The Strange World of 2020

May is birthday month, so we enjoyed lunch with LuJean's sister at Market Street Grill. Here we have Alexander, Julie, Rob and LuJean:

Summer got off to a rocky start with riots over the Memorial Day weekend.

  

With the pool working well and another record hot, dry summer we spent a lot of time visiting with Julie while the kids swam. Here we have Matt, Christy and their kids joining the fun:

In early September sustained hurricane force winds damaged structures and trees throughout the Salt Lake Valley.  We periodically operated our generator for five days while cleaning up the mess.

 

Aside from the heat, the summer and early fall were plagued by poor air quality due to wildfires on the west coast and locally.  During September a lightening caused fire broke out in Neffs Canyon--one of our favorite hiking areas. 

Fortunately an early snow storm dusted the mountains and brought an end to the local fires.  We were glad to have clean air back...

As Thanksgiving approaches we feel we have a lot to be grateful for.  As the coronavirus continues to fill the hospitals we continue to lay low and look forward to a vaccine in the spring.

Best wishes for the holidays,

Rob & LuJean

Staying at Home in April

 

   We cleaned the pool cover and fertilized the lawn.  Meanwhile, streets looked like scenes from
   apocalypse movies and Beth was busy making masks.

The Easter Bunny brought welcome surprises while flowers bloomed and we continued to work on puzzles.

One morning the neighborhood moms loaded the kids
and dogs in their cars and treated everyone to a children's parade.

Spring has also brought swarms of bees.  Our neighbors who are bee keepers decided to capture the swarms and relocate them to hives.  This was great entertainment for the neighbors.

COVID-19 Downtime

Good luck to us all as we take precautions to avoid the virus.

In the meantime we drive around on empty streets, go hiking with the grand kids, do lots of puzzles and recently got a subscription to BritBox and the library of British television we enjoy.

When the weather is pleasant, we also like to walk in the park.

As baseball's Vin Scully recently said:

"Pray a little bit more, like most of us will do, and above all, try to smile.  Because when you smile, that makes everybody else feel better."

Incidentally, the photos for this post were taken with our new iPhone 11 Pro. To the girls chagrin we were the last people in this zip code to get a smart phone--but it was worth the wait.  No more lugging camera gear for this cat...

Happy New Year!

Gwen, Robin and Christy enjoyed a mini high school reunion during the holidays.  Meanwhile, Christy's little Isla Rose was definitely excited for 2020!

In mid-January we joined Julie's family for our annual trip to the auto show followed by lunch at Crown Burger -- a good time for all...