Day date photos March and April 2022

 

The past couple of months we have had some fun adventures.

I am having a "little year" of bird watching.   I am enjoying seeing all 

the birds as we go out on our dates.  Above is a Tundra Swan.

This is a Sand Hill Crane. 

An American Kestrel.

This could be a Prairie Falcon.

I so enjoy finding new places to explore. 

There is always something new to see and learn.

This is a park on the Great Salt Lake. 

You have to use binoculars to see the Bald Eagles out

on the Great Salt Lake near Antelope Island.  

I was so glad to see them again this year.

We have had fun driving around Antelope Island

and seeing the Bison.

I wonder if the ones that are by themselves

and not with a herd are young male bison.

Sometimes they stand right in the middle of the road.

They are pretty cool to see.

Do you know the difference between a Raven and a Crow?

Ravens have a hooked beak, and glide about. 

This is a Raven.

We Spent a day at the Hogle Zoo.  

I had thought we were going to have a nice warm day,

but spring has been pretty cold.

I love the stripes on the Zebra.

The Lions were very nice to pose in such a regal manner.

I think this Orangutan was feeling a little cold. 

I wonder if the Apes stand and people watch. 

Rhino's seem like such a prehistoric animal.

 

This wild cat looked so cute, you would

think you could take it home. 

Despite the cold I got to test my photography skills out

on all the Zoo animals.  It was fun.  Perhaps we will go back when it

is a little warmer.

We had an ice store a few weeks ago and

I got some nice photos of my back yard bird.

I believe it is a Lesser Goldfinch.  

On another day off we went for a walk along the 

Provo River.  This is an American Dipper. 

Here is a pair of Golden Eye Ducks. 

This week we went back to Antelope Island.

I wanted to see if there would be any baby bison.

I think the lone male bison decided to have a day

at the beach.  Which meant we could not

go on the beach.

Another new bird for my birding of the year.

A Meadow Lark.  I might start listening 

to bird calls.  This one sounds so beautiful.

Here is a herd of Bison.  I can see some babies.

If you go take binoculars as the herds are usually really

far away from the road. 

We probably won't go back again until fall. It was pretty buggy out.

We did have a lot of fun adventures out here this winter and spring.

This might be an American Pipit. 

Do you like bird watching?

Have you watched the movie 

"The Big Year."

It was a fun movie.  

Well hope you enjoyed my photos. 

G.G.

Bird watching around the Great Salt Lake... Yep I'm a bird nerd!

 

We had a great time bird watching yesterday.

We went to a new location around the great salt lake.

I really loved this quote.  And another one that

said we need people to realize that the birds and

the lands they migrate to are important. If we as people don't 

decide they are important we are going to lose them.

I loved all the information spots along the walk way. The walk way

is actually over the great salt lake, but right now it is so low 

you don't even realize that there is water under you. 

We walked up the big tower, it was fun to be above the birds.

We saw some red winged black birds flying below us, 

and it was fun to watch them and actually see the red in their wings.

Not sure why this spot was made this way, 

perhaps there are times where you can see

different animals in the water.

I've been trying to photograph birds

in flight, it's very hard. I can never keep focused on the bird.

After leaving the Great Salt Lake shorelands preserve

we headed to the Farmington Bay bird preserve. 

There were lots more birds here, probably because there was

more water.  This is a Double-crested Cormorant.

A Great Blue Heron.

American Kestrel.

A Sandhill Crane.

A Tundra Swan.  

It was so much fun to see some new birds. 

Have a wonderful week.

G.G.

My 2022 New Year Goals.

 

Hi Friends.  Did you know there are 302 days until Christmas? 

One of my new year goals is to count down to Christmas everyday so that I have

to think about something to photograph and to show myself that I have done different things every day.

I think this is because Christmas is the busiest time for me at work and when it is over

I often say "we are going to blink and it will be Christmas again." 

So if you follow me on Instagram and you have been wondering

why does she keep posting photos with these little Christmas gnomes that is the reason.

