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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Thoughts on Homeschooling, LDSHE, and Adam's Graduation

Adam was in 5th grade when I started homeschooling him {and Ellie}.  I had no idea when we started how it would go or whether we'd keep it up for very long.  All I knew is that I felt strongly that it was the right thing to do and ultimately it ended up being a day by day, week by week, year by year endeavor.   The fact that we kept it up for 8 years was as much a surprise to me as it was to anyone else watching us from the sidelines.  

One of the most common comments I get when people find out we're a homeschooling family is that they could never homeschool their kids, because their kids are too social for that.     I'll tell you that no statement about homeschooling makes me madder.   There seems to be this prevailing notion that homeschooling families sit around the house all day, learning in a vacuum, and hiding out from the world.   Reality couldn't be further from the truth.   My kids are just as social as yours and  their learning is hands-on, individualized,  and engaging.  They interact with people of all ages (rather than only with the artificial age-group settings of school) and honestly, I often feel more like an educational manager, than a teacher most of the time.   My kids each learn very differently than each other and my job has been to find the resources they need to succeed.   

I share all this with you to preface my next statement.   

The last two years of homeschooling were by far our hardest.   Not only did we move away from our beloved homeschooling community in Virginia and start homeschooling in one of the most stringent homeschooling states in the country, but we also got shorted by COVID just like everyone else.   I think a lot of people assumed that we had it easier than them, because of the aforementioned misconceptions about what homeschooling is actually like.   But...just like everyone else...our school year got absolutely decimated.   All our in-person stuff either got canceled or moved to zoom.   All their activities ended prematurely.  AND, because we were new in a state without a lot of homeschoolers or LDS kids,  they didn't have an established group of friends to create a pod with.  We were suddenly living the homeschooling life that people think we live all the time and it was literally about as lonely as lonely gets.   To be completely honest, it was extremely difficult  for all of us, but especially for my very social kids.  

Thank goodness we  had each other.  

We all struggled, but in the process we all grew closer together and made it through.   And, in the middle of all that, Adam got into BYU. 

So, when LDSHE (a homeschooling conference for LDS parents/teens) rolled around this year (in May), we knew we had to find a way to be there.   Because of COVID, they'd moved it from a convention center in Virginia to an outdoor venue in Tennessee...which made it a 9-hour drive for us.   No matter.  We needed to see our tribe again and we needed to properly celebrate Adam's graduation!  

 After two years of isolation and being surrounded by masked strangers, it was a truly emotional experience to be there.   I cried to see my kids have face-to-face (without masks) interaction with people who knew them and loved them!  I ate up every conversation I had with old friends and I just relished being surrounded by people who got me!   No more explaining myself, trying to justify my life decisions, or trying to find my niche among people who really didn't seem to like me all that much (a story for another post).   

Being there was exactly the healing salve we were all craving.   

Pennsylvania was fully locked down until the day we moved away at the end of June, so this little reprieve in May was EXACTLY what we all needed.    

In addition to being schoolmates for the last 8 years, Adam and Ellie are also close friends.  

We did it!!! 

It was so fun to see Adam spend time with his fellow graduates and friends from our homeschooling co-op in Virginia.

Here are a few more pictures from the conference....

His graduation was as validating for me, as a homeschooling parent, as it was for him, a homeschooling student.   It really was a day to celebrate for all of us!  

On the way home, we stopped at New River Gorge National Park...

We went on a hike and soaked in the glorious views...

 

It was a wonderful way to end a wonderful few days!   And then it was time to get back home to packing and moving again.