Sunday, June 09, 2024

2024, June 3-9

We celebrated Art City Days and babysat Frankie while trying to beat the early summer heat.

Kai went home later in the week, but in the meantime he had a little big brother to hang out with. We don't think he got too jealous of the attention Frankie was getting.  

Kai knows we love him. He thought laying on top of the couch behind Hallie was a good idea. Funny dog.

Fergie just tolerates the situation. By late Sunday night, he was an only fur baby again. 

But in the meantime, Frankie got lots of love and attention. Frankie loved going to Bridle Up Hope and seeing the horses. Frankie has been a good companion to Landon at night while he is watching TV. Kai usually goes upstairs and finds his spot at the foot of our bed.



Eliza went to visit Murphy and her new foal over at the lot north of our house. 


While Mike was in Salt Lake continuing his College Board "special ops" job, Hallie got some help from the kids to clean up around the house.  

Mike has had fun doing this gig. One of his colleagues even made an AI-generated song about the group.

Mike joined Eliza and Hallie at the Art City Days carnival on Thursday. Eliza made the most of her rides pass. 







Friday morning, the hot air balloons were out. We don't usually go to the hot air balloon festivities, but it is fun to see them from away.

After looking around at several options, Landon got himself a new electric bike which he is eagerly waiting to arrive in the mail. He helped make space in the garage. Every day until it comes we will hear, "Is it here yet?" 

Hallie and Eliza took Eliza's old bike to the Provo Bike Collective. They also took Kai back to Brittany's and got the doggos pup cups at Dutch Bros. Frankie liked it a bit. On the Dutch Bros app you get a free drink for your birthday, so Hallie finally got around to redeeming her drink. 

Eliza had a late night Thursday, so she fell asleep during the day. She also did this on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It is hard not being able to sleep well during the night. One advantage to homeschooling is we can adapt to her sleep needs.

Hallie enjoys getting pictures of the goofy rat-dog. Hallie likes to send them to Frankie's mom. We have always felt better when we have left our cat and someone shows us how he is doing.


On our walk with him Saturday morning, he caught up with a new-to-him friend in the neighborhood, Dolly. Hallie loves Dolly's hair on the top of her head. Dolly is a cockapoo. 

Later on, the humans went to the Art City Days Parade. Eliza walked with BUH as a flag bearer. Hallie had students in the parade, so it was fun to see them. On Thursday night she ran into quite a few students at the carnival. Her students love the class she works in, so it is always a pleasure to see them.  




Mike found more bees on his walk later in the day. Some neighbors have turned their whole front yard into a pollinator garden. The clover is a big draw for the local bumblebees. 


Frankie found a new favorite spot on the comfy chair near the window. 

He also likes to sit with the people (in this case, a sleeping Eliza). 

(Also, the cat was in the chair already, and he and Ferg aren't quite as cozy as Ferg and Kai have gotten to be.) 


Weather took a turn for the stormy in the afternoon, which meant no Sunday Social fire pit. Eliza got caught in it as she was moving plants with our neighbor. Never a dull moment! 


Sunday, June 02, 2024

2024, May 27-June 2

We have gotten into summer, which means lots of time outdoors. 

Here is happy Kai. We have him for a little bit longer than usual. 

Landon and Eliza got new sparring gear to use at taekwondo. Eliza holds her own when Landon doesn't hold back. 



We have had some interesting weather this weak. While the kids were sparring, Mike caught the rain coming in. 

Eliza was amused by Ferg's feet as she was sitting with him. 

We had a couple of good days for kite flying. 


More sparring. 




More sleeping cat. 

Mike spent most of the week up in Salt Lake working for the College Board as people came from across the country to grade the AP Exams at the Salt Palace. He's part of a task force investigating AI use and plagiarism on the essay portions of the AP Seminar and Research courses. The "special ops" assignment (as his employers call it) has been quite interesting and challenging. They're on the cutting edge of intervening on plagiarism in an age where ChatGPT and other AI tools are blurring the line between original research and fabrication. He took the UTA FrontRunner on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (the job runs 8 days straight through next week) and got this picture of the new Utah flag outside the Delta Center.

Our friend Amanda went to Disneyland this week and asked if we'd be willing to look after Frankie again. We did not anticipate having both dogs at the same time, but it's working out. They boys seem to get along. 





Hallie got a haircut on Saturday. She ended up getting held up in traffic following the marathon held in Provo. 

Aww! Cute puppy. 

Rather than having Mike drive to the Provo FrontRunner station on the days he took the train, Hallie (and sometimes a companion or three) took him there and back and ran some errands in the meantime.  

While walking the dogs in the morning, we noticed these dramatic mammatus clouds over to the west. We did not get rain, but it did fall elsewhere. 


Mike's work continued through the weekend. He's not kidding about being in "Special Ops" lol. 

Here is an interesting art installation at the Salt Palace. 

More dog pics. Hallie loves having the dogs, but they do make it harder to sleep at night. 


We had our Sunday Social out front. The shade makes a lot of difference! Here our neighbor Lisa, a nurse, is fixing Eliza's wounded pinky. 

Lisa said she had seen some owls on her walks. Sure enough, she saw three this evening. Also, the thistles are now starting to bloom. 


There are three owls in this picture. Hint: Look in the middle for two of them. 

We had a fire pit with s'mores and hot dogs, The weather and company were perfect!  Smile, E!