whooooo's there?

Last night we were driving home, right as the last bit of light in the sky was disappearing. As we turned the corner onto our street, we saw something big fly by low, right in front of the van. We were wondering what it was and saying maybe it's an owl, when we turned in to our house and another large 'something' flew by right over us, coming out of our tree. We saw them land on our neighbor's house across the street. There on the roof sat 2 large owls, though we could only really see one. They must have been about 18 inches tall. They sat there calling to each other. I realized, I don't think I've ever heard an owl call before--it's really quite a haunting call. Braden jumped right in and started calling to them--and they kept answering back. After 5 minutes or so of watching them and calling to them, off they flew. Maddie and I had just recently read in 'Little House in the Big Woods' about the owl following Pa in the woods, and now Maddie got to see and hear some real owls.