Sunday was seminary graduation and it was COVID Style -- virtual at a ward level. The Bishop had asked me to help put together a video presentation of the seniors which I had worked hard on and it turned out well (a lot of them said it was their favorite part). I also shared a few comments and my testimony. Love those seniors.

Monday we packed up the bikes and went to the long part of the trail with the tunnels. We had fun. Marcus even rode on the co-pilot through a tunnel and thought it was great. When we got back to the van, he insisted that he ride all the way home so Steve decided to take him for a little ride down the street (at which point Steve realized how bad my bike is and we both decided I needed a new bike but I don't want anything fancy and apparently bikes are hard to come by right now much like toilet paper -- I guess everyone wants to get outside). When we got home we enjoyed an ice cream sandwich.

After our treat I started going through a brown paper bag I found cleaning out the storage. Guess what was in it -- letters from me to G&G O (Grandpa & Grandma Olenslager). It was a tender mercy because with Grandpa's declining health I began to wonder a bit if he knows/knew how much I loved him. And reading those letters confirmed that I showed and shared my love with them often. Steve was a trooper and knew my plate was feeling really full so he got out little build projects to do with the boys and the girls made these really cute FAMILY signs I found in the garage storage to give to Mimi & Grandpa and Grandma & Grandpa Moore.

Mimi had surgery on her mouth Tuesday to get her posts put in and then went to visit Grandpa upon seeing him she called Nancy who met her there and they spent the next day with Grandpa -- I picked up their food and helped Mom with her medications from surgery. Then late Wednesday night well really early Thursday morning at 12:41am Grandpa passed away. I know he is so happy to be with Grandma again, but it was still difficult and a little surreal thanks to COVID restricting visitors and complicating things such as a funeral service (more to come on that later).

Thursday morning we had final inspection for the basement. It has been on our to do list for a while and I had heard that some were doing inspections via zoom thanks to COVID so I encouraged Steve to call and set it up. Our inspection was in person, but within a few minutes we had a pass and it was done. Then we decided to go for a short hike off of Fernwood with the kids - that street always reminds me of my grandparents Fern & Woody so it was fitting that we went exploring there.

After the hike we stopped at Fiiz for a treat thanks to some gift cards from some sweet friends (we are still not doing much takeout yet). When we got home my Mom called and asked me to come and help her and Aunt Nancy clean out Grandpa's room. So I went over and helped them sort through a few things. As they were leaving Mom showed me a sore on her gums and I asked my Aunt to take her passed the dentist on the way home to have it checked out. The dentist said it all looked good and was healing well, but I'm glad I had them stop because I would have hated for her to get home and have an infection and a couple of days later she started having really bad pain so it was good to have had the dentist check things out.

When I arrived home Carole and Russ had arrived. They had asked if they could come visit us and Stephanie (they needed a change of scenery - I think they were lonely in quarantine). They went to Stephanie's first over Memorial Day weekend then ended with ours. The kids loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa and their "car sleep" as Marcus called it.

Grandma brought games and played several times with Andrew (who is my game kid) and anyone else that would play. She did yoga with the boys,

Saturday just after we finished watching a movie and making ice cream there was a micro burst that knocked out power. Then a neighbor called and said a branch from one of our trees had fallen. When Steve and I went out to check it out we found we'd lost half a tree. I text a few neighbors looking for a chainsaw and we ended up spending 3 hours out there cleaning up our mess and a few neighbors up the streets trees too. It was so nice of several neighbors to be out there with us cleaning when it wasn't their mess or problem.

I had a couple of ward council meetings Sunday -- our ward is is going to start holding sacrament meeting in June (COVID style 99 people or less per meeting and just a 30 minute sacrament with other modifications) so there were some details to discuss. Then we had our home sacrament meeting and Come Follow Me lesson after which we grilled lunch. Then Carole and Russ decided to hit the road hoping to make it half way to Tahoe. It was bitter sweet. The kids were sad to see them go, but we had plans to meet them in Tahoe on Tuesday (COVID style vacay visiting Grandpa & Grandma's vacation home there).

Monday was a crazy day, Ellie had sewing and tennis and Lila had her dance showcase COVID style. They only had to be there for their performances and only parents were allowed in to the gym to watch the performance right as it started (they did their dress rehearsal right before they performed it for us). Her team did really well considering they have only had a couple of weeks of in class practices. One team member brought the wrong dress for the second performance so we had to wait for a whole hour for her to run home and get the right dress then come back -- it was inconvenient but we made it work (we went and grabbed a Fiiz freeze to pass the time).

Tuesday we got up early and finished packing the van for the trip to Tahoe. Fortunately I had sent a lot of food ahead with Carole and Steve was a huge help finishing things up. We got dressed and headed to Idaho for Grandpa O (Elwood Olenslager's) graveside service since that is all that is really feasible during COVID. Mom had called Sunday when she was in a lot of pain and asked me and Nessa to do the life sketch. So Sunday evening and Monday morning I began writing it and texting cousins and aunts to get their memories of Grandpa. It was a lot of fun to gather the memories because it brought more back for me (see life sketch in previous post).

