Durango, Colorado Family Reunion

We were so excited to travel somewhere with cooler weather! Matt drove the family 15 hours, then we stopped an hour outside of Durango to stay the night. The next morning, I dropped Matt off at the airport for him to fly back home in order to work Monday and Tuesday. He flew back out Tuesday night after work and joined us for the rest of the vacation. After dropping Matt off at the super tiny airport, the boys and I met up with my parents and went to church in Durango. After church, we went to a park for lunch and toured the college a bit before we were able to check into our lodge. Matt helped get a great deal on the lodge, and it was perfect...except for the restaurant in the middle of the lodge that was open to the public! It turned out not to be as big of a deal as we thought, but still very strange.

Monday we went on a 3-mile hike down to a river. (It was so nice to go hiking mid-morning and not sweat to death!) The way down was no big deal, and everyone did great. Going back up on the other hand, that was a bit tough for the small kids. Bryson and Austin were my hiking buddies on the way up, and it took a lot of encouragement plus many breaks to make it back up. I also had to patiently endure a lot of whining. Austin loves to collect rocks, and some of the ones he had his sweatshirt pocket were quite large. He wanted me to carry him, but I said he'd have to leave the rocks behind if he wanted me to do that. He stubbornly refused. I finally gave in and carried him and his rocks on my back for awhile.

Notice the large bulge of rocks weighing down his sweatshirt.

There was a scare at the river with some of the kids wading in the river. The current was quite strong, but Clay found a place that broke off from the main river where kids could get their feet wet. However, Benson entered the water too close to the current and started to get swept away. Jared went in head first to grab him, slipped himself, and had a bit of a workout pulling himself and Benson to safety. It all happened very fast and both were soaked.

Tuesday we went to a hot spring in Ouray. Thankfully my parents carpooled with us (Matt was gone still) and did the driving through the winding mountains, which makes me so stressed!

Then we went to Silverton and did the mining tour. It was interesting and a good outing.

The kids enjoyed the sauna and hot tubs at the lodge

Showers outside the sauna

Gaming happened whenever we could fit it in!

A group went on an adventure to find a hike to a lake while some stayed back for games. Apparently getting to the start of the hike was sketchy; Matt's jeep could have made it, but not the mini vans everyone was driving. I heard horror stories of the difficulty of turning the cars around. 

Wednesday we decided to do the small theme park in the area called Purgatory. They had an alpine slide, ski lift, a mountain coaster, and rock sifting. The Go Karts were supposed to be available, but due to rain the day before, the ground was too muddy.

Alpine Slide

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Mountain rollercoaster

Matt is sporting a black eye from helping out at a baseball practice. A kid threw a ball in from outfield and Matt stood up at a bad time.

Thursday, our family went grocery shopping and fishing then prepped dinner. Everyone else went to Mesa Verde. My boys opted out of the 5 hour drive round trip.

Friday we went white water rafting, which was great fun!

I love Austin's face in this one!

Saturday morning, we left bright and early at 6am. We drove straight through and got home at 10:30pm. Austin had a rough time the last 3 hours (minus a 30-minute nap in there) because he was tired of being in the car, but otherwise the kids did great. Other than Austin, the kids said they'd rather knock out the driving in one day instead of two. I'm not sure if their opinion matters though as Matt would choose to do it in one day regardless of how anyone else feels. Matt was a trooper and did all the driving. I took some naps, caught up on journaling, and worked on planning music for Primary. 

We love spending time with family, bonding, gaming, and creating memories together. Another great vacation in the books.

Life after Covid-19

Covid-19 shut down the world and changed everything. We missed going to church but at the same time really enjoyed the new experience of "home church." Having Matt bless the sacrament and Caleb pass it was really special, though admittedly there were some weeks where there were some giggles. In August 2020, we were allowed to go to church again as long as we followed some safety procedures such as masks worn at all times, sitting every other row, sanitizing after church, bread in cups, any socializing after church had to be in the parking lot, no singing, online RS and SS. We were grateful to partake of the Sacrament again with our ward family again though; it was so nice to worship together. Church was broadcasted so there was the option to stay home and watch it, but we felt it was important for us to be there every week. Singing in Sacrament Meeting started to be allowed again in March as long as you wore a mask. In April, with the vaccine more readily available, masks started to be optional. We also had several ward boundaries get realigned in April and the creation of a new ward in the stake. We lost many good friends from our ward, including Jared and Kari. A 30-minute 2nd hour started up in June where I was finally able to teach Singing Time in person again instead of making videos every other week. I love teaching in person and being with and interacting with the kids again! This is my favorite calling I've ever had, and I've been so happy to throw myself into it again. Our building has 4 wards in it and the wards were not allowed to overlap, which is why we've only had a 30-minute 2nd hour. I taught Singing Time for those 30 minutes to a combined junior and senior primary. The primary presidency did ask the nursery singing time leader to teach the Sunbeams and CTR 4s to help transition them into primary again since they have had no practice with that due to Covid. On July 11th, we will be allowed to overlap wards again and will move back to a full 2nd hour. I'm excited to teach junior and senior primaries separately!

