Top Ten

1. Brad competed in LOTOJA and turned the big 40!

2. Emily enjoyed baking bread, running, and watching butterflies hatch over quarantine.

3. Carson started Jr High!

4. Tanner skied on the big lifts this year

5. Logan started Kindergarten!

6. Our family went on a Disney Cruise in January 

7. Spent our spring break skiing in Durango

8. Learned how to do online school

9. Went to Lake Powell

10. Enjoyed all the extra family time together this year

2020 has been quite the year!  Covid dominated, but we were lucky enough that it really didn't affect our plans too much.  Our family vacation was in January and we were able to go skiing over spring break just 2 days before the lockdown, and luckily Lake Powell opened up just right before our scheduled vacation so that wasn't canceled either! 

It was nice having so much family quality time together and a simpler schedule. Having Brad and the boys doing work and school from home, all extra curricular activities canceled, to spending 2 months in Utah this summer with family.  Technology also made it feel so not alone, with FaceTime with family, to many school zoom calls (I mean seriously who ever heard of zoom before this?  Now it's a household staple) it made this year feel more connected then it could otherwise have.  

Even though 2020 was simpler it wasn't without drama because it certainly was a dramatic year!  From obviously the covid unknown, to Black Lives Matter, to the presidential elections.  Always one thing or another dividing the nation. 

I think it is safe to say that 2020 will be a year to remember!  Definitely going down in the history books as a year that won’t be forgotten. And with covid still alive and well, it will be interesting to see how 2021 plays out. Here’s hoping 🤞🏻

 

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, Buddy left a note for the boys saying that for today only they could touch him (normally if you touch him his magic goes away)  Logan was so thrilled.  At first Logan just sat and stared at him unsure of what to do.  He made some small talk with him and finally felt brave enough to touch him.  After that he was inseparable.  Hugging him and making him feel included in all our daily activities.  It was so sweet.

Logan laid out some Grinch dust that he got from his teacher.  Gotta protect our presents from the Grinch!

Christmas eve jammies!  I wasn't going to do them this year as I figured my boys don't really wear pajamas anyway, but of course just a week away from Christmas Carson exclaims how excited he is for new pajamas. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Do you know how hard it is trying to find pajamas a week before Christmas?  Impossible!  After going to many different stores, I finally found some (not Christmas ones of course but who cares) and made some very excited boys happy.

We had our very yummy Christmas Eve dinner and Brad cooked us a prime rib!  It was so good!

And can't forget Santa's milk and cookies!

Christmas morning! 

his favorite present, a scooter!

The aftermath

Christmas breakfast

Playing with the Christmas toys:

he looked so funny playing with this it was hilarious!  It's a VR (virtual reality) game.

It was a fun filled and wonderful Christmas!  Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

 

Pre-Christmas

It was such a different holiday season!  At times it didn't even really feel like it was the holidays, with almost all of our normal holiday parties and activities cancelled this year due to covid.  We still tried our best, but lets face it this year (2020) has taken out all the fun.

One thing I was happy that was kept was our Christmas Bunco party!! So fun. It was ugly sweater themed and of course we had to recreate the classic ugly/awkward family photo.  This was the only party I went to this year.

The boys still had their polar express/pajama day at school.  For their christmas party they got to make gingerbread houses.

Logan was so excited for Buddy our elf to be back!  He sure loves him.  Buddy had to unfortunately quarantine for a week before he could come out to play.  I mean it was just to be safe and all...

Here's some of his antics this year

Went to a new neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.  It was Candyland themed and so cute!

Logan and Cars watched through the sun roof

That night was also the night of the Christmas star!  (when Jupiter and Saturn are close to the earth as well as each other)  It hasn't happened in over 800 years so it was a rare treat.  This picture was taken by someone in our neighborhood/scout troop using their telescope.  Such an awesome picture!

Logan was the only one who wanted to help decorate Santa's cookies.  He did just one.  Sigh.  Boys.

 

Corona Update #4

 

(Picture of our good friend Jordan Singleton making history getting one of the first doses of the vaccine)

Since earlier this year I haven’t done any recent Corona updates. Mostly because not much has changed in our day to day living like it did when it first began. With school back in session our lives have carried on as per our new normal extra curricular activities have resumed the only difference is we have to wear masks everywhere.

Since we are living through history though, I did want to document that on December 14 the first Corona vaccine was given in the United States. The first round of vaccines is being given to heath care workers and from there it will be given to those with priority (elderly/high risk). It will probably be in March/early spring by the time your average citizen will be given the vaccine.  

Cases have just sky rocketed this winter (as was expected) hospitals in Southern California have no ICU beds and are at full capacity. This vaccine couldn’t have come at a better time with a new more contagious strain striking the U.K. Hopefully this vaccine is the start of the end. 

Tooth & Scouts

One weekend Carson started to complain that the tooth that got broken last year was starting to hurt him at night so we told him to just take an ibuprofen and go to sleep.  It still kept waking him up however and then by Monday he was crying because it hurt so bad.  Now don't tell my other boys, but when it comes to pain tolerance, Carson is the toughest, so we knew it must really hurt.  So I called the dentist and she got him in first thing the next morning.  Brad took him in and the doctor took one x-ray and immediately scheduled him to see an endodontist.  They rushed him over and it ended up (unbenounced to us)  being someone from our old ward.  

Turns out Carson had a nasty infection and needed a root canal done.  However his inflammation was so bad they could only do half of it at the appointment and then needed to wait 2 weeks while taking amoxicillin.  After 2 weeks he went back in and unfortunately while they were trying to put on the dental dam it popped off the fake part of his tooth, so after the root canal was finished he also gave him a brand new tooth (it actually looks better than the other one!)  Poor kid, he's been through a lot!  But now has a pain free smile!

Picture of how swollen he got!

In other news the boys had a day campout!  Since they couldn't do a regular camping trip they had a bunch of fun activities for them to do.

zip lining, fishing and bottle rockets!  It was a fun day camp!

and to end the night we had smores!

Carson had his own scout thing (of course at the same time and across town, ugh) learning first aid!  But he did join us that night for smores.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020.  2020 was quiet the year and it was nice to have a day to count our many blessings.  So much to be Thankful for and a beautiful day to celebrate it with the ones I'm most thankful for.

Last year we started doing our own little Turkey Trot and wanted to keep the tradition! It’s just a little exercise with the kids before our big feast! As you can tell from the picture Carson really enjoyed himself 😉

He’s such a big help when it comes to preparing the food and this year he wanted to make a famous Peruvian drink for our dinner. 

It’s boiled purple corn, pineapple, and cinnamon. It taste similar to an apple cider it’s a perfect fall drink. 

This year with just the 5 of us I didn't want to go to big with Thanksgiving.  Well that was easier said than done, because Thanksgiving is all about tradition and it's just not the same without all our favorite Thanksgiving food.  So even though I said I wanted it to be small we ended up going big!  But it was worth it.  After a year of such uncertainty having comfort food was just what the doctor ordered.  Plus having lots of leftovers was also nice to have! Leftover thanksgiving food is the best!

 

and this was legitimately what Logan asked for Thanksgiving.  Ugh.

After filling our bellies we enjoyed some time watching the new Pixar movie Soul on Disney+.  It was a good day.