Memorial Day

Memorial day this year was certainly "memorable."  It was Keiton man's b-day so we headed down to Bountiful to celebrate with him.  We took two cars because Craig needed to stay the next day for work in SLC.  On the final climb to Getti's house the van overheated, spitting steam and smelling terrible.  We had a great party and enjoyed playing tag, painting toenails and playing with the babies.  The next morning we headed to SLC to visit the newly remodeled aviary.  Turns out the van was sicker than we thought, and we barely limped into the aviary parking lot with the heat monitor peircing the big H.  We all got into the aviary and then Craig and Dave left to go "figure things out" with the van.   Meanwhile, Getti and the kids and I went in to enjoy the birds.  It really was a magnificent aviary, with gorgeous landscaping and many lovely displays but honestly our first time around we struggled to enjoy if fully due to big crowds, crying babies and a disproportionate adult to child ratio.  Rhyse kept trying to join the birds in their natural habitats and Getti's babies just cried because it was their nap time.  We did our best to enjoy the birds.  Highlights were the posing ballerina swan, and the tiny tiny wild quail baby that we thought was a chick of a much larger South American bird.   Oh, and I really loved the owl exhibit.  Anyway, after an hour or so Getti pretty much just lost it and practically ran from the aviary pushing her screaming babies!  We decided to follow and called the men and asked for backup.  They arrived and we determined a new plan.  

Dave took Keiton home for a nap and Craig went with him to get the car (such a blessing we'd come with two vehicles).  The rest of us had lunch, which consisted of some junk we'd brought to snack on.  Cookies and chips mostly.  We filled up the best we could and then got to decided how to spend our stranded day.  We went to the park, played frisbee, built stick cabins, and chatted.  It seemed long, mostly because we didn't have the option of leaving, but really we had fun.  

 

Later Craig came back and we left Brigette with all the kids and took the van to the closest shop we could find to drop it off.  Then we came back to the park ( we were completely stuck until Dave came back with another car) and explored more of the park.  The kids loved the mountain river stream and were soon completely soaked.  We sat by the lake and watched the boaters, and generally just relaxed from our long day.  Finally at 4pm Dave came back and I talked everyone into going back to the aviary to "get our money's worth."  This time with the guys and hardly any people we had a wonderful hour.  

Again we were lucky enough to find a baby quail and had the privelege of holding it and returning it to its home hoping the mother would call it that evening to come home for dinner.  This provided some worry and drama, but it sure was exciting!  It was probably a 1/4 the size of a baby chick!    We finished this long day by cramming ourselves into the car with the large stroller and driving to Chuck-a-Rama to stuff ourselves, and then I drove the kids back to Centerville.  It was a very long tiring day, but we feel so blessed to have been "stuck" at a fun park and to have been able to be with Getti and her family.  We are so grateful to them for all their help!