Brian, Dejah, Elliott & Trevor: Weekend Road Trip to Idaho

On Sunday, Keith and Rachael had Kenidee's baby blessing. Their church is at 9 am in Blackfoot so we decided to travel to Idaho on Saturday and stay over in a motel. On Saturday afternoon after packing everything we own in the van, we headed out. We stopped in Brigham City to visit the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. We have been there a few times, but this time we hit the jackpot! We kept pulling over or stopping in the road to look at some incredible birds!

We started off with Canadian Geese, we saw dozens and dozens of couples with their babies swimming in between the mama and papa. It was adorable!

Then we saw pelicans, which we have seen before, but they are so graceful and beautiful as they take off and land in the water.

My favorite bird we spotted was the Great Blue Heron. We saw 3 and they were so big and beautiful!

This Great Blue Heron was right next to the road and took off while we were watching it!

We also saw and identified: Killdeer, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Western Grebe, Snowy Egret, Double-crested Cormorant, Sandhill Crane, Red-breasted Merganser, Mallard, Canada Goose, American White Pelican, Great Blue Heron, American Coot.

Then 2 hours later, Trevor woke up and needed to be fed and Elliott was bored and tired of stopping to look at birds. Near the end of the loop is a place to park and little boardwalk platform to view the landscape and any birds. We all got out to stretch and look around.

We didn't see any birds here, but it was cool for Elliott to explore.

In fact, I gave Elliott the camera and he took the next 6 pictures while I fed Trevor in the van.

A lovely view.

Bugs caught in a web.

The boardwalk.

Cracks in the dirt, I find this artistic.

Elliott's last picture was of Trevor and I in the van.

Elliott raced up and down this boardwalk to work off his energy. Then when we got back in the van, he thought we were almost there, not just barely on our way...

Of course, Elliott still loves Giraffey and has to take him everywhere, so Giraffey got to get out of the van too.

A side story about Giraffey - Elliott has been assigning Giraffey characteristics and moods and Giraffey was even sick a few days ago. Giraffey gets tired and Elliott shushes us to be quiet when Giraffey takes naps. The other night after Elliott was in bed, he brought Giraffey into our room and said Giraffey was being naughty and needed to sleep with me. I said ok and Elliott went back to bed. Then we heard Elliott sobbing in his room. I went to see what the matter was. Elliott was crying because Giraffey had been bad and Elliott still needed someone to sleep with. I laid down by Elliott and rubbed his back and calmed him down. After about 10 minutes I said I'd check on Giraffey and I brought him back to Elliott so he could sleep with him. Brian and I thought it very tender that Elliott is sensitive and didn't want Giraffey being bad, even for pretend. We draw the line at Giraffey saying prayers, but other than that, Giraffey does everything with Elliott. Elliott has gone through lots of stuffed friends including Love lion, ninja turtle, Woody and Buzz, and Benny the cow. He used to sleep with lots of stuffed animals until he had a nightmare they all became robots and attacked him. Then they were put away. We shall have to see how long Giraffey lasts.

We got into Blackfoot around 7, ate dinner at Subway, checked into our motel and then went swimming in the pool. Elliott loved it, Trevor wasn't sure he liked the cooler water, but he lasted for about 30 minutes. Then we bathed the kids and got them into bed. We all slept well and were on time for church in the morning. Keith gave Kenidee a lovely blessing and then we all went to Keith's house for a pancake brunch. Kenidee is darling and has so much hair!