One of our favorite New Year traditions is finding a weekend in January to find the bald eagles. We head down to Sanpete County and drive the backroads from Fountain Green up through Wales and into Chester. We've always been able to spot at least a few eagles on this trip every year, and this year we were successful again.
With Dad both playing basketball and coaching Mark's team, we were lucky to find a free Saturday. We started out pretty early and spotted our first eagle right in Lehi at Mill Pond where they like to hang out. Then we drove down to Sanpete County, and just outside of Fountain Green, we started to see more eagles. Many of the eagles that we saw on this trip were clustered together. We even saw one group of five sitting together on a hill. By the time we looped around to Chester we'd seen a few deer, some cool hawks, and around twenty bald eagles. Some of them were pretty close, too. Anyway, with Mom's awesome camera, the pictures turned out great! Here are some of our favorites.
We spotted a few deer just outside of Fountain Green.
There were a lot of hawks and other raptors, too.
We watched the telephone poles closely. You can actually drive right under the birds.
Even with the good camera, they are difficult to shoot in flight.
There are a few eagles in this photo.
Many were sitting close together on the ground. Second from right is a juvenile.
Some eagles are more beautiful than others.
One great thing about bald eagles is they are easy to identify!
The boys scan the fenceposts of every field.
This eagle was posed nicely for us in Nephi (Salt Creek) Canyon.
We really enjoyed hearing his call.
We were having such fun we decided to loop around over through Pigeon Hollow near Spring City where we used to see the eagles years ago with Grandma Ockey. This turned out to be a bust, though because we didn't see a single eagle over there. At least we ended up where we wanted to, in Ephraim at Fat Jack's Pizza. We'll take any excuse to end up there!
One Monday after school, Mom packed the boys in the car and headed down to Bridal Veil Falls. She was ready for the first hike of the year since it has been such a mild winter. The boys were excited, too, especially when they saw all the ice. They loved running and sliding on the ice much to Mom's chagrin. She was worried they were going to break their necks. No one did, and a fun time was had by all!
Sometimes I can't believe how big my boys are!
The trail was covered with ice.
It only got worse as we went!
Seth didn't mind falling because he was closer to the snow he likes to eat.
The boys were so excited to ride on the bike trail.
We decided to enjoy the warm weather and take a family bike ride on New Years Day. Everyone got new bikes for Christmas (except Dad), so we wanted to try them out. It was fun! Seth still needs to build up his leg strength, but he made it a few miles. We are excited to enjoy these bikes all year!
Mark love riding his bike!
Seth was really excited to inherit Dax's bike with a classy new horn and kickstand!
Mom loves the comfy new seat on her bike.
Dax's bike is very fancy. Dad is a little envious of the mag wheels.
The boys dove out of the car into the snow as soon as we pulled up.
The kids have been dying to go sledding, but it has been impossible since there is no snow. Then we saw a fellow instagrammer sledding up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It looked like so much fun that we decided to go. We packed up our three saucers and two beat up sleds and made the drive. As we were headed up the trailer, we actually ran into the blogger, Wander and Scout, and she was as nice in person as she is on her account.
The canyon was gorgeous.
It was fun to run into Jamie Cook from Wander and Scout.
The boys were impatient while Mom talked with her friend,
so they started climbing the hill on the side of the trail to sled.
We continued up the trail and found some awesome sledding sights. There were three nice hills. Mom enjoyed the kiddie slope best because it was long, but not steep. Mark tried a really steep hill with a massive jump at the bottom. He rode right over the jump and landed on the sled. Dax and Seth were most excited about the speed on the steepest hill. We spent most of the day there on the trail to Donut Falls. We took about 400 pictures and a lot of video. Dad even broke one of the sleds right in half! But nobody got hurt, and we scratched the sledding itch. The only problem is that now we want to go back!
Seth always has a big smile as he sleds down the hill.
The older boys loved this jump. This is Dax going off it!
Dax smiles even if he is going to crash.
Seth loves going on a sled ride with Dad.
Dax will snowplow himself down the hill, too!
Mom loved the easy hills. No jumps for her!
Mark tackled this big hill first thing.
Mark really loved this bumpy route.
Mark seemed to always come down backward, but he caught air!
Seth didn't quite make it over the last bump.
Dad broke the sled in two pieces.
Mark loves sledding.
Dad and Seth took another ride together.
And ended up backward!
Dax always has his mouth open when he sleds to catch any snow that might fly up.
Seth has picked up that habit, too!
Mom ate a lot of snow on this ride.
And spun all the way around, too!
Mark tried to take out a few people.
Nice trick Mark!
Dax could catch some serious air on this one bump in the trail.
Seth liked to go down the bumpy trail, too.
He never crashed.
Go Dax Go!
Mark was smiling after every sled ride!
It was a fun afternoon.
Mom and Dad enjoyed the sledding, but they had more fun watching their boys love it so much.
