Quarantine week 24 (Church at Church, Rylee and Avy at Tumbling)

 On Sunday we got to go to church together as a family for the first time since March. I have enjoyed being at home and having at home church and really felt like I would rather be at home for church. But being back in the building with other Ward members was really nice and made me feel differently about my previous feelings. Church only lasted about 45 minutes, we all wore masks, we were separated with empty pews between filled ones and only about 1/4 of our members were there. They had four different sessions that we had to sign up for in order to keep the numbers low. A recently returned Sister missionary was the main speaker and then Bishop Eberhard closed the meeting with a brief message. It was a really nice meeting and it was nice to visit with other members outside the building afterwards. 

Rylee tried out for volleyball this week and after two days of tryouts she found out that she made the "C" team again. She was really sad about that and my Mama heart hurt for her. Her friends are doing cheer this year and have been trying to talk her into doing it with them. She has never wanted to do cheer and has always been really against the idea but with both her besties doing it and with the news of what team she is on she asked Kefford and I if she could quit volleyball and do cheer. If she had asked me a month ago if she could do cheer I would've been very surprised but I would have let her. But since she has never wanted to do it and only now because of the volleyball team she made I told her no she was not going to quit. She made a commitment to volleyball and she is going to stick with it. I hope that things will get better for her and that she will make friends on her team and hopefully learn more and do more and feel better about herself.

Rylee does not have a phone of her own yet and uses mine to text her friends and takes pictures with so randomly I will find selfies that she has taken on my phone.

Avynlea is doing tumbling at the gym every saturday morning wth her cheer team but us cheer mom besties were able to get the fab five back into the gym on thursday nights for their own private class. The girls decided that every week they wanted to do a "theme" week for their class and this week it was wearing long socks. They are silly girls but I love each of them and I really love their friendship. It makes me so happy that Avynlea has found such a great group of girls to hang out with.

Paige, Avynlea, Hailey, Natalie and Dreya

Rylee put a message in the Bainbridge Babes text message thread that she is available to babysit hoping to get more jobs. Katie Givens this week asked if she could babysit Friday night for her three younger boys and she was really happy to do it. Since RYlee does not have a phone I usually send her with mine when she is babysitting. I found a cute picture of her she had taken with Jett while she was babysitting. The bottom picture is a picture her friend Tayci sent me of Rylee reading a story to her little sister. Rylee is so good with the littles and really a great babysitter.

It was decided this week that the kids were going to start school in the red which means they will be doing remote learning the first week and then hopefully we will be in the yellow for the second week of school and the schools can move to alternating days of in school and at home learning. I am very discouraged by this and don't think we will be in the yellow for a long time and the kids will be at home doing school remotely for a long time. I am not sure how this will look with me teaching dance this year but I am worried. I didn't start teaching until all of my kids were in school for a reason. I am hoping that if my kids are doing remote learning for longer then the first week that they are old enough to manage their time without me here on the days that i do teach. If it is too hard this year and next year we have more of the same I might have to consider not teaching dance which makes me really sad to think about. Next week they are making the decisions about fall sports and I am really worried about that. This is just a really crappy year and I am tired of nothing getting better or improving.

Week 23 in Quarantine (Peterson Family picture, Trevor and Michelle visit, eyebrow waxing, Cousin Diner and Kefford and Elizabeth in Boise)

 

On June 19th after Sara got herself married we went to the farm for a Family BBQ to celebrate. While there we had someone come and take a big ol' family picture of our group. Kenedy had to work and wasn't able to come out when the rest of our family did but as soon as she left work she hurried out to Nyssa to meet up with the rest of us. She was not fast enough in getting there for some of the family members and she got a few calls one right after the other asking where she was and telling her to hurry because we were waiting on her for the picture. By the time she did arrive she was stressed out and in tears, I told her not to worry she got there just in time and we were still organizing where to have everyone stand. 

I never did see the picture until today when Michelle came over with Trevor, we were talking about it and when I mentioned I haven't seen it yet she sent me the copies she had in her phone. I thought it turned out really nice and am glad we were able to get it done.

l-r: Trista, Sara and Jamie, Kylie, Andrew and Amelia, Kefford, Elizabeth, Kenedy, Ryker, Avynlea and Rylee, Isabelle and Audrey, Jeremy, Gwen, Mikayla and Ally, Bob and Alison, Whitney, Dustin, Madison, Sadie, Kinsley and Laney, Mikell, Steve, Brooke, Jenna, James, Kelly, Jason and Luke, Kelsey, Brit, Brielle, Qiana, Asher, Tayvia, Xander and Hazel, and Trevor, Michelle, Caleb and Garrett

Kenedy went to Nyssa for the weekend, we needed to get the farm pickup back and she was happy to be the one to do the job. She ended up staying until Sunday and Kefford asked Trevor and Michelle if they wanted to come and visit and also bring Kenedy back with them. It has been a while since we have seen them and it was nice to visit with them and we all loved seeing Caleb and Garrett their two cute boys. We played jackbox games for a while upstairs and then went downstairs for brownies and so the boys could play with Ryker's box of cars.

