Superb Owl Sunday

We're not really football watchers.  We're bird watchers.  So instead of celebrating Super Bowl Sunday this year, we celebrated Superb Owl Sunday.
This is how Jeremy kept awake in Sacrament Meeting today.

Don't you just love it.  I do.  Jeremy based his drawing on this photograph of a burrowing owl we took a couple years ago.  I love it.

General Conference Weekend

General Conference Weekend.  The kids picked out some quiet activity pages to work on during Conference and those kept them content for the beginning of the first session.  The rest of the first session, they were content with our traditional General Conference nachos.

During the break between the first two sessions, we went for a nice drive up Provo Canyon and tried a road we'd never been up before.  Squaw Peak Road.  We drove up to the overlook and what a view.  I never knew because as I said, we'd never driven up that road before.

During the second session, besides nachos, the kids kept themselves content with Easter candy.

Sunday, the power company decided that General Conference Sunday would be the perfect day to shut the power off to do some maintenance for hours.  Oh, well.  The power went off around 9am, so we packed the kids up in the van with snacks to go for a drive and listen to General Conference on the radio.
We stopped by home once during the first session, stayed home during the break between sessions, and stayed out during the whole second session.  So the power came back sometime between 2 and 4pm.  Yay for a working radio in the van.

It felt good to be out on a nice relaxing drive listening to the inspired messages of General Conference.  Nature and the Spirit.  They go so well together.

Sunday, April 3, was also Fish Fingers and Custard Day.  So we had our traditional fish sticks and vanilla pudding for dinner.

On an unrelated to General Conference note (and just because I'm falling behind in my blogging so I'm going to throw it in here), Monday, April 4, was Walk Around Things Day.  The kids and I went to the "space park" where they could walk around the "UFO" that spun.

Being Sick is No Fun

Sigh.  We're finally getting over sickness in our home.  We'd been going through it for quite a while.  I was sick for a couple days, thought I was better then got sick with the same thing again.  What?  Sigh.
Now I'm finally going to blog about some of the good things we've been doing between bouts of sickness.
So... let's start from where we left off (before St. Patrick's Day).  Wednesday, March 2, was Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss' Birthday) and also Silly Putty's Birthday.  For dinner, we had green eggs and ham breakfast burritos and then the kids played with silly putty.

Jeremy had a show in Fillmore that day so he stopped by Delta on his way home where snow geese were stopping by during their migration.

Thursday, March 3, was I Want You to Be Happy Day.  Birding makes my happy.  Driving around the lake makes me happy.  Nature makes me happy.  We decided to go out for a drive around the lake to look at birds like we did on February 3.  We didn't make it all the way around the lake.  There were so many birds out that day (including some turkeys crossing the road).  It was awesome.

We did stop at Lincoln Beach so I could go down near the lake to get pictures of killdeer and so Lucky could get out with Daddy to stretch his legs.

There were actually snow geese flying around the area while we were there so it was great to get to see them since some of us were sick when we were all going to make a trip down to Delta.

Monday, March 7, was National Cereal Day.  It was also a day off of school so we headed up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge with Nichole's friend again.  It's migrating time for tundra swans so we got to see so many on the water.

We saw lots of other birds of course and we had a good time.  The kids got to take turns with my binoculars while Jeremy and I took turns with the camera.  The visitor's center was closed so we just drove the auto loop.  In the van we ate granola bars which are made with cereal.
We did have a little bit of running around outside time when we needed bathroom breaks.  The kids enjoyed that.

Friday, March 11, I got out for some fresh air and alone time.  I went to Highland Glen Park to search for the elusive spotted towhee.  This is our first year knowing what a spotted towhee is and it was actually the first bird I saw through my binoculars on Bird Day back at the beginning of January.  Every time we try to get pictures or video, though, it's either hiding in brush where we can't see it very well or it's flying off just as we turn the camera on to film it.  Like this picture:

So Friday I waited very patiently and it paid off.  A spotted towhee came into a good view for me to get pictures.  Hooray!

Jeremy took a wildlife photography class on Saturday, March 12 then went out photographing wildlife (well, birds, you know).  The class was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, but the visitor's center with walking trails was open this time, so he was able to do birding not just from the car, but also walking around.

Sunday, March 13, was Open an Umbrella Indoors Day.

Monday, March 14, was Pi Day.  We had chicken pot pie for dinner but I didn't take a picture.
We had to Beware the Ides of March on Tuesday, the 15th.  Actually, we didn't beware it.  We celebrated it by drinking orange juliuses and eating caesar salad.

While Nichole and Jeremy worked on a school project that evening, the boys and I went to cub scout pack meeting.  It was a carnival theme that the 9 year olds were in charge of.

I made it through most of the day without realizing I wasn't wearing green on March 17, St. Patrick's Day.  The kids and Jeremy all dressed in green and I didn't realize until Nichole and Jr. both pinched me after school (gently) that I wasn't wearing green.  It's pretty funny since green is my color and I have so many pieces of clothing that have green on them.  Oh, well.  We went for a drive earlier that day to scout out some more birding places.  There are so many places.

 
Saturday, March 19, was Poultry Day.  Jeremy had a show over near Roosevelt so on the way back he got to do some birding.  He saw some quail and some pheasants and lots of other birds.  Jeremy told me it was a bluebird of happiness day.  He saw mountain bluebirds all over the place.

 That's not a bluebird or poultry.  That's a sandhill crane.

 
March 20 was the first day of Spring.  We went for a nice Sunday afternoon drive around the lake.  And looked at birds.  We did make it all the way around the lake this time.

 

O.K.  Good enough for catching up.  There were other days we went birding, but this is good enough for now.  Especially since if I don't post this, there will just be more things to talk about and I'll continue to get more and more behind.  So... done.