December 2020

 December brought our family some really great times, some middle of the road times and some really hard times. Here's our report for the month:

Autumn was able to finish out her first semester of her Senior year of high school with good grades AND with her dance team being able to perform a dance concert to show off all of their hard work throughout the semester. Each dancer could only have a few people come because of limited capacity and of course, we had to wear masks and physically distance, but it was so worth it to be able to see these beautiful dancers show off their talents both as dancers and choreographers.  It was a great show and I was especially impressed with a dance that Autumn and 2 of her friends choreographed. It was beautiful!

Devin finished his final semester at BYU and has finished his bachelors degree in microbiology.  He decided to sell his contract for his apartment in Provo and move home for a few months while he works and applies to grad schools - he will be starting that adventure next fall. We are proud of him and all of his hard work and happy to have him home for a few months.

Mitch also finished his last semester at USU and has finished his masters degree in Computer engineering.  He'll be starting full time working remotely in January.  He is so happy to be done with school and he and Megan are doing well.  We have loved having them come stay with us for the last two weeks of the month!

Seth finished his first semester at BYU just in time to have surgery to repair his badly deviated septum.  He has been waiting to have this surgery for years since they won't perform the surgery before a person is at least 18 years old and fully grown.  His surgery was quite complicated and required an open procedure rather than the normal up through the nostrils method, but he survived the first week post recovery and got the huge splints out of his nose and is now doing really well as he fully heals.  He told me that sometimes he gets overwhelmed with how much air goes up his nose when he breathes now. :)

I have been set apart as a missionary for the BYU pathways program and will be working with a group of about 30 students from Central Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon and Congo). I have been training this month and this last week have started meeting one on one with my students virtually and am excited to be working with them for the next year.  It will be a year of learning and growth for all of us (especially me), I'm sure.

The only really terrible part of the month came on December 17 when Sasha suffered some kind of a stroke or other brain event and went from being completely healthy to not being able to stand or walk on her own.  It was one of the saddest days ever when we had to say goodbye to her after 13 years of loyal companionship. We miss her and her sweet, calming, happy presence in our home. Especially now when the snow is falling because Sasha loved the snow and always acted like a puppy whenever it snowed. We love you Sasha! Thanks for being the best dog ever!!

We had an amazing Christmas with everyone at home for the first time in 4 years.  The kids all decided to camp out together in the basement on Christmas Eve in their giant "pangea bed".  They still like to rise early and it is fun to see their excitement for Christmas! We had a great morning together. Well, everyone had fun except Frankie who acted like the cotton jammies I got him to match the rest of us made it impossible for him to walk. Everyone thought that was super funny and got in the fun. I love our family and am grateful we could all be together this year. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

November 2020

 November was pretty quiet around our house.  Devin and Autumn both quarantined at our house when they tested positive for Covid, so we were all on lockdown for a couple of weeks in November. We did have some fun before and after being confined to our home (and even some fun during quarantine, though I didn't take pictures of all the games we played :)). 

Autumn started the month with a girls choice dance with a group of friends from school.  They all dressed up as Guy Fieri from Food Network.  Autumn was pretty proud of the costumes she put together for herself and Teddy, and they had a great evening out together.

While Autumn and Teddy were having fun at their dance, Bryce and I took Devin, Beth, Delaney and Seth to see "Murder on the Orient Express" at Hale Center Theater.  It was a great play and we had a fun time together!

As mentioned earlier, Autumn and Devin both tested positive for Covid early in November.  They both had mild symptoms (runny nose and one day fever for Autumn and a mild cough and one day fever for Devin) and recovered quickly.  Bryce and I thought for sure we would get it, but we came through the whole thing with no symptoms and negative Covid tests. We still stayed away from Grandma Ririe when she came for a Thanksgiving visit as a precaution, and were sad that we didn't get to spent time with her when she was here.

After quarantine, Autumn was lucky enough to get wristbands to be able to attend the 6A State Championship football game and cheer on Lone Peak in the final game of the season. We are so thankful that Autumn was able to attend several football games this year and dance at halftimes and then was able to cheer on her team at the State Championship. It would have been perfect if Lone Peak had won the championship game, but you can't have everything, I suppose.

 We had a very quiet Thanksgiving with just me, Bryce, Devin, Seth and Autumn. But we still enjoyed all the yummy foods, played a lot of games together and also put together hygiene and infant kits for a local organization that distributes them to refugees.  It was a really fun day, even with just the 5 of us.

Megan and Mitch came home the day after Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun together that weekend with tons of games, a little shopping and our traditional outing to see the lights at Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point.

That's it for our November! Loving the Christmas season so far - I'll tell you all about it next month. :)

October 2020

 October was a fun and adventurous month at our house - take a look:

Bryce and I continued our long hikes through the beautiful fall mountains as he prepared for his Grand Canyon rim to rim hike.  We hiked from Grove creek canyon to Battle Creek canyon and saw some of the most beautiful fall foliage - so stunning!!  We have loved hiking through the mountains this Fall!!

Bryce also hiked to the top of Box Elder mountain with his hiking buddies as a training hike.  It was a tough hike but pretty cool to make it to the top.

All of our children officially are adults now as Autumn celebrated her 18th birthday on October 11.  She celebrated with dinner and pumpkin carving with friends the night before her birthday and then had some friends and her brothers over for Sunday dinner and cake that Autumn decorated herself. :).We are so lucky to have Autumn as part of our family.  She is a little ray of sunshine and we sure love her.

For Autumn's fall break from school, Bryce, Autumn, Autumn's friend Teddy and I went to Springdale and stayed a few days in our friend's home there.  It could not have been more perfect.  The weather was ideal and we enjoyed hiking in Zion, playing in the swimming pool, strolling around main street, sitting outside at night and watching the AMAZING night sky, roasting s'mores by the fire, hammocking, playing pickleball at the nearby city park, playing games and eating delicious food.  We were all so sad to come home at the end of our pretty much perfect and relaxing vacation.

Bryce drove to the Grand Canyon with a couple of his hiking friends and starting early in the morning and hiking 24 miles in about 12 hours, completed the Grand Canyon rim to rim hike!  What an accomplishment! He said it was absolutely amazing and beautiful and super grueling.  They went from being cold enough when they started to be wearing coats to 120 degrees at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We are proud of him!

For the first time in several years, all 4 of our children were able to go to their annual "Siblings Lagoon Day", and this year, they added a 5th person as Mitch joined Megan, Devin, Seth and Autumn for their annual tradition.  They had a great time riding rides and being together despite wearing masks and being as socially distant as possible from other groups.  I'm glad they were able to go in a year when so much has had to be cancelled. 

Everyone is still doing well in school and adapting as regulations and restrictions change.  Autumn is still attending school in person 4 days a week and has been able to dance with her dance team at several football games, all of which we are grateful for.  Devin and Seth are doing well at BYU and Mitch is surviving his last semester of graduate classes for his Masters degree.  

Halloween was fun this year, though we never did get around to pumpkin carving.  Autumn dressed as a grandpa for school with a few of her friends, then dressed as a tennis player with Teddy for another Halloween event and finally as a Christmas tree for a Halloween dinner with her girlfriends.

Meanwhile, Seth and Delaney dressed as Thomas J and Vaida from "My Girl" (one of Seth's all time favorite movies) and Devin and Beth dressed as Pugsley and Wednesday from "The Addams family". Megan said she dressed as Wonder Woman for her school, as all the teachers (deservedly) dressed as super heroes that day.  Hooray for Halloween and October!!