Tracy Aviary

Recently I've been trying to find that balance. The balance between time spent with the kids. Between the laundry and cooking and cleaning. It takes time to adjust to two kids and then as the youngest grows and changes in so many ways I have to keep changing the routine up. I've felt kinda bad for Charlotte. She can be rather naughty and I think its more attention she's looking for from me. So I decided to start trying to do more with her during the day. She loves painting with water colors and drawing so I thought some crafts might be a good thing. Especially with all the holidays this time of year. So we started with some ideas and went shopping to stock up on the stuff. We picked out some paint, construction paper, pipe cleaners, and glue. I wanted to do some things here at home to update some older items. She helped me pick out some tulle colors to make a tulle Halloween wreath which I've decided to make one for all the holidays now. We found some seeds that were ten cents a package so we're going to do our own starts next year and try to grow a whole mess of veggies and flowers. Most likely that will be done on my parent's property since it would take way too much time and money to do on ours for now.

So Charlotte and I got all stocked up and started some crafts. We made some spiders and are working on a little haunted house out of popsicle sticks. We have some plans for paper plate pumpkins. But its been hard to find the time to get all the stuff out on the table and work on it. Especially when I have to stop so often for Jackson. So on Friday I thought I could take Charlotte to the aviary. Scott had only had a couple hours of sleep the night before from the football game then having to work at 3am. He was miraculously off before noon. I figured he could nap while I took Charlotte. Jackson had been sick and was sleeping quite a bit so I knew when he went down Scott could get some sleep in if the noisy girl and I were out of the house.

So off we went for a mommy/daughter afternoon at Tracy Aviary. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice and quiet there. I love birds! I took a bunch of pictures and I think they're all out of order so here we go!

We showed up right when they were feeding the pelicans. Its crazy to watch these guys eat!

 The lovely Golden Eagle

 I think this was a type of condor... Andean maybe? Could be wrong... but I think he was warming himself in the sun. It was kinda chilly but perfect when you had the sun on your skin.

 Roadrunner! We used to always see these guys when we'd camp in the desert growing up. Especially Anza Borrego.

 This guy was gorgeous! Some kind of pheasant.

 The pigeons were super friendly there. They must get fed by people a lot because they were following us. Not flying away like most pigeons. They were super cute and now I want pet pigeons.

 And I've always wanted one of these guys for a pet. I love Canadian geese and this guy kept following us too. Sadly I only had one quarter on me for food and gave it all to the ducks. Next time dude! Next time!

 These birds are over in the Argentine area. Pretty incredible that some of the birds that live here in Utah travel down to Argentina for winter. Crazy far! Utah has some amazing birds and I love having the Salt Lake so close by because we see all kinds of birds. The kinds you find in the mountains to the kinds you find at the beach. Love it!

 I asked Scott if he ever recognized any of these birds from his mission but he couldn't remember. He was also around Buenos Aires so maybe Rick would recognize more since he was further north in some more rural-ish areas.

 I had to laugh at this. Random peacock on the bldg... so odd...

I love owls and think they're super cute. And we arrived at lunch time so we got to see some of these guys eating. I want a pet owl too... I think I just need a zoo :)

 Yeah, he was eating in case you didn't notice the mouse intestine :) Oh and this guy was missing his left eye! Poor dude!

 Charlotte with another friendly pigeon. Yeah a bird that doesn't run from Charlotte. This is rare footage you are witnessing! :)

 And again! These birds apparently haven't talked to Toby.

 She wanted to chase this guy down so bad. I had to lure he to the other birds to save this guys heart from giving out.

 She is a dig in the dirt and sand girl so she was loving this feature.

 On our way out she had to run along the pond at Liberty Park and she found a "bubble blower." Goofy girl.

We picked out a magnet before we left for our fridge collection to all the places we've been. Then we got some ice cream to share. It was nice to just have time as me and her. I'll have to have Scott do that with her too. This girl needs some more one on one time and I'm glad we're slowly figuring out that balance to help our kids and make them just a little bit happier!