Me and My Boys: July 2021

Friday, July 23, 2021

Durango, Colorado Family Reunion

We were so excited to travel somewhere with cooler weather! Matt drove the family 15 hours, then we stopped an hour outside of Durango to stay the night. The next morning, I dropped Matt off at the airport for him to fly back home in order to work Monday and Tuesday. He flew back out Tuesday night after work and joined us for the rest of the vacation. After dropping Matt off at the super tiny airport, the boys and I met up with my parents and went to church in Durango. After church, we went to a park for lunch and toured the college a bit before we were able to check into our lodge. Matt helped get a great deal on the lodge, and it was perfect...except for the restaurant in the middle of the lodge that was open to the public! It turned out not to be as big of a deal as we thought, but still very strange.

Monday we went on a 3-mile hike down to a river. (It was so nice to go hiking mid-morning and not sweat to death!) The way down was no big deal, and everyone did great. Going back up on the other hand, that was a bit tough for the small kids. Bryson and Austin were my hiking buddies on the way up, and it took a lot of encouragement plus many breaks to make it back up. I also had to patiently endure a lot of whining. Austin loves to collect rocks, and some of the ones he had his sweatshirt pocket were quite large. He wanted me to carry him, but I said he'd have to leave the rocks behind if he wanted me to do that. He stubbornly refused. I finally gave in and carried him and his rocks on my back for awhile.

Notice the large bulge of rocks weighing down his sweatshirt.

There was a scare at the river with some of the kids wading in the river. The current was quite strong, but Clay found a place that broke off from the main river where kids could get their feet wet. However, Benson entered the water too close to the current and started to get swept away. Jared went in head first to grab him, slipped himself, and had a bit of a workout pulling himself and Benson to safety. It all happened very fast and both were soaked.

Tuesday we went to a hot spring in Ouray. Thankfully my parents carpooled with us (Matt was gone still) and did the driving through the winding mountains, which makes me so stressed!

Then we went to Silverton and did the mining tour. It was interesting and a good outing.

The kids enjoyed the sauna and hot tubs at the lodge

Showers outside the sauna

Gaming happened whenever we could fit it in!

A group went on an adventure to find a hike to a lake while some stayed back for games. Apparently getting to the start of the hike was sketchy; Matt's jeep could have made it, but not the mini vans everyone was driving. I heard horror stories of the difficulty of turning the cars around.

Wednesday we decided to do the small theme park in the area called Purgatory. They had an alpine slide, ski lift, a mountain coaster, and rock sifting. The Go Karts were supposed to be available, but due to rain the day before, the ground was too muddy.

Alpine Slide

Mountain rollercoaster

Matt is sporting a black eye from helping out at a baseball practice. A kid threw a ball in from outfield and Matt stood up at a bad time.

Thursday, our family went grocery shopping and fishing then prepped dinner. Everyone else went to Mesa Verde. My boys opted out of the 5 hour drive round trip.

Friday we went white water rafting, which was great fun!

I love Austin's face in this one!

Saturday morning, we left bright and early at 6am. We drove straight through and got home at 10:30pm. Austin had a rough time the last 3 hours (minus a 30-minute nap in there) because he was tired of being in the car, but otherwise the kids did great. Other than Austin, the kids said they'd rather knock out the driving in one day instead of two. I'm not sure if their opinion matters though as Matt would choose to do it in one day regardless of how anyone else feels. Matt was a trooper and did all the driving. I took some naps, caught up on journaling, and worked on planning music for Primary.

We love spending time with family, bonding, gaming, and creating memories together. Another great vacation in the books.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Life after Covid-19

Covid-19 shut down the world and changed everything. We missed going to church but at the same time really enjoyed the new experience of "home church." Having Matt bless the sacrament and Caleb pass it was really special, though admittedly there were some weeks where there were some giggles. In August 2020, we were allowed to go to church again as long as we followed some safety procedures such as masks worn at all times, sitting every other row, sanitizing after church, bread in cups, any socializing after church had to be in the parking lot, no singing, online RS and SS. We were grateful to partake of the Sacrament again with our ward family again though; it was so nice to worship together. Church was broadcasted so there was the option to stay home and watch it, but we felt it was important for us to be there every week. Singing in Sacrament Meeting started to be allowed again in March as long as you wore a mask. In April, with the vaccine more readily available, masks started to be optional. We also had several ward boundaries get realigned in April and the creation of a new ward in the stake. We lost many good friends from our ward, including Jared and Kari. A 30-minute 2nd hour started up in June where I was finally able to teach Singing Time in person again instead of making videos every other week. I love teaching in person and being with and interacting with the kids again! This is my favorite calling I've ever had, and I've been so happy to throw myself into it again. Our building has 4 wards in it and the wards were not allowed to overlap, which is why we've only had a 30-minute 2nd hour. I taught Singing Time for those 30 minutes to a combined junior and senior primary. The primary presidency did ask the nursery singing time leader to teach the Sunbeams and CTR 4s to help transition them into primary again since they have had no practice with that due to Covid. On July 11th, we will be allowed to overlap wards again and will move back to a full 2nd hour. I'm excited to teach junior and senior primaries separately!

Caleb has done very well about wearing a mask to school this last year. I made sure to wash his masks frequently, and he usually changed out between two masks throughout the school day. Masks were a big reason I chose to homeschool this last year, so I'm excited that masks are optional next year and that school will feel more "normal" again! I know the students adjusted just fine last year, but I also know that school felt very different last year. I'm glad that Carter and Bryson were able to skip out on all the changes the schools made due to Covid-19 (not ever seeing their teacher's mouth/smile, sitting every other person at lunch, no parent volunteers in the school, no parents visiting for lunch, no field trips/class parties, etc.)

Matt and I both felt the same about masks--we hated them and didn't feel like they did much to protect the spread of the virus. We were compliant however, except when we sat in our pew at church with our family spaced out from other families, we took our masks off. We both had a lot of questions about the vaccine and whether we trusted it as there was no research about the effects. In the end, I decided to get it for a variety of reasons, some of which include following the prophet's example, recognizing the vaccine is an answer to prayers, and knowing getting it would continue to help things open up. I planned on getting the Pfizer, but it was unavailable on the day I scheduled my appointment, so I went with the Johnson and Johnson. It is less effective, but I was okay with that. Another perk is that it was only shot instead of 2.

March 2020-March 2021 was a rough year on a lot of people. We were grateful that Matt kept his job, though he did take a pay cut in order to help keep employees at work. We also really enjoyed the increase of family time in those first handful of months. As Elder Holland said in Conference, it was interesting to see such a microscopic virus bring the whole nation to its knees. It will be interesting to see what Covid-19 protocols stick around this next year.