Caleb has done very well about wearing a mask to school this last year. I made sure to wash his masks frequently, and he usually changed out between two masks throughout the school day. Masks were a big reason I chose to homeschool this last year, so I'm excited that masks are optional next year and that school will feel more "normal" again! I know the students adjusted just fine last year, but I also know that school felt very different last year. I'm glad that Carter and Bryson were able to skip out on all the changes the schools made due to Covid-19 (not ever seeing their teacher's mouth/smile, sitting every other person at lunch, no parent volunteers in the school, no parents visiting for lunch, no field trips/class parties, etc.)

Matt and I both felt the same about masks--we hated them and didn't feel like they did much to protect the spread of the virus. We were compliant however, except when we sat in our pew at church with our family spaced out from other families, we took our masks off. We both had a lot of questions about the vaccine and whether we trusted it as there was no research about the effects. In the end, I decided to get it for a variety of reasons, some of which include following the prophet's example, recognizing the vaccine is an answer to prayers, and knowing getting it would continue to help things open up. I planned on getting the Pfizer, but it was unavailable on the day I scheduled my appointment, so I went with the Johnson and Johnson. It is less effective, but I was okay with that. Another perk is that it was only shot instead of 2.

March 2020-March 2021 was a rough year on a lot of people. We were grateful that Matt kept his job, though he did take a pay cut in order to help keep employees at work. We also really enjoyed the increase of family time in those first handful of months. As Elder Holland said in Conference, it was interesting to see such a microscopic virus bring the whole nation to its knees. It will be interesting to see what Covid-19 protocols stick around this next year.

High Adventure Camp

Mid-June, Caleb attended a High Adventure Camp with the Young Men to Buffalo River National Park in Arkansas. I was nervous for him because he can be quite helpless at times and scared of germs/bugs most of the time, but he survived! I didn't hear a peep from him the whole trip because cell service was horrible there. Matt couldn't take off as much work as the other leaders so he drove up after work on Thursday night with another leader that needed to leave late as well. He was there for Friday and Saturday's activities, then they drove back early Sunday morning. Ticks were supposedly extra bad while they were there so everyone made regular checks. Fortunately, we didn't have any incidents.

Canoeing and cliff jumping on the 1st day

Rock Climbing day 2

Hiking day 3

Wrapping Up the Baseball Season

Bryson had a great baseball season. He was very consistent with his batting and only struck out twice the whole season. His throwing improved a lot over the season, initially throwing a big arc to being able to throw harder with less arc. He still needs to work on being aggressive on defense and charging the ball. He works hard though and enjoys playing with his team.

Carter finished up with the highest batting average and on base percentage on his team. He was voted the team defensive MVP and had many great plays at short stop. Matt enjoyed coaching him and loved that he is a heads-up player. Out of 164 11 and 12-year-olds in his league, Carter was selected as one of the top 14 players to be on the Major All-Star team. His team won the District level and now is heading to Regionals, which will be in July in Buna, Texas.

Summer Outings

Matt took the boys fishing one Saturday with Papa

 Last year I promised my boys we would try out the new water park 20 minutes away. Then Covid happened so we tried it this year instead. Ariane joined us.

This water park offered a variety of activities: obstacle course on a lake, petting zoo, a maze, axe throwing, and some archery in addition to the water slides. We had a great time!

Caleb was proud of his bullseye

The temple opened up for phase 3 (appointments only). We went with my extended family on May 22nd to do baptisms and confirmations. What a special experience to be together in the temple again for the first time in over a year!!

On June 12 we had a family fun day in the neighborhood with some fun games, rock climbing, photo booth, snacks, snow cones, train ride, etc. We didn't stay too long because it was extra HOT that day!

Homeschool--That's a Wrap!

Looking back on my year of homeschooling, I feel proud that we made it the entire year.  The kids would agree that there were several aspects that we enjoyed, but there were several challenges. I am very nervous about Carter's transition back to school especially--worried about whether I covered all the topics adequately and if he mastered them to the point where he can build upon the knowledge for next year. He's the one that I can see hitting a roadblock next year when something gets tough and wanting to quit and go back to homeschooling. As much as I dislike some things about the public school system, I also think there are several things they do well and experiences they provide that I can't. The one hope that I'm holding onto is that Covid threw everything/everyone for a loop last year, and if there are some areas where my boys are behind due to homeschooling, I think there will be other kids in the same boat. One area that I didn't spend as much time as I should have for both boys is writing and that will likely be an area they are behind. Something that will help Carter's transition hopefully is the fact that he made percussion. 6th graders aren't allowed to tryout because they want students to start an instrument in 5th grade, but thankfully the percussion teacher made an exception for Carter. I was proactive and reached out to him last summer to negotiate a tryout if Carter took lessons all year long, which he did with Drew. He passed the tryout with flying colors, and we are so thankful to Drew! Bryson is excited to attend school again next year to see friends and also to be there for Austin during his first year. Bryson's biggest struggle is going to be waking up. That kid needs his sleep! He sleeps 11 to 12 hours every night, but getting him to bed before 8pm is quite difficult, especially during baseball season. 

