear beautiful birdsong. We had time with family. We reminisced about that time three years ago we got up super early to drive to Idaho to go see the solar eclipse. 

Nah, it still didn't work. The tiredness won out and certain people stayed cranky. Oh well. We did see a hot air balloon as we were driving through Orem and could still see it when we got home, though, so that was another neat thing.

At a later time, Jeremy found that NEOWISE comet could be seen better at night. That same friend who saw it up Nebo Loop said she drove up West Mountain and got pictures up there. So my awesome husband planned out another trip for us and we drove up a non-scary gravel road (the road itself was not scary, not like other roads I've been on for birding trips. One of our children was uncomfortable with the drop off on the side of the gravel road, though) and we kept going up and up and up to the GPS coordinates our friend gave. It was a nice pulloff area probably used for camping. There was no drop-off where we were so I was not scared of the kids getting out of the van. In fact, Lucky and I even walked a little ways while Jeremy was setting up the tripod until Lucky pointed out spiders to me. Nice big spiders that reminded me of our trip to Antelope Island in August last year.

It was so nice up there. We had dinner before we left and the kids weren't nearly as tired. We let them take devices so when they weren't outside looking at the skies, they were in the van playing games and not complaining. Everybody got along, it was a beautiful sunset and view, we were able to hear birds (Jeremy heard a common poorwill and I heard what I think was a rock wren), and guess what. We saw our comet. As the sky got darker and darker and away from the lights of the city, we were able to see it better and better. It helped that there was no moon that night. All of us were able to see it (except maybe the baby who wasn't really looking but was still there for the experience) with the naked eye and even better with binoculars and we got pictures!

 click on the pictures to see them larger

Unfortunately, the camera Jeremy was using was still set up for the time lapse of the balloon build from the library so the pictures weren't the best quality but we still got pictures and we had the experience and our memories.

I'm on top of the world. 

Me taking pictures of the spiders.

Jeremy taking this picture of the sunset. Heh Heh.

Jeremy took some time away from the light pollution to take pictures of the arm of the Milky Way.

Nichole took some pictures of the city lights across the lake behind us.

She also got a picture of a cricket we saw on the ground near where the tripod was set up.

Driving down wasn't as scary since you couldn't see the drop-off in the dark and the gravel road of course was still good. Jet had some trouble because he was tired, didn't want to be stuck in the car seat, and just wanted Mommy (he's been particular and clingy lately). Nichole, Jeremy, and I sang Primary songs to him as we were driving and he eventually settled down and fell asleep.

It was a good family experience. I'm glad the kids did well (until we got home then some of them didn't want to go to bed and complained about being hungry and thirsty and the normal bedtime stall tactics). It was worth it, though.

Success! 

First Weeks of School! First Weeks of School!

Catching up on what we did at the end of August.
I had promised the kids we would play at a certain park so we finally did.

 Jr. started playing an instrument- the cello.

August 22 was Be an Angel Day and my kids were angels. Lucky had his kindergarten assessment to find out which class he should be in. He got a treat and was very happy about that.

That evening we went to the UCB (Utah County Birders) potluck. Nichole made a cheeseball in the shape of an American Dipper. Jeremy made a sign to go with it.

Since we had the potluck that night, we celebrated Be an Angel Day foodwise a few days later. We had alfredo with angel hair pasta again.

I got to go on a UCB field trip up Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. It was a long day but great. Jeremy took care of things with the kids while I was gone. My hero. I got to see some birds I'd never seen in Utah before and some mammals I'd never seen before.

Highlights were Canada jays (formerly known as gray jays), American three-toed woodpecker (lifer), pine marten (allusive weasel-type animal- I didn't get good pictures, others in my group did), and some pikas (cute little rodent-like animals- They are fast).

If you look really closely in that second to last picture, you can see the dark brown pine marten just above the log leaping toward that evergreen on the right side of the picture. Go ahead and click on the picture to make it bigger.

Lucky had his own first day of school. He was so excited for it, he ran to the bus stop and we got there super early and we waited... and waited... and waited. When he got home from school, he asked, "Do I get to go to school again tomorrow?" He was pleased that he did.

This picture Jeremy calls my "I'm not ready" picture. Actually, I was just trying to make sure he didn't get too far ahead where I couldn't see him and so I could take pictures.

I will admit, though, I did cry before the bus was even out of sight. I knew he would be fine, but... you know.

August 28 was National Bow Tie Day. We had bow tie pasta with our meal. Yumm. I asked the kids to set the table. They had an interesting way of doing it.

One Saturday, we took a trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and Antelope Island to see a couple new life birds. At Bear River, we saw a brown pelican. We're used to seeing American white pelicans in Utah, but we don't get brown pelicans around here. That was exciting.

At Antelope Island, we saw a wandering tattler. I didn't even know there was such a thing until that week.

And of course we chose August to go, which is when the biting bugs start to diminish because there are spiders everywhere- Western Spotted Orb Weavers. They are big... and beautiful.
Thank you, Jr., for letting us use your hand for size comparison.

Luckily, we brought along our web detracting sword so we could go along the path full of vegetation and get webs out of the way.

We celebrated Jr.'s birthday in August as well. When I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said what he really wanted was pie. I asked what kind and he said "apple." Ah, yes. I can make apple pie. So that's what he got for his birthday. Apple pie and ice cream... and a sonic screwdriver. Have I mentioned we're Doctor Who fans?

 

Everybody's been needing haircuts. I took care of three of them in August, one in September, and one in October. I forgot to do before and after pictures on some of them but if you look at my blog, you'll be able to see the difference.

 There may have been more holidays and things in there but if I don't have pictures, I don't remember.