2020 In Review

 Where do I even begin? With all that has happened this year there really wasn’t too much that happened, lol. The year started off normal with reports of a virus that was spreading in China all the way across the world. I remember hearing about it for months in the news. 

March came with my birthday in the middle. I was so excited for my birthday because Stephen was finally going to take me to see the Pompeii exhibit. I had waited for months to go; I could hardly wait! My birthday came....and so did all the closures. Literally the day we were set to go the museum closed. Everything closed down and we were ordered to stay home for two weeks because the virus has started to spread across the United States at a rapid rate. People were dying—thousands of people were dying from this new virus called corona virus or covid-19 all over the world. We found ourselves in the middle of the first pandemic within 100 years. With all of the modern technology I never thought I’d ever find myself in a pandemic. Store shelves were ravaged day after day and it became hard to find toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and even food. Stephen was ordered to work from home, and we had to sanitize everything and wear masks everywhere we went.

I gave birth to my baby boy in the middle of a pandemic! On April 10th Grayson decided to hijack our wedding anniversary.

Civil unrest became rampant in May with the George Floyd stuff in Minnesota. Then came the protests and all the political nonsense. 

Mom, dad, AND Becky came to visit me and meet Grayson at six weeks old.

Lucas turned 5 and got to have his first birthday party in Twin Falls with all his cousins and grandma and grandpa.

We spent a week in Twin while Becky was here to visit and Brad took us fishing at Crystal Lake.

We went to Cherry Hill with the family and the kids all learned to swim! 

Grayson was blessed at home.

We went camping with grandma and grandpa at Lava Hot Springs and floated the river.

Zander started 1st grade and Lucas started kindergarten. They both have to wear masks, wash and sanitize their hands and belongings, and social distance themselves from their friends. At first they were on an A/B schedule only going to school for two days out of the week. The rest has been remote learning at home. That has been a HUGE adjustment for all of us.

Zander won his first flag football championship.

Grayson got fitted for a helmet to help round out his head.

Grandpa Washburn took a turn for the worse, and we didn’t think he was going to make it for a while until he eventually pulled through.

The rest of the year was spent hunkering down again from the rise of cases of covid and waiting for the holidays so we had something fun to look forward to. 

This year had many, many challenges and hardships, but for our family we were blessed beyond measure even when I didn’t see it. It has been hard emotionally for me in a lot of ways, and I spent a long time waiting for Heavenly Father to come in and “fix” me or tell me what to do and nothing happened. It wasn’t until I reflected on the year that I saw all the small and powerful ways and assurances that Heavenly Father heard my prayers-my pleas for help and forgiveness. 

Christmas

 Here's a look at all the fun festivities we did this month in preparation for Christmas. We spent several days in Twin Falls with our family, and then Mom and Dad graciously watched our kids for us so Stephen and I could have a night alone in Sun Valley. The kids got to spend lots of time with their cousins having a sleepover and playing with the new toys they got from Grandma and Grandpa the night before. Lance won the pot this year, we played bingo, sang happy birthday to Jesus and Valerie, and opened up presents.

that boy looooved Grandpa's eggnog!

Stephen and I listened to our book on our way to Sun Valley, had lunch in a little hole in the wall place, and shopped the rest of the afternoon. We checked into the hotel and cut our plans short due to being tired, exhausted, and of course, because everything closed up early because of Covid. We had a great time though, and got a good nights rest before we headed back. 

  Christmas morning!

On Christmas Eve morning Lucas and Zander, of course, got into a fight and Lucas kicked Zander in the face knocking one of his teeth loose (which I’m sure was warranted, but I digress). By the end of the night Zander had wiggled and wiggled and pulled that tooth out. He was over the moon excited; he came upstairs to show me and he eagerly said, “This is the BEST day ever!!! Santa is coming tonight AND the tooth fairy!” I must say, this Christmas was pretty magical for him.

Thanksgiving Blessing

 We were invited to Loren's for Thanksgiving this year, but that all fell apart real quick. All of the family, including Shule's family, were going to be there. But then we got word that Stephen's dad's health has dramatically declined. He hadn't been feeling well for a couple weeks and it was just discovered that he had a urinary tract infection that was really bad. His nurses brought pamphlets to the house on end of life procedures, and no one saw it coming. Dave had lost a lot of weight and the infection could kill him. We were told he had anywhere from a couple weeks to a few months left to live, and that we should go visit him as soon as we could. So that's what we did the day before Thanksgiving. We took the kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa Washburn. Zander wore his favorite football jersey because he new it was Grandpa's favorite team and he wanted to show it to him. That melted my heart when Zander told he wanted to wear it for Grandpa. 

We had to wear our masks as we visited. Zander stayed with us the whole time while his siblings played in the basement. Dave could hardly talk, and what he did say was just barely a whisper and really hard to understand. He was tired, so we mostly talked with Pat in the room, but tried to include Grandpa. We took a family picture with him. We didn't know if he would come back from the infection or not, and by the look and sound of things we were just waiting for that phone call. 

 The next day, on Thanksgiving day, Miriam took dinner to Pat and Dave, and let the rest of the family know that Grandpa wasn't looking good, and that this could be it. All the siblings gather at the house the following day (minus Shule because Oregon shut down again, so he couldn't leave the state) and Loren and Stephen were asked to give Dave a blessing. surprisingly Dave was looking and sounding a lot better than the previous day. Rachel commented at how good he was looking that night, and Dave replied, "Is that code for you're surprised I'm not dead yet?" It was good to hear he still has his witty sense of humor. 

Since then, Grandpa has been getting better and better. It's kind of a roller coaster with good days and bad days, but he's still hanging in there eating, sitting up, and wanting to watch tv, so we are really grateful that he's feeling better and that he's still here with us.

Cornbelly's and December Craft Day

 I found these cute pictures that Stephen took when we took the kids to Cornbelly's back in October. That last one cracks me up! I sure love my kids.

I got to go to craft day in Twin a couple weeks ago. We had a lot of fun getting to spend time with cousins, and seeing family. My Favorite Things was a lot fun; I brought hand warmers this year and also participated in the cookie exchange.