February Fun

We had a super fun February. A few trips. Lots of basketball. Plenty of family fun. Here are the highlights. 

Dax and his friends at a Stake Dance.

We went to a lot of Lehi basketball games!

Seth went with some friends to the Provo temple before it closed forever!

We played Doodle Face and here are the results. 

Seth honestly loves this game.

Dax made the blue van in his ceramics class.

We were excited to have the goldfinches visit the bird feeder this winter.

Lone Peak vs Lehi game for Valentine's Day.

Stealthy night games people!

One of Seth's many selfies.

Dad gave mom the most beautiful roses for Valentine's Day.

Melanie came to visit and we went to the temple together.

Then we went with the cousins for baptisms.

We checked out a new trampoline place, but Mom loved this throne!

Hot tub beard!

Dad and Mom went for a walk in Hobble Creek Canyon after their stay in Springville. 

Mom got to fill in as Grandpa's date to a beautiful concert.

We were missing Mark, but we did baptisms at the new Orem Temple.

We went to the Dino museum at Thanksgiving Point. We hadn't been for awhile.

Another great selfie by Seth.

Sweethearts Weekend

Mark got asked to sweethearts, a girls choice dance at the high school. We didn't know this girl well, but she was super nice and Mark was excited. He was in a large group with a bunch of the high school girls basketball team.

The poster was super cute.

Mom had to miss Mark getting ready and leaving for the dance because the dance fell on the same weekend as Kate's baptism. Dax and Seth also had basketball games, so they stayed home with Dad since he is the coach. Mom went up and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. She loved spending the night with her parents all on her own. She hadn't had them to herself in years.

Mom enjoyed the baptism. She got to be a witness. Bob gave a beautiful blessing. Abby gave a great talk. Mom also loved hanging out with baby James. She spent lunch with the Ferlans. She even saw her friend Angee. Then she made the trek home.

Do you think Mom and Kate look alike?

Mom loves spending time with Baby James.

Mark left after lunch to go on his day date. They were competing in an Amazing Race all over Lehi. They started out at the high school, and began a series of mini-games led by parents of some of the girls. They mostly were partner games, and it was fun to do things as a group. They made it back to the high school before the other team to score a thrilling victory. Obviously, his team won!

At least they both love hoodies.

Winner!

After the day date, Mark came back home and hung out with the other boys before they left for Dax's basketball game. Dad barely made it back in time to snap a picture of Mark before he left for pictures, dinner, and the dance. They too pictures outside in the freezing cold, and they even got some snow in some of the pictures. Dinner was at Mark's date's house, which was a huge home that was super cool. The boys spent about an hour exploring everything that was in the house, and then had a Nerf war with the girls. They headed out to the dance after a wonderful steak dinner. The dance was really fun this time around, and Mark enjoyed seeing all his friends and hanging out with his date. The afterparty was back at the house and they explored more and played basketball and pickleball in the huge barn outside. It was a great day full of fun.  

Seth and Dax both won their games, so it was a great weekend for them, too!

Mark was texting Mom updates.

Dad got back just in time for a pic. Lily made the flowers. Aren't they awesome?

Mark was with his good friend, Connor.

Pictures at Thanksgiving Point.

The spin pic is very popular.

The boys

Mark had a ton of fun.

It was a great experience.

St. George Temple Open House

We love visiting St. George in the winter!

We got the opportunity to have a weekend getaway in St. George. Since the place we were staying held 16 people, we decided to invite the Pooles up from Las Vegas for a few days. Also, the weekend corresponded with the temple open house for the Red Cliffs Temple, which we were excited to see.

On the first Friday in February, we finished school and headed south. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of snow coming down from about Fillmore to Cedar City. We didn't arrive in Hurricane until after 7:30, but when we did, we were excited to see the place. We crossed through the garage and into a very small, paved courtyard, which had a heated pool. Despite the fact that it was raining a bit, Seth was in that pool within 10 minutes! A second door led into the kitchen and a small living room area. There was also a large bedroom with a bathroom on this level that we didn't even use. Upstairs, there were two master bedrooms with king beds and two other bedrooms, each with 4 queen bunkbeds. The boys stayed in one, and the girls and Ben stayed in the other. There was also a small game room, and another living area. It was a really nice place, and we were excited to be there.

