January: St. George, Titanic, and New Land

Amelia got to go on her date with Gigi! It was very similar to the date last month where Jess watched her so we could go to the Christmas performance. They got Chick-fil-A and went rock climbing! 

Poor thing fell asleep on the drive there.

Rusty and I decided that when Jess takes a kid out on a date we should divide the other two and take them on dates too! When Amelia was with Jess, Rusty did a Daddy and Della date. They went to Classic Skate and got some food. While they were doing that, Henry and I went to Nickel City and got some Wendy's to maximize our time there and get to play the most!

We went skiing again! I am so proud of our kids. They are doing so well and are getting so brave at taking chances and doing things that make them nervous. Amelia is really starting to get the hang of it! And I think Henry and Della are still better skiers than I am!

We saw a huge herd of elk on the way home!

Another way that we are so proud of our kids is for their progress in jiu jitsu! Neither of the kids are in love with this sport, but it is important to me and Rusty that they do it. They are progressing nicely and got another stripe! One more strip to go and then they get their gray belt!

Just a couple weeks after his last stripe, Henry got another one!

Skiing another time! The snow hasn't been great this year but it is still so good to get out as a family and do something we enjoy!

So tired after a long day!

Holly, our neighbor, invited us to go on a homeschool field trip to the Aviation Museum in Heber. We'd never been there before but it was actually a cute little museum. Our guide spoke really quietly and slowly which was difficult because the kids couldn't understand him or keep their attention on him for very long, but it was still a really great trip! A real highlight was being able to sit in a plane and also a jeep!

Amelia

Della

To celebrate Alyson's birthday we went to Valter's in Salt Lake! It is her favorite restaurant and Rusty and I had never been there before. It was really delicious and so fun to hang out with Alyson and Jaden.

Another day of skiing!

For Miles' birthday they did a party package at Provo Beach. We ended up bringing our whole family to celebrate and their whole family was there of course. Miles brought one of his good friends named Eli as well! It was our first time going here. It was pretty expensive and it was not something we'd really do again haha.

The place that did the Harry Potter exhibit changed everything up and is now doing a Titanic exhibit! We did a little study about it before we went (read some books, listened to some podcasts) before we went and it was a really cool thing. It was pretty hard to see some of the things, but it was really important and cool to see.

THE STAIRCASE

They had a giant "iceberg" for the kids to touch. It was such a cool touch!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Jr. for kids was at the Hale and we took the kids there. They had a really great time, but I was struck with the fact that the child catcher was absolutely freaky and I don't understand why that is in a kids' thing at all haha. Beforehand we went and got sushi at a new place and they had this hilarious sign out front that said "Grang Opening".

GRANG OPENING

WE FOUND LAND!! As soon as we saw this land we knew why all the other pieces fell through. It was everything we wanted! It has a little creek that runs in the back, so many beautiful trees, a spot for the moto track and a barn. And it is 22 acres! We love this property and are doing our best to figure out how to get it.

This was Della's face when I told her that she could get a horse!

We took a trip to St. George! We actually won a trip to Belize but turned it down because we were feeling really busy and wiped out. So we decided to trade it with the other person who won a trip to St. George. They were stoked and we felt relieved and had a great trip down in St. George! The AirBnb was really fun and came with two electric scooters. The kids spent so much time going around the neighborhood on those things!

Swimming at the pool which was quite chilly

Road runner!!

Our first day we went to the All Together Playground and we had so much fun! We played hide and go seek tag as a family and it was hilarious. We had so much fun together we didn't even take any pictures other than this one that the girls asked me to take.

After the park we went to the Black Bear Cafe. The food was fine but the highlight for the kids was definitely taking pictures with all of the bears outside the restaurant.

One of the coolest things about where we stayed was that there were some really amazing mountain bike trails right from our neighborhood. We were able to just leave the kids alone at the house and let them watch a show while we went out and explored! I had never ridden anything like this and it was amazing! Such a cool place!

One of the cool places we went was called Crystal Mountain and it was so cool! It has tons of selenite, and used to be an old mining area. Technically it's in Arizona because it is just right across the border. We got there and the kids immediately got so excited because they could see it shining from a while away! Once we got there and got out of the car the kids had a blast exploring! They climbed down into the bottom and were able to pull some selenite right off of the huge blocks that were still in the ground. At the end we got to take some home!

After Glitter Mountain we went to Dixie Rock! The kids loved climbing around and going up some of the little slot canyon formations there.

The next day we went out to Warner Valley Dinosaur Tracks! Now this was really amazing. I've never seen dinosaur tracks like this in my life. It wasn't a very long walk from the car but the prints were absolutely unreal! There was a section where you could see them one after another and we loved just sitting down and looking at them, and trying to brush some of the dirt and rocks off to see if we could find any more!

That night Rusty went for a little ride by himself!

The next day we went out to Zion! I love Zion so much, and this was my kids' first time so it was really fun to show them around.We got them their Jr. Ranger books and then started on our first trail of the day: Watchman Trail! We weren't in a rush or anything so we just took our time and looked at different plants and animals that we found along the way!

The views at the top were stunning!

After that trail we drove over to a different part of the park to do another hike. We loved driving through the tunnel because the views were just unreal!

Our next stop was a hike called Canyon Overlook Trail. This hike was also pretty incredible, but it had some really steep drop offs without any barriers and my mother heart was not doing well at all. Once we got to the end I was able to settle down a little but I really wasn't okay until we were done haha. The views were really amazing and you could see down into the the canyon.

We stopped at the Visitors Center and the kids got their badges and got sworn it. It was so cute to see them make those little promises! Then we drove through the park a little bit to see the Court of the Patriarchs before going back to our AirBnb.

Rusty and I had a nice trip to the temple while in St. George! We really wanted to sneak away and the kids are old enough we felt okay about it. We went to the Red Cliffs temple for the first time!

That night we went and got some tacos and holy cow they were so delicious! This place was in a little hole in the wall but it was so good I couldn't believe it! Henry was also really brave and tried some hot sauce. The video is hilarious haha!

For breakfast our last day we went to a fancy crepe place! Everyone was so happy!

We got to go mountain biking one more time before we had to go home! It was really beautiful and so fun to be able to just leave the kids at home and go out!

Our last thing we did was go to see the Million Dollar Quartet at Tuacahn. We weren't really sure what to expect but this was the only thing playing while we were there, but I am so glad that we went. It was about Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins and the one night that they all magically and accidentally got together and recorded some songs. It was so good and I learned so much about those people. The kids loved it, and Della was particularly in love with the Great Balls of Fire song by Jerry Lee Lewis.

Extra Pictures:

Just two of my favorite people watching moto

Della took a picture of Amelia and I doing school

She was so excited about her drawing!

 

Henry's Highlights:

• "All old people like Twizzlers"

Adeline's Adventures:

• "Cats these days"
• She and I kept singing and Rusty got mad at us and she said, "We just have songs in our hearts!"
• Asked for a story about a queen who was a secret spy and had many cool gadgets
• She had a little stuffy she liked but Bailey wanted to play with it so she said she practiced sacrificing something she wanted and gave it to Bailey

Amelia's Updates:

• Says "quite" quite often
• She came downstairs with her stuffy wrapped up in this blanket and said that it was ready for sacrifice