2021, February 15-21

Landon continued to recuperate while Eliza competed locally. We took pictures of the cat and made art while it snowed. 

The boy lamented that Fergus doesn't sleep in his bed anymore. He does, but not always when the boy is present. 

The girls spent Presidents Day driving up from Arizona. Fortunately, they avoided most of the stormy weather. The scenery was wonderful coming home, and the girls were so grateful to have wonderful traveling companions.

The key word is "most." They ran into snow outside of Springville. It was particularly fluffy up toward the bench. Hallie wanted a late start the next day, but no such luck.

Eliza was thrilled to see the kitty again. She bought him treats at ALDI she wanted to share. 

This Utah flag can be improved. 

Perhaps one of these might fly in its place one day. 

We got snow again on Wednesday morning, which made driving a bit treacherous. Mike and Landon had an early appointment to have Landon's MRI read.

Landon brought a Rubik's cube to while away the time while waiting for his appointment. 

Let's hope this scene is a rare occurrence. 

We got the report back pretty quickly that the damage was minor, but the doctor is recommending a conservative course of treatment. This meant that he did not get to compete last Saturday and will not get to compete next week. This first time injury has been a bit tough on him mentally and emotionally, but hopefully with family and friends he will be able to get his head back into the game.

Eliza took advantage of the fresh-fallen snow to make snow ice cream! Fantastic! 

Eliza built a snow fort the next day too. Nice to have the white stuff around, to be honest. 

A little while back we bought Eliza a new dresser, but we hadn't made time to build it. We finally did this week, and Eliza helped out quite a bit! Maybe we can get all of her stuff off of the floor, and maybe after a bit she will love the dresser as much as her old one. Presently, Eliza is not happy with our new purchase.

Roads cleared up quite a bit by the end of the week. Did it even snow?

A gift a heraldry friend of Mike's from Portugal sent back in early January finally arrived. 

Mike got a little frame for it to add to his collection of other emblazonments. 

Eliza didn't realize she had birthday mail, so we made sure she read it. 

Fergus seems fully back to his old self. All is right in his world. 

Eliza and Landon both had quite a bit of online learning to catch up on. They each are studying about Utah this semester. Coincidentally, both have had county reports to do. Eliza reported about Salt Lake County, and Landon reported about Summit County. They both have studied more about their current state of residence than did either of their parents about their state of childhood residence. Such are the changes in social studies from 35 years ago. 

Caught Fergus blepping. Had to take a pic. 

Diamond and Caleb sent Landon a care package that arrived on Friday. The boy honed in on the chocolate and chowed down! He is truly loved and needs to learn to take it to heart and know that everything will be good in the end.

We had a lovely sunset too. Didn't get a picture of it, but the sun reflected golden on the snowy peaks to the east too. Quite striking. 

We had a busy Saturday morning (well, except for the boy). While Mike taught up on campus, Hallie took Eliza up to Heber to compete. She did pretty well! Eliza is happy with herself and placed 5th All Around. Our goal this season is for both of the kids to love gymnastics and to be happy doing something that they love. Hallie, Eliza, Alaina, and Kinley headed to Heber at 6:30 a.m. hoping for no snow. Our little prayers were answered, and we arrived safe and sound with Dutch Bros in hand.

Afterwards, the girls went to get Hallie's nails done, drawing inspiration from this image.

In the evening, we went to G&G M.'s. They just had DVDs made from old pictures and slides from when Hallie was young. Quite the trip down Memory Lane! It was fun for Mike to learn where Hallie's name came from and for the kids to see really how cute their mom was as a little kid.

We spent a quiet Sunday at home. Eliza stole the parents' phones. Doing make up and taking selfies is something she really likes doing. We found Fergus amongst blankets and was scared he was going to pee in them. Thank goodness he did not -- he was just being really cute!

Hallie and Eliza worked on the tie-dye leo Eliza got for her birthday. It was an involved process, and we look forward to seeing the final result.