Let's look through the rearview at our last quarter of 2020.
Leslie has been serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Floyd Co., Kentucky. The little town where she lives is mostly abandoned because of flooding. I think the following picture is the town hall on stilts.
Leslie and her comp, Sister Wride.
The missionaries serving there had to all test for covid and quarantine because of an exposure at a ward function.
The care packages you send an "indoor missionary" are a little different than an "outdoor missionary".
A cool covered bridge.
This is the old creepy abandoned high school.
Her area is also the hub of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud, so we had some fun learning about that. She did say that most people in the congregation where she serves are related in some way and it gets pretty complicated.
Speaking of creepy, we were able to do some traditional Halloween activities. Luke, Rosie and Macy went trick or treating.
Macy likes to paint Rosie's face. I kind of meant for a small butterfly to be on her cheek, but this is what we got. She loved it.
Crazy hair day at school.
Rosie kept saying she was either going to be a butterfly or a bat. We almost went with this combo.
Macy wanted to be a Purple Princess. She was all about create your own thing this last year of trick or treating for her.
Luke wanted to wear the coveted blue man suit.
Macy trick or treated with her friend Libby.
It was fun to see some of the Covid 19 adaptations. Our friend Neil here had a chute to slide the candy.
She loved the face paint so much that she tried to recreate it.
My chemo wig lives in the Halloween box (where it belongs.) Macy and Luke had some fun trying out a new look.
Luke also had his first season of basketball and did great. During this same time period he was also dealing with puking migraines, even more frequently than he did this summer. We were worried that it was his heart, but the cardiologist said no way. The neurologist says they are common for boys his age and most likely triggered by dehydration and certain foods (a trigger for him is strangely, too many blueberries). Since the neurologist appointment, and the prayers of all his cousins and other relatives, he has gone over a month now without a migraine, such a blessing!
Macy and Libby made a trick or treating route map. Yep, time to graduate.
So true!
Macy is looking a little too grown up and like Leslie in this picture.
I don't know, maybe the leaves in my neighborhood look like this every fall, but I thought these babies were extra appropriate for 2020. All the trees looked like this.
We had a lot of fun making a "Livin' on a Prayer" music video for Leslie. This is Boston's bad kisser pose, a tribute to Utah State.
Rosie loves him anyway.
I wanted to document Macy's bulletin board. She is such a good girl. It's like that story about digging into the unknown Young Woman's purse to try to guess who she was by examining what was important to her.
In November, while the weather still held, we decided on a re-do weekend getaway to Moab since our Fall Break trip to Yellowstone was so brutally cold. It was a lot of fun, other than the traffic jam into town; everyone else had the same idea, and with Covid the outdoor activities have been crowded.
This is why I make Rosie share a bed with Macy when we travel.
At The Windows area of Arches.
Notice the moon framed by this arch.
Rosie was pretty upset about the wind, but Mark got her to smile about it.
Our favorite Sand Dune Arch.
So happy to make it to Pasta Jays' for lunch (glorious!) after our dinner plans got messed up the following night from the traffic jam. The night before we had to eat late at Denny's instead, just walking from the hotel, and we were all kind of tired and mopey. Nevertheless, an older gentleman came up to us as he was leaving and told us what a beautiful family we had. Rosie made kind of a sourpuss face at him, and as he walked away, she insisted to us, "WE don't have a beautiful family!" We questioned her about this and gave her some alternate suggestions as to what kind of family we have. She came up with her own response and went back to eating her fries. "We have a CRAZY family!"
We also visited Dead Horse Point, my first time. It was pretty mind blowing. And I was only a little scared.
Thanksgiving was a hit. We splurged on some fancy foods to add variety since we were just by ourselves at home. (The raspberries were gone in about five minutes.)
Luke just wanted potatoes and gravy.
We ate too much.
Then it was Christmastime.
We did not cut our own tree, but my sister Brooke and my Mom did in Montana. Love this shot.
Cooper is almost ready for his phase two (probably more like phase 5 for him) of braces. He is in for a few implants as well once he hits young adult age. What a trooper. We might have three in braces at once.
Boston finished reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. He also decided that he was too old for bunkbeds and a bright blue bedroom, so we sold the beds, he assembled the new one, and did most of the extensive priming and painting of his room. Looks great!
Before.
Mark ended up needing to self-isolate for the week before Christmas, so the rest of us tried to have some fun without him.
Mark ended up testing negative. Three times. Long story, but the first test he took too soon, the second test was a rapid test to try to get out of quarantining a few days sooner, the third test was because he developed a really high fever literally the last hour of his quarantine, and the doctor didn't trust the rapid test results. It turned into pneumonia but he is finally doing much better after fevering for a week and getting a different kind of antibiotic. I honestly think it was all the laying around during the initial quarantine that turned a simple cold into something worse. Boo. My inlaws have been teasing me that I should be licking the doorknobs and getting my quarantine from the kids scheduled.
I believe this is what might be called, a Trump Card.
We did celebrate Remarkable Home Loans' second anniversary in the fall. Rosie appreciated the donuts.
She likes having lunch at the office as well.
This was a cool screenshot from our Stake Conference (several congregations) of where all the current missionaries are serving, mid pandemic. Leslie is the Kentucky dot.
She got creative preparing for Christmas indoors, including building a giant blanket fort to sleep in on Christmas Eve (despite the mice and despite being fairly ill all month).
Leslie got us Kentucky gear for Christmas.
Rosie loved her little backpack doll and named her Penny.
I took the kids to Logan while Mark was recuperating to see some of their Haynes cousins.
Rosie took the no-double-dipping rule a bit too seriously while the rest of us weren't watching.
Thought I'd take this picture of the shirt Leslie sent me in front of my featured map. (She has never served in WV, haha.)
Cooper got a street hockey set with lots of sticks. Come play!
Macy finished the blanket she has been making for Rosie for quite some time.
I just couldn't pass this shirt up. Comments were: Don't show Leslie! Did Dad buy that? and from Boston, "I think there might be some reverse psychology going on here." I've told him now that Leslie is out the door he is the most important jewel in my crown, and takes up most of my hard drive. Plus, I've been super proud of how much he has grown up this year.
It was fun that Leslie got to be on video call while we opened all the presents. She took her turn like everyone else. It was an extra blessing that she wasn't sick that day and also that the phone service didn't fail until we were done, because of an explosion in Tennessee.
Christmas Eve dinner of favorite things. This tradition started in 2008 or 2009 after a really brutal hit to Mark's job and our finances. We decided that because we had been broke all year we were going to finally splurge on some fun takeout foods, all at once. We got secret santa-ed the same night with some enormous bags of presents and it was a magical Christmas. This year we (and Santa) covered our own presents, but the takeout tradition is something the kids talk about and look forward to all year. Seemed like a fitting way to celebrate surviving and thriving in 2020.
Lots of excitement and blessings coming our way in 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment