Photos from Phones - June 2021 Round Up

Yes, it's nearly the end of July, but I'm finally (finally!) feeling motivated to catch up on all the June happenings. It was pretty much one big party of a month and when I had downtime between outings and adventures, I didn't feel like blogging, even though it was all super fun. So here we are, a month later, to recap our June. Hopefully you've seen all the previous posts about birthdays (here, here and here), camping, Solitude, baptism, hiking, and young women activities. This round up will fill in all the extra little gaps that made one big month.

6.1.21
(A pile of great reads heading back to the library today. We especially liked Girl Versus Squirrel for its Mark Rober squirrel obstacle course vibes (look him up on YouTube!).)

6.1.21
(These two deserve their own post, they’re just that good! We could stare at If You Come to Earth for hours - the illustrations are delightfully detailed! And Crossings is super interesting, especially after noticing some of these animal overpasses on our recent drive through Nevada.)

6.1.21
(What Cal’s been reading (from the library) lately.)

6.1.21
(this takes you to info about
a cool new county scavenger hunt passport thing
I saw on a poster at the library)

6.1.21
(Cal's computer time in the kids room at the library
was spent designing this for Dad)

6.3.21
(cutting the door during zipper installation!
Yes, it sure was nerve-wracking!
(and I was only watching!))

6.3.21
(the needle and thread got too gummed up
from the zipper adhesive so we switched tools
to the stapler!)

6.3.21
(it works!)

6.3.21

6.3.21
(for more on Trailer 2.0, see the whole process here)

6.6.21
(just a trip down memory lane from our
1998 trip to Nauvoo - Ky was thinking Zoe
was about the same age on her current Kirtland
visit as Mugs was on this Nauvoo trip, so when 
I consulted my scrapbooks to verify the date of
the trip, I couldn't help snapping a few pics and
sending them along to the fam)

6.6.21

6.6.21

6.8.21
(I’ve been wanting to read these for a while but our library only had digital copies, so I finally bit the bullet and checked them out on libby. Not my ideal picture book reading format, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get the books!)

6.8.21
(It was a really good library week. These were all great in their own ways: fun fiction, biographies, poetry, nonfiction... all covered here.)

6.8.21
(Some great garden/seed/springy sort of books (a couple of which would have been perfect during Cal’s plant unit in science where we learned about seed dispersal! Good review now, anyway ;))

6.8.21
(We were late to the read aloud revival family book club for Mornings with Monet because our library didn’t have it (until I requested, multiple times, that they purchase it). But it finally came in, along with some other Monet books as well as some about other artists by the same Rosenstock/Grandpre team that did Mornings. They were all wonderful, and it was fun to hear from Mary Grandpre in the illustrator access event on the RAR premium site. We also found a link to do a virtual tour of Monet’s home and watched a YouTube video on how to make croissants. I’d call it an afternoon well spent!)

6.8.21
(In case you needed proof I am raising a bookworm (happy mom over here!)...
this is Cal’s night stand situation. 😳🤪😍)

6.8.21
(After picking Cal up from her birthday date, we stopped
at the botanical gardens to check on the roses)

6.8.21

6.8.21
(this one was my fave today)

6.8.21

6.8.21
(but I also can't help but love the super bright
bold ones, too!)

6.8.21

6.8.21
(had to try on the dress from Grandma B -
doesn't she look like an angel?!)

6.11.21
(This is another I’ve had on my list for a long time. I’ve heard it’s the best book on the writing process out there. And it’s funny, I don’t have any plans to “write” anything right now, but the idea and beginnings of desire to “write” are always there tickling the back of my mind, plus I do love a behind the scenes peek into things like this. I enjoyed this book, though I can see that her humor may not be for everyone, and a lot of her “famous” references to celebrities or shows or pop culture totally went over my head. But overall I’m glad I read it. I like her voice, and want to read other nonfiction from her more than her fiction, I think.)

6.11.21
(Cal designed and built (with a little help from Mom)
a house for her new barbie)

6.11.21
(I first heard about Harari’s original Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind on a blog but hadn’t gotten around to reading it until I then heard about this graphic novel version on a podcast interview with the author and Alan Alda. I thought it would be fun and interesting and it totally was!)

6.11.21
(now for accessories in the house: here's the kitchen
on the ground floor)

6.11.21
(bedroom)

6.11.21
(laundry room I think? plus attic on top)

6.11.21
(a little hammock time after bedtime)

6.12.21
(it's always a good idea to spend a few minutes in
the ditch across the street!)

6.13.21
(I loved this one! Similar vibe to The War That Saved My Life with the children being evacuated to the country during WWII. I super loved the books and library and librarian thread. Really great all around!)

6.13.21
(Cal had fun with the bananagrams this afternoon:
all the Blanchard cousins listed here)

6.13.21
(we paid a visit to the poppies at the park - they're not
nearly as plentiful as they used to be before the pipe work
on the road a couple years ago, but they're still cheery
and show up consistently through it all)

6.13.21

6.13.21

6.13.21
(I read this one a few years ago, but Cal and I have been reading it together a chapter a night and it was fun to revisit. We love E.B. White so learning about him was great, but we also love Melissa Sweet’s work, and she did an excellent job with this biography!)

