2020, October 12-18

The kids had a couple of days off from school this week, so we took a long-needed road trip to St. George. 

Eliza was being a little sneaky Sunday night into Monday. We found out why Monday morning: 

Eliza is doing a bang-up job at school, as is Landon. We're proud of our kiddos! Here's some of Eliza's and Dad's math work. We appreciate how hard her teachers are working to make distance learning meaningful and fun, and Eliza is making great strides. Hallie is sad not to be able to witness these strides in person.

For an art lesson this week, we painted rocks using a kit Hallie had gotten for us. Mike attempted to teach a little color theory, but mostly it was just fun in the sun. The final rocks turned out really cute.

Dad even painted a few rocks of his own! 

Eliza's painted pumpkin and pirate posed with the other gourds on the porch. 

We had a lovely sunset on Tuesday. Eliza went collecting crickets.
 

Eliza started Wednesday morning in a bit of a surly mood. This happens less frequently of late, fortunately. She had a scratchy throat, so we opted not to go on campus this week. Hallie commented later she took the picture because Eliza woke up with great hair.

Taking advantage of the weather before it changes for the colder, we did some of our lesson outdoors after Mike finished teaching his class. Sometimes, with Eliza you need to think outside of the box to keep her moving forward (in this case, math using sidewalk chalk). Mike did a great job at that this week!

Mike also brought out his kite because the wind was just too good to resist. 

After school, Mike took Eliza and Lily to Jaker's while Hallie ran some errands. There were not quite so many people there as we have seen other days, but there is a reason Utah's COVID numbers are on the rise. Wear masks, people! 

Eliza had a really full day, because after Jaker's she had her riding lesson. Right next door to Creekside, she and Mom spied a happy Halloween house. Hopefully, this Friday they will get a slightly less blurry picture.

Eliza has been complaining of back pain, so we have been taking her to physical therapy. Work it, girl! Hallie took pictures so she could remember what all of the different exercises were supposed to look like when it came time to do them at home.

On Friday after Mike got done with work, we headed down to St. George, stopping off at the Creamery in Beaver. 

Hallie caught a camera-shy Mike unawares as he was having fun with the kids. We enjoyed a sweet treat and funny jokes. The Creamery has spiced things up with outdoor firepits and a bigger ice cream parlor. 

Here's our view north from the hotel room. Phenomenal weather! 

The main reason we went down to St. George was to buy Welsh cakes. Well, kind of. We went down to watch the Redrock Highland Games as the Payson games were canceled this year (and get Welsh cakes). 

Landon was captivated by this great old school magician. His name is Bob, and Hallie and Landon had met him before when they were in St. George in the winter. Bob is a great magician, and you can find him most Saturdays at Tuacahn.

Hallie liked the funny sign. Make Scotland Great Again.

Hallie also liked seeing funny ways people were advertising how we should behave. 

Watching the caber and sheaf throwers. 

After we saw what we wanted to see at the games, we drove over to Santa Clara to see Great Granny O's grave. We also stopped by her old house, which has been nicely xeriscaped.  

As we were driving back to St. George, we realized we were driving right by Great Grandma Landon's old house, where Mom also used to live for a while. 

We went by the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site and learned about dinos living in the area some 200 million years ago. The kids were fascinated (sort of). We appreciated learning how this site contributed to our knowledge about dinosaur behavior. Landon was a good sport.

After science, some food! We went to the Judd Store. Not like Hallie remembers it, but we still had fun.

We ended our day out visiting Great Grandpa and Grandma L's gravesite before returning to the hotel and its pool. Eliza said her favorite part of the trip was the family history.

It was a quick trip, so we started heading back on Sunday. We went to an all-access playground on the way out. A bit too busy for our taste, so we did not stay long.

While there, we saw this fun little roadrunner. Some kid thought it was a dinosaur. Thanks, Jurassic Park. 

On the way home, we stopped briefly by Cove Fort for a little bit more family history. Due to COVID they are closed. Some family members may have been more happy than others that they were closed.

There was a fire in Provo Canyon this weekend, and we got this view of it from the road.

It sure does melt your heart when your nearly 13 year old son says repeatedly, "I am so glad we are doing this, it is nice to spend time together." He wasn't sure he wanted to leave his creature comforts when we first started out, but before too long Landon was a happy traveler. Monday - Friday we are very busy, and so it was a well needed and much deserved break for our little family.

Congratulations to the Lakers, Cougars, and Dodgers for a great sports week!