Birds of Prey…At Our House!
if you’ve been a reader for a while (or spent more than 17 minutes with my husband), then you know he’s a BIG dreamer. not only is a he a big dreamer, but he is a big doer!
we usually have a company party at christmas time (and by “usually” i mean the last two years since we had money to do so). however, we have an awesome back yard. i worked my keester off last year staining our whole deck so it’s extra good looking now! we decided to host a summer company party!
since our company consists of a few full-time employees (me+him+our amazing assistant sharlyn!), we decided to extend the invitation to our employee’s family and friends. if you’re reading this IRS, we did invite some clients too so…there.
as we start planning and budgeting for this summer time party, my husband says “i wonder if we could have a hawk come to the party?!” i partly blame the movie “the secret life of pets” and the hawk in that movie. atlas cried hard when the hawk first chased the little white puppy and now she looooves the hawk.
eventually my husband found his way to HawkQuest. we were originally going to cater our party but instead…my husband cooked most everything in order to save costs so WE COULD HAVE BIRDS OF PREY AT OUR PARTY.
i was skeptical. i stand corrected. it was amazing!
those are all volunteers from HawkQest that don’t usually do sunday events but made an exception for us! from left to right: a barn owl, a harris hawk, a peregrine falcon and a bald eagle!
i was not expecting to love the barn owl as much as i did but it was a stand out! this could be heavily influenced by hedwig. they don’t name the birds of prey because they don’t want people to think they can be pets. smart thinking!
this owl weighs 20oz – that’s less than two cans of pop! yes, we say pop in colorado. owl’s eyes are fixed in their sockets so they must rotate their heads to see around!
the handlers all knew awesome facts and our guests were encouraged to ask lots of questions and take awesome photos with them!
he dives of peregrine falcons have been clocked up to 200 mph – that’s insane!
we decided to take a family photo with the falcon…this is what happened:
right as we were posing for the picture, the falcon decided it needed to stretch its wings and they totally brushed up against atlas’ face! obviously, we were all startled. shout out to my soulfriend lindsey for being the best birds of prey photographer!
we spent the rest of the party trying to convince atlas that the bird hugged her face and it wasn’t trying to get her.
i don’t think she bought it.
we might be paying for years of therapy from this ‘incident.’
in other news – eagles are massive and slightly terrifying.
unless you’re baby lyla – then you ain’t phased.
so, if you’re married to someone who is full of wild and crazy ideas…i get it. sometimes, let those ideas unfold and you may be pleasantly surprised yourself. good job ravery, i’m sorry i doubted this big dream of birds of prey at our party!
we have set the AveryToday, Inc. party expectations exceedingly high for all future events.
let’s dream wild and crazy for a minute…
if you could have ANY type of animal/bird/reptile/whatever at your party, what would it be?
today, i’m gonna go with…baby panda bears!
COUPLES WORKSHOP IN DENVER 9/8/18!
Audrey
August 2, 2018 at 12:33 pm
Oh my gosh. The family photo is ridiculously amazing. Frame that and put it above the mantel. Seriously. LOL
The barn owl is soooooo pretty! I love falcons. I love that people used to keep them and take them out hunting. I think they’re such intense and gorgeous birds!
Looks like that eagle liked your family MUCH better than the one who visited tr*mp. HA.
chelsea
August 21, 2018 at 10:53 am
falcons are sooo intense! i mean dive flying at 200mph. whaaaat?!
it was a super fun party! turns out i like birds of prey more than i initially thought haha