Nathan went to see Wonder Woman 1984 with me on 1/15. It was a strange movie, but it is Wonder Woman and she is awesome!
I went to the Reid Park Zoo and the Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens on 1/19.
I went to photograph the snow at Sabino Canyon on 1/26. I then went to Saguaro National Park East to photograph the snow, but it had pretty much already melted there by the time I got there.
1/28 Nathan got strep throat so he had to miss a day of school to go to the doctor. He got an antibiotic and permission to return to school the next day. We were thankful it was not COVID-19.
I went to the Desert Museum on 2/4.
I went to Reid Park Zoo and Tucson Botanical Gardens on 2/11. Bella also turned 13 on 2/11!
Paul and I celebrated our 18th anniversary on 2/17. He got me 2 dozen red roses for Valentine's Day and our anniversary. Nathan made me a great hand written Valentine's Day card.
Nathan got in school suspension 2/23 & 24. Some boys had been bullying him and his friends at recess. They would join the games they were playing, but they would cheat and call them names. Nathan and his friends kept telling the teachers and staff, but they didn't do anything about it. Nathan finally had enough and punched two of the boys. One was named Nathan and had just transferred to the school a few weeks ago. Nathan had to sit in the principal's office during his suspension. We had a meeting with the principal to explain what led to this incident. He seemed to understand and said that the staff would be more attentive at recess.
The Tucson Rodeo was canceled this year due to COVID-19. We never go anyway. Nathan still had those days off of school, though. So we went to Out of Africa on 2/25. Paul and Nathan fed a tiger there and we all got to meet Bart, the sloth (I LOVE sloths!). We went to see the Tom & Jerry movie on 2/26. Then we went to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on 2/27. It was a last minute decision to go there so we could cross it off our bucket list. It would have been nice if there were more wildflowers there, but we didn't get enough rain this year. It took about 2.5 hours to get there. Then once we entered the park it was about 10 miles to the visitor center, if I remember correctly. At the visitor center they gave us the map that showed all of the scenic drives within the monument. It is big! There are 5 different routes listed as easy for passenger cars. There are 2 routes listed as medium for high clearance vehicles and one route listed as hard for high clearance 4wd. We took one of the "easy" routes since we just have a Ford Fusion. We decided on the Ajo Mountain Loop (right across the street from the visitor center) which is 21 miles long and has a dense concentration of saguaros and organ pipe cactus. The road was mostly rocky with just a few short paved sections. I thought it was pretty with the surrounding mountains which had colorful layers of rock. There were lots of saguaros, cholla, prickly pear, ocotillo (Paul's favorite) and of course organ pipe cactus. We stopped to hike a little bit of the Arch Canyon trail which is aptly named because there is an arch. I mistakenly did not bring my wide angle lens with me and only had my telephoto lens. So I took some shots with it and some shots with my phone.
I photographed a few wildflowers along Tangerine Rd in Oro Valley on 3/3. There wasn't much, but there were a few here and there.
The Texas Mountain Laurel flowers started to bloom over by Fry's on 3/6! They smell like grape candy!
My 2014 Ford Fusion went over 100k miles on 3/7!
Nathan made honor roll for the 3rd quarter of 5th grade. He got a 94.6 average. He got a 96 in English Languages, 91 in History/Geography, M for Latin, 96 in Math, M for Art, M for Music, M for PE, 95 for Reading and 95 in Science.
For Spring Break, we decided to go to Glacier National Park and the Grand Tetons. We also wanted to go up to Canada to Banff and Jasper, but Canada was requiring a 2 week quarantine period. When we started making our plans we also did not realize that it was still "winter" up there. Most of the areas of the parks would be closed because they hadn't plowed the roads yet. The advantage was that there was less people. So on 3/12 we flew out to Spokane, WA and spent the night there. The next day we drove to Glacier National Park. We ate pizza pie for Pi Day and had huckleberry pie (with huckleberry ice cream). We drove around Lake McDonald that day. The next day we drove to the east side of the park to explore as much as we could until the road was closed off. 3/16 we drove 9+ hours from Glacier National Park to the Grand Tetons. I broke my 43 day streak of getting 10k steps :( I did not get to eat corned beef and cabbage on St Patty's Day, but I did make my own in the crockpot the week we left before our vacation. That day we explored part of the Grand Tetons. 3/18 we did a 4 hour tour too see more of the Grand Tetons. We saw moose, elk, coyotes, bighorn sheep, eagles, etc... We also took a "sleigh ride" to see the elk up close at the National Elk Refuge. It was a horse drawn wagon ride that was VERY bumpy. Our last day in the Grand Tetons we drove to Mormon Row. They had the road leading it to it closed, so I had to walk about 2 miles to get to Mormon Row and the 2 miles to get back to the car. It was worth it. We saw a big group of deer that morning. Then in the afternoon we did a scenic chair lift ride at Snow Mountain. We were going to go snow tubing there, but Nathan chickened out. 3/20 we drove from the Grand Tetons to Butte, MT. That was a 4+ hour drive and we had to go through the mountains in the snow. It was scary, especially when we saw the car directly in front of us almost slide off the road. The last day we drove from Butte to Spokane, WA. That was another 4+ hour drive and again it was snowing. We finally made it to the airport, but we weren't sure if our flights would be delayed/canceled since we had a connecting flight in Denver and Denver was going to get a snow storm. The first part of our flight went as scheduled. Our flight out of Denver was delayed because our flight crew was coming from Midway and they were delayed. We finally boarded the plane and then they had to de-ice it...while it was snowing pretty good. We left about an hour late. We hit some turbulence or something and I wasn't sure the plane was going to recover. That was probably my scariest moment flying. The rest of the flight was smooth, but we didn't get to Tucson until 11 pm and then didn't get home until midnight. Paul had to work the next day and Nathan had to go back to school! I don't think we will plan a trip that tight again in the future!
