Paco—The Main Event

The official story is that we came to Atlanta to spend time with Larry & Gaye. Here's a picture of us at their ward BBQ to prove it. (The ward BBQ that was interrupted by a complete & total downpour that left some of us very wet indeed.)

Fortunately we were almost done eating when the rain came, so Russ & I loaded up most of the kids and went back to the house. Larry & Gaye had to stay a little longer at church, so we let ourselves carefully in the front door.

Larry and Gaye have 3 kids who are serving on missions right now in Las Vegas, Portugal, and the Ukraine. When their kids all went to college they got another "kid," a green cheeked Conure named Paco.

My kids love Paco.

Paco usually has the run of the house; his cage is open and he can get out and walk around on the floor, or get himself back into his cage if he wants to.

When we got back from the BBQ Paco was walking around in the entry. The little kids were most concerned about Paco's safety there on the floor and decided that we needed to pick him up and put him on his perch so that no one would step on him.

Unfortunately that was easier said than done. Paco was much more interested in biting us than in letting us pick him up to put him on his perch. Jenna tried offering him a stick to climb on, and Russ tried getting his shoulder down to floor level.

(notice how wet Russ is!)

Paco wasn't interested in getting up on Russ's shoulder either, but he did shelter under Russ for a while.


After Paco got tired of hiding under Russ he decided to come check out my feet & shoes. Turns out Paco likes shoes.

When Larry & Gaye got home they found us still sitting in the entry, happily held hostage by Paco.

Jared is already planning to save up a couple of hundred dollars so that he can get his own Conure. We'll miss Paco when we go home, and I think Paco will miss the excitement of having us here as well!