March feels like the tale of two months. The first half of March was pretty normal, though it had some pretty funny and amazing parts, so let's start there.
We started the month by moving into the strangest airbnb we have ever seen in Orem for a week while our wood floors were being refinished. We chose this particular Airbnb because they would let us bring our pets, and that turned out to be an absolute disaster. More on that in a second. First off, the strangeness of our Airbnb. It had floor to ceiling windows in the family room with no drapes or blinds and that room faced a very busy street. The decor was something else - here are a few pics to give you a tiny idea:
We think this door may have led to Narnia, but we never figured it out...
No one chose to sleep in the room with the weird lady...
My personal favorite - the giant fish on the kitchen wall. :)
There were also mirrors everywhere! And white white carpet, which was interesting considering they were "pet friendly", so let's get into the fun part of our week - the pets. Sasha very rarely throws up, like hardly ever. Our first night there, she threw up on the white carpet 5 times!! And the best part is that the more we tried to clean up the spots (including using multiple spot cleaners and eventually renting a professional spot cleaning machine), the more they expanded and grew until we had 5 giant brown spots on the white white carpet. So we got to pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned.
But that's not all. Frankie was a complete stress case and just walked around meowing loudly when he wasn't hanging out in his carrier (which he usually HATES) begging to go home.
Then one morning he just disappeared. Megan was sitting in the front room working on some homework when Frankie jumped down out of the chimney of the wood burning fireplace. Of course he was covered in soot and of course he began to walk across the white white carpet, leaving black paw prints behind him. Megan grabbed him as fast as she could and threw him in the shower and gave him a bath and then found some baby gates in the garage and used those to block off the fireplace, but Frankie just prowled around the gates, trying to figure out a way in. She called me (I was at the temple at the time) and I stopped to get some cardboard and tape on the way back so we could completely seal off the fireplace, but before we could do that, Frankie managed to jump over the gate and back up the chimney when Megan looked away for one second. So he got another bath and we successfully blocked off the chimney for the remainder of our visit.
Let's just say that we were all happy to go home at the end of the week. Our wood floors look brand new and we love the new color that we had them stained!!
The weekend after we got our wood floors done, we drove to Las Vegas to go to Delaney's baptism! It was an amazing experience to get to be there! Delaney invited us a couple of weeks earlier when she found out that Seth (Elder Ririe to her) wouldn't be able to come due to a mission wide conference that day. So we drove to Vegas and enjoyed a weekend away. Covid-19 was just beginning to wreck havoc in the country and Devin's classes had moved online, so he was able to come with us, too, which was a nice surprise. We drove down on a Friday and went to the Las Vegas temple that evening as a family to do baptisms. We were really glad we chose to do that since temples closed for ordinances for the dead the following week.
On Saturday morning, we went to Delaney's baptism and it was such a choice experience to be able to get to know some people who know and love Seth as a missionary. Our plan was to keep it on the downlow that we are Seth's family and to just say that we are friends of Delaney's from Utah, but as soon as we walked in the building, Delaney's best friend, Bailey Thomas, who first introduced Delaney to the gospel looked at us and said, "You are Elder Ririe's family! Mom!!! The Riries are here!!" So much for staying on the down low. :):) Bailey actually read a talk about baptism that Seth had written and sent to her since Delaney had wanted him to speak at her baptism and it was so fun to hear his voice as a missionary. Still very much Seth, just maybe a little wiser. :) It was such a choice experience to be there and I am so glad we went and that the complete disruption of life that has happened because of Covid-19 could hold off for one more weekend so we could go.
While we were in Vegas, we also recreated this photo that Seth had recently sent us in one of his weekly emails:
Speaking of Seth, he continues to work so hard and do everything he can to be a diligent missionary despite all of the changes and quarantine. Before quarantine, he and his district were able to attend the temple together.
Since quarantine, he and his companion haven't slowed down one bit. They continue to find and teach people using technology and even had 2 baptisms near the end of March. Only the missionaries, the Bishop, the person being baptized and the person doing the baptizing were allowed to attend, but David and Tenisha both joyfully joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through baptism. So the work keeps moving forward and we are glad that he is able to continue working. Right now, the plan is that he will be released on June 24, or one transfer earlier than he would have originally come home since all US missions are being shortened right now in order to make room for the missionaries who were assigned to go foreign who are coming home right now.
The second half of March has felt like about one million years and strangely, I don't have any pictures to document the fact that we stayed home. All of us. Every day. :):) Devin moved home after the MTC decided that teachers could teach from their homes instead of going in to the MTC to teach and Megan is at home while doing her final internship, which thankfully has stayed open since it is her only internship working with adults and she needs those hours to graduate. Luckily she isn't working in a nursing home, but is working with adults at an ENT office and though she doesn't work every day, she is getting some hours in and that will be enough for her to graduate in May, without an actual graduation, of course. :( Bryce has been working from home since mid-March (we are so grateful that he has a job that he can do from home!!) and Devin, Megan and Autumn are all doing school online. It's a new, strange world and we are looking forward to getting through this and getting back to normal.
Like all of you, we have had so many changes in such a short span of time. Megan and Mitch will still be married on May 13 as planned, but they may not be able to be sealed in the temple on that day and most likely, they will not be able to have a reception that day, which is a huge disappointment since Megan has been looking forward to her wedding reception for a very long time. But, like all of you, we move forward with faith and optimism and will celebrate the joy of the two of them getting married no matter what and no matter how we do that. Stay tuned.
Hope you are all happy and healthy!
