Nina's new wall art

Nina's new wall art was in part thanks to sibling help. The rest she designed and it turned out definitely wow!! So fun and creative!!

Sunrise on Mt. Rose

When Alex said he wanted to wake up at 3AM to start our hike at 4AM I was like... sure. I'm down.

It turned out amazing. It was so peaceful and quiet. The weather was absolutely perfect and I had Jody's Arcteryx jacket for the summit which was absolute magic. I don't know how that works but it blocked the wind completely and I was perfectly warm.

We thought we missed the sunrise but then after 5 minutes she popped up out of the smoke.

It was a great hike but I will say I was pretty tired when I got home. We did it in about 3 hours 45minutes, up and down.

 

Movie Time at Papa's

It was a long week and Friday we were so excited to watch MULAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Covid stole this from us!!!

Papa got us pizza and we loaded up on popcorn and gummy bears.

It was an excellent movie with the theme of being strong and true to who you are.

All the cinematography made me want to climb a big mountain!!!

Thanks Papa for such a fun night!!

 

Rainbow Magic Fairy Bonding

 

Maria was so fabulous and typed out this list of the complete Rainbow Magic Faries Series. She lovvvvvvvvved reading them as a little girl and now she is reading them to her sister Ella. It is so sweet and thoughtful of her. They are having lots of fun doing this together. I'm on book duty finding the missing ones we don't have. I'd say though that we have over half the books.

More 1st Day of School Pics

Daddy was so great and got everyone doughnuts. It wasn't too fancy on my part because I was so stressed about what to expect. We ended up having school off and on for 2 weeks. It was a circus because of smoke from several CA fires. The air quality has been SO BAD.

School this year consists of being a prison basically. But oddly enough, we are still managing and having fun.

2 parents at my school have tested positive for COVID but we continue to teach. The students are just required to take 14 days off school. I will say my room is nice and clean. The facilities have been working really hard.

Ella has been struggling a little going to a different school. But she is so advanced compared to my students... it makes sense to continue to push her more. 

I hate masks. I got a doctor's note to wear a face shield at work but unfortunately the noise reverberates so badly that I'd rather wear the mask. We are constantly we chided if our masks are not on the right way. 

Eli is loving his teacher. He wanted to buy her flowers and a starbucks gift card. She is pretty amazing. Currently she not only has to teach her class but distance learners too. I lucked out, after 2 weeks we hired a seperate distance learning teacher for K and 1st. We were doing live sessions on teams... it was so unbelievably stressful. Now we are just teaching the ones in class but it's not ideal. Everyone is socially distanced and it's a completely flipped of what we used to do. Not to mention the playground. My heart can't even bear to see our kids have a slab of concrete. Fortunately they do well finding pinecones and twigs and stuffing them down a storm grate during recess.

Jody has been dealing with quite a bit of stress too. We're not sure what the solution is.

 

Livin' off the land

We've got some really bonafide professional corn pickers in our home. Our bishop was so kind and invited the ward to come pick corn in his fields. Fortunately he warned us some corn had catterpillars because they don't have pesticides. We had 3. Eek! We picked a ton and have been eating it daily. Some of it is pretty chewy which we weren't used to. But it was beautiful and fun. 

Maria told me a shortcut to go home. It involved a bumpy dirt road not meant for my Sonata. Thank you Jesus we made it!!

 

1st Day of School.... COVID!!!!!!!!!!

Movie Time!!! 6 months later & Soaking up the last of Wild Waters

It was the first night of movies opening... and we were there!!! 10PM Jurrasic Park!

SO SCARY!!! The kids always wondered why I hated that movie... now they know with the difference on the big screen!!

It was so nice to be back to a "dose" of real life pre-covid. They had discounted tickets and popcorn. $5!!!!!!!!!! You can't beat that. Such a fun Friday night treat.

Saturday was spent doing slides... ELLA!!!!!!!! ELLA!!!! ELLA!!!! 6 years old and going down the viper and g-force. Not even scared!!! She is such a little champ. 

I must say this week back to school (no kids just planning) was hell. I am currently going to teach 12 first graders in person and 5 on line... at the same time. I will say I have an extremely supportive principal. And without Marie I'd be completely lost. On Friday at 3:30PM when I was supposed to leave I got a call saying my roster was updated with 3 new students. I'm overwhelmed but what can you do?

It will all work out and nothing... SILVER LINING... could be as bad as the start of last year.

So.....

LOL.

Mt. Tallac Hike

We woke up at 4AM and left by 5AM to get there at 6:20AM.

We were freezing at the start and dying of heat by the end.

Tallac is rocky. It is basically ALL ROCKS. And little chipmunks that make you scream and bugs that make you scream. And then some more rocks.

But it's a great hike to do once a year!! 10.2 in 6 hours. With a 30 minute protein bar stop at the top.

Needless to say I'm a bit tired. At the end we went to a little coffee bar and my gym bestie got 4 pastries to eat and take home.

Birthday Dinner with Friends

I've known these amazing individuals for going on 20-30+ years. I'm such a blessed to person to have them in my life. My cheeks hurt so bad from laughing. They are joy bringers.