The year continues to make its attempts at normalcy-no holidays cancelled, school beginning, sports (some) resume. But, the overall feeling is one of unsettlement and unease. Who will come down with the virus next? How many days will we make it to school before our next quarantine due to exposure? Can we be with people in person or not? The questions remain but we push on because life goes on! and October, in particular, welcomes the look of disguise, terror and masking up!
So, we did our best to continue our regular terror-ific traditions- pumpkin patch...
We love wandering the rows and picking a pumpkin that has potential for decor and jack-o-lantern carving. We miss our old pumpkin patch with the corn maze, but this one does have some swings and random farm animals (that I subtly avoid. You never know what disaster making eye contact with an emu will result in).
We also made it to see the Witches this year, but we weren't convincing enough in how fun we are and to get the older kids to join us. Ah well, a twist on this tradition too I guess. Darn those kids for growing up! Ha! Harrison was crying about the prospect of him getting older like Grant and Katelee.
I was putting him to bed and he was just beside himself thinking about what he will be like when he is 15. He said he likes hugging me and he is so worried that when he gets to join ranks with the teenagers, he won't hug me and love me like he does right now....(break.my.heart)... He continued to explain how he loves being a kid and he is worried he won't remember how it feels and how he likes to be with his family. You better believe I will be praying for those feelings to be brought back to him if he ever loses it! Documenting this conversation is also going to come in handy if he ever doesn't want to be with us. But really, he will always want to be with me and hug me, right???!
One thing he can look forward to will be high school dances. Grant went to Girls Pref a couple of times -once with Makaylie
and once with Maddie. We didn't get pics to one of the dances but he wore the same outfit, so at least he looked the same! ha!
The high school cannot technically host a dance-so no organized dances, stomps, etc this year. The kids just group up and call it whatever dance it would have been. Maybe next year? crossing our fingers and lots of prayers.
Katelee finished up her season of soccer. She's a fun little athlete to watch. It is extra fun to have family cheer her on that we don't see often, but being outside together in masks makes it a-ok.
We loved cheering her on this Fall.
Grant also tried out for the high school swim team and made it! We look forward to being involved with that. He is busy with work, school and swim, so he couldn't take off for spring break. Dave was feeling busy too, but I decided we are tired of being at home, so the other 3
and I hit the road and made a little fall break trip down to Bryce Canyon.
It was so fun! Harrison thought he was going to die about half way into one of the hikes and I was questioning my ability to drag him across the red sand, but then we got to the cool part of zig zagging through the slot and he got a burst of energy-racing to the top.
Man, there were some incredible views.
It was refreshing and gave me so much perspective about life as I glimpsed across the expanse
...then, we were informed Katelee had been at someone's house while they were sick with Covid and everything we were getting away from came right back into view! There's no running from coronavirus apparently. It was still great to get away. We tried to find Dinosaur tracks on the way home, but mostly I just nodded my head and acted like I could see where they were when we found a marking! I am definitely no archaeologist.
It was a prefect little jaunt and then we came home to quarantine Katelee. She was allowed out in time for Halloween, which is good because she went south again with her friend Rian. Rian's family invited her to join them for the holiday as they traveled for a baseball tournament. While it was hard letting her go when we wanted to be with her, we said yep and she had a groovy time in St George.
The rest of us were home (well, Grant went to hang out with friends) and debated on the best (safest) way to celebrate. Many people opted out of trick-or-treating. We definitely didn't do our neighborhood dinner 'Eat Before You Treat' this year. But, we came to the conclusion, going around in little groups with masks on would be ok for our kids. Before the kids headed out, Porter and Jaylee stopped by to ring our doorbell...little cuties.
When we happened upon Brenna and her friends, they were not wearing masks, so we did give her a little reminder ;)
not sure how long the mask was really worn. She was a soldier, so you'd think she would be a stellar example of falling in line and taking orders...but went AWOL.
Dave walked around with Harrison (feeling safe from all space aliens as he protected the universe, That's what Halo guys do, I guess? Who knows? not me and not Harrison, he just really liked the look of the costume.)
I sat in the driveway handing out candy with a pair of tongs...for real. I wanted people to feel comfortable -no spreading deadly viruses at our house, if we can help it.
I really think the mask added to the attire, I mean squids have more of a beak-like mouth, right? The mask really works here-which is a good thing, because it definitely looks like masks are here to stay.
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