Travel Tips

Just thought I'd post a few things that we've learned from our recent travel experiences:

1) When you are considering transferring important purse items to another type of bag and leaving your purse behind, DON'T DO IT. It seems like every time I do this, I regret it. I always fail to transfer something important. This time the important item is my inhaler, and I'm finding myself struggling through an asthma attack without it. Not fun. Only 4 more hours until the pharmacy opens, and I can find relief. (Hopefully relief will come on its own before then.)

2) If you see something lying around that you know your spouse needed to have packed, go ahead and throw it in your bag. I saw Garrick's daily meds sitting on the kitchen counter today and I thought, "I wonder if this is the bottle that he's currently using, or if he has another." Then I did nothing. As we were somewhere mid-travel, Garrick realized that he forgot to pack his pills.

3) Always carry a change of clothes for your infant/child in your carry-on bag, even if you think your child is through the spit up/wet-your-pants/blowout poopy stage. Logan somehow managed to do all three during the day's travels. Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 affected both him and Garrick, and we were in the middle of our flight. Thankfully, the blowout was pretty minor and it occurred at the airport during our layover.

4) Always double check the seatback pockets before you leave the plane. I thought I was pretty good at this one, but in looking through our carry-on bag after our arrival, I noticed that I am missing one of Logan's books. I was sure that I double-checked that pocket! What makes matters worse is that it's not really Logan's book. This brings us to #5...

5) If you insist on taking library materials with you (books, videos), be sure to keep good track of them.

This blog must be a bit therapeutic. Writing it has helped slow down my asthma attack, and I think I just might be able to go back to sleep. Hooray!

A Nearly-June Snowstorm

We went to bed listening to the rain fall, and we woke up to the rainfall as well. That's not common here in Utah. Still in the early morning, I noticed the rain turning slushy. "That's getting awfully close to snow," I thought. I didn't expect it to last, and I definitely didn't expect it to stick. Several hours later, I saw a limb on the back tree break off and fall. In an attempt to rescue other branches, I went outside and shook another branch, only to hear it crack and break off, too. I was quite sad. Let me post a few pictures...

Before (last fall)...

During...

After: (We obviously need to trim the tree up a little, but the broken branches have been removed.)

I wanted to get some pictures of the huge branches that fell off of our gigantic front yard trees, but before I could do that, some of our neighbors were over here with their chain saw, clippers, truck, and trailer. They worked tirelessly pulling, trimming, and hauling away branches. I think we lost a whole regular tree's worth of branches.

Here are some other little trees in the back. I was able to shake the snow off of them, and it looks like no damage was done there. Whew.

While eating breakfast this morning, Garrick read me this week's weather report. It mentioned that we had a chance to break the record for the coldest high temperature on May 24. Anything in the low 50's would do it, and the forecasted high was 54. Then we had a laugh when Garrick read the Bear Lake forecast - snow with a high temp in the 40's. Well Reed and Ralonna, the joke's on us. :)

Getting Out and About

We've had some fun excursions lately, including our first trips to Hogle Zoo and the Living Planet Aquarium. Here are some of the highlights:

This baby elephant was born about a year ago (I think).

Logan wasn't so excited about sitting on this elephant. I think it was the elephant noises that it made that scared him.

Garrick and Logan checking out the monkeys.

The best part about the Living Planet Aquarium was the penguin exhibit, but I don't have any pictures of that. They were so cute! Garrick and I could have stood there and watched them all afternoon. They just zoomed through the water, chasing each other, flipping around, and putting on a real show. My favorite was to watch them 'pop' out of the water. So fun!

Logan loved running around and checking out all of the cool fish.