Photos from Phones - April 2022 Round Up

Here we are, wrapping up April . . . at the end of July. But I'm still plugging along. My goal is to catch up this here blog by the end of summer, but the problem is that life keeps happening on top of what I already have backed up. It's something of a moving target. But I'll keep chipping away.

4.1.22
(A quick listen, but a fun one to hear. It’s also great to read aloud with a friend, or daughter, or anyone, which we have done before, but listening to it performed by skilled readers was a delight! Just the thing for the first day of National Poetry Month (yesterday)!)

4.2.22
(some lego creations built and photographed by Sam)

4.2.22

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4.2.22
(carrot cake for a Blanchard family dinner at Heather's)

4.2.22
(another shot of the marvelous cake . . . better lighting
and background?)

4.3.22
(my general conference focus sheet)

4.3.22
(after dinner cuddles (and singing) together at Heather's house)

4.4.22
(we built this kite as part of our wind studies
for school)

4.4.22
(it came from a Try It! kit that I played with growing up,
but we never made the kite that I can remember. It looks
pretty impressive, but it never flew in our conditions. :(

4.4.22
(a fun ice cream outing with Laurel and Melia before they
headed back home the next day. So fun to hang out with them for a bit!)

4.7.22
(it's always funny to me to see these old wordles and not
remember why I snapped a picture of them . . . but I got this one
by the skin of my teeth!)

4.7.22
(we've had our eyes peeled for "new" mountain bikes for the kids
and this trip to DI we scored the perfect one for Cal for $25!!)

4.7.22
(goodbye fun kitchen, off to a new home with Heather's friend)

4.10.22
(just a couple of cuties on Sunday)

4.10.22
(this is adulthood: getting "free" return address
stickers from nonprofits encouraging me to donate)

4.12.22
(a fun recipe from a book we got at the library (of course)
that we tried out for an easter-time treat)

4.12.22

4.12.22
(oh look! it snowed!)

4.12.22
(probably should make some sourdough
peasant bread)

4.12.22
(here are the hot cross buns from the recipe above . . .
they were a bit dense and overbaked, but tasted good anyway)

4.13.22
(still more snow!)

4.13.22
(Sam’s been reading a chapter a day of this adventure story to us during morning time. We got interested in the Endurance a few weeks ago when we heard it had been found after over 100 years!)

4.13.22
(a lot of snow!)

4.13.22
(I started this big ol’ book of poetry, but I took it nice and slow (almost a month to read them all, finished on 10 May), reading a section a day or so, which worked really nicely. I really like her stuff about nature and prayers and life. Fun selection for poetry month ;)

4.14.22
(A couple weeks ago Cal chose Winnie-the-Pooh for me to read aloud to her before bed (I read with Cal and Gregg reads with Sam is our usual routine). It was a delight. And Sam must have thought so, too, because he asked me to read it to him (whenever we can squeeze it in) as soon as I finished it with Cal. So, the next day I started it again, one on one with him. 🤓 I loved hearing it from my mom as a child, and she read it with her mom, too, so it’s a fun family chain of story memory that we all can share. 💗)

4.15.22
(that's a wet storm!!)

4.15.22
(a Friday Fieldtrip took us to the library in Roy and I couldn't help but
buy a poem from the Poemball Machine for poetry month)

4.15.22
(this is what we got)

4.15.22

4.17.22
(a pretty good one!)

4.17.22
(Easter Sunday smiles)

4.19.22
(sick day for Sammy D)

4.19.22
(this was a cool pattern!)

4.20.22
(he perches up here on the edge of the sink all. the. time.
these days)

4.21.22
(we had a fieldtrip to see the flowers and we ended up at
the cemetery in Ogden where we have some ancestors buried. We've
driven by a million times, but this time we stopped and found their headstones.)

4.21.22

4.21.22
(it says her plot is different than her husbands, which made us confused for a while
as we searched for him down the road, but when we found hers, we found his name on
the headstone, too, so who knows if anyone is actually buried in the plot they have listed for him?)

4.21.22

4.21.22
We found Richard Ballantyne (and Mary Pearce)
pretty quickly - a lucky start to our hunt in a cemetery we didn't know
anything about.

4.21.22
(the maps on the cemetery website were actually fairly
helpful, except for the fact that the headstone for Edward
was not anywhere in that section!)

4.21.22
(he's really buried with his wife over here, pretty close
to their daughter Mary and her husband Richard, actually.)

4.21.22

4.22.22
(made some snickerdoodles for a memorial gathering for Gregg's uncle Rex)

4.23.22
(We finished this story yesterday but I really wanted to read aloud the author’s note too, so we did that this morning. This was quite the adventure story of the Klondike Gold Rush, and while more than a bit improbable at times, it definitely kept us on our toes, wondering when they’d figure out the clues and find the mine worth millions. I loved that she shared all the facts at the end that she had woven into the story. What a time!)

4.23.22
(we paid a visit to Gregg's Blanchard grandparents in the Springville cemetery
before heading up Hobble Creek Canyon for Uncle Rex's memorial)

4.23.22
(arrival greetings - it was great to see Ryan and Lea!)

4.23.22
(sibling shenanigans)

4.23.22

4.23.22
(Paul sharing some memories of his brother and grandparents)

4.23.22
(on the drive down to Springville, we stopped to pick up a mountain
bike for Sam that we had bought off Facebook marketplace (thanks to Mugs for holding
my hand through all of that!))

4.23.22
(the Paul Blanchards in attendance)

4.23.22
(after the memorial, it was chow time at Siegfried's!)

4.23.22
(glad the Wihongi boys could join us after work
for dinner)

4.23.22
(after Siegfried's we walked down to  Gateway to try mochi
donuts at Heather's suggestion. A fun evening!)

4.24.22
(I have no idea why I even took a picture of this Mathler . . .
 it's not even finished!)

4.24.22
(Cal scored a fun lego kit from her super generous uncle Ryan
and got it put together lickety split)

4.24.22

4.24.22

4.24.22

4.25.22
(more legos by Sam)

4.25.22

4.25.22

4.26.22
(I’ve been reading a page or two of this book aloud to the kids every day during our morning time for school for the past few months and it’s been amazing to me to see the kids respond so enthusiastically (at least at first) to the suggestions and tips (for everything from brushing teeth and hair, to cleaning up cheerfully, to trying colorful foods, to looking people in the eye when talking and on and on and on!). I had to chuckle because many if not all said suggestions were things that I had tried to get them to do on a regular basis, but coming from the book instead of from mom somehow made them more logical/real/good? Whatever it is, I’m glad it worked. ;))

4.26.22
(this book was amazing! it's poems telling familiar fairy tales, but then when you read
them backwards they somehow tell the same tale from the opposite character's point of view! Holy cow! Mind blown!)

Every other round up here (whew!):

2022: Mar | Feb | Jan

2021: Dec | Nov | Sep | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2020: Dec | Nov | Sep | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar Quar + Mar | Feb | Jan
2019: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sep | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2018: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan
2017: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2016: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2015: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2014: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June | May | Apr | Mar | Feb | Jan

2013: Dec | Nov | Oct | Sept | Aug | July | June