2021

Greetings earthling (Tera always makes fun of me for saying “greetings”). You’re here! You scanned our QR code… OR you actually typed out our link (how quaint)! Congratulations and welcome!

Travel travel, fo-favel

This year, we enjoyed getting back to some traveling, after being pretty restricted for most of 2020 (for obvious reasons).

Spring break in the George!

In March, we visited St George for the boys 3rd grade Spring Break, and had a great time at the Las Palmas resort. These little condos have all the essentials, and the property boasts multiple heated pools, water slides, hot tubs, and other outdoor activities.

We had a nice tour and a few hikes through Snow Canyon State Park, including some sand dune fun! Wes had a great time skateboarding at Ivins City skate park, which has some great street terrain.

Gamble town

In June, we headed to Las Vegas and spent a few weeks enjoying a house with a private pool, and all of our favorite Sin City vegan restaurants. We spent time at the Children’s museum to beat the heat, and jettisoned to the top of the Stratosphere to partake in their “top of the world” amusement park rides. Initially, the boys didn’t want to go on the vertical drop ride on the roof, but after we finished the ride, they wanted to go again!

We visited the Meow Wolf Omega Mart interactive art exhibit in Vegas. I loved it! Phenomenal blend of visual art, immersive surroundings, tactile variety and audio/visual experiences.

One of the funnest parts of Vegas was the escape room that we played through. It was a Pharoah’s tomb theme and we had a blast working together as a family, solving the puzzles, finding clues, and strategizing together.

Rollin’ on the river

Near the end of July, we spent a week at the Riverside Hotel in Boise, Idaho. It was the first time in Boise for most of the family, and we absolutely loved it! Boise was much nicer than I expected and the Riverside Hotel was a fantastic place to stay. The hotel is nestled immediately beside the Boise river, with walking and bicycle paths stretching for miles in both directions, alongside the river.

We toured the old Idaho prison site, we rafted down the river (Wes’ favorite part!), we bicycled almost every day, went skateboarding, hung out at the pool, and listened to live music nightly at the outdoor hotel bar, next to the pool. Surprisingly, Boise had quite a few vegan restaurant options to visit, and we had a good time exploring them.

Wave ridin’

In August, we visited Bear Lake with Papa and Nana, and had a great time on the lake. We stayed at the KOA in Garden City. We cruised the waters, played in the sand, the boys learned how to SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard), Archer (Papa and Nana’s Yorkshire terrier) explored the marshy weeds, we went tubing, and we shredded some waves with the wakeboard. Wes was stoked that he got his first ever air on a wakeboard.

Arizona dreamin’

In October, we drove down to Phoenix to visit Wes’ Mom, brothers, and niece Ava. This was our first time back to Phoenix in years and we enjoyed the visit, although the 11 hour drive from SLC is a bit much.

Separately, we also had a visit in SLC from our aunt’s Giogi and Amy, who live in Washington state. They bought a new RV! We were happy to see them and share a few meals together.

New job, who dis?

In August, Wes started a new job working at Lucidpress. In May, Lucidpress spun out from Lucid Software into its own independent entity. We’re a small company, with caring, motivated folks, who put teamwork over ego and are here to win. I am so grateful to get to work with wonderful people in a phenomenal environment. I have been so impressed with our people and the enormous opportunity in front of us. We are building something truly special here at our little company.

Farewell Pluralsight

The move to Lucidpress meant a departure from Pluralsight. I spent 6 and a half years building Pluralsight, and I was sad to leave so many wonderful coworkers and colleagues, with whom I have shared so many incredible experiences. I will always cherish the fond memories, the opportunities, and the many accomplishments that we made together there. Thank you to all of my coworkers, my team mates, my mentors… my friends. I miss working with so many of you!

Our keystone

Tera continues to hold everything together for our family. She is so organized, thoughtful, and hard working.

The family always has everything that we need thanks to her, including our beautiful, loving home. I have so much admiration for her attention to detail, and her dedication to ensuring that Ashton and Dylan have a wonderful childhood and home.

Our little sprouts

Dylan and Ashton continue to sprout like weeds and are now 56 inches and 57 inches, respectively. They’re almost as tall as Tera! These 10 year olds are just the greatest little dudes. We are so blessed to have the best kids in the world. They are kind, caring, funny, and great students. They continue to excel in their school work and are at the top of their class. Every one of their teachers tells us they’re such a pleasure to have as students.

They’re enjoying this Christmas season by making Gingerbread houses, opening 1 toy per day from their Lego Advent calendars (Star Wars and Harry Potter themed), and eating fresh snow when we get a good snowstorm.

The boys have gotten much better at skateboarding this year, thanks to Dad forcing them to go to the skateparks with him. Some of their favorite activities include reading, wrestling each other, playing Roblox, watching video game YouTubers, and creating things with Roblox Studio.

This year, we’ve been tearing through “The Land of Stories” book series, which Dad usually reads to the boys every night. We’re currently on the last book in the series and we will need to find something new soon! It is so engrained in our routine that the boys get upset if we miss one story time before bed at night.

Dylan continues to blossom as a writer. He is so creative and writes the most amazing stories and newspaper articles. We love reading his creations!

Ashton has jumped right into Roblox Studio and is teaching himself how to create games, game elements, shirts, and other Roblox items. It blew my mind to see him download Blender all on his own and start experimenting with it.

Thanks so much for reading about our family! Happy Holidays to you and we wish you the best this season and all of next year!