Look-Alikes, Long Drive, and Butterflies

Two things for today before I get to the recap of the drive home yesterday and the butterfly update: Corey and I had a great ride this morning. The leaves are still so gorgeous and will be this week until the first of the cold weather comes on Saturday and Sunday, so we'll be getting up into the mountains as much as we can!

Second thing: today I learned that we have another doppelganger in our family! Joseph is Fix it Felix Jr....

Hyrum is Mr. Fredricksen from the movie UP -

And a new one I just realized - OWEN is a little Elijah Wood!

Not an Elijah Wood look alike of him as a kid, but Owen looks like Elijah Wood as an adult. AM I RIGHT?!?!

Owen is going to get to be Frodo for the rest of his life for Halloween. I was taking pictures of Owen today cause he just looked so cute with the baseball cap on...

But when I get him to "smile" for the camera, he just can't do it. It doesn't look normal. It's too forced or his mouth is too tight or I don't know exactly what, but the kid doesn't have a natural smile when he's looking into the lens of a camera, and I don't think Elijah wood has a natural smile either. 

And I also don't think it's Owen or Elijah's fault. You can't have eyes that incredibly big and blue and beautiful and pull off a "normal" glance. If you ever have a chance to get up close to Owen, please take note of his eyelashes. They are just unreal. What I would give! I guess up in heaven I voted to pass up the eyelashes myself for getting to look at them on Corey and my kids, and I'm ok with that. (...but I'm also looking forward to the resurrection, cause I'm gettin' some like theirs!)

OK. So, hi, we're back from California. Here is a video he took of the kids around dinner last night as they each shared their favorite part of the trip.

We had a good and long drive yesterday. We left Newport around 8:30 and drove straight home. Ugh. It was a loooong drive. I wanted to go to church but Wes had to get back for a YMAD thing that was necessary before his trip to India in November, and that was at 7, so we had to book it back. So, we left without me doing a final sweep, cause Joseph, Mel, and Ethan were all still at the hotel, so they said they'd just get anything we accidentally left. WELL, 18 minutes into the drive, when we were getting gas, I realized I did not have my keys. I had the spare key in my pocket, thus the car started and we left, but I did not have my key which is attached to my wallet. I should have gone back for it and then gone to church, and for another reason which I'll tell you in a moment, but I didn't, but Mel sent me a picture of it. I had also left my bag of all the things that I wanted to keep within arms reach during the drive: diapers, wipes, my computer and charger, and pink lady apples. I left my whole "essentials" bag on the bed, along with my keys. Stupid. It was ok though, cause I didn't get in a crash, and cause we had Abi's ATM card for gas fill-ups, and I was able to pick up my computer from JME, cause we were driving into Utah county when their airplane landed, so we met up at Chevron and I got my bag. It was a long drive. I got home around 9:30, but it was all good, and Katharine was a trooper and we had to stop a few times to feed her but she really did great. Wes drove for a bit while I nursed, up until Vegas, and then he switched to Corey's car so Corey could take a quick nap, so I drove the van again, but then there was a fREAKing HOuR delay on I-15 that I got stuck in, that Corey missed cause Wes was using Google Maps (cause he didn't really trust himself to know the way home) and I know the way so I wasn't using it and didn't see the alternate recommended route because of traffic, and they didn't call to give me the heads up, so I sat there in traffic for an extra hour while they zipped along home. Pretty sad, but I was able to call back and tell Corey's sister about the traffic, and we blessed their life and they were able to miss it and get ahead of us too. We were able to wave to them as they passed by on the frontage road. I was thinking if I'd gone back for my computer, someone could have and hopefully would have given me the heads up and I could have been the one to miss the hour long traffic jam. Wes did get to his YMAD meeting so that is good. Corey and his car passengers beat us home by 2 hours. And Arizona wants us to go to their app and tell them what we think of the new Arizona Bridge, and I haven't cause I don't want to yell at them, but if I did, I'd say that it better be pretty dang good bridge to make up for all the lost hours of life well lived that people could have had but instead were spent in traffic there. And I just read that it won't be done until spring 2024! Yikes! Note to self - don't drive that way again until it's over. 

OK, so yeah, we made it back alive, we didn't really unpack things last night, but we'll try to get to it this week. Right after we were home, I went to check on my 16 chrysalides. My neighbor had stopped by in our backyard to see how they were doing, and she had let me know that my caterpillar on the vine (the one that was lost that I was so excited to find) hadn't been able to emerge and was dead. She didn't move it or anything, so I went to see, and yeah, it had gotten stuck and unable to get out all the way. It was interesting, I saw the wings and abdomen, but that was it, like the rest of it was just dust, didn't seem to have a head. I buried it next to where Jerry and Maria are. Then to check on the others. Two had emerged and had flown off. The rest of the 13 chrysalides looked good. I took them inside, cause I've been watching the weather, and having just driven the many hours from California, I guess I'm nervous for them to make it all the way there before below freezing temperatures come this weekend. So I brought in the chrysalides inside so they'd be at a warmer temp than the 50s it's been at night, to help them hurry and emerge faster. So, three emerged during the night last night, and I took them outside briefly as I pondered if I should let them take on the full migration, and the girl took off and I was sad, and I was going to bring the boy back in so I could think, but then I found ANOTHER butterfly in the dirt! It has messed up wings, so I take her in, and while I did that the boy flew away, so we're going to let those two take on the full migration I guess, and now I've got a butterfly to take care of. I didn't know how long it had been there, but I grabbed some guava juice that Corey had left in a cup and tried to feed her and she took it right away. 

I don't know if this is one of the two that emerged but I guess didn't get up and away successfully, OR if this is possibly the OTHER caterpillar (of the 9) that wandered off after I put them on the table... so maybe she had found a place and emerged on her own but was messed up anyway. So I figured "it was written" again, if this is the other one that wandered off - they disappeared, I thought they were gone, and then they came back, but they're going to be gone and dead and messed up anyway, cause it was written, just like the other caterpillar that we saved twice only to have it die (see last paragraph).She might be doomed, but we'll do our best to help her out anyway. Looks like we might have a pet again, and I won't let her get baked in the backyard like Jerry.