Christmas 2021

 There's a chance we are getting too set in our traditions here. But we all love the traditions, so here we go:

The girls are getting better at decorating Jesus' birthday cake. It was also very tasty. 

Our special ornaments this year were from Clearwater Marine Aquarium

And Kennedy Space Center

There was also one from Yellowstone, but somehow I missed getting a picture of that. And now the tree is down. 

It made me happy that we still had travel ornaments even though we had to cancel our trip to Europe. We can't let life stop for COVID. 

On Christmas morning, we had a fresh blanket of snow. Amazing.

And, of course, presents. 

Jane wanted something called the Comfy, which is a cross between a hoodie and a blanket and it definitely doesn't scream "I've given up". She loved it. 

Emily got some fun items for Speech trips, including a new make up bag and a new suitcase. 

I love our quiet family Christmases. 

Lucky 13

 Both the kids are officially teenagers now. 

It's an interesting phase of life. 

Now, every time either of the kids have a birthday, we're all keenly aware that we are inching closer to their independence. 

For this birthday, she got an adult bike. Let's hope she is more responsible with this one than the last one. . 

And she wanted Culver's. She's a pretty accommodating individual. 

Happy Birthday, Jane! It's amazing to see the person you're becoming!

Thanksgiving 2021

 Last year, COVID put a damper on Thanksgiving. So this year, we were determined to get together. Plans were made to gather at my parents' house, despite the fact that they are on their mission in London. Everything seemed to be coming together until a few days before Thanksgiving, when Emily got sick. Two anxious days and a negative PCR test later, we breathed a sigh of relief and carried on with our Thanksgiving plans. 

I was really bad this year at getting pictures. This is literally the only picture I have of Thanksgiving:

Maybe I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want my mom to know we served Thanksgiving dinner out of cooking pots and tupperware. Not pictured: the Christmas themed paper plates we ate off of. 

After dinner, Jane and Lucy put on a Thanksgiving parade. These two girls are the best of friends. They talk or text almost daily. For weeks, they had been having Zoom meetings to plan this parade. The result was an incredible quantity of floats. 

Here's just a quick sample:

The "magic" float, featuring wands:

The "shopping" float, featuring Target, Walmart and King Soopers symbols, along with some branded grocery bags. 

This parade left Macy's in the dust. It even featured a dance number to Shaquira's "Estoy Aquí".

We were also able to Zoom with my parents, Which was kind of funny because we were in their house. It was good to get together again. Maybe next year, we will be able to be all together again. This was a nice start. 

Farewell Winter

 Jane's always loved animals. But Winter was special. 

From the minute she first saw Dolphin Tale, she wanted to meet Winter. In 2018, her dream came true. 

It was life changing for Jane to meet the famous dolphin without a tail. 

We got to see Winter again this past spring, although this time it was from a distance. She was less energetic. It made Jane sad and I think we all knew it would be the last time we would see her. 

Last week, she passed away and Jane has been inconsolable. 

She decided to draw a picture as a tribute to her favorite dolphin. 

We will miss Winter, but we are glad she lived. 

Stranger Sheep

 Halloween gets a little less exciting the older the kids get. This year was especially un-exciting because it snowed. 

But Emily got to go to a party and Jane still went trick-or-treating, accompanied by Emily for a short bout. 

Emily is Robin from Stranger Things. Jane is her favorite character from Animal Crossing, a sheep named Dom. 

Not familiar with Dom? Neither were any of Jane's friends. She didn't care. 

And I think we did pretty well. Here is the sheep himself for comparison:

And we've finally reached the stage where the girls can be totally responsible for carving pumpkins. I don't even have to remove guts anymore. This is a fantastic development. 

They turned out pretty nicely.

Our neighborhood kids are getting older. It seems that our block used to be full of little kids. Now it's packed with teens. That meant less trick or treaters. That part was a bit sad. But it also meant more leftover candy for me. If I ever turn down a peanut butter cup, the end is near. 

7th and 10th

Another first day of school.

Emily is a sophomore this year - no longer low man on the totem pole. 

Jane, however, is in her first year of junior high. 

