It was a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving. I know lots of people were upset about not getting to be with extended family this holiday (thanks to government recommendations for celebrating the holidays during COVID), but to be honest it's been several years since we've had a really big extended Thanksgiving gathering. The last 7 years it's either been our family or one of the sets of grandparents have joined us so it's been simple. This year we were having a hard time deciding on what pies to make so I made two the Saturday before Thanksgiving so we could enjoy them throughout the week and then two more the day before Thanksgiving -- YUM!

We made a 12 day of Christmas package for Lexi on her mission (more like 18 days of presents) it was fun to put together.

We played some games in houseparty app with extended family.

Our final show for our season theater tickets was Thanksgiving weekend to see Tarzan. We only had 5 tickets because when I bought the tickets over a year ago Marcus was under age and I didn't know how he would do. I tried to add a ticket but due to seating restrictions they were already over sold so we made a decision that I would take all the kids and leave Steve to have some peace and quiet to get some work done. It's a little tricky to get a babysitter right now during COVID and I know a youth ticket is cheaper but I figured we just donate the $20 to support the arts. I was a little worried how Marcus would do wearing his mask the whole time, but he did great. We were even there longer than anticipated due to some technical difficulties the show started 25 minutes late and we had a longer intermission so we were in our seats for 3 hours. The show was cute and the kids enjoyed it. Marcus said, "I really liked it. I did not like the shooting part when the gorilla died." Yep I think all the kids cried there (I had Kleenexes but forgot to pass them out).

 

Tomorrow Ellie's jr high starts back up in person classes. So she's gathering everything to take back to school, her underwater ROV (which they had to do a water test with before sending back), her canvas for painting, PE clothes etc (I joked she needed a wagon to haul it all back) and she said, "I just hope I don't have to haul it all home tomorrow." We're all hoping case counts stay down and they can stay in session.

 

Ellie also gave an excellent talk today in church. I received several texts from members of our ward wanting me to tell Ellie what a fabulous job she did. Some even questioned if she prepared it herself and I confirmed she did. During the week I sent her links to some material and the girls and I watched some uplifting talks where she got some ideas, but she put it all together and came up Friday night and asked us to listen, time, and give feedback. I think we gave two minor inputs and she was at 6 minutes. People commented on how she looked at the audience and didn't speak fast. Way to go Ellie! #proudparents

Here's a little excerpt:

"In Ether we have read about Jared and his brother, and their long journey through wilderness and sea. The brother of Jared had such faith that he could no longer be kept from without the veil. But we cannot forget Jared, for he had great faith in the Lord too, even if it was not as strong as his brother’s faith. 

Jared shows his faith when he asks his brother, 'Go and inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance.' Jared knows that if they keep the commandments, and if their faith is true, the Lord will bless them, and lead them to a land that is choice above all other lands.

We don’t need to be as perfect as the brother of Jared was, and even he was not perfect. We do not need to bring about many miracles wherever we are. If we have strong faith, show our gratitude to the Lord, and repent and try to do better every time we do wrong; we will be given so many blessings that there will not be room for all of them. "

when my brother called to wish me a happy birthday he said, "so are you 42 or what?" I had to say that I felt more like "what" because the day before while out running with Steve I crashed and burned. I scratched up my knee, face, and jammed a couple of fingers on my left hand really good so I was feeling a little banged up and bruised (which I guess is even more reason to take it easy on my birthday). I had a nice chat with my brother -- he's a good man (funny to call my little brother a man, but I guess we're at that point even though he did call me scar face 😂). 

only picture I took on my birthday and my face looks really good in the picture, it's a little more bruised now but seems to be healing quickly thank goodness and can you see the bruised and swollen fingers on my hand

The Saturday before my birthday my dear friend Jen sent me a text with a last minute invite to the symphony. We had nothing really scheduled for that day so Steve encouraged me to go. We wore our masks the whole time in the car and at the concert we sat 6 feet apart so we were following Governor's rules. It was nice to get out since not much of that is going on and to share some girl time with a friend. Then on my birthday she left me a little gift too - I told her the symphony was enough but she was gracious and said that was as much fun for her. Her little girl made me a party hat and her son Spencer who remembers everyone's birthday made me a card and then she gave me some of her great handmade soap.

My friend Teresa from Tucson called my on my birthday while I was walking on the treadmill. It was nice of her to think of me and call. Her daughter Kendra just left for the Fresno mission so it was fun to hear about their adventures and share pandemic stories and just catch up on life. Then sweet friends from the neighborhood began dropping things off on my doorstep. It was so kind of them and made me feel so loved. I especially liked the card that all of the young women in my class signed inside was a thoughtful note from each girl -- it was heartfelt and very kind of my new class president to head it up. 

Life is good whether I feel like I'm 42 or not. Some days I can't believe I'm that old and others, well, when you face plant on a busy sidewalk it's humbling. I guess I'll just be grateful it's not the serpents we read about in Ether that are humbling me because I don't like snakes. We have so much to be grateful for even during this crazy never-ending pandemic. We live in a wonderful neighborhood with good friends, we like spending time with each other as a family, we have our health (probably the healthiest winter on record thanks to all the hand washing and face mask wearing), and most importantly we have a knowledge of our Savior who is the bread of life (John 6:35).

Our state is having quite a spike right now Thursday and Friday saw 4,000 new daily cases. So last Sunday the Governor came out with some new guidelines to help try and slow the spread of COVID. One of which was a mask mandate. Honestly, I don't understand why it is such a divisive thing. We wear seat belts to keep us safe. . .Isn't it really about loving our neighbor and wanting to help keep everyone safe. And don't get me started on the people that think COVID is still a hoax. I don't understand that at all when almost everyone knows of someone who has been affected by it now -- they think all those people are in on it too? Seriously hundreds of thousands of people have died from it. One guy even had the nerve to say well most of the deaths are because they had underlying conditions so it really wasn't COVID. Uh--hello if it weren't for COVID they would have been able to live longer with their underlying conditions. Ok so there's my rant. I wish we could all just do our part without complaint (or protesting at the governor's home).

He also asked for social gatherings to stop. They think most of the community spread is coming from small social/family gatherings where masks are not being worn. We really have kept our social gatherings limited to immediate family and allowed Ellie to have a friend over 2 times. Even tried to do most of our youth activities outside while the weather allowed and yes I asked them to wear masks before the mandate.

If you remember, last week the secondary schools went to 4 days a week and well guess what, with that many kids in school the exposure and spread hit the health department limits and Ellie's jr high started a soft closure Thursday, November 12th along with 3 other high schools (and it just keeps going I think 2 high schools in our district remain open). Today she started her virtual classes which is much different than the soft closure this spring where they were given assignments and maybe had one or two virtual meetings. This time they are expected to log on to a virtual meeting during what would be their class time, have their videos on the whole time, and some teachers even suggested being in a place with low traffic area (uh -- hello all 6 of us are home). She does have the basement area mostly to herself but I did a grocery pickup this morning and needed some stuff to go down to the fridge down there. Steve did a little dance jig with our turkey as he walked through her yoga class (class clown).

Oh and on top of the soft closure info I received an email Thursday evening that Ellie had been exposed. She sat within 6 feet of someone for more than 15 minutes who then tested positive for COVID. They asked that she quarantine for 14 days. Then at the end of the letter it checked a box saying they were both wearing masks so if she got a negative test after 7 days of quarantining she could go back to school. After the initial shock, I started looking at the dates more closely and realized that she was exposed on Nov 4th and her 7 day quarantine period was up on Nov 12th (the day we got the email). Hello -- they must be so overwhelmed with tracing that it takes that long, but what a wasted effort if you get the letter that late. Steve and I started looking into getting her tested. The school district opened up a site but it's only open M-Th 7-9am and the lines on Thursday took hours. I was on hold for 2 hours with our doctor who then told us we needed a referral from him which would require a telemed appointment which would be $115. So much for free testing if you have to pay for a doctor visit. We called the hospital and asked if the letter we got from the health department counts as a referral. It doesn't. The receptionist was nice and sympathetic and expressed her frustrations with the whole system too. So after that we just decided not to test her. School is virtual anyway. She would have to miss tennis on Saturday which she was sad about but there weren't really any other options besides waiting in line for several hours around other people that had been exposed. . .So we're taking it easy around here.

We also have been asked to cut back on church activities again which I get but I was really bummed because I felt like we were just getting back into a routine and reaching some girls again. I decided with all the school closures and youth activities going virtual again that I wanted to take a treat to all the young women. So I ordered Crumbl cookies and delivered them with a little note of love and comfort.

This Friday Steve did a virtual parent/daughter engineering night with the girls through Weber State. They had fun doing rockets and a luna lander while the boys and I did cosmic kids yoga and read a Thanksgiving book.

Now we're planning for our own little Thanksgiving here and debating which pies to make. . .There are three that we want and I cannot decide which one to cut so we may have 3 pies for the 6 of us. YUM!

You can tune in this Friday to hear President Nelson give a 15 minute message about hope and healing. I can't wait!

