A Month of Fun

I am not as on top of this blog thing as I'd originally hoped. A month has passed already. Happy fall everyone! Lots of fun stuff has been happening. We went to the State Fair with Dave and Shauna, for one thing. The classic big yellow slide was lots of fun, but I think watching the carnies and peering into their lives was even funner. Both Laurie and I couldn't help but think of that one Simpson's episode. You know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the Fair was fun. Thanks for coming with us Mom and Dad!






Another exciting adventure with Shauna and Dave was our trip "over" the Great Salt Lake on their air boat. The Lake is super low this year, but still gorgeous. It is far more majestic once you're out in the middle of it, relative to standing on the stinky shore. It is so strange to be out in the middle of a huge lake and the water only goes up to your knees! Air boats are very loud (notice the ear protection) but super fun. Trey had a great time, as evidenced in the photos.





I went on a work trip to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Celebration of Flight festival last weekend. Corpus is the "Birdiest City" in the U.S., so I added numerous life birds to my list (yes, I realize I'm a geek). The organization I work for (HawkWatch International) has a raptor migration monitoring site down there. The festival takes place at the peak of the migration. On a great day, you will see over 500,000 raptors fly. Unfortunately, I didn't get to witness that phenomenon, however, there were at one time 20,000 raptors in a "kettle" directly over our heads. It was absolutely surreal. It was great meeting all the local volunteers and supporters. These people are some serious birders. Some of the coolest species I got to see (raptor and otherwise) include: Roseate Spoonbill, Wood Stork, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Cave Swallow (they were everywhere), Great Kiskadee, Green Jay, Zone-tailed Hawk, Mississippi Kite, Crested Caracara, Green Kingfisher, Tri-colored Heron, Reddish Heron, and lots lots more.

While I was in TX, Laurie and Trey played with the Bush Fam two days in a row. They went to the Treehouse Museum and Fat Cats. According to Trey, Glow Golf was the highlight of the weekend. He sure loves Tob and Samantha. He let me know that I should've come to Fat Cats instead of going to Texas. I really missed out, I guess. Maybe I can convince Laurie to post to our family blog and tell ya'll more about it. She's stubborn, ya know. I love you sweetie! ;)

So ya, things are going pretty well. We're gearing up for a trip to Phoenix and Tucson to visit our families in a couple weeks. Trey turns 6 this month by the way. Good hell. His teacher's are already saying he's the class clown. Apparently, this is genetic, so I probably should just accept that reality now.