Birding Adventure

On Public Lands Day, September 28, we avoided public lands and Jeremy, Lucky, Jet, and I went to Ouray Wildlife Refuge and Pelican Lake to do some birding. It was quite the adventure trying to get 24 species at each of those places for Jeremy and Lucky for this year's UCB birding challenge.

It was also International Rabbit Day and Jeremy and Lucky saw rabbits.

I didn't see rabbits but I saw the prairie dogs they saw. 

We also saw a porcupine like when I was there last.

Busy Like Grandma

Jeremy and I had some phone calls to make this morning then Jet and I headed to Antelope Island for the afternoon. At first I thought we wouldn't stay too long but then there was so much to see. 

At one point, I decided to head home to make dinner so on the way back I stopped by a spot where I had seen a porcupine in a tree earlier (I love seeing porcupines on Antelope Island). I looked and saw there were actually two porcupines. The second one was moving around eating from the branches. After a bit of watching I noticed there was yet another porcupine moving around in the tree (well, it was a group of trees all together). Three porcupines. 

I watched them for a while then Jet woke up so we stayed a while longer. He snacked like the porcupines while I continued to watch both him and the porcupines. 

Finally, I realized we really needed to go home so I put an unhappy to be going back in his car seat baby back in his car seat and we headed home.

As soon as I got home, I immediately got to work making dinner and helping with various other things my family had need of. Sigh. It was exhausting. As I was unclogging a toilet, I thought about my grandma who was an amazing woman. She was just a tiny thing, smaller than me (and I'm not big), and she did so much. She took care of two grown men (much larger than her) later on in life- my grandpa and my uncle. Both had medical needs, both needed help getting around. I am amazed that she was able to help them up from beds or chairs to wheelchairs or walkers. She had that love for them and was willing to sacrifice for them. What a great example.

Grandma was always happy to welcome (and feed) anyone around, whether it was her own relatives or friends of relatives (some of which later became relatives). When we made those pumpkin cookies last Friday, Jeremy and I told the kids some of our memories about their great grandma. Tonight as we made dinner of burger bundles and twice baked potatoes, both recipes I got from grandma, we shared even more stories. We even had some frozen berries and yogurt with dinner since Grandma had berry bushes.

My grandma was amazing. I'm so glad Jeremy had a chance to know her and be a part of her family and I'm so glad we took the chance to LightTheWorld by sharing some family history stories with our children.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Gotta Get Those Birds

A few weeks ago when Jeremy hit 200 life birds (I have less), he joked about how we could still get me 200 by the end of the year.  December 29 is Tick Tock Day, almost the end of the year, and we both got a new life bird today.  A Northern shrike.

We took the kids up to Antelope Island today since they're still on Christmas break.  Besides the Northern shrike, we also found our target bird- porcupine in a tree.  There were a bunch of them, but the first one we spotted was in a tree right next to the road.  Jeremy got out and took quite a few pictures of it.  It was still there on our way back along the road so Jeremy got out to take some more pictures.

While he and several other people were taking pictures of the porcupine, there was a bison that came along and just casually walked along on the other side of the road.  That was fun.

 It was a great day at Antelope Island.  It was cold but we did get out a couple times.  We went to the ranch and the kids had fun playing in the snow there.  

We also got out at the visitor's center and the kids had fun watching a bunny and white-crowned sparrow hanging out near the bird feeders.

Another highlight to the trip was seeing a barn owl on our way out.  That was awesome.  Beautiful bird.

It was a good family day.