Perfect Date

April 25 was Arbor Day. I went for a walk in a place with trees... and birds. I got to see a couple of spotted sandpipers and killdeer. So many killdeer. 

It was a beautiful birding morning. 

 

April 25 was also Perfect Date Day because, "it's not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light jacket." Jeremy and I went on a date. We stopped by the library to pick up Miss Congeniality (which we never got around to watching) and went to Deer Creek Reservoir to eat dinner in the van and look for loons.

We found one that Jeremy named Claire. Think about that for a moment? Classical music fans? 

Claire the Loon. 

The weather was just right for wearing our light jackets.

 

At home the kids ate fish sticks and watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie for National Plumbers Day, World Penguin Day, and National Telephone Day, all on April 25.

Spring Break- Wednesday

This day was so action packed it gets its own blog post.

We started out early in the morning to head to the Henefer Lek to listen to and watch the sage grouse displaying. It was fun to take the whole family this year. Most of the kids have never gone (like I said it is an early morning trip). It worked out. Jet mostly slept through the whole sage grouse part of it. He started stirring as soon as we got to the lek. It's not so good to have a baby crying while you have windows down. We got him back to sleep, though. 

The boys in the back seat were content because they had devices. 

They did pause to listen to and look at the sage grouse from time to time.

 

Nichole, Jeremy, and I were content because we had a camera and binoculars.

There were a bunch of grouse near the road so we were able to get a good look when we were on our way out. 

After the lek, we headed over to East Canyon Reservoir. It was coooooold.

There were plenty of birds and ground squirrels to take pictures of, though. I even got to hear a loon in real life for the first time ever. I've been wanting to and I did. I was so happy.

We picnicked in the van at another spot along the reservoir. Since I forgot to bring out the Twinkies the day before, we celebrated the anniversary of the invention of the Twinkie Observed on Wednesday and had them with our lunch. While we ate, I gave the kids a background about how the Twinkie came to be.

After the reservoir, we stopped at another reservoir, Deer Creek, to look for more loons. There were at least a couple and guess what. We heard another loon calling. Eeeeeeee. I was even more happy. Two loons at two different reservoirs. Yay! 

Jet was ready to be awake by that point so we decided to go somewhere where he could run around. We went to South Fork Park. This is what we got when we arrived. 

This

vs this

Eventually everybody got out so we could get family pictures with Flat Stanley.

This is what happens when you get out so early in the morning. You fit a lot in. Jeremy and I were even able to get a nap in after we got home before we had an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. Much different from last year when Jet could barely reach the eggs on the living room floor.

He even enjoyed playing with the empty eggs after we got back inside (we had the kids empty their eggs into ziplock bags so we wouldn't have all this candy sitting in eggs for so long).

So it really was an action packed day. We haven't had one of those in a while. I'm so glad it worked out.

 

By the way, April 7 was National No Housework Day. Perfect day for all of this. It was also National Walking Day. Perfect for running around at the park. It was also World Health Day. Getting out in nature is so good for our health.

Loony Adventures

Jeremy recently was able to see a new bird- a yellow-billed loon.
 

Actually there were two. 

Nichole and I wanted to see them so he took us to the place where he saw them. We didn't see them. We saw other birds but no yellow-billed loons. Just these loons.

Yesterday we decided to try again. We went to the same place and Jeremy was able to spot one of the loons on the choppy water of the reservoir. Nichole and I got a quick look because it kept diving under the water. Oh well. Jeremy and I watched a bald eagle fly over the water. That was fun.

We stopped at another spot and saw some other birds that may have been a different kind of loon. We couldn't get a good look. And there were these loons.

Jr. Jr. requested another muffin night like we did the end of October. So for dinner we had oatmeal muffins again, Christmas banana muffins, orange craisin muffins, and calzone muffins. There was some dough left over from the calzone muffins so Jr. Jr. and I made some braided rolls. It was fun to do muffin night again.

While we were eating, Lucky asked me to tell stories from my childhood. That went right along with #LightTheWorld for that day. Jeremy and the kids started making our balloon Christmas tree that day as well.

To Light the World today we delivered brownies to my sister. Lucky knocked on the door, ran back to the van, and when my sister answered the door, we sang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." One of her kids then came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then her husband came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then more of her kids came to the door so we resang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Then my sister came out to her lawn while we stayed at the van and we got to chat for a bit. That was nice.

When we got home, Jeremy and the kids decorated the tree with balloon ornaments and a couple of the kids contributed lightweight ornaments of their own.

For dinner we had a salad bar since it is Radish Night on December 23. It is also National Roots Day which goes right along with radishes.

Lucky read a story to Jet and we continued getting ready for Christmas Day. 

We of course have been keeping up with the real reason for the season with our advent countdown to Christmas scripture study. We have been trying to do service for each other in our family as well as for others. #LightTheWorld for today is about sharing gratitude for gifts God has given. I will say that I am very grateful for #GiveThanks around Thanksgiving. It did help me to get in the right frame of mind for the Christmas season. Even though there have been some frustrating times this December, I've had a better time than some years. I'm grateful we read all of A Christmas Carol this year. I'm grateful we've still been able to do lots of things as a family. I'm grateful we've had some neat experiences in nature. I love nature and I believe Heavenly Father has given me a gift to appreciate the beauty of nature. I am grateful that unlike most years, we haven't really gotten sick this December so far and I think we're close enough to Christmas that it's safe to say we won't be miserable on Christmas. There really are so many things for which to be grateful, the best being the Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas, everyone. And of course in the words of Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol, "God bless us, everyone." He has and I recognize that.

Kokanee Salmon?

Someone told us that if we went back to Rock Cliff Recreation Area a couple weeks after we went to see the kokanee salmon in September, there would be a lot more salmon to see. So we went back and there were not more. We may have seen three? Maybe, if that. 

The trip was not a waste, though. There were birds of course- cedar waxwings, lesser goldfinches, yellow-rumped warblers, dark-eyed juncos, white-crowned sparrows, flickers.

We also saw two or three black phoebes which are not as common as those others. 

There was also beautiful scenery- the river and reservoir and of course the Fall colors. 

We saw deer several times. It was fun to watch them bound away. 

We saw some spiders spinning webs.

We had fun family time. The kids enjoyed making Jet smile and laugh (and the rest of us).

At one point on a bridge, the boys were throwing plants in the water and I called out, "Pooh sticks!"
They got excited about that and went to gather more things to toss. Jr. grabbed a big rock and said, "Pooh sticks. Eeyore style!" and threw it into the water. That started more rock throwing into the water.

It was great and we didn't have any fighting while we were there or in the van.

I loved that time with my family. 

Definitely click on this last picture to see it larger. Lucky's pose, man.