Birthday Weekend with Birds and Trains

Glen and I have a deal that we don't really go big for birthdays.   We celebrate them, but neither of us has any expectations for anything elaborate.   Good food is required, while gifts are totally optional.   We try to do something fun to celebrate, but honestly what we do is driven more by the birthday person than anyone planning something for the other.   That may make us sound a bit lame, but it works for us.

  Between all of the stuff going on with my family (Heather's injury and my Mom's new diagnosis), the extended family drama (which happily crossed a good threshold in the last couple weeks), Glen winding up working at one toxic job and beginning to transition to a new one (in essence working part-time at TWO jobs currently),  some health stress for our missionary,  and our very busy schedule serving in Provo, I hadn't really been thinking much about my birthday at all.  But when I realized it was on a Saturday, I decided we needed to do something...anything...to celebrate and relax a bit.    

Thus our grand birdwatching and historical birthday adventure began!   

We started the day early by driving up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.    Heather let me borrow her fancy camera for the day, and though most of my pictures turned out a little blurry, I did get a few good ones in the mix.   And I thought that having a good telephoto lens camera along with our binoculars really added a fun element to birdwatching.     Here are a few of our favorite shots from the day.  

These American white pelicans were just chilling in the water and were one of our first "exciting" finds of the day...

This ring-necked pheasant was gorgeous...

We saw several raptors, including American kestrel, Swainson's hawk, a red tailed hawk, and others...

This pretty little meadowlark looked like it was posing for us...

We thought these long-billed curlews were fascinating...
 

We did the auto-tour twice and did a guided walking tour as well, and after all that soaking in the beauty and peace of being out in nature, we journeyed onward to the Golden Spike National Historical Park. 

  The park marks the place where the Eastern bound railroads met the Western bound railroads in 1869.  Apparently Promontory Point became a bustling hub for a while, but eventually the railroads built a new causeway across the Great Salt Lake, which was a much more direct route, leaving it a ghost town. 

We were surprised to learn that during WWII, they ceremoniously UNdrove the golden spike, ripped up the railroad for steel for the war, and officially decommissioned the railroad line completely.   Everything there at the historical site  now is a replica of the original, including the two trains that made the official original trek.  

It was an interesting place to visit, though it was out of the way enough, I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.  Perhaps someday we'll take Oliver (and other interested grandchildren) to check out the trains, but for now I think the long drive would be too much.  

After all that adventuring in the middle of nowhere, we were ready for some real food!   So on the way home we stopped by Smoked Taco (my favorite)...

And then found Milk Barn Creamery in Ogden for some ice cream.  We love finding independently owned ice cream places when we travel and this one fit the bill perfectly.  We've been searching high and low for Zwahlen's equal (our favorite ice cream ever near our home in PA), and this one was better than average, but still not quite as good!  Definitely a great way to end a relaxing day of adventures.   

After that we went home.   I very much enjoyed these flowers from an apartment of guys in our YSA ward (the Dutch boys) and lots of nice texts from friends, family, and ward members.  

It was exactly the kind of laid-back day of adventuring that I was craving and it made getting older feel not so bad. 
 
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A Bit of a Mess

 As has become tradition when we have a child serving a mission, here's a little life update taken from a letter written to our missionary.  I figure it's a good way to cross two things off my list at once.  3/13/23 

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Hello to our favorite missionary in the whole wide world!  

So how's life in the land of Beavers and Dams?    So first things first, have you actually come across any beavers or dams yet?  Or are these still hypothetical dam beavers?  If you ever actually see one, I expect 4 gazillion pictures, a baptism date, and a personal introduction (so make sure to get its name).   

Most weeks I write to you life is really boring, but this week is not.  Here is a picture of me and our car from last week.  As you can see, we are both giant messes.   This was not a one time occurrence.   I have pretty much been a bit of a mess (brain wise, house wise, car wise, and other wise)  all week long.  

Why the mess?   Hmmmm, let me see.   It could be the RS activity last Tuesday, which was very time consuming and not as much of a rousing success as I would have hoped, which discouraged me a bit.   It could be that I was somewhat sick  with a cold most of the week. It could also do with the fact that I didn't sleep very well much of the week (a lot of that to blame on the cold).  It could be losing an hour of sleep on Sunday night.   It could be that Dad's been out of town (in Saint George and Denver) for several days.  It could be my hormones. It could be that Kiwi's in heat again...something that I was hoping would never happen again, but Spence has yet to get her spayed.  It could be that I'm so over the wintry weather I could throw snowballs at the moon.  

BUT....

GUESS WHAT?!    

Despite there being yet another winter storm warning on the horizon, the last couple of days, it has warmed up a tiny bit and the snow has been melting!   And when I say warming up, I mean temps NOT in the 30's!   I almost wore my bathing suit to church!  Haha.    Also, for as much as I dislike losing an hour of sleep, I really do like the extra daylight for going on after-dinner walks, of which I'm 2 for 2 now.   

