Exploring Utah County

Along with the previous post of "firsts", Oliver has been finding a lot of places for our cute little family to see and go to. He developed a love of bird watching when he was younger because of his mom and within the last week decided to pick it back up again whole-heartedly. If you are really interested in the birds he has found and where he has found them, he started a blog about it(link on the right). It has been really fun to go with him and see his passion for it. How intense has it been? He bought two Utah bird books on Friday, binoculars on Monday morning, found several websites connected to Utah birdwatchers and when we decided to purchase a new digital SLR camera, the second lens was telephoto. Needless to say, last night after dinner we took a drive to a new place in Utah County and played with the camera. First, I love photography-I may not be as advanced as I used to be, but I still love it. Second, it actually helped our bird watching efforts to be able to come home, look at the photos and realize we had seen birds that we hadn't been able to identify while actually watching them. It was like a scavenger hunt to compare all the photos of different birds with photos others had taken on the website with the books that we were using as reference. Granted, with two little boys and limited time, we didn't always have the patience to sit and watch like I believe some bird watchers have, but the adventure itself was amazing!

Our latest adventure was last night. We went to Utah Lake, but to the southern end to a place called Lincoln Beach. Even though it was windy, we got the boys out and walked around with them a bit as Oliver continued taking pictures of shore birds and kitesurfers. That was a surprise, something I'd never seen before, but I was amazed by it!

Wakeboarders propelling themselves by the wind with giant kites!
The only downside to our adventure was that it happened after dinner right as the sun was setting(or at least going behind the mountains) so the lighting wasn't perfect, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves!