Bear River Bird Refuge

From Promontory we talked about going to see Spiral Jetty, but after talking to the rangers, we decided we'd wait until we had the truck and save ourselves the $500 towing fee for minivans in the middle of nowhere. Instead, we stopped by the bird refuge by Corinne way up at the top of the Salt Lake. Our camera has no real telephoto, so this was the best I could do. We saw pelicans, blue herons, snowy egrets, something or other grebes, swallows and lots of things we didn't know the names of.

It was pretty and no one was around.

We let Joss drive.

This was the pelican Chuck-a-Rama. You could just see them saying:

"Percy, please have another carp!"

"Oh, Penelope, I couldn't possibly. I've had three already."

See the spots above here? Those are the backs of the carp, swimming in water too shallow for them. Kind of creepy, but then I've always thought Chuck-a-Rama was pretty scary too!

I can't believe how big Sebastian is! Because he's younger than Maddie and Will, no one makes a fuss over him, but I'm telling you now, he is going to be bigger than either of them. He's a stealth grower. He is already wearing bigger shoes, pants and shirts than Will was in 1st grade, and Will was a mammoth. I'm certain he's the biggest kindergartner, but I wouldn't be surprised if he were also bigger than all the first graders at his school.

And here is Joss showing his cuteness plumage. This is the only thing ensuring his survival lately. He screams all the time because he doesn't know how to talk. Instead he usually yells "Mom-mom-mom-mom-MOMMMMMMMM!!!!" When he isn't in his high chair shrieking, he is emptying drawers and cupboards of everything. EVERYTHING. Earlier this week I put him down for a second nap when I couldn't take any more. I called Rob to confess that I was hoping he'd be able to talk when he woke up. No luck.

We saw a lovely sunset, ate dinner in Brigham City, and drove home tired.

On Monday we were going to go visit more, but we got tired of driving (read: driving with Joss in the car). So we took the kids miniature golfing at Trafalga. This was enlightening (we've never taken the family miniature golfing before -- when I say we don't do anything in Utah, it's because we don't do anything) and overstimulating (oh the lights! oh the games! what the devil are 'dippin' dots'?) and pretty expensive to knock balls around on astroturf. Then we tried to go to the dollar theater along with half of Utah Valley. Everything was sold out for the entire afternoon and evening so we went home and I showed the kids "Man From Snowy River" instead. All three kids liked the horses and the music. Maddie could not be-lieve the hair bows.
Believe them, m-dear. That's what we used to wear.