Made it to May

At the height of the coronavirus, Salt Lake County issued an official public health order: Stay Safe, Stay Home.  The upside of this new mantra: our home is a generally a great place to be.

Lately I've felt discouraged about all the weeds in our yard.  I just need to remind myself how beautiful the flowers are in spring.

Our yard may not be large, but there's room enough to roast hot dogs.

Who needs J-Dawgs when you've got Jason's dogs?

The best part of our house is really the neighborhood.  When COVID-19 hit, our neighbor put out all these little wooden homes for families to take home and paint before returning them to the fairy garden.

Inside our home, we decided it was time to break out the unicorn crafts, courtesy of NomiAnn.

We've also been working on our Girl Scouts of Utah Centennial patch, including a 1913 badge requirement to secure a burglar using eight inches of cord.  (Boy Scouts enjoy this as well.)

Also from our Centennial patch--learn to play a Filipino game, Tapatan (1980s)...

...and make a rain cloud in a bottle (2000s).

Maybe the 2020 Girl Scout handbook will have a new requirement: learn to sew a face mask.

Our brave teachers from Wasatch Elementary held a drive-by parade for all the students to come and wave.  Despite the rain, Annika loved getting to see Ms. Blank, if only for a moment.

In an effort to entertain ourselves at home, we broke out the slime.

Talia's art class kept her busy painting.

Beautiful!

Sometimes she looks to nature for inspiration.

Whatever the medium, this gal's creations shine.

On a tastier note, Talia took a Foods and Nutrition class this semester. 

I'm not certain how nutritious, but we sure enjoyed sampling her homework!

For science, we watched our caterpillars morph into butterflies over quarantine.  

These eight butterflies were so active and fun!  I felt joyful (and a little jealous) watching them fly away, so completely free.

My emotional stability during this pandemic has been the foothills.  I get up into the mountains as often as possible.  One run along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail was so beautiful that I made the kids hike it with me later in the day, just so they could enjoy the flowers as well.

Talia ran eleven miles down Emigration Canyon and across the shoreline trail with me.  This gal's tough!

Home at last.

This tiny hike up Rocky Mouth Canyon was fantastic.  Just a half mile from the trailhead, and you discover this.

In case I forget where the trailhead, it's just south of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  11248 Wasatch Boulevard in Sandy.  Well-worth the trip!

Plus, some sunsets are not to be missed.

At the beginning of May, Utah began to slowly reopen as restrictions lifted.  Our very first adventure out was to the Hogle Zoo.  Zoo aficionados, we happily showed up on the very first day.  The zoo did a really great job spreading out admissions and creating a one-way walking path that made the experience both enjoyable and socially-distanced.

Personally, I think the animals missed us.

For May the Fourth, we joined up with Justin, Brianna, and Ruby for a Star Wars celebration.  Uncle Justin has the best Star Wars swag.

The Star Wars battle scenes took over the dormitory as well.

X-wing in action.  Now if only it folded laundry as well.

On May 9th, Jason and I celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary.  Seventeen!  I loved being a newlywed, but there's a unique richness and depth to love that matures over time.  

Ever willing to make my dreams come true, Jason spent the day hiking up Big Cottonwood Canyon with me.

In truth, Jason's not hard to convince.

I certainly hadn't anticipated the route being so snowy!  Good thing we brought our yak trax and hiking poles.  

We lost the trail for a while.  I wonder why...

At last, Dog Lake.  It'd be fun to hike it again in the fall and compare the vistas.  

  

When we got back home, our kiddoes had baked us a special celebratory dinner.  

Plus, they made us the cutest card.  They're really the best!

Happy Anniversary, Peanut Butter!  Together, life is so beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, we went back to Temple Square to soak in some more spring,  I just can't get enough of all the flowers.

Look closely, and you'll see that they were in the process of disassembling the temple.  I think these repairs were due to the earthquake, not the renovation.

Angel Moroni is still missing his trumpet.

My favorite munchkins.  (Am I still allowed to call them that, especially when half are taller than I am?)

And now for the brilliant colors.

In honor of my Grandma Garda's baby brother.

Most of the flower photo credits go to Talia.  I love her fresh perspective on the world.

One final message.

As Eli can reassure you, life is still good.