A Very COVID Summer

 As we all have experienced this year, COVID has changed a lot of our plans and normal behaviors. Graham and I already worked out at home prior to the pandemic, but we pretty much stopped leaving the home except for work and random grocery store trips. We have had Zoom dates with friends, we cancelled our travel plans, our kids stopped pretty much all activities outside of the home, Graham did a couple of home improvement projects, and we formed a quaranteam with another family to limit our outside social interactions (the family of my college friend). To be super cheesy, I even came up with a "quaranteam" name for our two families (HallBents or BroadHalls if you really want to know). One of the biggest changes for us is more time with our immediate family and being forced to stay in Washington. We have spent more time sightseeing around WA than we ever have before.

So, here is a brief summary in pictures of our COVID spring and summer here in Washington..

A perfect sunset behind the Olympic mountains

Our first visit to Staircase in Olympic National Park

Last part of the Staircase hike

We visited our little private beach on Puget Sound several times

We didn't do much on Easter other than take family pictures

Spring break!

Another walk to our beach

When our state finally started to open up, we took a quick weekend trip to the San Juan Islands

This was our first trip to the islands

Our first day was spent on Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island

We crossed the terrifyingly high Deception Pass bridge. The view was worth it.

Graham & the kids built a driftwood fort at Fort Casey beach on Whidbey

We found a new path to our private beach on the 4th of July

It has a photogenic spot

Graham was the fireworks master on the 4th

We finally took a trip to Mount Rainier national park

We hiked the Silver Falls trail

We had a great beach day at Point no Point beach.

We took a summer trip to California and Nevada. The kids and I took old time photos in Virginia City, NV.

Pope Beach at Lake Tahoe

First family bike ride in Lake Tahoe.

Met up with old college friends from BYU

So fun to have all our kids play together.

Took a long weekend trip with friends to the Olympic Peninsula. This is Sol Duc Falls.

Tongue Point outside of Port Angeles

Lake Ozette

The whole group on the Dungeness Spit near Sequim, WA

Anyways, we had a great summer with our own family, some extended family, and our quaranteam friends. In a way, I am glad to have finally visited most of the places on our summer bucket list.