I Forgot

I mentioned something to Jeremy and the kids while we were on our Southern Utah trip that I forgot to blog about so now a while after the fact, I'm going to share it with you.

 

This is the only picture I have that sort of shows the general landscape we were in so here you go.

 

Anyway, here's the story:

Back when the youngest boys had their end of the year dance festival at the elementary school, Lucky's grade danced to the song "What Time Is It" from High School Musical 2.

While we were in St. George area, we were passing a golf course/resort and I mentioned that this area looks like where they filmed the second High School Musical movie. I knew it was filmed somewhere around there. As we were passing an entrance, I saw the name of the resort and quickly looked up where the movie was filmed. It was that exact place. Ha Ha. So I told everyone, but especially Lucky since he had danced to the song from the beginning of the movie, that we were passing where it was filmed. Ha Ha.

 

What made me think about it was that I recently watched the movie because of the opening number which was not filmed in Southern Utah and remembered I was going to put it in my blog post about our trip but I forgot. 

 

World Turtle Day 2026

Road Trip! 

We got ready for our road trip on National Road Trip Day but took the actual road trip on May 23, World Turtle Day.

We got up really early in the morning... again, and drove down to St. George to Tonaquint Park where we celebrated World Turtle Day at the nature center pond.

Sooooo many turtles.

We also saw lots of birds. Hmm. Go figure.

Recently it felt like the pictures with our birding camera were not turning out very well. I'm not sure the reason but bird pictures were not coming out clear for a while. We didn't get such great bird pictures on our Northeastern Utah trip earlier in the month.

Then all of a sudden something snapped and the camera started working right and we started getting good pictures again. I don't know what happened but I'm very happy about it because we got some cool pictures on this trip. Let me tell you about it.

We spent a lot of time walking around Tonaquint Park. Check out these pictures of a black phoebe and blue grosbeak.

I made my family suffer through pictures of all of us using my selfie stick tripod Mother's Day gift, so we could all be in the picture and not just one of us in focus.

Someone had the idea that I could extend the selfie stick and get closer to wildlife with my phone camera without getting closer myself. It worked. I tried it on a lizard on a fence and a turtle that was on the side of the path.

Others could zoom in with the fancy cameras but I was able to get phone pictures. Fun. 

(Fancy camera view) 

Nichole's camera views: 

Jeremy reminded me to get some juggling pictures and videos so I did at various places we went. He was so nice to take most of the pictures and videos for me.

After Tonaquint Park we went to various other places in and near St. George. 

Jeremy had some target birds for this trip and we were able to get two of them- lifers. He was pleased about that. We got them both driving around a certain area.

The first was Gambel's Quail. We get California Quail in our area but the Gambel's Quail are found down South. We got a quick glimpse at one point but we got better views later. There is definitely a difference in look from the California Quail. We didn't get the best pictures (some through the windshield) but we did get to see some babies following their mama across a parking lot. So fun.

The other bird was a cactus wren. I saw a picture earlier so I kind of had an idea of what to look for. Jeremy also let me know earlier that it looked like a wren but bigger and its coloring was mottled.

We were in a neighborhood with a lot of different kinds of cactus trying to follow the GPS to a certain spot and it brought us to the end of a dead end street where there was a big cactus plant. Jeremy joked how funny it would be if we found a cactus wren actually on a cactus. All of a sudden this bird flew into the plant. I got my binoculars on it and asked Jeremy to remind me what a cactus wren looks like because I was pretty sure what I saw fit the description. It came back a few times and I was able to get a couple of decent photos. Man, it is definitely bigger than the marsh/Bewick's/house/rock/canyon wrens I'm used to seeing. Wow. I've seen a few different kinds of wrens, haven't I? I just realized, those are wrens I've seen multiple times, but there are a couple I've seen maybe once- Pacific Wren and Winter Wren.

I think the cactus wren was my favorite bird of the day.

 

Once we got those two target birds, we headed North to Cedar City area to try to find more birds. Some places felt like a waste of time. Sigh.

We did got out to Cedar Canyon and had a bit of fun (and juggling). 

