Bryce Canyon

 

Because of me working over Fall Break, the uptick of Covid cases in our county and because our kids are all doing really well in school we choose to take them hiking for a few days.  I LOVED it.  Bryce Canyon after the first snow is gorgeous, still pretty warm, not crowded and not dusty.  The camera got passed around to me, Ada and Jer... but I'll try to tag who did what.  We stayed in Ruby's Inn.  The first night, we did the Navajo trail and Inspiration Point.  Ada and Sam haven't been here for almost 10 years, so it was new and exciting for everyone.  

There was hardly anyone down there.  There were more in the hotel than we thought there would be, but we saw very few people on the trails, especially Thursday.  The temperature was in the mid 40s, which for me was perfect for hiking.  I HATE getting super hot and sweaty.  I much prefer being super active in the 40-70 degree weather.

I'm just finishing my physical therapy.  Which means that I'm getting stronger, but I'm not at 100% yet.  Uphill is not my strong suit, but I am feeling better than I was a year ago. 

both Jer credit

Rosanne credit

All Ada credit with a little parental guidance

Ada credit

Rosanne credit

Jeremy credit

All Rosanne credit

 All Jeremy credit

All Rosanne credit

When your brother.....

 

When your brother loses his appendix, you get to spend time with your nieces and nephews.  Aubrey loves my camera and has some promise.  She took all of these except the one of her.

This week

 

This last week was a very turbulent week.  It was a very heated election between Trump and Biden.  Hearing and watching everyone's attitudes towards each other over the issue led me to stay off social media and just work this week.  Daycare was pretty good.  We have lots of littles in the daycare that are not disciplined at home.  That leaves lots of discipline for me to do, but I'm so grateful that it's only every other week.  

This week we have our first snow! Seth started out by saying that he wanted to go make snowballs.  Eventually everyone else saw how much fun he was having and bundled up to join him.  I love hearing them giggle about the snow and snowball fights.  I'm not so fond of the coats/gloves/hats left out in the entryway. 

Ada and I were joining in for our Young Women's lesson over zoom.  It turned into a lesson about turning to Christ.  So did our sacrament meeting.  I was asked to play the organ for sacrament today.  I didn't get a chance to practice, so I went 30 minutes early and ran through the songs.  I have forgotten a lot of the little nuances that make a good organist, but I could still play through the songs well enough.  I was sitting up on the stand and wondering where my family was when the three youngest march in and quietly sit themselves down in the second row... all wearing matching doom slug masks.  Cutest thing ever.  Dad was out talking with Ada who was struggling with 'that time of month' feelings.  Her hair wasn't right, her eyes were too red, the water was too cold... hence the zoom meeting wrapped up on mom's lap.

Cuddle weather.

I love that Seth is a reader now.

Soccer

 

I missed these pictures earlier too.... On Ada's birthday she requested that we play soccer.  I'm not up for soccer, but I'd kick the ball back anytime it came my way.  It started out as Jer against the kids, then the dog joined it and it was Jer and the dog against the kids.... the kids lost.

YW's camp 2020

 

Pictures from my phone

 

Ada had a very late girl's camp a couple of weeks ago.  They did service and games on Friday night in groups of 10, then the got together on Saturday to do a devotional, pumpkin carving, etc.... Ada loved it.

Ada took this picture of these buddies sharing a comic book together.

Seth colored in all the bats and wanted a picture by it.

Evelyn kept saying that even though she knows that Santa isn't real, she wanted Seth to think he was.... so she decided that we had to practice making sugar cookies to give to Santa.  They were so excited.

Jeremy put the toddler bed together to give to our neighbor.  Seth saw it up and decided that he needed to use it once.  He always shared a bunk bed so he never was in a toddler bed.  We only used it for Ada and  Sam.

Halloween 2020

 It's been a little bit since I caught up on the blog.  Last week was Red Ribbon Week at the charter school, so we spent Sunday night making posters to hang all over the school for the week.  We showed the kids' Hocus Pocus for the first time.  That was fun.  I went to physical therapy a couple of times.  Visited my Mom a few times (she's doing really well after her back surgery by the way).  Had my second neck injection.... just two left.  The neighborhood had a Halloween Parade for those that wanted to dress up but weren't going to be trick or treating.  We quarantined for a couple weeks because one of the mom's at my daycare came back positive.  Her kids tested negative twice over two weeks and the mom never came in my house, but we stayed away from people for a while anyways just in case.  It's nice to step back every now and then anyways.  After being away from people, we first went to show grandparents our costumes, then we were able to trick or treat at a few houses in our neighborhood that had set up shoots or goodie bags on the lawn.  I stayed home to pass out treats and Ada helped Jer look after the younger 3.  They came home and we played our own family Hallow-lan party.  It's tradition to play Battlefield on Halloween. Sad to say that my 6 year old knows how to play better than I do.  And the 9 year old gets a kick out of killing her own teammates.

The Covid-19 numbers have gotten a lot higher in Utah over the last two weeks.  I'm torn between being glad and being annoyed.  It would be nice to have 70% of the population with the antibodies, but we have guidelines in place to keep people from spreading the virus and people are not following the guidelines.  All we can do at this point is be as safe as we can and move forward.

We had two Links from Legend of Zelda.  My Dad said, "Seth and Sam look like they could be brothers!"  and Jer added on, "The Links need to link arms..."  Thanks Dads...

Evelyn wanted to be a dragon.  She gave me two days notice, so I couldn't plan it as well as Ada's and Ada's costume is too big for Evelyn so I bought her a $5 tail from Joann's with wings to match.  At first she wasn't too excited about it, but then she agreed when Ada said that Evelyn could be her baby dragon.  Then she was thrilled.  We told Ada that we wouldn't spend money or plan a costume for her.  She earned up money and put together her own costume.  She was trying to decide if she was a Rogue, a character from Mistborn, or if she was an assassin.  

My sister's family costume was so cute again this year.  Though I loved their Cinderella.

This was at the ward parade.  I love that Seth forgot that he wore Evelyn's my little pony jacket... he was Link/Rainbow Dash all night.  We walked a 1/2 mile loop around half the ward and then went home.

Grandpa's making really good headway on the shed.  Jer wasn't able to help the last couple of weeks because we were quarantining, it was fun to see it progressed this far.