Sunday, April 26, 2020

2020, April 13-26

The past two weeks have continued to present interesting challenges and opportunities relating to the present situation with the Coronavirus.

Mike celebrated his birthday at home.  We'll take a rain check on future celebrations.

Fergus has gotten used to having us around.

Landon has created new LEGO vessels.

Mike has created new emblazons of his arms.



Eliza has slowly gone more and more crazy.



Someone else named Hallie had a birthday.

Our masks arrived. We're so fashionable!




Too much together time breeds cabin fever.

This online school thing is feeling a bit more normal. As we won't be going back to Westside for the foreseeable future, we may as well get used to it. It is a bit of a bummer for Landon as he is in 6th grade and was so excited for the festivities that would be happening at the end of the school year. Landon and one other student in his class won a 3-D printed lizard from his teacher for having no missing assignment.

The grands sent new games to help us occupy our time.

Such a love! He got into the catnip one day last week and was a riot to watch before he crashed.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

2020, March 30-April 12

Another couple of weeks have passed since we've been under stay-at-home conditions. In that time, Hallie has been to Westside most days, the kids stopped having gym at AirTime and transitioned to gym at home, and Mike has been on campus a couple of times to teach his students remotely. Zoom has become our go-to teleconferencing app, and we all have had way too much screen time.

Spring has continued with blossoms galore at our local school and around the neighborhood. Eliza's class planted these tulips back in the fall.

Yes, we definitely get outside, but we try to keep our distance from others as much as possible.

Hallie even made it to the hair salon. As not everyone in the US has this ability at the moment, we're grateful.

Gym from home brings its own opportunities and challenges. Normally our living room would be well-sized, but it seems a bit small for active conditioning.


The neighbor kids definitely see no problem hanging out on the jungle gym near our house. We, on the other hand . . . .

Ms. Nielsen got hold of Hallie's cell phone. Ha ha! Joke's on you, Mrs. N!

More workouts via social media.


Our cute friend is waiting for a Kidney Transplant and so we participated in a fundraiser for her by eating at Papa Johns. It was amazing that Papa Johns was willing to do this during this hard time.


As part of Hallie's work, we all got together as a family to do a school service project to show our appreciation for teachers.



Our awesome PTA had this fun sign put up for our Teachers and Staff. We do really love our school.

Grandpa O. sent some fun projects for the kids.


With Easter coming up, we decorated eggs on General Conference weekend.


Eliza tried training Fergus using little treats. He was pretty good about being trained, and she only got a few scratches. This cat is pretty good to Eliza for someone who does crazy stuff to this cat he is very patient with her.

This scene is becoming all too common in the afternoons.

Eliza has taken to drawing heraldic lion tattoos on herself. Eliza is most proud of the blood.

This screen. Multiple times a day. Mike's work, the kids' gym, chats with the family, all on Zoom.

"Y'all can leave and let me have some peace anytime you want," says Fergus.

We practiced making masks until ones we ordered arrive.

Some cloths work better than others.


Landon made banana bread. Yumm-o!

On Easter Sunday, the weather was perfect for flying kites! So, we went out and enjoyed a couple of hours outdoors. Landon got his kite caught in a tree, but fortunately we were able to rescue it using some ingenuity and teamwork.

We also plastered each other with cascarones.

Fergus welcomed us to come out and visit him in his realm. He really wasn't sure what to make of our strange antics.