March 2020 through May 2020

Cal taking a snooze:

Quarantine has had a lot of things we have really enjoyed! These are all part of a hike we love here in Tooele's Settlement canyon called the "Dark Trail"

Some neat mountains as the sun set after a photoshoot by the State Capitol:

Here's an evening we spent walking around the Grantsville Reservoir:

On a bike/scooter ride near the house. This was before we got his helmet, so he had to be strollered:

A few days later by the Mill Pond and Stansbury Lake. Cal's concerned about ducks:

Taking a lunch break between meeting with students on Zoom:

Enjoying a quilt that Grandma Bagley made for Callum:

Balloons are one of his favorite things. We don't let him have them for the most part (because he does this thing that's happening in the picture with his little teeth):

Claire's birthday cake—Fruity Pebbles cake:

Stansbury Island as seen from the Grantsville Reservoir after a photoshoot:

Cal (experiencing a rare moment of calm) and Claire enjoying the hammock:

Some of Claire's baptism photos—she's getting too big!

These are out by the State Capitol building at the start of April:

Easter egg hunt:

Beginning to comprehend the concept:

He gets it:

This is Eagl—one of Claire's constant friends—whom Claire got for her birthday:

Easter is his kind of deal:

Loves having her hair in curlers:

Observing the broadcast of Claire's baptism (notice Elle's curls):

The initiate:

Claire with the family watching:

Family photo with a squirmy Cal:

First stop on the victory tour:

At Grandma and Grandpa Bagley's house in Mapleton. She's being a "baby white husky [dog]":

At the next stop in Bountiful (we forgot to take a picture of Eric and Lindsie in Provo!):

Properly distanced:

In Mantua at the Carters':

In Brigham City with a little leg-stretching time in the back yard:

A small boy loves to go on bike rides:

After the first earthquake in March we started a new tradition to help those feeling nervous about the notion of more earthquakes. Dad promised that on any day we experienced an earthquake, we would have milkshakes. "Earthquakes get milkshakes." We didn't know we'd have to fulfill that promise so soon (or ever) with the last big aftershock in April:

Callum enjoying building and not just destroying:

How it looked when he finished:

These are pictures from the Nelson Peak (Mt. Doom) hike that Eric and I did a few weeks back. Starting out at the base of the mountain in Tooele. We drove as far as we could on the road and then rode bikes up to the trailhead:

The view at the start—looks so friendly and enjoyable...

Beautiful view of the Oquirrhs to the South (and cool clouds!):

Fun rock formations:

Sun creeping into the valley:

Tooele city stretched out below:

Our path was to head up the ridge on the right of this picture:

A small moment of battling bushes, but this stint was short. Misery would come later:

Same set of the Oquirrhs, just a little higher up:

After battling through branches for miles, we see Nelson Peak through the trees (this was a zoomed in shot—it was still over a mile away):

Hey! There's that snow I drank... Eric is eating jerky:

The view from the summit. Actually turned out to be a really dynamic and dramatic image with the storm that had just passed over on the left:

View of Stansbury Park from the summit:

View of Tooele City from the summit:

Smiling with that creepy mustache:

Ailie's artistic renderings of the hike (notice the dead guy on top in the second image):

That following week, I replaced our roof with the help of some coworkers. One had the know-how and the rest of us did the manual labor. All of the supplies purchased from the roofing company were delivered to to the top of the house on a conveyer belt. Took three mornings to get the whole project finished, but it looks pretty good! I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled to not have the air compressors switching on at 7am anymore.

The top of the roof—finished!

Me doing the last part—the porch:

On Saturday, while that was happening outside, this was happening inside—the Mother's Day brunch:

Here's the Mother's Day banner that the kids made under Ailie's direction (in classic Ailie fashion, she set her alarm for the middle of the night to put it up after mom had gone to bed, but before she woke up in the morning). Max's T-Rex is eating pizza. Eleanor's page is the one covered in unicorn horns:

This is last week on the trail to Paul Bunyan's Woodpile. Such a pleasant and cool day. The clouds made things very refreshing:

A wildfire had evidently passed through in recent years. Eleanor called these "vulture trees," because she thought they looked like the kind of thing vultures would live in:

Sticks for walking, of course:

The "Woodpile" up in the distance:

Sure enough, it looked a lot like stacked logs:

Any route that involved climbing was great to Ailie:

First to the top:

There were a few different stacks like fins sticking out of the dirt:

(That's Ailie—it's harder to tell these days when they wear the same color of shirt:)

The cacti Elle found:

She was holding my hand most of the time, so we didn't get too many pictures of what she was up to:

The kids looking through the window of the arch on the way down. The size of the stack above it was kind of crazy:

It was bigger than it looks:

We'll end where we began, with Cal. Here he is, trying to drink his Mac and cheese:

That's it from us! We are surviving and doing well! We hope all of you are doing great, too!