March 2021

 Here are some of our March happenings:

Megan celebrated her half birthday.

Megan has read over 2 million words this school year (since October when she went back to in person learning).

Matthew was Student of the Month for his class. Here he is with Dr. Hendricsen, the principal.

Megan made a treasure hunt for U to find some treats we got for him to have while we were gone. The hunt took him all over the house.

Matthew liked playing with filters while talking to dad on our trip.

Sarah talking to dad.

We went to the Astronaut Exhibit at the Science Center. It was quite interesting.

Megan and Matthew spinning round and round. When U was in there with them, they got up to 2.5Gs.

Learning how to use a toilet in space.

Got it!

Megan and Matthew completing a challenge with weights on their arms. They had to turn and flip various knobs and switches.

U testing his knowledge about space and astronauts.

Megan, Matthew and Me working to create oxygen for our space station. This was a fun "escape room" type game where we had to solve multiple challenges in order to save the space station (and ourselves).

We have had some fun games of telestrations. Here are a few of our word/picture combinations:

Me's drawing. (It looked much better in my head!)

Sarah's guess of Me's drawing.

Matthew's drawing of Sarah's phrase.

Megan's guess based on Matthew's art. I like that it came full circle back to the initial word.

Sarah's phrase.

Matthew's picture of Sarah's phrase.

Megan's guess of previous picture.

U's drawing of Megan guess. (It's quite a good bowling ball museum, don't you think?)

Spring Break 2021: Death Valley Day 3

 Saturday morning, we headed to Golden Canyon. It was really windy and we saw lots of swirling dirt in the Badwater Basin area. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad in the canyon. Megan and Matthew were particularly excited about seeing this canyon as some of Star Wars Episodes IV and VI were filmed here. (They had a few other filming locations in the park as well.)

Matthew and Megan scrambling up the rocks

At the start of the canyon. Golden Canyon is appropriately named!

Grandma, Grandpa, Megan and Sarah

Intrepid explorers

Golden Canyon with Red Cathedral in the background

Megan playing with some rocks.

Matthew conquered the big rock!

Some of the borax crystals we saw. It's very prevalent and is a lot of the reason why there is not much vegetation in the valley.

Grandma, Sarah and Megan decided to wait at the end of Golden Canyon while Grandpa, Matthew and Me hiked up to Manly Beacon.

Grandpa and Matthew with Manly Beacon in the background.

Grandpa on the other side of Manly Beacon. There was a decent slope getting up to it and it was quite windy at times. Thankfully nobody blew away.

Me from the top of the trail to Manly Beacon.

There were lovely views over colorful badlands. It was definitely worth the hike!

Matthew and Grandma on the way back.

Megan at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center. It was a warm day although the day before had been about 10 degrees warmer. And it's nowhere near as warm as it will be in the summer.

Grandpa at Borax Harmony Works. It was interesting to learn how they mined borax.

Matthew at Zabriskie Point looking towards the valley. Can you spot Manly Beacon?

Grandpa and Grandma at Zabriskie Point.

Matthew and Me at Zabriskie Point. Manly Beacon is just to the left of Me's head.

Look at all those badlands! It'd be fun to spend some time hiking in them.

After Zabriskie Point, we drove through Twenty Mule Team Canyon. We all really enjoyed it as it took us through some badlands. We were in the scenery!

View of Badwater Basin and Death Valley from Dante's View. At 5575 ft elevation, it is over a mile down to the valley floor below.

Our next stop was the Devils Golf Course on the valley floor. It is incredibly rough. Just ask Matthew who fell and scraped his ankle here.

Megan

Megan and Me with the Devils Golf Course. It goes on for as far as one can see.

Matthew

Next stop: The lowest point in our lives. Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level.

Grandma, Megan and Grandpa walking on the salt flats.

Sarah and Matthew

The salt flats extend from one side of the valley to the other. We figure they are formed wherever people walk regularly.

More terrain like the Devils Golf Course

Me on the salt flats

We drove around Artists Drive. Here Matthew poses with Artists Palette in the background.

We stayed at the Atomic Inn in Beatty, NV. There were aliens everywhere. This one posed with the kids.

Grandma, Megan, Grandpa, Sarah and Matthew

Beatty is known for its burros. We saw them from our car window as we left to drive home. Megan was especially excited as she had looked for them the day before and had not seen them.

Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Death Valley. Yes, it is quite desolate and does not have much vegetation. But there are so many colors in the landscape and the scenery is quite stunning. Plus it has lots of fun places to explore.