Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Holy Week

 


Holy Week was a breath of fresh air.
It helped me regroup, and really focus on positive, 
uplifting things instead of doom and gloom.
We did our usual activities, but also threw in some different ones
 to mix things up! 
It was also nice having the evenings free and open instead of rushing
and staying up too late on a school night to fit it all in.


Hosanna shout and donkey rides for the Triumphal entry!

It always starts out tame.
And then for some reason they think Jesus needs to enter
into a rodeo! 



 Exhibit A.


Oh boy.



I get points for trying, right?



Jesus cleanses the temple.
And now we need a sugar cleanse from our sugar cube
temple replicas. 




Lane had a virtual mutual activity where each boy needed to bake
an Easter-y treat or dessert, then take a picture of it.

We invited Grammy over to help him make her famous carrot cake recipe!


Perfection!


While the cake was baking we discussed Judas betraying Jesus
for 30 pieces of silver.
We needed our big change jar sorted and rolled, what not 
a perfect night to do that! 

Grammy cut us some cake and we had a little party rolling
change, eating cake and watching The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town.

That movie has childhood nostalgia written all over it.


Hot cross buns for crucifixion night.


Quarantine was not going to stop me from having a big
 Passover dinner!
It was so weird  to feel like we were doing something naughty by
having people over for a holiday get-together. 
I will never quite understand it.

I'm grateful for friends we could invite to enjoy it with us.

Our night was complete with lamb, unleavened bread, charoset, matzo ball soup,
wild berry goat cheese, hard boiled eggs, herbed fruit salad,
lentil soup, and grape juice for wine!




We lit  our colorful oil lamps.



Cute kid table!



After we ate I read the children's book,
Let My People Go!
As we read, I had 10 bowls of candy that correlated  with the 10
plagues and each person had a sheet of paper.
They had to figure out which candy went with what plague. 



And I loved my volunteers who helped me narrate!
Thank you Moses (Tait) and Pharaoh (Jeanette). 
They made it hilarious. 




I then had a bunch of clay to let each person make their own oil
lamps to take home and light on Easter Sunday.


The Easter Bunny came!




A visit to see Papa and talk about Christ's Resurrection. 





And our first Easter egg hunt without Papa
hiding our golden eggs.
I know he was watching those kids, big and little, running around
with a smile on his face. 
Thankful for those traditions that remind us of him. 








We came home to a complete poster.
It's kind of sad when it's over.


I can't help but think about how Easter is perfect reminder of conquering darkness
of death, to overpowering light and life with His Resurrection. 

So grateful for the beams of light that surround me and my family during this time 
of worldly darkness. Easter helped me stop and look around at all our
many blessings, even during our hardships. 

I know the He lives and loves each one of us!


Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Living on the Edge



The international missionaries started coming home early in herds.

Aaron, our neighbor, was pretty close to being done with his mission in Chile.
Miche decked the outside of their home so cute for him.
He had to be quarantined inside for 2 weeks so here is a picture 
of the neighbors welcoming him home from the kitchen window!

I felt like we were at the zoo for a second.



The next week we heard Craig was getting sent home after a whooping
 2 weeks in Honduras. 

He was a on a 2 week quarantine as well so 
parade #4 it was!




That lasted a whole day before we were out front of my parents house
eating Neds Krazy Sub and Craig right in the mix.

We are such rebels, lol!




While the kids played we talked about the latest big tv hit,
Tiger King on Netlfix.

If you know, you know!





And the children's side walk chalk art depict our current situation.





Sweet, Mrs. Griner. 
Deserves best school teacher award.
She drove to each one of her students houses and dropped off a special
treat. She truly was dying that she couldn't be in her classroom teaching her class.
Above and beyond I tell you!



Almost every single thing you could possibly do in doors and even outdoors
was closed. So ridiculous. Do they want us to sit inside our houses and rot? 

Welp, I guess we were living on the edge because I wan't having any of it!
Neither was Stephanie.
Glad to have a partner in crime!

We found that hieroglyphics trail head was still open!

Let me preface, I have never taken my children on a hike.
Ever.
It's not my thing.
 But desperate times calls  for desperate measures.

Luckily most of my kids are old enough to handle it.
Della... well.
She caught on pretty quick she doesn't enjoy hiking.
I ended up carrying her to the top.
AND back down to the car.
Good think it was an easy hike!







I got to volunteer at a blood drive at our stake center.
This mask lasted a whole selfie and then it was off!
I checked everyone in on a lap top when they walked in.
I was happy to see all the appointment slots were full for the day!



Even though normal tumbling classes were canceled for the year,
you could do private lessons.

We took advantage of some 1 on 1 time.





We planned a day to the river with Leah!
The parking lot may have been cautioned taped off
saying  NO ENTRANCE or river access due to covid.

Meh.
Hurry, crawl under kids!!

I swear, moms gone wild!

We found a big dirt pull off where we could park our cars.
Leah walked with the big kids while I dropped off Stephanie, Della, Tanner and
all our bags. 
I drove back, parked and walked down to where we camped for the day.


It was a glorious day in the sun!
And no crowds:)

We got a little nervous when we heard a loud humming noise coming from down stream.
Sure enough, it was a sheriff air boat!!

Agh! 
We pretended like we hadn't just trespassed. 
Going about our merry day.
They flew right by us without batting an eye.
Bless you river rangers!





Rusty found an old fishing line with a rusted hook.
He was fly fishing a good hour.





6 feet apart!


 

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Lots More Birthdays!


One of our favorite next door neighbor friends, Amber,  had a birthday.
Kids were itching to get out of the house, so it was a great excuse to round up the troops 
and find a park to hang out at!


We picked up In-N-Out on our way to a new HUGE park out in San Tan.

We pulled up and had the place to ourselves!



We were also pleasantly surprised the splash pad water was on.
Most places didn't have water running.
And it was most appreciated because it was getting toasty out!

No swimming suits?
No problemo!

Della was even striped down to her undies. 



To top the day off we hit up Bahama Bucks on the way home!



Della looks up to Amber like a big sister.
She would follow her around all day if we let her.




Parades became all the rage for birthdays since there weren't that many options
to be around people on your special day!

This meme made me LOL!
We added our fair share of parade data to the statistics. 



Parade #1
Happy Birthday Grammy!

We all gathered in front of Jesse's house and 
caravanned over to surprise Grammy on her special day!

She was truly surprised and it was so fun to see her excitement. 

We got out and did a fun dance with streamers.




Parade #2
Happy FIRST Birthday Madeline!

This was after we drove by.
So much for social distancing! 
But good thing we did because while we were congregating on the front
lawn, we heard the ice cream truck!

We were kind of far down the street, but when he caught glimpse of us he 
 came bolting has fast as that little make shift truck could go!

 I don't think he had that much business in one sitting
for a long time!





 Parade #3
Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We did a fun b-day jiggity jig Stephanie choreographed.