Let’s See…What’s New?

We’ve had a busy week with the usual school and after-school activities. Ashton has officially moved up to the “red group” in swimming and is working on flip turns and the more advanced nuances of each swim stroke. Zach’s military history class re-enacted the battle of Constantinople this week at school. 

Derek received a birthday gift of Bethel Heights wine from Grandpa Randy and Grandpa Peggy. We enjoyed the Rose with a new cooking experiment- Slow Cooker Korean BBQ Pork. Both were delicious! 

Earlier in the week, we made another new recipe- Parmesan Chicken Soup. Delicious with homemade bread! 

We were visited by our raptor friend again, this time for a longer (20 minute?) visit to our yard. We think he or she is either a Coopers Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. They are both very similar in features except the sharp-shinned is slightly smaller with a squared off tail. So at this point we think he or she is the sharp-shinned, but we are not totally sure. 



Zach spotted the hawk first outside his bedroom window thinking, “ummm…that’s not a branch”. Good spotting Z! 

I had another great wildlife encounter on my run with my friends yesterday morning on Walnut Canyon road/trail. A huge herd of 30-50 elk stampeded across the trail in front of us. Don’t worry- we were quite quite a ways from them. They were huge, and fast- like a train of muscle, fur, and hooves. We lost count as they whisked by. There were so many and we were just in awe! 

The weather has been mild so no snow on the mountains. We cooked hamburgers on the grill for the second weekend in a row! We are all looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday and the long holiday weekend break!