Goal number 2:  To continue to go on weekly dates with my husband.

I have been taking the gnomes on our dates, my husband rolls his eyes at this

but hey they want to go on adventures too.

Our most recent adventures have been to Antelope Island.

We love being out in nature, doing hikes and seeing the wild life.

I'm glad for my zoom lens as we do not get close to the wild animals.

Goal 3: Track my goals.  I got a little  notebook and I write my daily goals in it

for the week, and I also write 3 things I am grateful for. 

Goal 4: Read something spiritual everyday.

Goal 5:  Continue with staying fit.  I have this great indoor bike,

it took me awhile to get used to sitting on it, but once I got over that I have been

biking about 5 days a week.  It came with a fitness program. "IFIT"  I love this program.

I love that I can be in my home and have trainers and also bike all around the world. 

With this program I do bike rides and yoga.  The instructors are so motivational, I am getting

physically fit and mentally fit.  I also do YES.FIT challenges.  These are virtual races and when you finish you get a prize mailed to you.  I love these programs.

Goal 6: Learn to make a quilt and help my daughter with a sewing project.

I have a lot of quilts that are falling apart and I am having a hard time

giving them up, so I am going to try and cut a block from each of the old quilts and 

make a new quilt.

Goal 7:  Do things that make me happy.  I am creating a pretty cool 

Halloween costume.  ( I know it's February and I am making a Halloween costume, but

what I am making will take a long time to put together.)

Goal 8: Organize my photography.

Goal 9:  Make books of my favorite photos.

I love goal planning.  Looking back to last year I actually reached a lot of my goals.

I became debt free!  I started learning to do yoga!

I had many fun dates with my husband. 

The best way to achieve your goals is to work on them a little bit 

every day. 

I hope to blog more this year.  That is something that I didn't do much last year.

I hope you are all well and the first two months of this year have found you in good health.

G.G.

Our Bowlby Family Christmas Letter 2021

 

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends.

The truth is this year I did not write a Bowlby family Christmas letter!

This is our card for the year.  I have to say I like this Christmas card design,

The last three years of cards have had the same design, with different photo's and different

colors for the background, but the Christmas tree shape is the same. I love "Shutterfly"!!

The last 7 months have been very busy for me, and I decided that most people who 

I sent a Christmas card to would just get the card and no letter.

A few people got a small personal letter on the back of their card.

So here is what our family has been doing in 2021..

Here we are last winter.  We did a lot of outdoor dates because you can

be mask free outside.  I was thinking last winter we were all excited because soon

there would be a vaccine and we would be mask free by July.  Here we are in 

December and still wearing masks, I'm getting ready to sign up for the booster vaccine, but

even with that you still need to wear a mask.  I was promoted where I work this past spring.

I love my job.  I enjoy all the aspects of my job and I enjoy working with the people in

my little department. When I am not working I spend my time going on dates with my husband, and 

doing photography.  I got a new fitness bike this August and just love my new fitness program.

2021 has been a good year for me, I feel blessed. 

We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. 

We had 25 love songs for 25 years of marriage.

Jim had a nice year of fixing old cars, and visiting with friends,

he even went to New Jersey to visit family and friends.

He is still working for the same company and has a lot of friends at work. 

Both of our children are doing excellent in college.

It was nice for them to actually have classes on campus.

Our daughter is double majoring in Business and Japanese.

Our son has not selected his major yet.

He really wants to be in an animation program, and

while he did excellent in his classes, he was not

chosen to be in the program, he is trying to get in again.

He for now is studying language translation.

Our little family has been blessed these past two years.

We have had our health, we have had jobs, we have

had time together.  Our little world is full of light and laughter.

There is a Perfect Present, it is not being in the past or looking into the future.

It is living in the moment.

I am thankful for the great gift of the Savior and the light he gives to all of us.

I hope you all take time out of your busy lives to stop and think of all your many blessings this Christmas.

Merry Christmas

From the Bowlby family.

The great sorting of my photo's begins.... Some favorite Christmas photos.