I wish I could tell them that life won't always be like high school (or junior high). But we all have to pass through this weird gauntlet in between childhood and adulthood. Some days will be rough. But I hope that home continues to be a good place for them - even if they have a lot more years of teenagerhood ahead. 

 

Not Missing the Dance

7 months ago, Chris and I passed the milestone of 20 years of marriage. And you know how we celebrated it? In the parking lot of Storey Gym eating Dairy Queen Blizzards and being approached by a homeless man who was either carrying a big gun or fake big gun. We drove away screaming and bemoaned how truly, truly awful our anniversary had been.

We decided to make up for it with Garth Brooks tickets for Frontier Days. At the appointed time, we both signed in to get tickets. I had the tickets in my cart, and then the system glitched. We missed out. 

Now I know it's not advisable to support scalpers. I know it just makes them bolder. But we have missed out on so much lately. So did I sign onto StubHub immediately after we lost our chance at tickets? Yes. I did. Did I pay $900 for a pair of tickets to see Garth? Yes, I did. Do I feel bad about it? Not a bit. Because I wasn't about to miss out on even more. 

We spent an absolutely magical night with Garth Brooks. It was worth every single penny. It was as if the pandemic never happened. 

Happy belated 20th anniversary, Chris! Next year will be better than Dairy Queen. 

 

Fiery 4th

After our trip, we were a bit worn out. 

But we still celebrated the 4th of July by making patriotic food...

lighting some stuff on fire, and watching the City light some stuff on fire. 

What more could you ask for?

 

Summer Vacation: Pivot! Pivot!

 We were supposed to go to London and Paris this summer. 

We got our shots. We thought the end of the pandemic was in sight. We were wrong. 

There's been a lot of discouragement surrounding the pandemic. So much life has been put on hold. We still had hope that this summer's vacation wouldn't be ruined, so we left the decision until a few weeks before we were supposed to leave. It became clear that the mandatory quarantine periods weren't going to be lifted. So we cancelled. It was heartbreaking. 

But we had the time off and we didn't want to skip summer vacation 2021. So with a few weeks' notice we threw together a trip to Yellowstone. And you know what? It was great. 

First stop: Devil's Gate. Our ancestors came across the plains and it was really amazing to see this history. I haven't been there since before they did the visitor's center so I'm glad we got the opportunity to go. 

Next we headed over to Independence Rock. This is the rock that the pioneers scratched their names into on their trip west. 

We chose to go through Togwotee pass, which affords some truly amazing views of the Tetons coming into Jackson. 

And, because I'm a Wyoming native, I'm allowed to say this: Jackson grosses me out. It is an abomination of inequality where insanely rich people shelter their money from taxes and don't pay the people who serve them enough to survive in this gross, gross town. There. I said it. It wasn't nearly as bad when I was a kid. There are some good memories there and I still wanted the kids to see it. We saw it. But just long enough to stay the night. 

And then... on to Yellowstone!

Yellowstone was still amazing. 

Our room reservations were last minute, so staying inside the park wasn't an option. We stayed at West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Cody. We knew the crowds would be out in force, so we bought picnic lunches at grocery stores every night and then brought them into the park with us the next day. In reality, we barely felt the crowds. We did everything we wanted to do.

Old Faithful...

Grand Prismatic....

Mammoth....

including ice cream...

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone...

And a quick stop at Lake Lodge, where Emily purchased the perennial classic, "Death in Yellowstone". 

We exited the park through the east entrance after 3 memorable days and spent some time in Cody, where we ate at Bubba's, which continues to be mediocre but iconic. 

I'm glad we took this trip. I'm sick of missing out on things duetocovid. The kids needed to see Yellowstone before they fly the coop. The past year and a half has been about adjusting, pivoting and changing plans. But we refuse to let this pandemic trap us in the house. We'll still go to Europe. But now the kids will have had the experience of Yellowstone and Europe. We're doing our best to make the most of this. 

Camping and Dancing

 The girls were able to go to Young Women camp again this year. Last year was weird. We did the best we could, but it still ended up being a mix between virtual and in person. But COVID number were down this year and they were able to do a ropes course and then head down to Colorado Springs where they had the treat of showers and flushing toilets. Truly a luxury. 