The boys wanted to play on the trampoline so the kids took him out there and the rest of us soon followed hoping to enjoy some sunshine. We enjoyed the sunshine all right, a little too much, it was blazing hot outside and even sitting in the shade didn't help. We didn't last too long out there and quickly came back inside to the A/C.

These little Cousins sure love Ryker, they love climbing on him and jumping on him and it is a joy to watch.

Kefford also got to have a little fun with Caleb, he was tickling him so much that he would get upset and walk away but then immediately would come back for more. Something tells me he wasn't really too upset about it all ;)

On Tuesday I took the girls to Sweet so we could get our eyebrows done by Doris. We love going to Doris, she is so sweet and spunky  and she does such a good job waving our brows. She even tinted Kenedy's brows for her which Kenedy loves! She is so excited about it and feels pretty great about how they look. I got a picture of her with the tint still on because Rylee thought she looked pretty funny. Avynlea found the eye coverings that are typically used in a tanning bed and had fun playing around with those. So many fun adventures when we go visit Doris.

Friday night Kefford, Rylee and I went to Nyssa for a reception type party on the Barlow side celebrating Cecily getting married. It was a very casual come and go dinner and it was nice to see some of the Cousins on the Barlow side that we don't see very often. Right when we arrived we saw Ralph and Terry leaving so revisited with them for a bit. While we were talking Sadie spotted us and came over to get Rylee and to take her off somewhere. I snapped a picture as they were coming back because they looked so cute. I am glad I took the picture because it was the only one I took that night. We had a fun time visiting with family and eating some delicious food!

Earlier in the week I got a text from Callie Elton in the ward asking if Kefford and I wanted to go out to dinner sometime with her and her husband. I was really surprised because while I know Callie she and I don't ever hang out. I figured they were reaching out for a reason and Kefford and I agreed to the plans. We met at "Eureka!" a hamburger joint Kefford and I love in Boise and shared a nice meal. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable just a nice meal shared with people we are getting to know. After we ate we walked down Freak Alley to look at all of the artwork. Neither of us have been down there before and it was fun to look at the art that have been painted. Some of it was beautiful, some of it was quirky and some of it was just weird but I enjoyed being there. One artist painted a throne on their section on the wall with an encouraging sign to wall sit on it for a picture. I had Kefford do the wall sit while I took the picture, fun times.

After freak alley we wandered the area for a bit just talking and looking around. We came across a pro Trump drive by rally which was interesting. It was nice to see all of the cars and flags and people rallying for our President. There were anti Trumpers on the side flipping the pro Trumpers off and calling out things like "defund the police" which seemed unnecessary, (insert shrug and eye roll here) everyone can have their opinion. It was a nice night in Downtown Boise.

Week 22 in Quarantine (Bread making, Cheer positions, and dessert wars)

 Avynlea did her hair super cute one day and took some fun pictures of herself and then she had me be in one with her. She is such a cute and fun girl!

Rylee wanted to make challa and found the recipe online. I am not sure how she thought of it but she did and she made the bread all by herself. She had a couple of questions for me but she did it all and she did an amazing job, I was so impressed and proud of her! We found our new bread maker!

Since Rylee does not have a phone yet she uses mine to communicate wth her friends. Occasionally/often I will find random pictures she has taken, screenshot or saved. She is a beautiful silly girl!

Avynlea is a flyer on the Varsity cheer team and on June 23rd the flyer's started staying after practice to work on stretching and positions. Kara took pictures of them in their positions and then this week on August 12th after a month and a half of stretching took pictures again to compare. She sent the before and afters out to the girls and when Avynlea showed me hers I was so impressed. She has improved so much and her muscle definition is insane. She is doing such a great job!

On Thursday night Avynlea had some of her friends over for a baking competition. They broke up into two teams and had to come up with a recipe using the common ingredient of graham crackers. One team was Avynlea, Landon and Luke. Andreya, Sadie and Rose were on the second team.

Avynlea's team made a chocolate cupcake from scratch with a marshmallow filling and a vanilla frosting with graham cracker crumbs on top. Andreya's team used a cookie dough they bought from the store and made cookies with marshmallows and graham crackers. Kenedy, Rylee and Kefford were the judges and after much discussion they deemed the cookies the winners. I tried the cupcakes the next day and thought they were delicious and I would have voted for them to win. The entire dessert was made from scratch and it was really good. The cookies I didn't get to try because Sadie threw them in the trash that night, weird. I didn't eat them the night before because it was too late in the evening and I was doing my yoga class. They had a fun night and it was fun to see the teenagers do something other then tik tok dancing.

Week 21 in Quarantine (Girls McCall Trip and some Cousin fun)

 

We finally got some new couches for our upstairs TV room. It took Kefford and I forever to make a decision and finally get some couches but we did it and He and Avynlea got them set up with some help from Rylee and I.

Avynlea and Rylee got to go up to McCall with Alison on Wednesday for a Grandma's get away. She also took up Ally, Brielle and Qiana. I took Kenedy up Thursday night after she got off of work and the next day we went into town so the girls could go on the ice rink bumper cars. They had to wear their masks but they were the only ones signed up for this time slot and they had a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching them with Alison, and was glad that I wasn't in the cars. It would have been fun but I am ok to watch on the side lines.

