Nathan & Rebecca

We feel blessed to live in an area with lots of kid/family friendly places and activities nearby. One such place is called Dinosaur Park. It is actually a museum and a park, with interesting and informative displays inside and a walkway and playground outside. We headed here for a fun family outing on Friday and enjoyed studying various rocks, crystals, minerals, and fossils as we made our way around the inside displays. We gazed up at the impressive skeletons of the giant creatures who roamed the earth so long before we were here and wondered at the remnants of various creatures hailing from the ice age. Then we headed outside to explore the dozens of painted dinosaur statues dotting the walkways, each with their own descriptive plaques. Of course before heading out it was time to play on the dinosaur themed playground with cement dinosaur skulls to hide under, a giant sea turtle to ride, hatching baby dinosaurs to weave around, and various slides to glide down!

We recently acquired some new chicks that we are raising. Austin and Emma love to hold them, and we invited some of their cousins over to see and hold them too. Luckily it was a warm day, so we played with a few of the chicks outside for a bit.

Without much snowfall this year, we were afraid we wouldn't even get an opportunity to go sledding as we love to. Therefore, we were delighted with the snowstorm that arrived in our area this weekend. We were actually surprised that the park we drove to for our purposes apparently received less snow than we got at our house, but we still had a great time sledding down the nice large hill there. After getting home, our kids went to work trying to create an igloo in our back yard.

On New Year's Day, we had hoped there would be enough snow to snowshoe. Unfortunately, there was not. However, Nate and I still were happy for a chance to get away up into the mountains and hike Stewart Falls while my parents watched our kids for the morning. Particularly with COVID, we have been on fewer dates than usual, so our hike was a nice reprieve from the craziness that comes from our rambunctious kids. The waterfall always looks amazing in the winter when it has turned cascading icicles! Our dog was thrilled too and enjoyed trying out the new boots she got for Christmas!

Our Christmas day was jolly this year. We spent Christmas morning at our own house checking out stockings and opening gifts. Austin and Emma were thrilled with everything from their new Lego sets to their new alarm clocks. Rebecca spent hours of time this last year making a new wooden dump truck (pictured above) for Austin that is sized to go with a previous wooden toy she created for him, and she was very happy that he liked it.

After lunch, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and some additional gifts. Austin and Emma were once again thrilled with the awesome K'nex sets they got from extended family. We enjoyed spending some time with family and playing some games together as well. We stayed the night so that we could also play racquetball this next morning with Nate's old roommates and go out to lunch with them.

While things were a bit different this year with all the face masks, social distancing, and other such things, we were grateful to still be able to spend time with loved ones despite virus concerns.

Last weekend we were able to get away for a couple days to spend some time with close college friends. This has become an annual gathering that we have been participating in for several years now. Normally we have stayed at a cabin together, but this year we actually rented out a historic courthouse that has been turned into an overnight rental. The previous rooms such as the jail, county sheriff office, and other department offices have been converted into bedrooms for the guests. Other rooms, like the department of energy and the courtroom, have been converted into eating and living areas.

It was a fun place to stay and hang out with friends. We played games and visited Butch Cassidy's childhood home. Our kids enjoyed playing with friends as well and spent time building boats to float down the canal or pretending to play judge and defendant in the old courtroom.

Despite COVID, we were still able to go out trick-or-treating this year, and our kids had a blast as usual. We all dressed up: Austin and Emma were LEGO figures while Nate was Paul Bunyan and Rebecca was Babe, his blue ox. We also did a family Halloween party with Rebecca's family as usual - eating dinner, carving jack-o-lanterns, dressing up in our costumes, and watching a Halloween movie.

Fall is our favorite time of year to be in southern Utah. The daytime temperatures are moderate, making them perfect for hiking, and the leaves are turning to brilliant yellow hues.

Our previous plans to vacation with family this year were canceled due to COVID, so we planned a different vacation with them instead. We stayed at a beautiful cabin for a few days and spent time together hiking, playing games, and eating delicious food that we took turns preparing. We hiked through a couple slot canyons, to cavern area called "Cool Cave" (pictured above), to a natural bridge, and to a waterfall.

Both our kids decided to join the local running club for kids. Since it is fall, they are running cross country. We were able to watch them at their first race of the season this last week and cheer them on. These pictures of them are from the end of the race right before they crossed the finish line.They both did great and beat their previous run times!

Austin has been wanting a leopard gecko for awhile. We told our kids that if could demonstrate that they were trustworthy and responsible enough and if they could save up enough money, then they could have a pet of their own. Austin has been working toward this goal for the better part of a year, and he made it. He is thrilled to have a pet of his own now!