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.