NOVEMBER 2020

November was an incredibly interesting month for us!  We started it off by going to St George for some work assignments for Scott...he had the Update on St George Temple Renovations meeting one day, and the Ground Breaking for the Red CliffsTemple the next.

We went down a day early so we could visit BYU's Lytle Ranch, an interesting place out in the middle of nowhere, Utah.

But, it was a scenic birder place as you can see from this sign.

It was about 88 degrees this day so we were sweating it, but loving it as well.

Super interesting mix of desert and farming type land with water.

We did see some really great birds there, which was our primary purpose.

This is a Phainopepla.  Really pretty crested bird that happened to pose in this tree with red berries to match it's red eyes.

In St George, they had a great city park called Tonaquint that had a pond with these Wood Ducks...so pretty!

And near our hotel was a river trail that we saw some cool birds like this Greater Roadrunner that pretty much posed for us with crest down then crest up.

We took an old friend Daniel Spencer to lunch.  He went to Provo High with Jenna and has worked in Church Public Affairs for a long time now.

Fun to catch up with him.

My little brainstorm for a Pandemic year Christmas gift for neighbors were these little TOILET PAPER SNOWMEN!

Who would not want to find one of these on their front porch?

We have found that Scott's brother Aaron is now an avid birder as well...moreso than us actually.

We enjoyed an outing with him this month and found some great new birds together.

So there are "rare" bird sightings that we sometimes try to go look for.

This is a "Snow Bunting."  Rare for Utah.  It was out at the Utah Lake State Park with one more bunting for a little over a week.

We felt really lucky to sight it two times.  Went once to scope them out and found them when other birders had no luck...then went back with Aaron and also pretty much walked right up to one of them before it flew away...and other birders were still looking.  Cutest little birds!!

Scott and I finally found some of the elusive "American Dippers" on the Provo River up in the canyon.

Took a walk hoping to see some and saw like 4-5 of them which is unusual.  These plain gray and brown birds will plunge into the water to get insects or plants from the bottom of the water...this one is soaking wet!

Another little bird I had wanted to get photos of is the Brown Creeper.  Funny name, but it does creep down or up the trees looking for insects.  It is tiny, like 4-5 inches long and so cute!

Found it on the Provo River Trail down closer to the lake.

Also spotted this Spotted Towhee on one of my walks.  At first you think you are seeing a Robin, and then see the white tummy and spotted wings and pretty red eye.  

Scott and I had our bout with Coronavirus this month.

I picked it up first...from Church or school or whatever...and then I shared!

Really was uncertain if I even needed testing, I felt so normal, just a thick throat.  But tested just in case and was positive.

Took 2 1/2 weeks off from preschool and got some really cute notes from some of my students!

I did Zoom Story Time for both classes twice while I was quarantining.  It was really fun and we had Cassidy and Mackenzie join in a couple times as well which made it even better!

So grateful for technology!  

Scott and I were both blessed with very mild symptoms.  Mild congestion and loss of smell for like a week and low energy for like 10 days but really great overall.  SO BLESSED!

Thanksgiving Scott and I were off quarantine and wanted to walk up at a remote pond area in SLC so normal dinner was postponed for some really good Chow Mein.

Austin and Laura surprised us with our own "Baby Yoda!"  We have been watching "The Mandalorian" and this is "The Child" in the film series that is so cute.  

(Oh, and we got up Christmas decorations too)

We did a really fun family Zoom call on Thanksgiving to chat and check in 

The funny thing was, that when everyone saw us open our box with "Baby Yoda," they all had a fit and Austin got right on his phone and ordered one to send to each family as a gift!

This is me with my new buddy watching "The Mandalorian" that evening!  He is pretty snuggly and realistic.

Sunday was our Thanksgiving celebration with the works.  Really yummy and a better day for us to enjoy it.

We wear masks outside now all the time.  The cold air is not great for post-Covid lungs and it really helps keep us warm as well as be following mask guidelines still.

Water birds are a lot of the new ones we are seeing this time of year.

Migrators like this female Hooded Merganser...

...and this Common Goldeneye.

And of course, winter is a great time to see the cutest little Downy Woodpeckers!

MERRY 2020!
 

OCTOBER 2020

For all these pics and a few more, here is a link

Had an amazing October.

Started the very first day with a trip to the PUMPKIN PATCH with my preschool.  Really cute kiddos so happy to be outside to pick a pumpkin and play!

They really wanted me to slide with them...

Really trying to be safe in all our activities and sanitizing and masking most of the time.

Scott and I went on tons of walks all over the area.  This is a new area called Swede Lane near Utah Lake.

Saw this Red-tailed Hawk in a field near this area.

And the most gorgeous sunsets a couple of nights out by the lake.

Closer to home, out by the airport dike, we found a few Greater Yellowlegs out there.  They are a really pretty little shorebird with tall...you guessed it, yellow legs.

We hiked Rock Canyon one evening and the sunlight and fall leaves were so pretty!

All colors of red and orange and yellow and green.

And another stunning sunset!

We had the chance to spend some time with Amanda and the kids one weekend.

