Jeremy pictures of Jenny Lake

 These are Jer's pictures of Jenny Lake and Table top mountain.  We did Jenny Lake on a Saturday, and on Sunday (and because of my physical therapy) I stayed at the hotel with the kids.  I washed dirty laundry and masks, had everyone shower and we hung out for the first half of the day while Jer hiked table top mountain.  Then we took a scenic drive around the Tetons and stopped to take pictures.

I love these ones.... Jer caught the kids taking each other's pictures.  This really is what they were doing the entire trip and it was so cute.

Family trip 2020

 We try to take our kids on one big family trip every year and on several day outings each year.  We usually also spend one weekend a year visiting the Brashers and two weekends a year camping at Bear Lake.  We weren't sure how COVID-19 and everything else going on was going to affect everything this year.  So far we have kept our day outings to places away from people.... like going to the Little Sahara sand dunes.  We didn't go to the Brashers this year for Robert's graduation, which was so sad, but we just want to keep everyone healthy.  We didn't go to the Robertson family reunion or to the first Bear Lake week camping trip.  We had already booked and paid for our trip to Yellowstone before all this happened.  We figured that camping would be enough social distancing to keep us safe.  Hopefully it was, but where we couldn't social distance we wore masks.  Right after our trips through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, we spent the week at Bear Lake.  We did see some cousins, but it was very minimal for who usually comes.  My cousin and her family had COVID a month ago.  They are all doing great and only one in 7 people ended up in the hospital with pnuemonia.  Another cousin's family currently has it (they did not come to the lake).  Out of their family of 9, only two haven't tested positive yet.  They are currently quarantining and no one has had to go to the hospital, but the dad said that he was soooooo sick for 6 days and he wasn't sure that he would wake up when he went to sleep.  My 2nd cousin's family had it.  Their family of 6 recovered from the virus, but the dad ruptured his intestine and had to have 4 emergency surgeries, is on a ventilator and they have him sedated while his body tries to heal.  They said that if he makes it through the next 48 hours then he will be okay.  That's who we're fasting for today.  We've had 4 families in our ward get it and we had one of our daycare kids living with a grandma who had tested positive.  I think that what will likely happen is that kids will go back to school and in about a month they will have to go back to distance learning.  My kids did okay with distance learning, but they did not excel at it, but if it keeps people in better health I'm okay doing it.

The beginning of our trip, we drove up to the Grand Tetons, I lysoled the heck out of our hotel room and then we went to find dinner while the lysol settled in our hotel room.  The first day, we went to Jenny Lake.  We took the ferry over to the other side and hiked to the Hidden falls and Inspiration point.  I then took the two younger ones to play in the river and to play on the the other bank of the lake while Jer took the older two on a longer hike up one of the canyons.  They did great.  They saw a moose and we saw a weasel. It rained on us three times for very brief amount of times, but it was fun.  The worst part of the rain is that Jer's crew got stuck in the rain on the ferry back, but they couldn't do anything but sit there.  Apparently there was a bear at the dock 20 minutes before we crossed on the ferry and then he was at the Hidden falls just after we left there.  I'm glad that we didn't cross paths with him.

One of the fun things this trip is that all 6 of us took turns taking pictures with the camera.  I remember some of the ones that people took, but I want to try to point out who took which one as I post about our trip.  These 4 were all off my phone.  I'll post the ones from my camera in the next post.

This week

Sam and Jer making a lesson for Sam to teach during last week's home church.

This week was our first week back at church together.  I was impressed by the precautions to keep everyone safe.  We all wore face coverings, sat 6 feet apart, the pulpit was cleaned after each person, and we all left out the same side so they could sanitize the benches for the next group.  We had 81 people come to church.... our ward was split into two groups and no more than 99 people are allowed in the building at a time.  Even passing the sacrament.... They carried two trays.  1 with water cups and 1 for the used cups so that we don't accidentally drip in water tray.  The parents took the bread and water for their kids so that not as many hands ended up in the bread. It was nice to sit in on a sacrament meeting for the first time in months.  Seth kept asking when he could go to Primary again.