Thursday, Nov 5th was a lovely day and it looked like the last for a while so we decided to hike Adam's Canyon. We haven't done it yet this year and it is close so we could shoot right up after Ellie got home from school. Well we had some little delays getting off (ahem girls take forever to get ready even after you tell them too and I guess Ellie was stressing a little about homework -- remember this was the first week back with four days of school). Anyway, and we started hiking and got a call from Mimi that they were in Tremonton with the Tesla and it wouldn't charge. Steve suspected they figured out it was a salvage title and that it needs to be re-certified so they turned off access to the Tesla chargers. They didn't have the proper extension to use the destination charger in Tremonton so they drove to Logan and ended up going 5 miles after the odometer hit 0 but made it and got plugged in. We'd offered to come get them, but they were just going to wait out the charge and then they eventually decided to get a room there at the Marriott where they were charging. So our hike was slowed a little by phone calls and texts, but we eventually made the end and on our way back down we saw the beginnings of a pretty sunset.

Saturday we pulled out all the ski gear to see what still fits. Everyone needed to upsize in thermals and outer layers and Andrew upsized skis and Ellie got upsized poles. We'll wait to see how Marcus does and maybe we'll move him up a size before the end of the season. It was fun and exhausting. Steve literally fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes during the process.

Then it snowed on Sunday. Steve and the kids were disappointed it didn't start when it said it was going to so they'd given up hope and then it started coming down in huge flakes. It was pretty great. After lessons (I had to teach and we did an extended family Come Follow Me) the kids went outside and played in it and then we had fresh cookies and hot cocoa.

It was a good weekend! Life is good. We're learning to go with the flow as things with COVID are not ever as they seem or as straight forward as we think. Last night the Governor issued new state wide policies which include a mask mandate and restrictions on social gatherings and yet somethings are still going so we just wear our masks, wash our hands, and don't lick anything (😂my policy is still going strong) to slow the spread. Patience and perseverance is what this virus is teaching us.

Andrew turned 7 today. How is it possible that the years keep flying by and we just keep getting older and the kids just keep getting smarter, like Ninjas it sneaks up on ya.

The balloons lost all of their helium over night -- darn Ninjas ;)

We had one of his favorite breakfasts (he loves breakfasts so that's not hard to do). Let him open presents and we skipped are extra grammar lessons and let them play with his Ninja Bots that he got. The boys think they're awesome and laugh constantly while watching the fight. They do funny things like breathe heavy or cry when they lose. It was a fun gift. He also got a game because he loves games, Uno Flip and it has not left the table and has been played by at least three or more people at every break they get.

He asked for strawberry cheesecake for his dessert so we happily obliged. He missed one candle the first time and I realized I wasn't recording so he got a do over which he thought was great.

Today we have the privilege of voting (well Steve and I mailed in our ballots almost two weeks ago). We've had some interesting discussions with our kids this year especially since I realized the next presidential election Ellie will be old enough to vote.

The school recognizes this too and did a special election class last week where they talked about the election process and then the school held it's own election. When she came home we talked about it and she said something to the affect that she voted for Kanye West because "she's a cool girl" (yes he made the Utah ballot). . .ahem, I said that's great your vote is yours and you don't have to tell anyone who you voted for but since this is a learning process let's talk about it. First of all Kanye is a boy, second his attempt to run for president fell really short because his name isn't even on all the state ballots, so that vote in a real race would not really be effective. Then we explained that's why it's important to do your research on the candidates and know their policies and what they stand for. Steve told her that's why we really like doing our mail in ballots because we can sit with our ballots and do research about each candidate/issue and make an informed decision. We spend an 1-3 hours filling out our ballots. I think it opened her eyes a little. I even added this morning that it's probably a good idea to pray before voting. 

We also talked about how we don't really like the party system because it has made the country so divisive -- if we learned anything from Hamilton it's how they still worked together (hello the person with the most votes was president and the second most votes was vice president). Steve then made a stunning announcement to us all. He talked about how Trump has said if the election does not go his way he plans to fight a legal battle and Steve says if he does he plans on protesting because the very foundation of our democracy stands on our votes being heard. I agree with him but with all the protesting that's happening now it made my heart drop a little. I'm praying that the Lord will find a way to heal our nation both politically and physically right now.

On a lighter note, Marcus came home from preschool yesterday with an "I Voted" sticker. We were slightly jealous because we didn't get one with our mail in ballots. He was so excited to show us his ballots and explain how many votes each item got:
Favorite Food: Pizza 4 (where he voted), Donuts 6, Oranges 1
Favorite Color: Red 3, Blue 7 (where he voted), Yellow 1
We wish our election was that much fun. His teacher is so cute -- we love love her and are so glad we are there this year!

Steve just sent me this image - my vote has officially been counted (I erased some of my personal info for safety).

We also had the privilege of celebrating Steve's birthday this weekend. He turned 41 so for a few short weeks the three oldest ages contain all the same digits (41, 41, & 14 oh and we have a 4 year-old, crazy!). We took it easy on Sunday and had some special food with his family favorite Miami Beach birthday cake. Then that evening I helped him setup a game night with his graduate study friends and he was up way too late chatting and playing with them ;) I'm glad he had fun! We love you Steve and are grateful for your love, support, and even your dedication to democracy.