What I loved about homeschooling:

1) My kids and I really enjoyed the flexibility of our schedule. The boys could start later, we took breaks as needed during the day, and Fridays were a break from our normal schooling. Fridays we did our homeschool group for science, art, and music/theater from 9-11am. After lunch, we did 10-15 minutes of writing and then some poetry reading. I was more consistent with the writing/poetry the first semester than the second semester. Things started to open up more in January, and we used Fridays as field trip days sometimes.

Crocodile Encounter we did as a field trip with Ariane and my dad

2) My boys would definitely agree that they loved the shorter school day. We usually had everything done by 1 or 2pm (Tuesdays and Thursdays were longer due to preschool), and I didn't have to use the "after school" hours to help with homework or enforce piano practicing, which made my piano teaching much easier.

3) I find parenting one kid more difficult. Austin and I had already spent one year alone together where I was trying to keep him entertained with activities or play dates and not too much screen time. (I was also teaching him preschool.) Honestly, I was not looking forward to another year, and homeschool solved that problem. As mentioned in a previous post, I loved the relationship that Bryson and Austin developed as they had more time to bond and play together this last year. Things were not always peachy between them, but mostly they were good buds. On the other hand, Carter and Bryson are like oil and water and do not get along! That provided an added challenge throughout the school year.

4) Completing a year of homeschool was such a confidence booster. I can do this! I don't know what the future will hold and there may be a time where I will need this boost of confidence to do this again.

5) I enjoyed the curriculum I used! The Good and The Beautiful pulled in topics about God or from the Bible on occasion. I loved it! I also learned right along with the boys sometimes as topics were taught in new and different ways than I learned it. I received my bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, so it was fun to teach these grades again.

6) As I mentioned in a previous post, my favorite part of the day was our morning reading time. We read a story from The Friend, a history read-aloud, and then a chapter book read-aloud. It was so fun to start the school day off this way with heads usually ending up on my shoulders as I read.

7) Our homeschool group numbers dwindled throughout the year, and 2nd semester the 3 of us that were left decided to just head up one area. I took over music, Ariel took over art, and Melissa covered Science. I really enjoyed studying some composers and planning music lessons. We did handbells, boom whackers, rhythm cards, orchestra bingo, and some weeks we studied a famous song/composer with some different activities. It was fun to zone in and stretch myself in this area.

Teaching homeschool was definitely a team effort. I had so much help from my sister who aided me as I prepped last summer. She gave me materials and advice and helped me believe in myself. My homeschool group was such a support, and I was grateful to have these other moms to lean on. We worked together to provide a fun experience on Fridays for the kids and had several therapy sessions together as we chatted for a bit after homeschool group. Matt was also a huge help as he picked up areas that I slacked around the house and didn't complain. In my most stressful/busy year of my life, Caleb also helped lighten my load in the fact that he was completely independent this last school year. Perhaps because he is my oldest, I have been more involved in his schooling in the past--some of it hand-holding, but mostly correcting papers and quizzing him before tests. This last year, I didn't have time for that, and he was still able to soar without my help. He utilized his prep period at school to get homework done, stayed on top of all his schoolwork, and aced everything. For his 8th grade year, he didn't have a grade lower than 95 on his final averages for all his classes. He did incredibly well!

Caleb and Sam after their Choir Pop Show at the end of the year

Caleb, Tyler, and Ethan

I wish I would have taken up my mom's offer for help earlier. She offered throughout the year, but I didn't want to take up anymore of her time since she was already helping my sister homeschool her 5 kids twice a week. I didn't feel like I needed her help and thus politely refused. The last few months things started to get rough with attitudes though, and I was feeling overwhelmed, so I finally conceded and accepted her help. She came every other Wednesday, and boy what a difference it made! It was so nice that I could have a break--homeschooling was exhausting on top of preschool, piano teaching, and my other household duties. While my mom worked with the boys, I either ran an errand or did a bike ride to train for my sprint triathlon. The boys responded so much better to another "teacher" and worked efficiently, quickly, and respectfully, which did not happen with me most days. My mom could usually push them harder than I could, so after a few times my boys did start to complain that they didn't like it, but I loved it! It was so kind and generous of her to help. (My dad sometimes came too!)

Overall, I consider the last year a success! It was a rewarding experience, and I loved being very involved in my boys' schooling.