December 2021

Will and I decided to give each of the kids a trip for their birthday this "year".  It started with Colter in June getting to go to Las Vegas to see Blue Man Group.  We had not set the intention of taking all the kids on a trip but Colter had been wanting to see them preform and they were finally having their first in person performances after COVID.  Then Will took Wyatt to Hawaii in November to tour BYU Hawaii and surf.  We did not take Lorien anywhere but have brought her home and taken her on a few solo trips in her life.  Now for Adell's trip!  She got a trip down to San Diego to see Lorien and take a special art class together.

On the first night we rented E-bikes and zipped around town.  E-bikes are amazing!  I never want to ride a traditional bike again.  It was so fun to just pedal a little bit and get a zippy push from the bike.  FUN!

We took the girls to a cool restaurant called, Camp Fire.  The food was delicious and their signature dessert was...s'mores you cooked over coals at your table.  Some of us used the coals to warm our hands but all of us enjoyed our dessert.

The next day Adell and Lorien went to their art class while Will and I went out to breakfast at a super trendy place in downtown San Diego, Breakfast Bitch.  Most of the waiters and restaurant staff appeared to be gay and referred to us as bitches whenever they talked to us.  It was hilarious!  "Hey bitches!  Do you want to hear about our specials?"  I laughed all morning about it.

That night we all took Lorien and her roommate/best friend, Emma, out to a fancy French restaurant before we hopped on a plane home.  We tried fun cheese, adventurous main dishes, and fancy salads.  It was another great meal together.  However, as we drove home from the airport around 11:00 pm Adell said in a weak voice (she had been slumped on Will's shoulder for the flight home) "I didn't want to say anything at the restaurant but I couldn't taste a single thing."  UGH.  That meant she had COVID for sure. Will and I were bummed.  We stopped at 24 hour CVS and bought a home test kit.  It came back positive that night.  We moved Colter into our room on the floor and set Adell up to spend 10 days alone in her room.  Not fun.  We also had to do the phone call of shame telling Lorien and all of her roommates they should watch for COVID symptoms.  Woof.

We got a sweet letter from my brother, Charlie.  Charlie is in jail for arson.  We send him books and letters every few months.  He sent us one of his drawings and told us he was well.

After Adell's 10 day isolation we were able to go pick up a Christmas tree.  We normally do that the weekend after Thanksgiving.  But Will and I had COVID that weekend, then we went to San Diego, then Adell got COVID.  We were treeless for a long time!  We quickly picked one of the very first trees we saw and headed home.

With equal haste/efficiency we tied the tree to our roof and zoomed home.  Only to have our efficiency bite us in the butt when our tree fell off the top of the van as we crested a hill.  Memorable times for sure.

To add to the tree saga, once we got it home and set up we noticed the tree was missing all of it's branches on the bottom third of the tree on one side.  We all joked about how much we need Lorien when picking a tree.  Because Lorien has had three "last Christmases" at home she always insists on a big beautiful tree.  Without her pressure/discernment we picked a goofy tree.  More memories!  

We've had a year of baking Christmas treats.  I usually save this stuff for when the kids are out of school for break.  But the kids get out so late it ends up not happening.  Will and Adell had a baking day between his COVID sickness and our trip to San Diego.  Then I kept making treats throughout the month.  Delicious!

The December performances kicked into gear this year.  I had enjoyed our years off due to COVID.  You didn't catch me complaining about it once.  Clare sang with her high school choir.

Clare and Adell put on dance numbers in the Merry Little Christmas Show.  Clare was also a teacher for some of the little kid classes.

Clare and her friends put on a stunning rendition of the nativity with Clare and her friend being angles to another friend's Mary.  The dance was inspired, moving, and beautifully symbolic of the angles that helped Mary when Jesus was born.  Clare and her friends choreographed the whole thing too.  Talented girls!