After the bumper cars we went to ice-cream ally for our favorite McCall treat, Ice-Cream! I wanted to get a group picture of all of us with our ice-creams but Kenedy didn't think the lighting was good enough so I took a picture of just Alison and I.

We took our ice-creams and heading down to the water so we could eat and enjoy the views. 

A funny story about the below picture. In the background of the picture you can see a boy sitting in a red chair, an empty green chair next to him and then a kid in a life jacket. 

Before the life jacket kid was sitting there Rylee was trying to dare one of us to go and sit in the green chair. Nobody would take her up on it and were telling her she needs to do her own dare. Rylee really wanted to do it and started to walk over there but she just couldn't do it. She finally decided she was going to for real go and started to walk over but then Life jacket kid came and sat down and she immediately turned and came back. As I was watching her I was thinking how you can't hesitate and think about it that it is better to just go and do, it's when you think about it that the fear sets in and stops you. When Rylee got back we were teasing her a little and then she said for me to go do it. I immediately got up walked over and sat down in that green chair. As soon as I did the life jacket kid immediately got up and left and the poor kid in the red chair started squirming and trying to get as far from me as he could while still in his chair. I only sat there for just a few seconds before I got up and went back to our group. I clearly made those kids so uncomfortable and I felt bad about that but it was a dare. ;)

Later in the late afternoon we went over to the clubhouse so the girls could go swimming. Kenedy sunbathes while Alison and I sat and watched them all. One of the girls found a little frog and Kenedy wanted to get a picture with it before letting him go. She gave him a kiss but no prince charming appeared, she will have to try for the real thing when she goes back to school. After swimming for a bit Avynlea and I left McCall at 6:00 to head home. She had tumbling practice the next morning she didn't want to miss and while I would have liked to have stayed longer I wanted to get back home before the sun set. Driving through the mountains in the dark makes me nervous. We had a safe ride home and wouldn't you know early the next morning we got a text that Tumbling was cancelled, of all the rotten luck. Alison brought Kenedy and Rylee home safe and sound later that day and I am glad my girls got to have a fun time with their Grandma.

Saturday night Coby and his boys, Easton and Mikey, came over as well as Roland and Nicole and their daughter Scarlett. Kefford invited his cousins and their families over for a barbecue and it was a nice visit. My girls had a lot of fun playing with Scarlett and Kefford tried out Easton's wheelchair to do a few wheelies. Easton broke his leg really bad while riding his dirt bike and has to be in a wheelchair for the next little while. Poor kid

Week 20 in Quarantine (Last days in California and White Water rafting)

Erin came to stay for a couple of days on Saturday night and on Sunday morning we gathered together to watch Mom's Relief Society do a lesson on Zoom. The lesson given was on James R. Rasbands talk from AprilGeneral Conference which was called "Ensuring A Righteous Judgement". I really enjoyed the talk and hearing the discussion about it, it was a good Sabbath morning.

Later in the afternoon Stephanie came over with her family, Jeremy came over with his family and MaryBeth came over by herself. It was fun to see everyone and t hang out. We had lasagna for dinner and then we celebrated Heather's birthday with a peach chocolate cake that Ashleigh made and it was delicious. Before everyone had to start leaving I told everyone we had to get a family picture and so we all gathered in the backyard for a quick picture.

back row: Alyssa, Stephanie, Anthony, Jeremy, Mom, Ashleigh, MaryBeth and Heather

middle row: Elizabeth and Andrew Brown

front row: Camryn, Avynlea, Erin, Atticus, Rylee and Jaylynn

On Monday Mom and Heather pulled their cars out so the girls and Atticus could wash them along with Ashleigh car and Heathers old car. It gave them something to do, it gave Mom, Ashleigh and Heather clean cars and they had fun playing with Atticus. By the time they got to the last two cars they were over it and the cars didn't get quite as clean as it could have. No worries it was a good time in the California sunshine.

Tuesday was our day to leave. I was really sad about it but anxious to get home to see the rest of our family. Our flights were uneventful, nobody threw up and none of the flights were cancelled. 

Saturday morning Kefford and I got to go whitewater rafting with friends. We went with Kim and Blake Hansen, Kim and Rod Givens, Emily Walker, Jeni and Mike Lindley and Jessica and Paul Lewis. Their were two other couples that went but I didn't know them. It was a lot of fun and it was great to be with friends again. Midway through we stopped to eat and so some people could do the rope swing. I was nervous about it but I wanted to conquer my fear and do the swing and I did. It was a lot of fun and I am glad I did it but I only did it once. Also along the way we passed a beach where a couple of people were hanging out and we got mooned by them. I turned away as soon as I saw the pants going down and saw a little bit of crack but I heard that the others who did not turn away got three full moons and then some, not cool at all.

Later that night Amber and Scott brought over Preston and Hattie so that Avynlea could babysit while they went on an anniversary date. Rylee was able to hold Hattie for a while and she loved it when she fell asleep on her. So sweet.