Dragging Our Whole Family Birding... Again

This is from an adventure we had back in April but I'm posting about it now.

 

We didn't make it to the Greater Sage Grouse lek this year because of weather (check out our adventure on my April 9 blog post) but Nichole took a break in the middle of finals to get up really early in the morning (like 2 or 3am) with the rest of us to go an undisclosed location (can't tell you where it is) to a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek. So cool. Jeremy and Nichole had been there before but the rest of us hadn't. These grouse are smaller than the sage grouse but they were big enough to get a good look at them (when it got lighter). Like with the sage grouse, we heard them before we saw them. Then when we saw them it was neat to see the similarities and the differences in their displays.

They make such cools sounds, different from the sage grouse. Some similarities in sound but mostly different.

After the lek, we went to another spot but didn't find our target bird in that area. Oh well. We did see plenty of other birds. We can't complain because we did see the Sharp-tailed Grouse earlier. We also saw a skunk while we were driving around.

We headed to the Golden Spike National Historic Site where we got to see where trains from the East and the West met to finish laying down tracks from both directions. We visited way back when Jr. was in 4th grade and had his 4th grade National Parks Pass. This time, Lucky was able to get his parks pass there and did the Junior Ranger program there to get another badge. Fun. Jet was cute and wanted to be like his brother so the ranger gave him a badge, too. Awww. Isn't Jr. the greatest? (I did not write that last sentence but when I looked at my blog I didn't realize that. I was trying to figure out what Jr. had to do with Lucky and Jet getting badges. Ha Ha Ha. This is what happens when I step away from the computer while I'm in the middle of writing a blog post. Ha Ha Ha. I love my family).

We got to go see the trains they keep there and learned a lot. Jr. Jr. asked a lot of questions which I thought was awesome.

We had a good adventure that day.

Screen Free Week 2017

O.K.  Finally getting around to blogging about Screen Free Week.  Yay.
O.K.  So Screen Free Week this year was Monday, May 1- Sunday, May 7.  On Sunday, April 30, I was sick.  Blech.  Probably a 24-hour bug.  Not fun.  So first day of Screen Free Week on Monday, lots of resting/recovering and lots of book reading.  No movies.  Actually, Tuesday was also recovering.  Wednesday, I did pretty well.  I got out and got some things done, even going for a nice walk.  Then Wednesday night, Jr. was sick.  Sigh.  So, I was up all night taking care of him.  He was up a lot, too, but somehow, somehow, he had energy on Thursday.  My goodness.  I did not.  I was so exhausted that day.  Jr. stayed home from school but he was able to play with his brothers while I slept on the couch.  I am glad he was able to bounce back from that pretty well.  I didn't.  It was also good because Jr. was able to go to the school's annual Art Night and didn't have to miss it.  Walking to the school that evening did take a bit out of him (and I was still tired), so we only stayed for a little while.  Long enough to see the art projects each of our kids had on display and see Jeremy and his balloon hats he was making for people.  They kind of had an Inside Out theme going on, so Jeremy made hats based on the different emotions.  Simple and quick enough to get through a lot of people and they loved them.

 (the pictures of Nichole pointing to her art didn't work out so I'm just showing her art)

Friday, Jr. was able to go to school.  Nobody was sick on Saturday and Sunday.  And that's what Screen Free Week was like this year.  Sick and resting and no movies or video games.
Actually, there were other things we did do during the week.  Here are some pictures:

Nichole brought home medals from their 6th grade Olympics.

 
Tuesday, May 2, was Baby Day.  We had pigs in a blanket, baby corn, baby dill pickles, baby carrots, lil' smokies in Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, tater tots, and milk to drink.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Friday with chimichangas, refried beans, spanish rice, and chips and salsa.

Jeremy and I both got to do some birding.  Jeremy saw killdeer with their little puffball chicks.  He also got better pictures of a skunk than I got last year.

There were other things we did, of course, but with what I was going through that week, if I don't have pictures, I don't remember.