Guess what else is making me happy?  

I'm going to California for a sisters/mom weekend.   It looks like Dad and I will barely cross paths (he comes home and I leave the next day), which is kind of sad, but I am excited to enjoy some California weather for a bit and spend time with my sisters.  

Here are a few other things that are making me happy.    

Spring break is coming up in a few weeks and there are no RS activities in April, so I'm hoping that will help my stress level a bit!   

Sweet pictures of Lucie.  I know I am a little obsessed, but I don't see her enough, so I have to obsess over the pics and phone calls!  

Also, I had book group at our house this past week. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was a good turnout and it made me very happy to discuss a good book.   I feel like the women who come to book group are the closest thing I have to friends here in Utah, so I very much look forward to it each month.

We {Ellie, me, my mom, and Heather} went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and we loved the stark beauty there. It was still pretty frozen over, so there weren't as many birds as there will be in a few weeks, but the birds we did see were awesome.   {tundra swans, bald eagle, northern harrier, great blue herons, etc}  PS  The aforementioned messy car pictured above, became messy here at B.R.   

 Then we headed up to Rexburg for the day. Rexburg is a nice town (everything seems a bit newer than Provo) and I think Ellie's going to like it there.   It made for a long day, but the bird watching was good for my soul and Ellie enjoyed the opportunity to see her future home town.  

 

They asked me to make programs for church...each week now.  You can guess how I feel about that!  :)

Also, I drank water, ate food, and  drove places.  haha

Well, I know I said it was not a boring week, but writing it out, it doesn't sound that exciting.   I hope I didn't put you to sleep at least.   I'll close off with a spiritual thought before signing off for the night... 

 

ON Sunday, we discussed this talk:  

It was an interesting discussion about the parable of the wedding feast.  Ultimately we decided that God is there welcoming us with open arms, even when we are choosing to not follow the path.   

"Each of us should evaluate our temporal and spiritual priorities sincerely and prayerfully to identify the things in our lives that may impede the bounteous blessings that Heavenly Father and the Savior are willing to bestow upon us. And surely the Holy Ghost will help us to see ourselves as we really are.

As we appropriately seek for the spiritual gift of eyes to see and ears to hear, I promise that we will be blessed with the capacity and judgment to strengthen our covenant connection with the living Lord. We also will receive the power of godliness in our lives—and ultimately be both called to and chosen for the Lord’s feast."

Well, I LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY and hope you've had an amazing week! 

Love, 
Mom 

Nice

Once upon a time a nice family went on a nice walk.   

It was a nice day. 

They saw nice views, 


nice geese,

and nice birds. 

Then they saw something strange and wondered what happened to the nice tree...

and to the nice place to sit. 

Then they realized. 

Oh yeah. 

It's just those dam beavers again. 

Bear River Bird Sanctuary

Ask me what my idea of a perfect vacation day would be and this trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (near Brigham City, UT) would pretty much encapsulate it all.  We were out in the fresh air, unrushed, and surrounded by one of the most idyllic settings on earth.  The only thing that would have made it better is if I'd had Glen and the kids with me. 

About a 90-mile drive from my parents' house, I had truly never seen so many birds in my entire life and I was so completely enraptured with the scenery that I could have stayed there for days on end. 

We took the 12-mile driving loop around the sanctuary and  I felt like a little kid as I constantly was yelling for my sister to stop the car so I could take a picture. 

The picture below is probably my very favorite out of the whole bunch and I'm pretty sure that this is a good glimpse of what heaven looks like. 

This ring-necked pheasant was as gorgeous as the scenery and I was glad to have seen it before we left. 

In the middle of our drive, it started snowing lightly which made the scenery and the close-ups all the more stunning. 

This straight stretch of road just called out for us to stop and take some portraits of each other.  I love this one of my youngest brother, Tim (the mountain man).

All three of us were having fun with our cameras...

Over the course of the drive we saw  tundra swans, clark's grebes, double crested cormorant, great blue heron, northern shovelers, Canadian geese, red-tailed hawk, ring-necked pheasant, a sandhill crane, American coots, magpies, American avocets, northern pintails, western meadowlark, lots of ducks (in many varieties), a deer, a gazillion birds that we didn't recognize, and rustling around in the bushes we discovered a friendly little skunk who couldn't decide whether to come closer to the car or to stay hidden!   We saw him peek out of the brush three or four separate times before disappearing again.   

 Don't worry....we stayed nice and safe in the car during that stretch of the drive. 

Our only disappointment of the day (if spending a few hours in such a heavenly place could be disappointing) was not seeing any bald eagles.  Other than that, it was awesomely awesome and I plan on visiting again as soon as possible.

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PS  The reason why I watermarked these photos with "World Adventures of the Crain Family" is because I am also adding them to my family's travel photo blog.    It is definitely still a work in process, but with as much as my parents and siblings like to travel (and take lots of photos), it's a fun place to gather the photos all into one place. 

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