Wyatt finished high school!  What, what!  He decided to finish school early so he could move out to Utah and try to make is way in the world.  We got balloons and I made a cap to go with the gown we had from Lorien's graduation.  We went out to dinner and cheered our boy on.  

Wyatt decided he would leave for Utah on Christmas Eve.  To get some celebration time with him we did our family dinner, measuring tree, and sibling gift exchange the night before he left for Utah.  Wyatt found the baby Jesus in his cake and got the twenty dollars!

Measuring tree, Wyatt is still the tallest kid but Clare is sneaking up on him...and Adell is sneaking up on Lorien.

Christmas Eve morning we all got our hugs good bye in with Wyatt.  Will and I drove him up to the train station in Sacramento.  His original plan was to take a bus from Dublin at 5 am.  We convinced him to let us drive him up to Sacramento instead.  

Wyatt bought his own train ticket, secured his own lodgings in Logan, Utah, and saved enough money to take care of himself while he found a job.  

I cried literal buckets of tears but I was and am very proud of him for trying to make his own way in the world.  I tried to tell him to buy bricks and not straw and to ignore the wolves when they come knocking at his door.

Christmas morning happened.  A morning after I cried on the phone to my big brother when he offered to visit Wyatt at the train station in Salt Lake so Wyatt wouldn't be alone Christmas morning.  As I sobbed on the phone, Will came down with two antidepressants and two Tylenol PMs and told me to go to bed.  I complied.  Christmas morning was quiet and small but it was the second year without Wyatt home for Christmas.  Will gave the family a trip to Belize and a Nintendo Switch!

AND AT LONG LAST Adell and Colter got their first round of the COVID vaccine.  We had to wait because of our household having COVID but they were total troopers for it.  

November 2021

 I got to start the month off with a visit from my dear friends.  Brigitta, Kara, and I served in the Relief Society Presidency for almost four years together.  We went through every change imaginable.  We became best friends.  Brigitta and her family moved to Florida.  I've missed her so much!  It was fun to catch up with both friends.

Wyatt turned 18!  Unbelievable!  He turned an abandoned smoker into a kiln.  He is excited to graduate early and move to Utah on his own.  

I ballooned his door so he would have a birthday morning surprise.  

We took Wyatt to PF Changs after the first restaurant he wanted to have his birthday dinner at was closed.

Wyatt got socks, a bass guitar and a trip to Hawaii for his birthday.  Pretty sweet 18!

Clare passed her permit test on November 8th.  It was a big day (two birthdays and Clare's test).

Wyatt and Will had a great trip to Hawaii!  Wyatt dressed like this to fly to Hawaii.  

They boys stayed with Will's cousin, Shawn, who has lived in Hawaii for a few years now.  

They went on a rad hike that did not end in death...just body builders posing at a water fall.

They had surf lessons.

And lots of shave ice.

While Will and Wyatt were in Hawaii (there are a lot of Ws in that sentence) we stayed home and enjoyed the long weekend.  The little kids and I took a hike.  California experienced an atmospheric river (a season's worth of rain in just a few days) the second to last weekend in October.  As a result the hills are green and so glorious!

Adell had her 12th birthday on Thanksgiving day.  We were supposed to go over to Alan and Heather's house for Thanksgiving.  However, Will came down with COVID.  The Friday before Thanksgiving he had a little cough and scratchy throat.  He was supposed to have a big in person meeting at work.  He decided to do a home COVID test just to make sure...but it came back positive.  He immediately isolated in our room.  I moved down to the family room couch.  But super stinker, I started with COVID symptoms Sunday night.  It was nice to move back up to our room but it meant our whole week was shot.  

The kids were amazing at entertaining themselves all week.  Lots of screen time.  And the whole family chipped in to make Thanksgiving dinner.  Friends delivered groceries and decorated our lawn for Adell's birthday.  Will and I lost our taste/smell right as Thanksgiving rolled around.  That was such a bummer.  We felt tired and achy for a couple of days but the loss of senses lasted a couple of weeks.  