Afterwards, we went up to the Alpine loop too see how I handle altitudes on my pressure medication.  It was spectacular, but hot.  I handled it just fine but I was rather sore already.  I had Prolotherapy in my hip the day before. I'm still a little sore today, but that's the point.  To heal the tissue around my hip, they aggravate it and make inflammation, then they put vitamins and other things in the tissue to help my body strengthen that particular spot.

We found a JW tree.... For you Nella....

I spent a lot of my weekend cutting out masks to donate to the school.  The Parent Organization will have a less community feel to it and more of a school nurse feel to it this year I think.  

Our Hobbit Door

Instead of going to the Robertson Family Reunion, we built a new door for our playhouse bush.  I LOVE it!  Everyone did something to help with it, but Jer was a trooper and did most of the work.  It's spectacular.

Grandpa Wilcox's birthday

Today is my Dad's 63rd birthday.  This man is amazing is so many ways.  I love his gentleness and his fairness.  He has a fun sense of humor that he shares with the grandkids.  

We met at Nelson's Grove to have a picnic.  We lasted about an hour and had to retreat back to my parent's house.  The kids played with bubbles and fed the ducks.  When we got in the car, the temperature read 105 degrees.

So, we had taken the COVID tests a few weeks ago and stayed quarantined while waiting for the results.  That was our plan when we took them.  I was surprised at how many people thought we wouldn't or shouldn't stay quarantined.  I have never had so many people trying to give their very strong opinions one way or the other.  Ironically, our results all came back negative but because of our quarantine I ended up missing being exposed.  Our Ward was given permission to hold small youth gatherings.  We had planned the 14-18 year old girls to get together social distance style and gather 150 Book of Mormons with testimonies in them to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Young Women's organization.  ALL of girls forgot about the activity and I was quarantining.  2 days later, the Young Women's president and her family all tested positive for COVID.  I guess that the activity being a bust was a blessing in disguise, especially because the activity had been scheduled for her house.  

Then two days ago, our area authority sent out a letter saying that numbers were rising too quickly here in Utah and that as members of the community we needed to wear masks when we couldn't properly social distance.

Seth drew a picture of swords for Grandpa for his birthday.

We didn't wear masks outside, but we did in the house.  The kids did fairly well.  Seth and Evelyn wore face shields like mine and Sam wore a bandana like Jer.  Ada wore a full on mask, but she kept taking it off and putting it in her pocket.  

In the evening, Jer took everyone to shoot rockets down in some open fields next to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  

Aubrey, Michelle and Sophie made a cake for Grandpa.  (We took masks off for the picture).

Maisy's birthday party

Maisy is turning 11 soon, and Rocky is 11 next week.  These babies all grew up fast.  We got to go hang out with cousins for a few hours before everyone goes their separate ways.  I know my kids love the cousins so much.  

We usually pitch in with the garden every year, but this year more than most.  Sam helped plant the rows of corn, Jer and I hand mowed the lawn several weeks in a row to put the grass clippings in the garden, pruning and of course.... mowing the lawn and taking care of the rain gutters and swamp cooler.  It's looking so pretty.  

Rocky, Cyrus, Sam, Eli, Taylor

Walter

Seth, Evelyn, Cy, Walter, Taylor

Aubrey, Ada, Grace, Mariah

Walter

Ellie and Seth

Playing pigsticks the first time in years.

Ada, Joe, Aubrey, Mariah, Evelyn, Grace

always in 3?

So our dishwasher has been dead for about a month, shipping got delayed because of COVID til 3 more weeks out...... Our fridge is limping along and we ordered a new one because cleaning the coils did nothing..... Now Our AC is out. It's hotter in the house than outside... Good thing I just got the screens back in the windows today after cleaning the window tracts.  We've got the all wide open and the three fans on. Hopefully the guy comes sooner than later. We won't melt but I hope it's an easy fix. The AC is only about 10 or 11 years old.

Update:  We had to pay $650 to fix it, but at least we didn't have to pay to replace it!