Wheeler and the Sandhill Cranes

Wednesday we headed to Decatur to return some pants behold the bounty of the sandhill cranes at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge.  We hit a couple stores and grabbed lunch via the drive-thru at Bob Gibson's in town.  That was a little weird as I ordered a gallon of tea and she thought I said a gallon of beef.  We have been grossing each other out since with 'liquid beef' references.

We had a picnic lunch out by the boardwalk trail where we could see about 100 cranes and loads of song birds hitting the feeders.

We walk at Wheeler fairly often, but have not been in the visitor center in a couple of years.  As soon as we walked in Ben said, "It smells exactly the same!"  I told him it had smelled the same since I was a little kid.

I had a great time pointing out all the diorama critters to Bird, who was in top form for the day, he is sooooo cute, I decided even his germs must have kitten faces.  He was in a cuddle mood, so yippee for me twice.  I sure don't mind a little snuggle bug now and then!

After looking at all the mounted birds, we headed out to the observation building and spent another hour or more there watching the birds and chatting.  The kids set up a card game and we enjoyed hanging out in the warm sun and the sound of the birds.

Jake has been writing a new D&D campaign

More lovely sunsets

FROM WHEELER:

The indoor dioramas are always fun!

Out at the Observation Building:

Alllll those dots off into the distance are cranes!

After Wheeler we headed home, Matt picked up Alex to come work on his character with Jake.
Jake has tried a couple other times to get a full campaign going and it's never worked out.  I am hoping this time will be different, he has been working so hard to get this one written up.  I suggested this time he shoots for once a month meetups.

Tomorrow we all go meet the new dog with Nia in tow.  I am dreading that, which should tell me plenty right there.