Fat Cats

 We are trying to make the most of our Get Out Passes. Last week we went bowling to Fat Cats in Saratoga Springs. James's friends all have passes too so they came with us.

I have gotten used to wearing masks at stores, school, and rec center. I haven't gotten used to wearing a mask at extracurricular activities like bowling, watching sporting events, and skiing. It was really annoying to me when I went skiing and wanted to breathe some fresh air at the bottom of the hill but had to keep my mask up even though I was six feet apart from others. At the bowling alley it was hard keeping my mask on.

Kaden's Jr Jazz

Kaden played Jr Jazz this season. It was his 4th season playing. About half of his team had never played basketball so it made things a little slow going. It wasn't as fun for Kaden to play and I can see how club teams and competition teams fit a desire and be able to play with experienced players. 

Coach O'Donnell was a great coach. By the end of the season the team was playing better together and the new kids had gained some confidence in playing.

Balloons and Tunes Festival

Ali invited us to go with her family to the Balloons and Tunes Festival in Kanab. We left on a Friday morning and met up at Belly of the Dragon in Mt. Carmel. It was sunny but chilly.

Even though it was man made it was still a really cool cave. It goes under the highway and has an opening on the other side. I feel like the pictures are an optical illusion because it looks like you descend but it's actually pretty flat through the whole thing to the other side.

Next stop was Coral Pink Sand Dunes. I've wanted to take my kids to see some sand dunes so this was really awesome. We were all covered head to toe and everything in between with sand but it was worth it.

We rented a sled and had fun sledding down the dunes.

This arch and other objects were created from the wind. It's hard to tell the scale of the arch but it is only a few inches tall. 

The ninja of Coral Pink Sand Dunes was there :) He was in his element there.

We checked into the hotel and washed some sand off in the hot tub. 

Kanab has a really fun skate park with a park and basketball courts next to it. Marshall stood on the top of the trunk and did a heal click. I think if it were me I would have fallen off.

I think all of my kids would say the skate park was their favorite part of Kanab. There was a pump track around the perimeter and so we did timed trials. Drew and James were the fastest on scooters. Taggart brought the balance bike and was pretty fast for that.

That night we went to the booths on main street. There was live music making for a fun atmosphere.

Saturday morning Ali, Katelyn and I got up early and went running around Jackson Reservoir. It was beautiful seeing the sunrise.

Then we went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival. It takes place at an old golf course. It's the perfect venue because everyone can spread out. There was plenty of room for all of the balloons which ended up being around 30.

Next we hiked Buckskin Gulch. It was a really pretty slot canyon. It was really cold but thankfully we were prepared with warm coats, hats, and gloves. Chewie was a great hiker and did the whole thing by himself.

The slot canyon ends and it opens up to this cool arch in the rock.

The last hike for the day was Toad Stool hike.

Properly named.

Leave it to Marshall to find a way to the very top. He is the little black dot at the top of the white rock heart shape. The rest of us waited at the toad stools. 

When we got back to the hotel it was snowing and really windy. We hunkered down, went to the hot tub, ate dinner and then once it past we went to the skate park.

That night there was a lantern launch on main street. Ali provided lanterns for us to participate. It was still kind of windy so it was really hard to light the lanterns, wait for it to fill up and then set it off up in the air. The wind just wanted to take them to the crowd of people ahead of us. It was pretty tricky to launch them. We weren't the only ones with problems. All of the people participating had a hard time launching their lanterns. It's amazing no ones hair lit on fire when the burning lanterns went blowing towards the crowds instead of up in the air. It became pretty entertaining. At one point I was in my car with Chewie, Kaden and the minis because we were all cold. I had a perfect view of the lanterns launching. I was doubled over laughing at the craziness of it all. Some lanterns blew into trees, on flag poles, and on the school. Marshall was a really super trooper trying to help James launch his. The third lantern was the charm.

We were six minutes from Arizona. We left the hotel Sunday morning and drove to the boarder. Then we headed home. It was stake conference and so it was really great that we could watch/listen to it on our way home. There are some good products from Covid.

We wore them right out.

Valentine's Celebrations

Lynnlee, Kaden, Taggart and Sienna got to celebrate Valentine's Day at school Friday the 12th. We weren't sure it work out to pass out Valentine's because of Covid. Thankfully the school decided it was ok to move ahead with it as long as the Valentine's came to the school on Monday that week. 

The minis made Valentine's bags in class. Lynnlee used her gumball machine from last year and Kaden used his Charizard box from last year. So it was a very stress free week.

They all came home so happy and said it was a great day. James on the other hand had a normal day in the life of a 7th grader and he was missing the fun of elementary school class parties.

Sunday Cupid's Crazy Cafe was open for business. Betsy and Ali's family were our brave customers. We switched it up a little and you got to your utensils with the whole meal. The trade off was possibly having some wacky utensils. The utensils were numbered in the middle of the table. Each person drew three numbers from a hat and matched up with the utensils in the middle of the table.

 We had a lot of forks hoping that the adults could each get one.

We had roast, mashed potatoes, grave, craisen salad, rolls, green beans, jello, Cran-apple Sprite cocktail and chocolate toffee crunch cake. We had an appetizer round, main dish round and then dessert. It was pretty entertaining to see what order everyone got their food. As a kid it might be fun to get dessert first but as an adult that makes my blood sugar go wonky. I was happy I at least got the cake as part of the main dish so I could eat a lot of dinner before getting my dessert.

This is what Ali drew out.

Sienna was pretty excited about her utensils.

Dan's:

Lynnlee likes it better when you don't have a utensil for each round so she chose to eat her food with her hands.

We had fun hanging out after dinner.