December Happenings

After I got back from my trip out west, I soaked up some time with these cutest girlies-

Got these big kids their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine-

Got some letters off to Santa-

And before I knew it, we were testing everyone and quarantining the best we could after Wes tested positive! 

When I was on my way home from Utah I got an email notifying parents of Wes' class that someone had tested positive, so it was on the back of my mind if I happened to notice any symptoms. When I checked Eve and Wes out of school to get their vaccines on Monday he had mentioned a sore throat and kind of sounded froggy and congested, but said his throat wasn't bothering him at that moment and I didn't really give it another thought. Well, Wednesday morning rolled around and Christine texted me that Ryan had woken up in the night with a fever and tested positive! Ryan and Wes are in the same class and Ryan had been at our house all Monday night hanging out. With the minor cold symptoms Wes had I decided to test him at 8:15 a.m. (bus comes at 8:35 a.m.) with the at home test I had gotten from Jillian, and sure enough! That positive line showed right up and we had our first official case of COVID on our hands. Thad was already at school and luckily he was able to stay at school the whole time, but elementary has different rules and Eve had to quarantine for a week and test negative before returning to school. So there was a lot of this going on...

At home tests with a proctor to get official results to send to the school for Thad to wrestle and Eve to tumble at her gym.

My house turned into a bomb with everyone around (flashback to dark pandemic times)-

And Thad was FaceTiming with Wes who we exiled to the bonus room to wait out his quarantine-

We were pretty committed to this quarantine because as long as Thad and Eve could stay negative they would be able to participate in their extra curricular activities. Also, if anyone else tested positive, Eve's week long quarantine would start over and she wouldn't be able to attend the last few days before Christmas break. Wes is a unique guy and didn't mind quarantine much. He likes his alone time in general and is also partial to screen time, so it wasn't the worse thing he could think of. 

Bishop Wernli dropped off a care package for Wes and played a little trick with a bag full of random items and Mae actually loves the prunes he got!

Luckily we had some decent weather and went on some walks a few of the days to get Wes some fresh air and a change of scenery-

This is how we watched a movie as a family...

Poor Wes had to sit on a hard stool with a mask on, but we weren't taking any risks!

I tried to teach Eve how to paint nails-

Not too bad for a first timer!

Liv continues to be the absolute cutest and the best partner to have while waiting for COVID test results

We never ran short on tests...

Having a large family makes people feel bad for you and they will give you as much as they can...haha! Between the kids' schools and Dad hitting up every student center on campus, we obtained over 30 tests in a couple weeks! We used a lot of them, but some had dried up, we gave some to friends, and one of those brown boxes of six ended up as a perfect white elephant gift at our postponed Christmas party. 

These girls stayed healthy-

Thad was able to wrestle at a big quad-school tournament-

(I love how he wears that red Utah Jazz hoodie and sticks out in a crowd!)

And Eve was able to tumble at her first ever Trampoline and Tumbling event-

I didn't get great pictures of her in action because I took video, but she did awesome at it all!

This was an in-house only meet so at the end everyone lined up and medaled each other and it was darling.

Quarantine seemed to drag on a bit, so we did what we could to pass the time-

And just when we thought we were through it, Thad tested positive for Influenza A! HAHA!!!! That year off our immune systems took really came back to haunt us--but to be honest, we were so happy it was the flu and not COVID! Eve only had one more day of quarantine when Thad tested, so it was a major relief. We quarantined him too, but were able to get some TamiFlu, so he was back at it pretty dang quick. He and Wes are very different people and he hated the couple of days he partly spent by himself...super glad it wasn't him with COVID.

Wes got to play in his last game before the break and just Thad and I went to watch. We arrived 45 minutes early because we thought it started at 10:30 instead of 11:00, so Thad warmed him up nice and good-

I sure love these best brothers that can drive each other crazy, but are the best of friends. 

Two Texans & an Ohioan...

 The first weekend of December was a very special one for me because I got to meet up with two of my very favorite Texans in one of my very favorite places....Utah!

I arrived late Thursday night and early Friday morning we got up to head to the Ogden to do baptisms. Going to the temple with Abby was such a special experience for me and I got to think a lot about how grateful I am for her bravery to ask me about the gospel when she was in one of the darkest places of her life. What an incredible journey she has been on and how grateful I am to be a small part of it. 

Harrison was sweet enough to meet up with us old ladies (haha!) and be our priesthood holder at the temple. It was such a quiet day in the baptistry and special, reflective time for all of us.

Audrey was born and raised in Ogden, so she took us to one of her favorite breakfast spots, Jeremiah's. It's always fun to experience new things in the state I spent most of my life in!

It was back to the hotel for some quiet time before heading to City Creek and temple square for dinner, shopping, and soaking up the Christmas cheer!

We topped our night off with drinks at the hotel and Abby was a good sport to teach us what spritzers are and are not.

 

Early Saturday morning I went down south for an early breakfast with these beautiful faces before getting my hair done at Brigitte's-

I am so glad I got to see these girls even it was only for a hot minute.

I'm so sad I forgot to take a picture with Brig and my mom! Brigitte did an awesome job on my hair and I was back downtown before I knew it-

I missed the Organ rehearsal, but glad I got to spend in a minute in the beautiful tabernacle that I haven't been in for years. After the tabernacle we found the Giving Machines and had a blast picking out what we wanted to donate-

We ended our night with some more shopping and a delicious dinner at the Little America Coffee Shop-

And as you can tell, we were feeling pretty silly by the end of it!

Sunday morning we had another room service breakfast in our room at the Grand America to end our trip and it was just so much fun! We talked and talked and could have just kept talking and talking. These ladies are just wonderful forever friends that I'm so grateful I got to take this trip with. I needed it more than I knew.

Abby and I had afternoon flights so we took Teresa's car back to West Jordan so Brigitte could take us to the airport, but we made a stop at my parent's first and it was so fun to visit with them and also show Abby where I grew up. This was just a fulfilling trip all around!

I can't wait for our next trip!