When everything came crashing to a screaming halt...except us.

Normally this post woutld be called Spring Break awesomeness.  And it was still really awesome, but it had this sort of black cloud hiding over it, like a menacing storm was brewing and we couldn't escape no matter where we looked.  We had planned an awesome spring break with the Aumens, beginning with watching Maren play some high school soccer and then on to camping and biking in Moab.  As the week approached and things with covid escalated around the country, things were shutting down around us, the storm cloud had burst.  Luckily when it burst the Aumens had arrived, and we still could enjoy time with them.  

But I will admit, that we were all really sad to see the kids sports and school and activities and church all come to a screeching halt.  I will forever miss that season of watching soccer games, and hanging out with friends.  Maren had just finished her first couple weeks of soccer practices and was gearing up for her first game, that was supposed to take place that night the Aumen's arived.  Sadly it was cancelled a few hours before.  

But I have come to see the blessings and those are gold, and worth remembering.  

Back to spring break...Amanda had joined us the week previous for her spring break, and was ready to spend the first weekend with us before heading back to ASU.  We did a warm up hike to devils kitchen, Ev was a trooper with his boot on. Then stockpiling groceries and supplies to go camping, and for the world to end, apparently.

Since church was cancelled and we didn't have anything else keeping us home, we headed to Moab and Horsetheif campground.  Pretty much our home away from home.

 Morning glory canyon and arch is always a great hike, it got us out of the wind and we enjoyed the beautiful arch at the end.  Dave joined us for the first 1/4 mile, then set up a chair and hung out.  Its good he can get this far, but not where he wanted to be.  Amanda took off for the airport after that day to head back to school.  Up until that point ASU had not decided to close down and she didn't want to risk missing classes.  It was nice to pretend everything was going to be normal after this trip was done.

We did lots of hikes in both arches and canyon lands the next couple of days, and even fit in a few bike rides.  The kids got way more confident on their mountain bikes and we loved watching them go for loop after loop around the trails near the campground. 

In arches we had a picnic lunch one day, and the kids got stuck on some rocks they were climbing on.  It was a good reminder that what goes up must come down, and sometimes that is easier said than done.  

Everett worked hard to get used to Skai, and didn't make a ton of prgress but he did find every puddle in the park.  

And then we had to go home a day early.  There was abig storm rolling in, with snow at the elevation we were at.  After leaving we found out that they closed down all the campgrounds in the area because of COVID.  

We spent one last afternoon at deadhorse point, and the place was a ghost town.  It was fun to have it to ourselves though.  While there our cell signals started up again, and we started to get messages about the earthquake in SL that had happened that morning.  It really started to feel like we were living in the twilight zone at that point.  So crazy!

Once we got home, we got word from Amanda that school was going all online and she wanted to come home.  So I drove down and picked her up.  At this point the kids were home, still on spring break, and Dave had to work, so I lived it up and spent a day mountain biking in Sedona, AZ.  It was so fun!  Just enough to wet my appetite to want to go back.  

I helped Amanda finish cleaning out her dorm room, and we packed up the car and drove home.  It was a whirlwind, but fun to see where she spent the school year, and a fun drive through monument valley.