When the service was over we grabbed our box lunches and hit the road for Tahoe. The kids traveled great. We listened to this radio theater version of CS Lewis's The Magician's Nephew. It was amazing and so fun to listen too. The kids didn't use the restroom or need a stop for 8 hours (we left our house at 9am to head to Idaho and there was not facilities there and then we didn't stop until 5pm about half way through our drive to Tahoe). When we arrived at Tahoe we found Steve's sister Debbie had come with her husband Tim and their girls Ashley (who had just graduated) and Abbey. It was so fun to see them -- we don't get to enough. The boys ran around getting some energy out and everyone was loving on their kittens Frank and Gracie. We finally got the boys settled in bed at 9pm Cali time. The rest of us stayed up having fun chatting with everyone and decided that Wed morning Steve and I would do a long hike with Tim & Debbie. They found this 9mile hike -- we parked their car at one end and drove ours to the other where we started hiking. As we started hiking Debbie said, "we like to hike fast". She wasn't kidding we managed to do 9.1 miles in 3hours -- it was a fast pace, but I managed to sneak in a few pictures during our quick stops.

Grandma was great to watch the kids and do their Kiwico boxes that came right before we left and we threw in.

When we got home I found a small puncture wound on my leg and a huge goose egg. I remember stepping on a stick the first mile in and it hitting my other leg as I stepped (which would have been prevented if I wore my hiking boots but we decided on tennis shoes to go faster) it hurt a little when it happened but I didn't notice it much after that so it's so weird that my leg reacted like that. We went down to the close beach later that day to get outside with everyone. That beach was a little crowded when we got there but a few people left and the kids had a good time digging in the sand and playing in the water. Steve debated getting out the kayak but it was really quite windy that afternoon so we decided against it.

Thursday morning Steve helped his Mom with a few projects around the cabin while Marcus colored and I played a game with Andrew and the girls hung out in the back with Ashely and Abbey and the kittens -- we tried to keep Marcus out as much as possible since his face swelled up the day before from the kittens. Fortunately, I had Steve grab some Benadryl when he took Carole to CVS to pick up meds for Russ because Marcus also got stung by a bee that morning -- poor boy but he managed a quick recovery. Then after lunch we decided to hike down to Emerald Bay with everyone (well Grandpa stayed behind and Tim had work so he stayed behind with Russ). It was a nice wide road down there and the day was lovely. Once again Steve debated going back to the van to get the kayak but I was a little worried about it taking too long for him to go get it and come back and hauling it up the .75 mile hike so we decided against it and decided to take the kids passed these beautiful waterfalls we saw the day before and then we noticed about .10mile farther up you could see some bigger falls with mist coming off of them -- definitely worth the little extra hike on our way out that evening.

That evening Tim and Debbie decided to head home and Carole asked if Tim would help them drive the motor home out of the canyon since Carole had hurt her shoulder on the way to Tahoe (they stopped to help someone who's motor home had caught on fire and some how had an entanglement with the hose that landed her on her shoulder and in the hospital to get it checked out). We were sad to see them all go. As a matter of fact as we hiked down to the bay again the next day Marcus said, "Where are our people? I miss them."

Friday morning we decided to do the same hike down to Emerald Bay but with the kayak so we could row out to the island and check it out. We sent Steve the night before to buy a wagon so we could wheel it up and down in, which was a wise choice. We spent all day there at the beach. We took turns going out to the island and doing the hike up to the Tea House and then the girls kayaked around for a bit while the boys played in the sand, then Steve took all the kids out for one more row around the little bay before we deflated it and packed it up. It was a lovely day.

Saturday the weather cooled off quite a bit so we decided to go out and explore another part of Tahoe by doing a hike. Andrew said, "I thought we only hike once a week." I explained when we're at home we do, but when we're in a different place it's fun to get out and see as much of it as possible. (We had hoped to bring our bikes -- as soon as we started planning the trip we ordered a hitch for the van and a 6 bike rack. The hitch was supposed to arrive Memorial Day but was delayed, finally Thursday that week I ordered another one which was supposed to arrive Sunday before our trip and I arranged to borrow a 4 bike rack from my cousin but alas the hitch did not make it in time and so we went bike-less -- all our packages are waiting at home for us now..) So for the day we found an easy hike without much elevation change which was nice for the kids and still a lot of fun. We hiked out to Fallen Leaf Lake and walked out to see the dam and then followed the river back. Then we drove out and around the lake a bit which was fun. The lake was formed by a glacier sliding -- if it had fallen just a mile or so more it would just be a part of Lake Tahoe. There is a fun Washoe Indian story that explains it's name.

That afternoon Steve and I went for a run down the Tahoe Keys hiking path which was fun. Then we all soaked in the hot tub for a while. After we showered and had a quick dinner we cleaned up and packed most of our belongings and started putting stuff in the van. Sunday we woke up, had breakfast and a quick sacrament service after which we hit the road. We had our lesson on the road, we discussed, Alma 7:23-24 and how we should all "be humble, submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times;" We talked about George Floyd's death and the protests and riots that have happened and we talked about how if we loved everyone as God loves us then we would be more patient and kind to everyone we come across. The most important thing we can do is treat everyone the same regardless of color, gender, or beliefs.

The kids have been traveling back to Utah great. We listened to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (the dramatic readings of those are so good and just the right length to retain everyone's attention). As I type this post they are watching the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie we picked up at Redbox as a surprise when we stopped for gas. 

During our stops Steve and I find ourselves telling our kids more often, "Wash your hands, don't touch your face, and don't lick anything." They laugh but the boys tend to put their fingers in their mouth more often than I would like and I finally explained to Andrew, "If you put your hands in your mouth you might as well have licked the object you touched." which he thought was gross. So when we stopped at the gas station on the way home he said, "don't lick anything or put your hands in your mouth because you might as well have licked it." I think he gets it now.

There you have it a long long post of how we've been handling all sorts of things the last couple of weeks COVID Style.