Chukars? Seriously?

Tyler's work has a company barbeque every year and a lot of festivities that go with it. They have a fun-run and a golf tournament. Our family has never done the run, but Tyler participates in the golf part each year with his internet team. In the evening there is a huge barbeque (featuring steak) and they give away prizes and money. Tyler, unfortunately, has never been a recipient of money but it is still enjoyable to go to the barbeque and see people from his work.
The company also provides a t-shirt for anyone wanting one and we usually get one for each member of our family. This year they were tan (weird choice, but whatever). The only problem is that once my children joined the playground, they were surrounded by children that looked exactly like them. Ivory wore her squeaky shoes so she was pretty easy to find, but the other two blended in like camouflage and it kept my eyes busy the entire time.

To finish off the evening, the company buys tickets for a baseball game for any families or employees who want to attend. We have never gone to the game before because of having younger children but we thought we might venture out this year and try something new.
So we packed up the family and headed to see the Orem Owlz play. Our family is not heavily into sports so this is the first real baseball game our kids have been to and it was fun trying to explain the rules to the girls. June seemed to understand fairly well and she got excited when the 'red' team would hit the ball and run the bases. Robyn and Ivory usually just clapped when everyone else did. The stadium they built at UVU is well designed because there is an area with just grass, which lets children run around a bit more, and a playground (which we took full advantage of). Tyler took the girls over to play and I stayed in our seats for about 3 innings. It was just as well because not much happened in the middle of the game. The family came back to watch the last two innings and the Orem Owlz pulled out the win. They were playing the Idaho Falls Chukars so Tyler was rooting for the other team (since he is from IF) and the girls went back and forth between the red and blue teams. I was teasing Tyler a bit since he was cheering for the wrong team, and I asked him what a Chukar was anyway. He thought it was probably some kind of wood chuck. Okay...there are plenty of weird mascots out there and the wood chuck seemed appropriate for Idaho (no offense). Upon returning home, Tyler looked it up and apparently a Chukar is more of a pheasant bird. Here is a picture.

Seriously? Who chose THAT as their mascot. I would rather be a woodchuck. They try to make it look more fierce, (shown here on the right), but let's face it...it's a game bird.
To be fair, the whole game was fowl and I don't think of owls as particularly fearsome creatures but they do have large talons and are considered a predator. And in movies they can be quite terrifying (I am thinking more of Secret of Nimh not Bambi). I personally like the little eyes they have chosen to represent the owlz, but it is more of the same --trying to make a bird look mean. They handed out hats to the first 1,500 people. Um... we didn't get any, but the people behind us were very nice and gave their hats to the girls at the end of the game. They are a bit large for the kids, but the thought was really nice. You may have noticed by now that I did NOT take my camera that night but here is a picture of the girls wearing the hats the next day.

Look at those fierce owl eyes :)