6.14.21
(our first (and probably last) Pineview
Beach Day of the season - the lake is
so low and the shore and bottom are so muddy
and there were dead fish and flies and maggots
. . .  it was pretty gross, to be honest.
But we still managed to have a bit of fun with
friends anyway.)

6.14.21
(operation try the local ice cream shop was an utter fail
this evening for FHE - it was closed! So we went to get
softserve cones from the grocery store deli and their machine
was closed down! So plan C was to find some flavors in the
freezer section and bring them home to taste. It was yummy
even if it wasn't what we set out for in the first place.

6.14.21
(Gregg's mom asked me to share some of my baptism
memories as she was preparing her talk for Callie's baptism,
so I pulled out my scrapbooks (they've been out, actually, since
Cal has become interested in scrapbooking lately) and snapped pics
of my baptism pages)

6.14.21
(fun to look back and remember!)

6.14.21

6.14.21

6.14.21

6.14.21

6.14.21

6.16.21
(I first heard of this from last years’s Modern Mrs. Darcy summer reading guide, but really bumped it up my tbr list this summer when Read Aloud Revival chose it for the summer mama book club. Sarah at RAR recommended it highly on audio, so I actually checked out both the hardback from the library and the audio from libby and traded off listening and reading. (It turns out I can read a lot faster with my eyes, but listening to this one with a full cast and soundtrack was really marvelous.) I feel like I read a lot more WWII fiction than WWI, so this was an interesting peek into that topic. But the structure and premise of this war/love story narrated by the Greek gods was clever and delightful. I really enjoyed it; even through the hard and terrible war parts, the love stories were beautifully written and kept that string of hope till the end.)

6.16.21
(A few goodies we took back to the library this afternoon.)

6.16.21
(still my favorite thing to see on our library visits)

6.16.21
(allergy eyes much?! poor guy!)

6.17.21
(Sam's off to his last day of tennis camp)

6.17.21
(Cal specifically requested I take some pics of her
class so she could scrapbook them)

6.17.21
(she loved it!)

6.20.21
(Happy Father's Day to one awesome Dad!)

6.22.21
(Yes, this is another cancer memoir. Apparently I just can’t help myself when it comes to this genre! But, spoiler alert (not really), compared to many of the ones I’ve read in the last few years where the author dies before the book is finished, in this one she lives! That doesn’t mean it’s pretty. It’s actually horrible and messy and sad, but it is beautifully written, and ultimately hopeful. (Heads up for language, drugs, sex (nothing explicit, but mentioned kind of a lot), depression, medical stuff, etc.))

6.22.21
(They wanted to come to the park after our library stop, but this was as far as we got; those new books they just picked out were more tempting than the playground! 📚💗 🌳)

6.23.21
(Cal and I took a bike ride for a little mom and cal
time this evening and noticed new signs up along
the bike path (this one was actually in the wrong
spot and has been changed since our initial siting))

6.23.21
(a lovely evening for a bike ride!)

6.23.21
(another new sign)

6.24.21
(demolition behind our backyard - they're taking
the collapsed barn apart to sell the wood)

6.24.21
(it made a great little show for a while - and Cal 
even wrote an essay about the screechy excavator
at work)

6.24.21
(another tooth bites the dust!)

6.25.21
(a quick stop for disc golf at Harrisville Park on our way
to Cache Valley for some lion pups!)

6.25.21
("we're only here for the lion pups" is our usual
mantra whenever we go to a Blue Sox game in
Smithfield, but this time was even more true since
the double header was forfeited by the visiting team.
Luckily the lions club were still cooking and we got 
our dinner - and the Sox played a little homerun derby
for the fans who stuck around to visit in the shade)

6.25.21
(I sent the pin for the church for Cal's baptism to Ky and Nate and
had to laugh at the "you visited last year" part on my google
maps history. Yep. It's been a while!)

6.26.21
(good morning hot air balloon!)

6.26.21
(it always makes me happy to hear the hot air sounds
when I wake up on a weekend morning)

6.27.21
(a lovely Sunday evening bike ride around
the triangle)

6.27.21

6.27.21
(and we kept going on toward the school instead of closing
the loop at Carlos and Harley's)

6.27.21
(they fixed the sign in front of Gerritson's)

6.27.21
(what a world!)

6.28.21
(tie dye day!)

6.28.21

6.28.21
(we're ready for the annual Elwood Oreo
tasting party!)

6.29.21
(The best of the bunch this week.)

6.29.21
(“I’m going to check out more chapter books this week.” Check!)

6.29.21
(And speaking of chapter books, Cal found her fave Heidi Heckelbeck’s little brother now has his own series which is just right for Sam! He read it all the way home and then went straight to the couch to keep reading. 🏆)

6.29.21
(and for the big reveal - tie-dye champion right here!)

Every other round up here (whew!):
2021: 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