We had such a wonderful February!
We did however spend part of it in cemeteries...
hunting for birds!
And, we found them! Found quite a few named "Bird" actually!
HA!
Aaron is one of our birding buddies and we try to get out at least once a month with him.
This weekend, we drove up to help Breanna in her classroom...missed getting photos of that darn it!
We then met Aaron up at City Creek Trailhead where we hiked up about 2 miles uphill to a certain picnic area looking for...
This is an ACORN WOODPECKER and is rare to this area. There were 2 of them here and we loved getting to see them in person and get photos.
This woodpecker was the inspiration for the old cartoon "Woody Woodpecker" in case you remember that.
I had to have a colonoscopy this month. Ten years came too soon for this. The procedure is nothing...the prep was almost impossible for me. I tried adding this Martinelli's but even that was awful!
Good news, I get to wait another 10 years!
We love our YSA kids and we hosted part of them for a Valentine Cookie Decorating FHE. Socially distanced and all...it was really fun!
The next morning we took off for WASHINGTON!!
We were so excited to see the Duvall Taylors!
We realized that it had been a year since I had been there and about 18 months since Scott had been there. And since Clara is only 20 months old, that meant she really did not remember us.
So this visit was very much about helping her become comfortable with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor.
And she warmed up pretty quickly too!
Pretty soon she was comfortable with both of us one on one.
We went out on a walk to a park in Duvall that afternoon before snow was coming that weekend.
We told the family they needed a mask photo to remember this strange year...
...and a non-mask one to go with it!
We saw a Golden-crowned Sparrow for the first time here. Very pretty sparrow!
We had some fellow birders with us too!
The kids were quick to spot any movement and tell us if they saw something.
In keeping with the "bird theme," Austin made us all BIRD PANCAKES the next morning!
Here is Brooklyn's hawk.
And here is Evan's Bald Eagle complete with sausage branches to sit on.
We got to see the kids in their virtual school.
Evan is holding the BYU football we brought him.
And we caught Brooklyn doing a "Dance Party" in her virtual classroom.
They both have great teachers and are making it work really well.
Austin took us out to a couple other parks not too far away.
This is Tolt MacDonald park near the Snoqualmie River.
It has a beautiful pedestrian bridge.
We saw a Fox Sparrow there for the first time.
We saw lots of beautiful Blue Jays and also stopped at the river trail on the way home where we saw a bunch more birds. It was a very fun outing with a patient son.
That afternoon the snow started falling.
This was a first for Clara to go out in falling snow and I think she liked it!
We got to watch Brooklyn in her virtual dance class too! The family room becomes a studio!
Scott and I went out on a walk in the neighborhood to complete our "GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT" where birders all over the country go for at least 15 minutes and see what they can see.
About 2 blocks from Austin's, we saw these birds:
Steller's Jay
Varied Thrush
This was a new bird for us, so pretty and bright.
The highlight was that Evan was the one to ID it using a bird guide they had picked up on the OR coast last year.
The "Grandma-Brooklyn Project" is pretty much always dollhouse related.
This visit, we did a revamp of the living room.
Brooklyn had requested some gold wallpaper to match a gold clock in the room and we thought gold curtains would also be fun.
So, glittery gold stripe wallpaper and then putting up the curtains I had sewed ahead of time and put onto little jewel-tipped rods made it completely different!
Here is Brooklyn in the BIG REVEAL where she showed it off to the family when we were done!
We only have the kitchen left to makeover!
Had to get some family pics out in the snow as well!
You can see here one of the piles of shoveled snow near the driveway.
We got outside for some serious snow play and serious shoveling for Austin and Scott!
This was a lot of snow and piled up quickly!
Really a lot of snow!!
We had some creative time with pom poms...making creatures!
Here are Evan's
And one of Brooklyn's
And a couple of Mackenzie's!!
These kids are super creative!!
Speaking of creative, I brought Valentine sugar cookies and frosting for the kids to decorate.
They all did a really great job!!
And of course got to eat one as well!
Even Clara got in on the frosting and eating!
Scott was having fun making up silly pictures using things people had posted...so the dollhouse became home to some of the little girl cousins!
We spent some time playing with "Sensory Bins" using some new animals we had brought for the kids and some that they already had.
Clara was playing with the penguins and polar bears...and some water for them.
Mackenzie was playing with the water creatures which were really fun.
Evan is playing here with the pet selection.
And Brooklyn has the jungle animal families.
All got to take turns and play with all of the sets and it was a fun activity.
For VALENTINES DAY, we were invited to a Valentine DINNER DANCE!!
Austin had been planning this for a long time.
They all had new outfits for the occasion too!
We went to the best restaurant in town:
AUSTINO'S
complete with menu choices for appetizers, salads and main dish.
OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS SO GOOD!!!
After dinner we had our DANCE!
Got more silly photos of the family...
...and some of the kiddos!
We all danced for a long time and really had a good time...who knew we could still do the "Eggbeater" and that the kids would love it!
We had one more snow playtime on Monday morning before it all started melting too much.
We all danced for a long time and really had a good time...who knew we could still do the "Eggbeater" and that the kids would love it!
The snow was now more wet and we could build that snowman...well, Grandpa built this one on the deck and we decorated it!
The next day, we found it's face on the floor! So funny!
Got to watch Mackenzie in her virtual dance class too!
So adorable!
Then we had to head back home and back to work!
We were so very grateful we got to see all our kids and grandkids this spring! Meant the world to us!
One afternoon we decided to walk on a certain trail we like before it shuts down for the Provo River Delta Project.
We happened to run into a dear friend from our YSA who just got home from a mission! Great to see Hector again!!
We grabbed Aaron and took him birding down here this time, back to the Payson Cemetery.
Today we were rewarded by immediately finding the adorable little Western Screech Owl that sits in this tree. This was our third time to try to find him.
He was so tiny, maybe 8 inches tall?
Made my day.
The guys saw part of a barn owl in another tree but I missed it and he flew.
We found a little pond just above the lake that was really pretty!
Our backyard sometimes has the most interesting birds.
We took Aaron out to a place called Lincoln's Beach and Lincoln Point out by Utah Lake.
We did not find the specific birds we were hoping to see, but did find some interesting ones and it was just a beautiful spot.
We have started having a bunch of little Lesser Goldfinches come now that we have a finch feeder.
We will get up to 10 at a time trying to eat the seed from this feeder and they are so tiny and cute.
Lesser Goldfinches are a little smaller than regular Goldfinches.
The last Saturday of the month we went to a new spot to bird. Powell Lake in Lehi.
We saw a lovely Great Egret out in the water that was not frozen.
In this photo he is stalking prey.
Then like lightning, he strikes and pulls up a good size fish!!
He sort of keeps tossing it up his beak...
...until he gets it close enough to toss it down his throat!
You can see here how huge the fish is compared to his beak! Crazy!
At the other side of the pond we saw the bird we had heard was there.
This particular bird is a rare hybrid of a Northern Shoveler (the big scoop shape bill) and a Cinnamon Teal (the cinnamon color on the body)
Not as cool as the hybrid Male/Female Cardinal that they found in PA this month, but still very fun for us to see.
We ended the month by hosting Jeff and Camille Griffin and Jeff's daughter Charlee for a couple of nights in the basement apartment.
We had them up for Sunday dinner and it was great to reconnect with Jeff and Charlee and meet Camille!
