You won't believe this!

I went up to Logan to spend the day with Heather today. We both forgot our cameras so no pics but we had a fun day. We did a little shopping, had lunch at the True Aggie Cafe where we had a most delicious turkey,cream cheese and cranberry sandwich, and did a little more shopping. The find of the day was an owl statue to ward off any more birds. We found it at Ross and it was the perfect statue. I brought it home and promptly placed it up where the bird nest had been and that night...

Yes, that's right...two of the birds are now roosting on the owl that was supposed to scare them away! That blows that theory right out of the water!

Holcolm Valley Scout Camp

Austin decided to return to Holcolm Valley Scout Camp to work this summer after having a great time there last year. Parents are asked to help drive the staff there and we had done it last year so they asked us again this year...probably because we have a truck more than anything else. After our little bird adventure, we headed over to the meeting place, loaded up the truck and were on our way to Big Bear Ctiy, Ca.

Austin, Jason and Riley rode with us. It is about a 9 1/2 hour drive but we try to stay together so there were more stops waiting for the slower ones to catch up. We left at 5:45am and arrived in camp at 3:30pm. I took a few pictures of the camp in it's un-cleaned up state. The staff will spend this next week getting it all put together.

This is one of the main buildings where the office is and the trading post.This is the pavilion where they eat their meals . The building behind it is the kitchen. Steve and I helped get it cleaned and we helped get dinner ready. They are spoiled to have such a great facility and to have all their meals cooked for them!Austin is standing inside his new home for the next eight weeks. This tent has one attached behind it where they keep their clothes and whatever else they have. It was a bit chilly still up there. Steve and I ended up sleeping in the first aid station instead of a tent because I knew I would be too cold. The first aid station had heat, electricity and a bathroom!

Austin is the lifeguard this year and will be teaching lifesaving and swimming. This is their pool...looking a little green you say? It has been sitting all winter. The aquatics crew will be draining it, cleaning it and whatever else they have to do to get it ready...that's their job this coming week.While waiting for dinner to be done, Monte the assistant director led everyone in singing camp songs. After spending the night and attending their short sacrament service, Steve and I left for home Sunday morning. We only stopped once and made it back in 9 1/2 hours. Oh, my aching bottom!

The Brids- finale

Okay, quick funny story about our little nest of birds. We were leaving to take Austin to His summer job in Ca. at 5:00am on Saturday. Steve opened the front door to put a milk bottle out and one of the birds flew into the house! That started a hilarious ( it's funny now but it wasn't then) chase through the house trying to get this bird to fly back outside. We opened all the doors in the house and tried pushing him in their direction by swatting at him while simultaneousley ducking to avoid him. We kept yelling "go outside!" which Gizmo promptly did, then we'd yell at her to come back inside while yelling "Get it outside!" all of this as you can guess was terribly confusing to poor Gizmo who had no idea what to do. I don't think she even realized there was a bird in the house because it stayed up high. Anyway, Steve finally cornered it in Austin's room, caught it and released it outside. Now I am more serious than ever about finding an owl for my porch!

Our Birds Part 3

Our little birds finally got big enough to leave the nest. The only problem is that they don't seem to want to leave our front porch which has provided plenty of excitement for Gizmo...

She wanted so very much to go outside and meet them in person!

For the last few days they have been content to just hang out on the porch which has left an ugly mess if you know what I mean( I didn't think you would appreciate a picture!)But today they were gone when I got up. I got some good close ups of them before they left. Steve cleaned the porch all up and I am very glad to have my swing back again. No more bird nesting allowed! We were told to buy an owl statue and place it on the porch to keep future birds away so I am on the hunt for an owl statue.

Family Pictures part 2

As I said in my weekend post we went into Salt Lake to have some metro shots of the family taken. Ryan needed a model family and of course we said yes! The pictures turned out amazingly great! I am going to have such a hard time choosing. I love them! You can view them all on http://www.rltphotography.com/ but I thought I would post a few of my favorites...

I love these so much I really am having a hard time deciding which one I want for my over the mantle picture. Help!!! Let me know what you think. Do you have a favorite?