The day after they got back, Jane had a recital. A real, in person, recital. She missed it last year because they rescheduled from May to August - duetocovid. It just so happened to fall during our trip to Disney World. 

But this year, she danced her little heart out. 

Things are starting to get back to normal. We want to be done with these strange times. 

Not Throwing Away our Shots

 

The whole family is officially vaxxed. 

As soon as the first shipments started arriving, I've coveted that precious shot. 

My opportunity came early. The hospital sent me a message in February telling me I qualified based on my unpleasant health history. I jumped up and down, celebrating like I'd won the lottery. Pfizer has become a more desirable brand than Gucci in the past few months. 

The first dose was easy. The second came with a high fever and body aches. It was totally worth it. 

Chris got his early too. He was on a waitlist at a local pharmacy and they called him one Saturday, asking if he could be there in the next 15 minutes. They had one dose left. He was still celebratory, but didn't indulge in a selfie. 

The kids finally got the green light in May. We took them to the clinic after school and it was almost all teens. 

I was even more excited for the kids to get theirs than I was when I got mine. They need to go back to normal life so badly. We haven't been hiding in our house this past year, and they've been attending school in-person since September, but things haven't been normal either. It's been tough. The girls miss regular church activities and in-person school activities. Emily has been competing at speech meets over video. It's surreal. We're done with surreal. We're ready to get back to real. 

Hooray for the vaccines! May they help usher out these dark times. 

Fifteen

Emily is fifteen. 

It's strange thinking that she's already been with us for a decade and a half. It's even stranger to think she only has 3 more years before she goes to college. 

We've been trying to give her responsibility and privileges a bit at a time. We decided that this year, she is finally ready for a smart phone. She was so excited to finally be able to have the internet in her pocket. 

She also got her learner's permit. That particular achievement is not pictured here, but just imagine her taking the wheel of an actual vehicle, her parents terrified on the one hand, but also very excited at the prospect of her being able to transport herself. 

For her birthday, she requested a movie day with her bestie and an Oreo cheesecake with a brownie crust. Fairly simple requests that were easily granted. 

Happy Birthday, Emily! 

 

Easter 2021

It seems like Easter is always a bit rushed, given its proximity to Spring Break. 

But we didn't care. 

We got off the plane on good Friday. 

The next day we dyed eggs. 

Easter is a nice low pressure holiday. You throw some candy in a basket, heat up a ham, and voila - It's properly celebrated. 

The kids still consented to hunt eggs this year. Probably because they contained candy. 

We need photo evidence while we can get it. Every year could be the last hunt. 

Happy Easter!

 

Sun, Space and a Sea Kayak

If there's one thing we've learned during the pandemic, it's this:

Florida will never turn us away. 

Chris and I were fully vaccinated by the time Spring Break rolled around. But we would have gone even if we hadn't been. We've been cooped up for too long. So, for the second time in less than a year, we got on a plane to Florida for a little sun. 

Kennedy Space center was pretty amazing. After visiting Johnson Space canter a couple years ago, we had to complete the spacey tour of the country. 

This is the space shuttle Atlantis. It lives in a big building on the space center campus. It's pretty cool.

The hours were shortened due to covid, but we saw most of what we wanted to see. And we had plenty of time after closing to visit Cocoa Beach. 

The next day, we engaged in a bit of kayaking.

When we decided to reserve a kayaking adventure, I had visions of paddling alongside a friendly manatee. Someone in our group caught a glimpse of one of the mythical creatures.  But the closest we got were some manatee bubbles. They were pretty amazing bubbles. We did see a couple dolphins. That was a nice consolation prize. 

And then, because we couldn't not, we drove across the peninsula to the Gulf of Mexico. Because Clearwater is amazing and we had to spend some time there. 

Also because Winter the Dolphin lives there. Winter isn't looking too lively these days so I'm really glad Jane got to see her one more time. 

I'm really glad that Florida won't turn us away. The girls are getting older and I don't know how many more family vacations are left in the hopper. We try to be careful, but we also refuse to let these years be stolen by a pandemic. 

Thanks, Florida. We'll be back.