Mom was not a fan of driving in this weather.

This house was super fun for our families. 

Jonny and Randy love spending time chatting together.

Both nights we stayed up a little too late, and both mornings we woke up a little to late. On Saturday, Jonny made crepes for breakfast. We had a lazy breakfast and then headed over to Fort Zion. Unfortunately, it was closed, though their website didn't let us know. Tiff wanted to head a bit farther down the road and check out the white buffalo. We found them easily enough, but they were quite a long distance away. Still, we thought we might walk down the dirt road to the corral. After a little walking and a lot of mud, we made it to the buffalo. 

The white buffalo weren't totally white, but sort of blonde.

This guy did not like us getting too close.

We walked through mud to see these buffalo.

We did a lot of stomping and slamming shoes to get the mud off.

The kids were fairly muddy, and we didn't want to walk up that steep road again, so we decided to cut across the pasture back to the road. That was exciting because it was a bit more muddy than the road. We enjoyed it, though, and the mud came off (mostly).

Next, we went over to a cool park in Hurricane. There were a lot of things for the kids to do, and most of them involved Jonny spinning them. Josh actually got whipped over backward off the merry-go-round, but Jonny got the worst injury. He raced around the playground and slammed his shin into a metal step. He was hobbling painfully after that.

We grabbed lunch at Jimmy John's and then visited another park. This one was less about the playground and more about a walk around the pond. We spotted a lot of ducks and geese, and we threw tons of rocks as we enjoyed the walk.

The Poole girls love hanging out with Randy.

The boys!

We liked walking around the pond!

This was right before Josh went over backward! 

This big slide was a lot of fun.

Jon and Dax were having a good time.

Dad was also having fun!

There was an old see-saw that even the big kids loved.

The house was so nice that we went back and had a rest as the kids watched a movie. Mom worked hard on dinner. She made tacos with both chicken and beef. We ate really well and then headed over to the temple. We walked through the open house and with some surprise, noticed that this temple has the exact same layout as our temple in Saratoga Springs. It was pretty with its desert theme. The carpets were dusty green, and there were pretty desert flowers in the stained glass.

Ben and Dax are buddies!

The kids loved swimming in the heated pool.

The new Red Cliffs temple.

Cousins at the temple. 

Since we were all dressed up, we took the kids over to the St. George Temple, which just reopened after extensive renovations. Natalie took Ben and Hattie to the Visitor Center and they had a really great time. The rest of the group went inside and did baptisms. This was the first time in the baptistry for all of us, and it was really unique. After that, it was getting late, so we got back and put the kids to bed.

St. George Temple

Mom loved hanging out with these redheads.

Then we all met back up in the Visitor Center.

On Sunday morning Mom made pancakes. Then we went to one of our favorite places in St. George, which is called Pioneer Park. The kids had an amazing time exploring all the rock features and climbing around. They even decided to squeeze through "the crack," though none of the adults joined them. As they were shimmying through, we decided to go around to the top to greet them. Jonny opted for climbing up the wall, while the rest of us walked back the path. Suddenly, Natalie heard a slip, a scratch, and a thump. Jonny had fallen about a dozen feet. He was working hard to tough it out, but he had hurt his back, gashed his leg, and banged his arm. He limped back to the car, and we drove over to a hamburger joint, which turned out to be really good. Then we said our goodbyes and the Pooles headed back to Las Vegas.

Pioneer Park is our favorite!

We found a little pond.

Seth loves to hide in all the holes.

We climbed up to the arch.

The kids went through the crack.

Such cool kids

Hattie and Seth had fun finding places to sit.

...and sleep!

We said goodbye to the Pooles, but we had one more hike to do. This one was way out in Santa Clara, but it was really cool. We were the only people on the trail as it wound right along the Santa Clara River. The canyon walls rose above us, and there were petroglyphs on the rock walls, and birds in the bushes. We saw a roadrunner, several dozen quail, and a few hummingbirds.

This hike was lovely!

The drive home was pretty uneventful, but we got home in plenty of time to get all cleaned up and ready for school the next day!