February was a short, but sweet month.
Our month was special because of Valentine's day and our President's Day trip.
Early in the month Matt brought these tulips home for our flower beds in the front of the house. I counted them as an early Valentine's gift. He even planted them for me. :)
Also, here are a few of our fruit trees in bloom.
We celebrated Valentine's Day as a family a week before. I made a 5 course meal. I made steamed artichokes, butternut squash soup, sour dough bread, strawberry spinach salad, lemon chicken, potatoes and veggies. The girls made sugar cookies for dessert. I loved sharing a special meal with my family! I also gave each person a card and a little chocolate covered marshmallow creme heart.
On the following weekend we travelled to St. George for President's Day/Valentine's weekend to visit the Fackrells. We had such a fun time!
We drove half way there on the 10th and arrived mid day on the 11th. We started off by getting a tour of their new home and yard and then we went on a hike.
Here we are exploring some underground caves.
This is a picture with Regan, Christian, and a bat. Can you spot the photo bomber?
After dinner we went hiking again to an overlook of the city.
We wrapped up the night in their hot tub.
On the 12th we entered a lottery for a hike the following day (but didn't get it) and then rented UTVs and drove to Pink Corral Sand Dunes. It was chilly! We were surprised that it was even snowing. However, that did not stop us from having a grand time! It was pretty cool to drive up and down huge mountains of pink sand! Sorry we didn't get pictures!
After the dunes we went to another area near St George called Glitter/ Sparkle Mountain which is an old gypsum crystal mine. While we ate lunch and went on trails we also dug for crystals. This was something Christian has always dreamed about doing since he loves crystals.
The views were beautiful and we had such a fun time! In the evenings we played games and enjoyed talking.
During one of the afternoons we went to a park and learned how to play pickleball. It was a lot of fun! I am glad we learned!
On the 13th we did some more hiking. It was uncommonly cold for St George, but we still had a great time. Some of the kids didn't want to hike, but tough beans, they had to go and I think they were glad they did. Ha ha!
Can you tell Christian was really into these rocks?
In the evening we left the kids at Regan's and went on a couples' dinner date. Then we took the kids to the Creamery for ice cream. It was delish!
On Sunday we had church at home and a few of the kids prepared talks. Regan also shared a message from the church website that was awesome! Regan's sister Megan also came to visit for dinner and it was fun to catch up with her and her family.
I love gleaning inspiration from Regan and Andrea and seeing all their kids who have grown up so much! The kids had a grand time together and I think we all came away with happy memories! Regan and Andrea were great hosts and we hope they will come to visit us soon! We loved our time with them!
Somehow we got family pictures without their 3rd, Elle. I guess we were just a big group!
It was a happy Valentine's Day for us!
The rest of the month was filled with the typical things, school, dance, church, gymnastics etc.
However, one last highlight is that the almond trees were blossoming. Since our photographer got Covid we went and got a few family pics on our own for fun. We caught them near the end of their blooming, but they were still pretty.
We feel very blessed to have such a beautiful world and lots of people we love! It was a lovely month!