I was determined to try out my tripod selfie stick as a tripod for juggling since there will be times when there won't be someone to video me or take pictures of me. Do you know how hard it is to juggle and push a button on a remote at the same time? It's hard. Jeremy said I could just set a timer on the phone but...

I dropped a lot while trying to get still pictures. Video works much better because I can put the remote in my pocket instead of having it around my wrist and push the button before and after.

While I was trying to figure out my own pics and videos, Nichole was getting artistic with her brothers. If you look closely, you can see me in the background of the picture Jeremy took.

I wanted yet another family picture so I told everyone to come over. I made sure to push the remote button at just the right time. Heh Heh.

When we got back to the van, it was a bit breezy.

Jet: Mom, now you need to do your hair again.

Mom: This is my wind blown look. 

 

 

We finished our day at Parowan Gap Petroglyphs. That was a new place for us.

Besides seeing the cool petroglyphs (and juggling), 

we saw a family of ravens doing their thing (and being very vocal about it- young'uns wanting something from Mom and Pop) and we found both a rock wren and canyon wren (pictured is the canyon wren).

I love this family of mine and I love the adventures we go on. 

Since it was World Turtle Day, Nichole read some Terry Pratchett and the kids explained to me the Glorious 23rd of May (also from Terry Pratchett). 

We Had Issues

Road Trip!

Jeremy had been wanting to take another Southern Utah trip because our hunt for roadrunners and other birds was so successful when we went back in 2022. There was a particular place he wanted to go this time that we'd never been before. So we made sure to schedule it in on one of the only Saturdays we hoped we'd have available. I told you things have been soooooo busy the last few months.

So on Saturday, September 20, we got the kids up early and headed out.

We had to drive down a long gravel road to get to our destination, which was nice as it was fun to see cactus and Joshua trees and even lillies around. We only saw a few birds, however. We did see a roadrunner.

We saw some lizards, which are always fun. 

When we got to our destination to get out, it unfortunately wasn't as good as it could be for birding. I won't go into details but several of us were having issues. None of us were trying to be difficult, we were just having a difficult time.

So we went back to the van, drove the long gravel road back to the main road and headed into St. George to a park we enjoyed going to last time we were there. We stopped at restrooms because it had been a long morning.

The original plan was after lunch and bathroom break we would drive over to a different part of the park to leave the van while we walked around looking for specific birds. Most of us ate lunch. I was still having issues so I didn't eat but cried a lot.

My sweet husband was so nice to me, though, and so patient with me while I was having problems. Have I mentioned how much I love him and how awesome he is?

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), we all got buckled in the van and Jeremy tried to turn it on and it wouldn't start. In St. George. 4-5 hours away from home.

The van had issues. 

Now it's time to talk about recognizing blessings and answers to prayers. We knew of another birder from Utah County Birders who was planning on being in the area that day. We were able to contact him and he came over and jump started our battery. Our hero. While we waited, Jet got to play on the playground that he really wanted to play on so it was easier getting him back in the van when we got it jumped. We also had plenty of food and water if it was going to be a long wait, which it wasn't.

We drove over to Autozone where they checked to see that it was a bad battery and told us it's possible the battery was still under warranty. We bought some tools for changing the battery and a portable jumper just in case the next time was not in the middle of the city where our birding friend could get to us (because he happened to be in the area that day). It was a good thing it was not at the end of that looooong gravel road that the van decided to die (blessing).

We drove to Costco and found out that indeed our battery was still under warranty so we were able to get a brand new battery (with a new warranty) for a lot less money than it would have if it was not under warranty. I helped Jeremy change the battery in the parking lot and we made it home safely.

As bad as it was for this to happen, we also recognize the timing as a blessing because we got a brand new battery before Jeremy left on a couple more big trips. I didn't have to worry about the van dying while he was gone.

And the drive home was beautiful with a nice lightning storm and beautiful sunset colors. 

So even though we had issues that day (including the van), there were still lots of blessings we were able to recognize.

It was appropriate that September 20 was National Punch Day because I feel like we got a punch with the things that happened.