Not being able to smell was wild.  After a few days it started to feel like I had gotten water up my nose.  You know that high, burning feeling up in your sinuses when you get water up your nose?  It felt like that all the time.  I would take walks and expect to smell fresh air and get nothing.  It was wild.  It was also such a bummer to not be able to taste.  I would forget to eat and be starving by the end of the day.  

Lorien decided to stay with her roommates in San Diego so she wouldn't get COVID (smart).  She and two roommates put on a darling Thanksgiving for each other. 

Our family dinner was small and quiet.  We loved it.  Except for not being able to taste or smell anything.

Adell got a cell phone for her birthday!  Thanks to birthday week she got to celebrate more once we could leave isolation.

Lorien and her friends got a Christmas tree and planned a gift exchange.

Adell finally got her cake (instead of Thanksgiving pie) on the last day of November.  She is a patient darling person.

October 2021

October happenings!

I got my bottom braces off!  I am braces free!  I have a permanent retainer on my bottom teeth and have to wear a clear retainer on the top day and night for the next six months.  Once again, I am in love with my simile and so thankful for my orthodontist, Tri-Valley Ortho. 

Uncle Alan and Aunt Heather and their kids came for a visit.  We all loved visiting, hanging out, snuggling the baby, playing with cousins, and Heather braided Wyatt's hair.

Will is wrestling in worlds in Greece this month but that will be its own post.  Lorien came out to watch the kids while we went.  I made everyone sit for a timer family photo.  I am so glad I did.  We are good looking people and I love us.

Wyatt had his senior photo session for the year book.  He looks like my dad.

The school had their Halloween parade on a Wednesday, even though school went until Friday?  I totally messed it up and didn't send Colter with a costume.  The school called and asked if I could bring one over.  Thankfully I had some crap for him to choose from.  Also, miracles of miracle, the school office had one extra costume Colter could have picked if he wanted.  The fact that they even called me to help was enough to make me love this school forever.  I love that they know me and our family.  

I have attended the Halloween parade every single year since we moved here.  Well, I didn't go to the very first one because I didn't know it was a thing parents went to.  Once I knew (and knew how sad my kids were that I missed it) I went to every one.  Sitting on that black top cooking my butt off every year. 

This year, because of COVID, parents were not allowed to attend.  I was fine with that.  I've put in my time.  The kids never see that I am there.  I have to take photos of them to show them at home for proof I was there.  It is silly but I do it.  Some parents were allowed to go and take pictures for the yearbook.  One mom texted me these pictures of Colter.

He loved being a cowboy.  He tipped his hat and called people ma'am and sir.  Everyone told me he really hammed it up.  

Clare had her first indoor, in person choir concert.  She was wonderful!  She even had a solo/trio.

Lorien went all out being Asane, an anime character from a show called Death Note.

Colter was Appa, the air bison from Avatar again this year.

I took myself to prom for the ward Halloween party.

Wyatt was a lumber jack.

Clare and her friends were Christmas Jammy wearers?  I don't know.  She has this little quartet of friends that I love.  Clara is her best friend and they have two guy friends: Austin and Jake.  Austin took Clare to homecoming.  I think Jake was Santa?  I don't know.  They are cute friends.

Adell was an ice cream cone.  She came up with the idea all by herself and made it.  She is awesome!

Lorien had a cozy costume change for Halloween night: Kirby.  She gave out king sized candy bars at her house in San Diego.  She didn't get a lot of trick or treaters but she had a good night.

Will and his friends are training for an ultra marathon (50K) in November.  They walked the entire length of the Iron Horse trail for training one Saturday.  It took all day.  I met them with my friend, Ann, in San Ramon walking the rest of the way.  The guys walked from Danville up to Concord, took an Uber down to Pleasanton and walked back up to Danville.  It was a crazy trek!