8 is great

brian and i celebrated our 8th anniversary last sunday. after church we went over to hobble creek canyon to do some exploring and went on the most amazing hike. we walked along the creek as it came down the canyon. the water was cool (literally) with lots of rushing and little waterfalls. and, if you can imagine, we saw three new birds. we're experienced enough birders that it's not very often that we see so many new birds on a single outing. below are some pictures of the birds we saw--our favorite was the white-winged crossbill.

the plumbeous vireo.

this gray headed junco is a bit more puffed up and mean looking than the one we saw, but you get the idea.

just check out that crossed bill.

whilst we were in the canyon we also found a yellow-bellied racer (also known as the mormon racer). the poor snake was dead, but it was still a good sighting. thankfully we had gone to the library the day before and checked out a handy book called "snakes of utah" so we could accurately identify it. we also saw several little chipmunks.

when we came back home we enjoyed a nice dinner together and then had fresh cut mango and tembleque for dessert--mango and coconut are a winning combination. we also sat out on our back/side yard swing. it was one of the first truly pleasant nights we've had so far. and there will be so many more to come this summer.

it was such a nice day. thank goodness brian and i both went to see a three punk band show at rick's college back on a nice september evening in 1999.