Drive to Driggs 2020

 Nona loved this whiteboard for the drive to Driggs. She was super excited to see Aunt Steph's cats. 

Phil's Birthday 2020

For Phil's birthday this year we went to Jamie and Jason's for a movie and dinner and Kirk surprised Phil with a Nutter Butter Pie. We have such good friends! It has made this time of quarantine manageable and even, at times, super fun. 

 

M Street House

Nona walked around with my phone, took pictures of everyone working and entertained us all. The other kids did a really great job helping to get the house turned over and super cleaned up. We had to paint everywhere and re-finish the floors, tore out and replaced the front and back porch, changed out some appliances, and a ton of yard work. 

 

At least we have Sunshine

 We had amazing weather during the Spring with covid. The kids experimented with spray paint and did a ton of arts and crafts for part of the free-time since online school was just getting started. We also did a ton of kayaking, hiking and cleaning out the gardens.

February 2020

The end of February was a little crazy this year we were just lucky to get a ton of sunshine during all the craziness. I had one of my seminary students, a friend of Miya and Cannon's commit suicide. Then we had a health scare with Bailee. Robbi and Lance came for a visit and to pick up Bailee from our house. It was just as the Covid 19 breakout in Seattle was happening so when Lance went back he was asked to work from home for two weeks since he was here in Seattle. Little did we know back then that so many people would still be working from home 6 months later. There was talk happening of  schools closing and students doing online school for a few weeks. It finally happened March 16th. We thought the kids were going to be out of school for 2 weeks and then have spring break before heading back to school. Then they moved it to the end of April. I couldn't believe it when in the middle of April they decided that we wouldn't be going back to school for the rest of the school year. WHAT! It all felt so crazy and somewhat apocalyptic. You could go out on the freeway and be the only car you could see either in front of you or behind you. Everyone in Seattle was working from home or unemployed unless you worked at Home Depot, Lowes, or Walmart. Those places you could wait in line for an hour to get in to the store. We were working on the M street house in Tacoma so I waited in those lines lots of times. We had amazing weather here for the spring. I think that was just an answer to prayers of the mothers homeschooling their kids and needing them to get outside. Miya was doing Pierce College so they did a great job moving to online school. HP was a little slower getting the hang of it, but then got super serious about learning and teaching students new material and extended the school year 7 days because we had missed a week of learning during the transition. I have learned that we can survive even when we have to wear a mask our and about, when we have to order food to go instead of sitting down in a restaurant, that human contact is important and being willing to talk to a lonely older lady about cheese for 20 minutes at the grocery store might be the most important thing I do that day. I have learned that as much as I thought I wasn't a hugger I was wrong. I miss people, I miss being able to do simple things like visit a neighbor without fear that I am taking over a virus that might kill them. It gave me a little reminder of what it feels like to be a teenager that just wants freedom, but always has a parent telling them what to do even when it seems super crazy or like a decision made out of fear instead of common sense. (I know everyone is trying to do their best with the information we have it was just how I felt during all of this. I don't like being told what to do!) We haven't had Covid here in our house, but Aaron and his kids got it and we were all together. Andra and Lena did get it, but they were the only ones in their house. If you try to track this virus it will drive you crazy figuring out why some people catch it and others don't unless you think like you would with every other virus and how often one person in my family with get the flu and the rest of us don't. Life is crazy, but so much easier to get through if we have a little sunshine and can get outside everyday. 

Sure do love my Bailee girl and am so glad she got to come and live with us even for such a short time.