At the beginning of each year we like to look back at the previous year and remember and review all the wonderful places we got to visit and the fun trips we were able to go on. Since 2020 was definitely a crazy year, our travels did NOT look like our normal travels. We spent a lot more time camping, in National and State Parks, and lots and lots of road trips and time outside. Let’s dive in with our 2020 travels!

January

Our first trip of the year was to Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We started out leaving over MLK weekend but the weather was so bad we had only made 30 minutes away before we turned around and came home. Luckily, we were able to reschedule for a couple of weeks later and we had such a fun time as a family for a quick weened trip.

February

February brought us home from the Great Wolf Lodge but we were quite busy with school and work that we ended up not going anywhere this month.

March

March was a crazy month. Right when everything was shutting down we were supposed to go to Minnesota for Ben to go to a conference and for me and Lucy to visit my family. Ben’s conference got canceled, but we still decided to fly to Minnesota for about a week to hang out with my family. We didn’t do much since most things were closed but we had a nice time being with my parents and my sister.

April

April the world was still shut down so we weren’t able to go anywhere too far. But we did decide it would be nice to take some drives on Sundays to visit some local temple grounds. We didn’t stay long, but having somewhere to go and something to see really helped us break up the monotony of the pandemic. Our state parks also opened back up towards the end of the month so we were able to go visit the Great Salt Lake which we hadn’t done as a family before.

May

Things slowly started opening up around us and in other places so my family came out to visit us at the end of May over Memorial Day. While they were driving home, my sister wanted to stop at Mount Rushmore so we decided to tag along and make a quick trip to South Dakota for a few days. That trip started out really scary with our car breaking down but luckily we were able to get it fixed enough to continue traveling and we were able to get the part that we needed to fix the car and when we met up with my parents, my dad was able to help us make a permanent fix.

We spent time at Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park, Storybook Island Park in Rapid City and had a great time camping in Custer, South Dakota. It was a really fun trip and we definitely want to go back to the area and spend more time there!

June

By June our travels started picking up a little bit more. Things were opening up more and there were more opportunities to do things outside and away from crowds. We were able to get a camping site at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes near Kanab, Utah and we were able to camp there for the weekend with my brother and his wife.

We also went on another family trip to Montana where we met my parents and spent time in the mountains and visiting family who I haven’t seen in probably 10 years. It was fun to get to introduce Lucy to some of my mom’s family and spend time in nature.

July

July was our busiest travel month this year (and definitely rivaled other non-pandemic summers!) We started out the month by visiting Capitol Reef National Park (check out the vlog here) over the Fourth of July. We were luckily enough to reserve a camp site earlier that spring for the weekend and it was such a fun way to spend the holiday.

The next weekend we went to Rocky Mountain National Park (the vlog for that trip is here). We were planning on going in 2019 but due to emergency gallbladder surgery for me, we were not able to make that trip. So we were happy to be able to get a campsite for this summer! We went with Ben’s mom and it was another great weekend spent in the mountains camping and hiking.

The following weekend we left for Minnesota. Things started to settle down a bit and we felt ok flying. So we flew to Minnesota for a little over a week and spent a few days up along the North Shore with my mom and my sister. We had such a great time hiking and exploring the beautiful areas around Lake Superior. Then we came back to my parents’ house and spent the last few days of our trip exploring some of the things around that area that we haven’t been able to see before (because usually when we go it is in the winter or very early spring and is too cold to do much outside!). Ben made a great vlog of our trip you can watch here.

August

For the first weekend in August we went on a birthday trip for Ben. For his birthday this year I surprised him with a camping reservation at Yellowstone National Park. I just happened to check at the right time and someone must have canceled their reservation so we were able to camp there for a weekend. We then took another day and went down to Grand Teton National Park to camp for another night. (You can see the vlog for this trip here). Again, we had such a great time camping, hiking and hanging out in nature.

September

September brought a major slow down to our travels. With school starting back up again, we just had time for a quick getaway over Labor Day weekend to Great Basin National Park. We were able to get a camping site and camped for a night before heading back home.

October

October was busy with school and work but we were able to sneak away for a weekend to celebrate Lucy’s third birthday at my parents’ cabin in Montana. It turned out to be a really snowy weekend where we didn’t do much, but Lucy had a great time with her family and had a great birthday party!

November

No traveling happened in November. Covid cases were skyrocketing in our area and while we had planned on going to Arizona to visit my grandma for Thanksgiving, that trip got canceled to keep everyone safe.

December

December didn’t have many plans, just a low-key month. We did travel a couple hours away from us and spent a few days around Christmas with my parents and siblings and their families.

Wrap Up

2020 did not go at all like we had planned. But we ended up traveling quite a bit, even if it looked different that our usual travels. We loved being able to spend so much time with family and going to so many new places as well as revisiting some old favorites. We loved being able to camp and hike and spend so much time outdoors! Here’s to more travel and more trips in 2021!