Took them first to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point where we were surprised that the sand tables were open to play at.

But we were pleased at how few people they were allowing into the museum at a time so you felt very safe.

Until you were in the jaws of a SHARK!

Next we took them to the Butterfly Biosphere.

They had a great scavenger hunt that kept them busy looking in all the insect cages to find the pumpkins hidden inside.

The kids were all so well-behaved and just so fun to be with.  I am "Grandma Cheryl" and Scott is "Grandpa Scott."

We adopted ourselves into the family.

Such a great day with the kiddos!  We have missed our grandkids so much during Covid and this made our day!

We had Breanna and Elliot come down for a photo shoot that night and did some "SPOOPY" photos for them...funny, spooky pictures.

We went all over finding different locations for their pics!

Wherever we went, they were just adorable!

The next week we took Carole and Lori to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point.

This was my favorite scarecrow of "Room On The Broom."  I love this children's book and the scarecrow was so well done!

Middle of the month I had Fall Break.  Scott and I decided to head out to Almo.

This is the folder we left there with instructions on what to do when you stay there.

We were busy the whole time!  I took out vinyl to cover up the table and benches and it turned out really well!

We then tarped it for the winter.

Scott put up a shelf behind the washer and new front door coded locks and back door weather strip.  I painted the back railings to finish that project and we fixed the leg of the couch in the greenhouse.

Of course we did some hiking both days we were there.

First day in City of Rocks.

The colors were stunning and though it was really windy and cold, it was very doable.  We were walking enough that we got warm.

You can see all the leaves on the ground that made it so pretty.

And the rocks are always interesting.

The second day we hiked at Castle Rocks.  We intended to do the loop marked in white.  Scott took a photo of that portion of the trail map and away we went.

Well, well into our hike we realized we had gone a bit further.  See the blue line?  That is where we ACTUALLY hiked.  Yup.  Several hours of hiking.

This was the trail at the start...not as pretty, but shows you where we were headed.  We walked all around and behind the entire park.

Here is Scott at the highest point of the area...like 8,700 feet.

Of course we were looking for birds both days we were hiking.

We were very entertained by the Townsend's Solitaire.  This is one in flight.

They have a really pretty call and this day, there were pairs of them chasing each other all over the park.  Crazy!

Another bird that we have seen TONS of this fall is this tiny 4 inch bird called a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  It may have a tiny line of red on the top of it's head...but good luck getting it that low for a photo or to get it to be in one place for a fraction of a second for a photo!

it has the skinniest little beak!

And it has "Angry Bird" eyes.

A new bird for us was this Clark's Nutcracker...sort of a big jay-size bird.  Look at that beak...it is really a tool!

Right near the house in Almo we have seen Cedar Waxwings before.  This trip we saw flocks of them out by the cedars, eating the berries like this one.

On one of our walks near the house, this kitten followed us home and I was entertained at how it chased the rope we used to tie off the tarp for the picnic table.  We had to take the kitten home when we were done as it seemed quite lost.

On our way home, we stopped at Antelope Island.  So pretty!

We saw Pronghorn.

Bison.

Saw a little coyote and a man stopped to feed it dogfood so I chatted with him.

Our coyote friend.

An American Avocet in Salt Lake near Bear River Bird Refuge.

It was shocking how much green stuff was still left in my garden as it began to freeze.  This is just a couple branches from one of my 13 tomato plants.  See how many green ones were still coming on?  I saved some, but there were just too many!

Breanna came down for a craft day with us to make some "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) skulls.

We all had a different style to paint them and it was just a lot of fun to paint and talk all afternoon.

Here is Breanna's.  I love it!

It has a real garden feel to it and would be pretty all year round.

I love the antique look to it as well...very earthy.

Here is the one I created.  I wanted something very monochromatic to go with my Harry Potter type theme and these colors worked well.  I did slight antiquing as well and really liked that.

Scott did a more traditional sugar skull type color theme but with metallic paints, which the photo does not do justice to.  It has some sheen and sparkle to it that is really nice!

We loved this project and it felt so good to be with family.  We really treasure those times so much!

One of our recent discoveries on a walk near Salem Pond was a Belted Kingfisher.  Seemed funny to be at this smallish pond, but it was very cool.

And, we discovered the Spanish Fork River Trail just this weekend and found, you guessed it, yet another Ruby-crowned Kinglet who posed just long enough that you can see his cute white eye-rings.

Scott and I have gone to 2 BYU Football games this month.  We had bought tickets way back in September that were postponed until October for allowing attendees.  

We all masked and spaced out and it was a lot of fun.  This first night we really got chilled to the bone.

Then on Halloween, we went again and it was nicer without the chilling wind.  Cold, but very nice night!  And BYU has won all their games so that has been fun as well.

Our old Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head costumes with added masks for an appearance at a birthday party for a friend.

Jenna and Cassidy as Unicorns, Klay as a shark and Carter and Bennet as those blow up attention getter thingys.

The Halloween Carnival of Duvall WA.

And the Taylor family ready to go to the Ward Trunk-Or-Treat.

It was an all-day party at their house!

Wished we could be there!