The Final Day Date for 2023

 

We went to a new state park for our last day date of the year.

The water must be low as we were able to walk by one of the 

buoys. 

We liked being by the water and watching the 

Sun sparkle on it. There is something soothing about 

Being by the water.

Not sure what this structure is for.

I hope 2024 will be filled with weekly day dates.

Kimberly 

No bugs, No birds, our final Bird watching date of 2023

 

We went for the last bird watching drive of 

The year.  It was interesting to see what birds were around.

I was actually hoping to see some Bald eagles.

It was very pretty out and warm.

It felt like we were far from civilization.

I was disappointed in myself as I forgot to put the battery in my camera. I also forgot the binoculars. 

Here is a list of the birds we saw.

We came up with the phrase “ no bugs 🐛, no birds”.

We didn’t see very many birds and there were no bugs.

The bathroom porta potties were really cold 🥶 too. 

Kimberly 

The Bowlby Family Christmas Letter

Dear friends and family,

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season.

This past year seemed to fly by.

My letter is a little late this year because work has 

Been very busy.

Here is a little of what our family did in 2023.

In May Gabrielle graduated from the University of Utah.

She worked very hard in school and graduated with honors.

She now has a nice job working for a nonprofit in Salt Lake City. She will be doing some classes this spring to get some human resource training and certifications. At the end of December she is traveling to Japan. This has been a big dream of hers. 

Jacob just finished his last semester at BYU. He also is graduating at the top of his class. He will do his graduation in the spring. He is taking some certification classes to possibly work at hospitals as a medical translator. He is also applying to government translation jobs.

He is the social butterfly of our family. He is always out with friends, I’m sure once he finds a job and pays off some student loans he will fly out of the family home and into a home of his own.

Jim still works on fixing giant machines. On his days off he works on old car projects. He and the kids took a vacation to New Jersey this summer. 

I still work at the local grocery store.  I love my job. I enjoy helping the customers and the associates at my store. I get to train my team on all the accounting stuff for the store. I have a great team. 

On my days off I play wild life photographers.

I love going out and exploring nature and places in Utah.

Hopefully in 2024 I will find new places to go.

Thank you for sending Christmas cards and wishes.

Kimberly 

This is what our cards looked like.

 

Finding the perfect Christmas tree.

My husband likes living Christmas trees.

So we went to his favorite tree place to choose a tree.

I believe this little tree was 69.00.

Should we get this tall tree?

How about this fat tree?

 

Do people really get trees that have been painted?

This is the tree. 

I will show photos of it decorated soon.

Work has been very busy. 

But the house is decorated, the present are wrapped 

and I am able to relax before work.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season.

Kimberly 

 

Preparing for the Christmas celebrations!

At my work meeting I learned how to 

make a snow globe.

It wasn’t really that hard.

Every year neighbors bring Christmas treats to our house.

I am always unprepared for this.

This year I have bought a 

Bunch of boxes of candies.

Anyone who drops off a gift will 

Get a pretty box of candy.

Dyna had to help me.

We also finished writing our Christmas cards.

Well I finished. She napped in the sun.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season.

Kimberly 

 

I’m ahead of the Christmas crazy, already wrapping presents!

I actually feel ahead of Christmas craziness, I am actually already wrapping presents 🎁!

Most of the presents I am wrapping will be shipped off

To family who live in other states.

The other presents are for neighbors and coworkers.

We don’t have a Christmas tree yet, 

So I put everything around our cat tree. 

I have been enjoying listening to Christmas music.

I have given up on not eating sugar snacks. January will be my time to get my diet better.

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season.

Kimberly 

 

21 Days until Christmas, sending out Christmas packages.

 

There are 21 days to Christmas. Pretty much every Christmas present is purchased. My daughter and I made our favorite Christmas treat yesterday. Whoopie pies. 

I have been wrapping presents and getting ready to send them out in the mail. I’m sending Herseys hugs and kisses.

A little way to send love ❤️ in the mail.

I hope to wrap up most of the gifts I have purchased this week. Then I have a few weeks to just relax and enjoy the Christmas season.  My daughter and I also got big tubs of popcorn 🍿 and watched a Christmas movie this weekend.

What are your plans for the holidays?

Kimberly 

Starting to write my Christmas cards.

I got my address book out and started to put my 

Christmas cards together.

I like getting Christmas cards in the mail.

Often I feel like Charlie Brown. 

Everyday I look for Christmas cards,

and the mail box is empty.

My Christmas card this year is a photo I took of the 

Full Moon, with a little photo editing done by my son. 

I think it is very pretty.

Are you getting ready for Christmas?

Do you send out Christmas cards?

Kimberly 

 

The beginning of Christmas decorating

 

I’m slowly getting my house decorated for Christmas.

The first decoration out are my little trees and the skiing moose.  I think my parents gave me the moose decoration. I always think of my parents in Vermont skiing and snowshoeing.  On my shelfie they are lost in the woods.

The little mitten is something my mom made. I also have snowmen that hold photos of when the kids were young. A little count down to Christmas gnome. Really if I am honest I could be happy with just this much decorating. But more is coming.  I will share it all with you this year. 

Have you started decorating for Christmas?

Kimberly 

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 52!

I wanted to rewrite the Taylor Swift 22 lyrics,

To go for being 52. 

But song writing is not a skill I possess.

My husband kindly reversed the numbers of my age

So my cards read “25”. Many people have been kind 

And have said I look more to be in my thirties.

Here is the cute little cake I had the bakery make for me.

It came in a big box, so my daughter was 

A little disappointed at its true size.

I didn’t want a large cake. I am trying to lose 8 pounds.

I’m trying hard to stay away from sugar.

So here I go, 52 years down, heading into year 53.

I’m hoping to stay active and healthy in this coming year.

I am also hoping to be more spiritual.

I also hope this is the year that I really get the house decluttered.  My birthday present is a new dishwasher.

I look forward to not washing dishes by hand anymore.

Have a wonderful day.

Kimberly 

 

Calm before the storm

We went for a nice walk at the lake today 

The water level is so much better than last year. 

I hope we have another snowy wet winter.

I’m trying different ways to photograph my notes.

I like the sparkle around my husbands hand,

But you can’t really see what I’ve written.

I think you can read it this time.

Today is my mental health day, I need all the calm I can get 

Because tomorrow is the beginning of crazy 

Thanksgiving food buying at my store.

I need to remember to take my camera on our walks.

My phone doesn’t zoom in. 

It would have been fun to get a close up photo of the seagulls.

We had rain the last few days, which 

Means snow on the mountains. It’s so pretty.

The sun sparkling on the water is beautiful. 

I feel relaxed and ready to take on the next few days at work.

Have a great week.

Kimberly