Perfect Date

For the past couple of months I've been part of an Instagram book club with Megan Walker to read her books, Lakeshire Park and Miss Newbury's List, in preparation for her book, The Duke's Bargain, which comes out on May 5. It has been wonderful learning behind the scenes details from Megan as well as hearing experiences from other readers. Do you know how many of us have memories of berry picking from our youth?

When I found out Megan was coming to Utah to do an event at the Provo Library with Joanna Barker and Esther Hatch who both had books come out recently, as well as several other authors, I made sure to get a ticket. 

The event was a speed-dating/speed-friending kind of event. The authors each spent six minutes at a table with readers who got to ask questions and chat before they rotated to another table.

I loved how it was done because I got to chat with some authors I hadn't been able to chat with before.

Afterward was a Q&A session then book signing.

 

Before the event started, I met up with Amber from that same book club and we hung out the whole time, both got our hugs from Megan Walker, and got to be each other's picture takers with the authors (I didn't get pictures with all the authors but that's okay). It was fun.

Book Club Buddies!

I got a bunch of swag (not all pictured. Let's just say I have plenty of bookmarks to lose now), and got The Duke's Bargain (before release date) by Megan Walker, 

 

and If You'll Have Me by Esther Hatch, 

 

and A Love Most Daring by Joanna Barker. 

Those last two books I really got into when I read (or listened to) them earlier- see my March 30, 2026 post about A Love Most Daring.

 

I also got pictures with Jennifer Moore 

 

and Jentry Flint 

 

and Arlem Hawks.

 

It was a fun way to do an author event and I'm so glad I went.

I love events with the Provo Library.

 

P.S. That day was the perfect date to do this event since April 25 was Perfect Date Day. The speed-dating style fit right in with it.   

Jeremy took the kids out that morning for some birding. Their weather was not too hot and not too cold. It was also Celebrate Trails Day so they walked around the visitor's center at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

P.P.S. Since April 25 was also World Penguin Day, we ate fish sticks. Even though it was National Plumbers Day, I did not wear my Mario shirt to my event. I wore my Gentlemen's Gamble shirt. 

 

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.

Celebrating Our Anniversary 2024

I told you I'd talk about our anniversary. How we celebrated it the Saturday of Screen Free Week. May 11 was National Babysitter's Day so the kids watched over Jet so Jeremy and I could get out bright and early and meet with other birders to see the Provo Delta Restoration area. Special access. Woohoo. It's supposed to open toward the end of this year so I am super excited to take our kids there when it does.

See my date shirt?

 

Oh, the birds. So many birds. Different habitats so that made more of a variety of birds. There was grassland, trees, open water. We saw sparrows, warblers, ducks. It was awesome.

If you're not a birder you may not get the excitement so let me show you some pictures of that adventure. 

 

Spotted Sandpipers

Ducklings

 

 Yellow Warbler

 

Coyote (not a bird)

 

Can you spot the killdeer eggs?

How about now?

Man, killdeer nests are hard to see. I was walking along and wouldn't have noticed except Jeremy called out that there was a nest right there on the side of the path. Good thing its not open to the public yet. There was a killdeer doing its broken wing trick trying to lead us away. But that doesn't help us to avoid the nest since they lay their eggs right among the rocks where people walk and we're not trying to actually chase after the adult. Crazy.

See this picture? We're cute. I know it. This is where the delta water meets up with the lake. See those trees back there? The trail used to continue on from where we're standing through those trees. I remember walking along there years ago. Not anymore. Instead the trail currently ends at a fence a little ways back from this spot. It's been like that for a while now since they've been working on the project. This was the first time we'd been on this side of the fence. Fun. I'm pretty sure the existing trail will connect with the trail that goes along the delta when everything is finished. Yay. 

 

After we finished with our meandering in the delta area, we drove around to see a few places then drove to a spot where we ran into a birder who had been with our group earlier. She told us that several of the birders had been to see a Northern Waterthrush, an elusive bird I had seen only once before and that happened to be two years ago while Jeremy and I were celebrating our anniversary by birding. It's a thing.

We went toward the area the birder told us and met up with other birders from that morning as well as... one of our librarian friends from Orem Library. We found out that she'd just gotten into birding a year ago so she had seen the Northern Waterthrush with the other birders. Small world. They all took off and Jeremy and I went to see the bird and got a better look than ever before... and our own pictures. Love it.

We were hungry after we finished and were trying to figure out what to eat then duh, of course we remembered Winco salads. That's our traditional date food. So we got our salads and took them home to eat and rest for a couple hours before heading out again to celebrate our anniversary without the kids... but with another birding friend.

The week before, Jeremy, Nichole, and Lucky had gone out to see a new to them bird, a sagebrush sparrow. Jeremy even got a lifer dance. 

That evening, Jeremy, our birding friend, and I went back out and got to see the sagebrush sparrow, which was a lifer for our birding friend and me. We also got good looks at some other birds. It was a successful birding evening.

We saw several kinds of sparrows. Here are somewhat good pictures of a couple more (besides the sagebrush sparrow).

Black-throated Sparrow

 

Lark sparrow

We also saw...

Juniper Titmouse

 

Gray Vireo

and several other birds.

 

Man, that was such a good day. Birding with my sweetheart. What a great way to celebrate our love.