Bonding Time: Hiking

Since it has been a mild Winter, I wanted to take my nature loving boy out hiking one day in the hills.

Jr. Jr. and I took the afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, since he didn't have school, and we hiked up to Battle Creek Falls. We took binoculars and the birding camera with us.

Just up from the parking area, we heard scritch-scratching in the underbrush, which I would have assumed was a spotted towhee but I could see robins, so not a spotted towhee (be careful about assuming). Jr. Jr. has really good eyes when it comes to spotting things so he helped me notice the bird that was not a robin. I got a look at it in the underbrush with binoculars and this is how things come out of my mouth since I'm a birder-

Me: You're right. That's not a robin. That's a thrush! Robins are actually thrushes but this one... if it has a reddish tail, it's a hermit thrush. Do you see the tail?

Jr. Jr. confirmed the reddish tail (I would use the term "rufous"). 

I love birding.

Besides the birds, we also enjoyed the hike together. We had plenty to talk about, including the ice we kept seeing in the stream and the water flowing under the ice. 

Nature's cool, man.

 

We made it all the way up to the falls and a little above the falls before turning around. I only slipped twice, once on the way up, once on the way down, both in the same location. Ha. Nothing scary. 

When we got back down to where we saw the hermit thrush on the way up, we saw it again with the robins. It decided it would be a good sport and posed in a tree so I could get some good pictures of it. I was very pleased with it sitting there for so long.

Jr. Jr. and I enjoyed that time together. I love that we have that love of nature in common.

  

I love bonding time! 

 

Earlier that day, I got out for my morning walk at the park with the Christmas lights. The city says they're going to leave them up until Valentine's Day like they did last year.

Lucky, Nichole, and I made cheese ball that day, too. Nichole shaped it into a witch's hat. It didn't last long. Mmmmm, cheese ball. 

 

January 19 was also Whisper "I Love You" Day. There was plenty of that going around. It was National Popcorn Day. The kids had popcorn. It was also Brew a Potion Day. We had hot chocolate and I told everyone to put whatever they wanted into or on it.

 

The next day, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day. Jet and I watched "Surf's Up" together. I haven't watched that in a while. It was fun.

  

What?

 

What Have We Been Up To?

What have we been up to?
The kids finished up school for the year.  We went to their end of the year dance festival.  They all did great.

 Lucky got into it as well.

These pictures are before and after school on the last day of school.  There are pictures of the older kids on the first day of school on my post from August 24, 2016.  A picture of Jr. Jr. on his first day of school is on my post from September 6, 2016.

We celebrated my birthday.  Jeremy even sent me out for some alone time on my birthday while he worked on dinner.  I went to a park, sat down to read a book and eat my lunch and got to talk to my mom on the phone.  It was relaxing to have quiet time in the shade while listening to the birds around.

 

Happy Birthday to You! or Me!

Since school's been out, we've had family time at home.

We've had family time out.

Yesterday, we went up to Big Springs to have a BBQ.  We all had a good time.

The kids found a caterpillar.

At one point, the caterpillar moved off to somewhere else.  This is what I heard from the kids:
Nichole:  Jr., your caterpillar has flown the coop.
Jr.:  It's not my caterpillar.  It's nature's.

Well, we enjoyed our nature time.  We tried out something a friend suggested for camping.  S'mores in a waffle cone.  You take chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, stuff them in a wafflecone, wrap it in foil, and put it on the fire or on the grill or whatever.  Some of us had peanuts/peanut butter in ours.  Yumm.  Warms it up nicely.

The kids enjoyed getting to play with outside activities as well.  We got a new frisbee.  It can light up so we'll have to go out sometime while it's getting dark to try out that function.

When we got to Big Springs it was a little windy so that made playing with bubbles fun.  The kids didn't have to blow them.  They just had to pull the wand out of the container and the wind took care of the rest.

And of course there were plenty of birds to listen to.  Gorgeous.  And sometimes they even let us see them and get pictures.

 
The robins certainly let us take pictures.

Before we left home, Jr. Jr. brought me a present he forgot to give me on Mother's Day.  A necklace he made at school.  What a sweetheart.

Wow.  We've been busy.
So now you know why I'm too exhausted to blog so often.  We're too busy doing.

The Story of My Life

Mommy.  Mommy.  I'm hungry.  Give me something to eat.  Mommy.  I want food.  Feed me.  Feed me.  Mommy.  Mommy.

First Day of Spring!

March 20 is the first day of Spring this year.
It felt like Spring with running around outdoors and seeing over a dozen robins among the blossoms in an outside area of the Orem Library.

The first picture I tried to get of a robin turned out like this:

Well, I did get a picture of a robin.  And a bonus.