birdwatching

We flew back from California late Friday night after Thanksgiving... and got up early Saturday to drive down to Battle Ground WA to see some of Austin's side of the family -- Mitch and Jen and their kids (and their families) as well as Grandma Carole, Aunt Lori, and Austin's cousin Bronson from North Carolina! One of the things we did (and the only thing we documented well) was to go birdwatching.

It was a beautiful slightly foggy Washington day. We had to stay in our cars, so we caravanned through the reserve together.

The elusive Northwestern Hawk.*

(*Our name for any hawk we couldn't easily identify. Most likely a red-tailed hawk.)

There were a number of different ducks and coots -- the coots would often dive underwater like penguins, which was extremely cute.

We saw some herons...

...including the majestic Great Blue Heron. Pretty awesome.

Another heron, this of the non-great, non-blue variety.

One of the areas was home to hundreds of Tundra Swans. They were noisy.

Brooklyn had a blast with her little cousins! (Technically second cousins?) Megan and Rusty's girls are pretty much adorable.

Speaking of adorable! Olive was a super good buddy with B.

While that may look like the rare and exciting Northwestern Hawk from a distance, it's actually just a common old Bald Eagle. ;) Seriously though, it was fun to see one, even if it was just baaaaarely visible.

We had a great time with the Taylor side of the family and we were very happy we could make it work out to come for a couple days. We had a great time together -- such a great time that we apparently forgot to get out the camera much after birdwatching.

We're very lucky and blessed to have such great extended family -- on both sides of our family tree -- and we love spending time with them whenever we can. We love all of you lots! Come visit us :)