Cabin land and St. George Weekend

We are lucky during this whole pandemic to have family that still wants to see us.  My parents were even cool with us coming to their house for the weekend.  Then, they came with us to our land for the day so we could have a cook-out, and get a break from the indoors.

We bought land by Zion's National Park.  We are planning to build a vacation rental cabin someday that we can enjoy, as well.  According to HOA rules, you are not suppose to "camp" on the land, but that doesn't mean we still couldn't enjoy it.  We brought the hammock, tarp and blanket for Trex to crawl around on, cooler full of tinfoil dinners, and even the kids scooters. (They didn't end up riding around on the scooters).  My parents, Aunt Sheryl, and Aaron joined us.  After the cook-out, my parents took the girls with them back home, while Josh, Payson, Aaron, Trex, and I went on a little hike to get a good view of the Checkerboard Mesa.

As we were going back to my parents house from the cabin land, we saw a ton, and I mean a ton (like a hundred) deer.  It seems they were enjoying the lack of people invading their natural habitat.


We enjoyed spending time at my parent's house, as well.  The kids had a lot of fun jumping in the sprinkler with Uncle Aaron.  We had a nice church service, where Grandma Teresa did primary. She also cut Josh and Payson's hair, and she cut Anny's hair.  This was Avenly's first hair cut. (She will be 6 in July).  Josh and I were also able to go on a date Friday night.  That was extra nice to have some alone time without the kids.

It was a nice weekend, and we are so glad we took the opportunity to get away from our house, and see family.

Northern Arizona

We kept a little secret in fears of being social shamed, and we took a trip to Northern Arizona the middle of March during the lock-down.  Arizona was more open than Nevada, and the Grand Canyon was still open, so we stocked our cooler up, loaded up the sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer, and loaded in the van for a weekend get-a-way.  I am in writing a post all about the Great Lockdown of 2020 and the Corona Virus, so I won't go into detail on that with this post, but it was sort of a different trip than most.

First off, it was not crowded anywhere.  People kept their distance, and even though buildings were closed, bathrooms were still opened.  The hotel brought us our breakfast in bags instead of holding it in the breakfast area, and we made sure to put hand sanitizer on every time we got back in the car.

Now for the adventure:

Bearizona - Bearizona is much similar to Bear World near Island park.  You have the opportunity to drive through enclosed animal habitats where the animals roam free within their habitat.  We had a bear walk right in front of our van, and Josh was a little nervous it wasn't going to get out of our way for us to keep going.  Unlike Bear World, from what I remember of it, Bearizona also has a zoo type area.  We were able to see smaller bears, a jaguar, and other animals in an enclosed habitat while we walked around. One highlight was the albino peacock.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon- It was a bit chilly, but definitely not crowded at all.  In fact, it was easier to maintain social distancing at the Grand Canyon than in the grocery store.  I am glad we were able to go before the Grand Canyon actually closed.  As always, it amazes me every time I go.

Wupatki- We practically had every Indian ruin to ourselves.  The kids loved climbing around the areas that they were allowed to climb around.  They made up games pretending to be princesses and what not.  The ruins were definitely their favorite part of our little road trip. 

This little trip took place back in mid March.  Back then, people would have shamed us for leaving the house.  Now, I am willing to bet some of those same people are ready for their own adventure.  haha  We are glad we went when we did.