Awesome, aren't they? What a great looking family!

Baby Bird update

It's kind of hard to tell in this picture but our little birds are growing quickly. Their eyes are open and they have feathers. They will be flying away before we know it!

Ogden Trail Days/ Early Father's Day

Hang on... this is a long post!

Heather and Clint invited us to go to Ogden Trail Days on Saturday where Clint and his friend Vaughn were going to be putting on a little concert...so of course, we went. I'll have my picture taken with Heather any day! Here we are at 8:30 am. Below is Clint doing a little solo with Vaughn and Devon on backup.The whole group from left to right, Devon (back up), Vaughn (lead) and Clint (singer/ instramentalist). Vaughn has a great voice and has written some cool songs. We were their biggest fans of the day!. They played for 2 hours and then we decided to go check out the trails. Ogden actually has done a great job with these trails. I think they are still working on some of them but when they are finished they will connect for about 10 miles!The trail follows along part of the Ogden river. There were kayak demonstrations and safety classes being taught this morning. Looks like a fun river to kayak on!

It is a very pretty walk along the trail. Especially the newer parts. The trail takes you under 24th Street and then continues along this path if you go up river...which we did.We came across this bridge and decided to explore beyond it, but first things first...we couldn't pass up a photo op!I love this picture of Clint and Heather with the river in the background. Who took that picture? Oh Yeah...ME! It was amazing to us that we were almost in downtown Ogden and this little forest was nestled in here and we had never known it!

As we followed this path we came upon A hidden little beauty...Fort Buenaventura.There is camping here and canoeing on a little lake (or a big pond depending on your perspective) and it is quite a lovely place.

The campsites are all shaded and grassy and you can even camp in Teepees! Fun!Who knew this little bit of heaven was here? Okay, maybe lots of people know but we didn't and it was fun to "Find" this treasure on our hike. Our last picture as we headed back.This underpass is part of the newly completed part of the trail.

In the afternoon, back at home, we played a little bean bag toss. Here we all are taking our turns.

I thought I had a picture of Clint and Han too but they must have been deleted. Sorry guys! Heather and Kyle celebrated after making two shots in the hole...

Because Steve and I will be gone over Father's Day (We are taking Austin to California to the Scout Camp he will be working at for the summer), we decided to celebrate today with a barbeque and gifts. Forgot to take pics of the dinner but it sure was good! Kyle, Han, Austin and I gave Steve a gift certificate to Swan Lakes Golf course.

Heather (who by the way is becoming quite the little craft woman) and Clint gave him this awesome picture of us superimposed with the Proclamation to The Family over it. Heather made it with her new amazing Photo Shop. It turned out so nice!It matched perfect in our front room. Here is a closer view.Beautiful job Heather! We finished out the evening with a trip into Salt Lake where our favorite photographer Ryan took metro shots of us. We are going to be his demo family for his studio. These shots were great! Can't wait to see how they turn out! Wow! another funfilled full day! I love summer weekends!

Nesting Time

We have the perfect spot for a birds' nest at the top of our porch column. Last year a Robin built her nest there. This year we have swallows or sparrows...we aren't sure which. These guys are much more fearless and stay close by all the time even when we are outside. Austin swears they keep trying to attack him! I work out front in my flower garden which is right by the porch quite often and they will fly all around me the whole time I am out there but they have never tried to attack me. This is the one I think is the male...
And this is the female, again I am guessing but she is the smaller one. I thought they posed very nicely for me.

This is the nest and you can see the head and beak of one of the babies. There are four of them as far as we can tell. They are still fairly new and I haven't seen their eyes open yet. I am hoping to update pictures of them weekly on my blog so stay tuned!

FHE Field Trip

Since Austin has never ridden on the Front Runner we decided to ride in to Gateway this afternoon by train to go to see the movie "UP" at the Gateway theatres. I have to agree with Kyle and Han on their rating of this movie.

This is a four star fantastic movie! Very cute and funny! We did a little shoppping before the movie and went to dinner at AppleBees after the movie. We missed the trax back to the front runner station so we hoofed it there just in time to catch the train and played "I Spy" all the way home! Good Times!