Eagles

Jason is in Chile, South America right now.  It's warm there.  It is really not warm here.  So while he is enjoying the warmth and beauty of Chile, we decided to find joy in our cold weather and the creation around us.  That meant a mommy-daughter adventure.  Although we had a late start due to a mom who wanted to squeeze too many things into one day and daughters who were not cooperative in transitioning to our different activities, we managed to be blessed by countless eagles.  I saw a tree with at least a dozen eagles roosting in it.  Unfortunately I had no place to park and take the picture, not that these pictures do any justice to the graceful power of the eagle or the scenery we viewed.

I discovered that the Middle Mississippi River is home to the second largest population of eagles in the continental USA.  

 

Double click on the picture and see how many eagles you can find roosting in the trees.



Two swooping eagles, a squadron of pelicans, and a variety of water fowl.  If you double click on the picture you can also see about 8 eagles sitting on a little "island" in the background.

One of hundreds of eagles sitting on the ice of the Mississippi

 The girls-well, at least Madelyn- was intrigued by the eagles and was eager to help me spot them as we drove along the river.  Callie was tired, so after a few minutes of watching them by the lock and dam was glad to go back to the van and sit in her carseat.    
We stopped at Dairy Queen for supper and ice cream on the way home.  The Dairy Queen in our town closes for the winter because it has no indoor seating, so finding a DQ with spoon handles and indoor seating that serves more than ice cream was definitely a highlight for the girls.

Posing by the spoons

Pretending to lick ice  cream from the spoon

We had a great afternoon laughing and enjoying the majesty of God's creation.  It was a nice treat.