November 2020

Aliza celebrated her 14th birthday. She is always such a ray of sunshine and deserved to have a special day. Our piñata tradition lives on! And she got not one but two of them! We first got the llama one, but realized it didn't hold very much candy, so of course we had to get another one.d

And when you can't find a blindfold, you improvise with a face mask, we have those things lying around every where. 

Oreo ice cream cake and dinner at BJ's is how she chose to celebrate. And dad always gets the girls flowers on their birthday. 

Dallin got to go back to school in person!! He only gets to go Tue/Thurs and has to wear a mask and social distance, but we don't even care. He is beyond thrilled to get to see his friends and be back in the classroom. Amazing how much kids complain about school all the time, but when it's taken away from them, they crave it. He says it was a great day and can't wait to go back. 

After only two day of school for Dallin, we packed up and drove west to Utah for Thanksgiving. A cross country drive is something we've wanted to do for a long time, and this felt like the right time. Kids could still do school work in the car and join classes if they needed too. We rented a 15 passenger van and everyone got their own row, so it was a pretty blissful ride. We needed to make pretty good time, but we did stop in St. Louise because I've passed it so many times and have never stopped. I'm so glad we did it too. The top of the arch is so cool and the ride up was awesome in this tiny little elevator. 

Utah...it's a love/hate relationship. I wouldn't want to live there, but it's always super fun to visit. We visited the trampoline park, went to the movie theater and bowling and went to see the Christmas light show Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point. Utah is much more opened up in regards to COIVD. There is not so much paranoia over it there. And masks aren't even really required anywhere. Which is probably why they've had such a huge outbreak of COVID and all of David's family has had it. 

Carmen and Grandma were deep in conversation about some books they'd read. 

While David and Dallin went on a hike, us girls went shopping! We took Grandma Beans car, which has the handicap sticker, so we got to park close everywhere we went. And we tried Crumble Cookies for the first time. They were pretty darn tasty!

In true Bean fashion, there was a Turkey Bowl Football game. It was one of the coldest experiences I've ever had from the sidelines. It was physically brutal as  bones were broken, bruises were made and stitches were had! I don't know why these guys love this so much?!

We all love Roxy, Aunt Melissa's dog. Dallin loved her a lot during our stay. 

Our drive home was uneventful too. We had one rule the whole trip and that was we couldn't eat at any chain restaurants. I felt like we were on that show Fast Food Dives and Drives...we found some real hole in the wall places to eat, and met some really interesting people. However, no one ever got sick or had anything terrible to eat. This was place was middle of nowhere Nebraska!! 

And finally back home after more time on the road than actually in Utah, we bid farewell to the big 'ol van. 

October 2020

David and Dallin discovered this fun arcade in town and couldn't wait take us all to see it. Decades Arcade did not disappoint! It was so fun to play these old games that were popular when I was a kid. 

This happened...she set her DMV appointment way back in July for the the earliest day she was eligible to get her leaner's permit. She passed with flying colors.

She even drove home! I was only a little nervous...more for the people behind us because she was driving so slowly. I kept finding myself leaning toward the passenger side window because she was so close to the center yellow line. My mind thought if I just kept leaning, she wouldn't go over that line. 

These cuties at the park on a family walk around Mint Springs.  The leaves are all falling, Fall is so beautiful here. 

Carmen modeling some new clothes she got. 

For one of Aliza's young women activities, they had to decorate a cake with a scripture story and everyone had to guess what the story was. This is all via Zoom. They can't meet in person for activities. She did Samual the Lamenite. 

Decorating these cookies was the extent of our Halloween celebrations this year, because we spent the holiday at the beach! 

Halloween is not my favorite holiday, and I'll do just about anything to skip it! 

These girls loved watching a UVA football game together. 

                              

David is helping with a startup company, ScanOptix that has a new fangled camera for seeing the back of the eye better.  He brought home the camera he was working on and the kid's got to try it. 

                                            

We got Koda cute pj's! He is cuter then ever! 

Koda and the kitties have become fast friends! 

  

The Covid memes that I keep seeing are so spot on! 

After months of quarantine, we decided we definitely needed to find a safe way to get a change of scenery. Where else would we go but to the Outer Banks?! The water was cold, but it didn't stop the kids from getting in. We really loved being there in the off season and being the only ones on the beach. 

The kids still had to go to school virtually, but during any break from class they were down on the beach! This is also the first time we ever had a house right on the beach, which was so great. 

                                                      Koda relaxed to the max at the beach!

                                           

Being the only one of the beach at any given time of day was so wonderful. The occasional person would walk by with their dog, but we had the place to ourselves. So peaceful!