Universal Vacation 2020

As a special Christmas gift, I took the boys to Universal for a few days. We had the best time! Our favorite ride was Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure at Harry Potter World. We also loved The Mummy, all the Harry Potter rides, Spider-Man, and the Hulk. The boys loved Rip Ride Rock-it!  Because of the pandemic, the park has limited capacity and social distancing which made it really enjoyable. One day, we rode a couple water rides and had so much fun - laughing hysterically. It was a great way to make some happy memories in this challenging year. 

Pandemic Precautions

The Hulk - a Favortie!

Hogwarts at Night

Stuck on a ride for 15 minutes

Taking a quick nap while waiting for a show

Pina Coladas in the FL sunshine

Checking out the Christmas Star  - Saturn and Jupiter perfectly aligned - first time since the 1200s

Diagon Alley

Shoeless walk home because we were soaked from the super fun water rides!

Lazy River time!

Sage and Kai on Rip Ride Rock-it!

The end of the last day - nearly 40 miles walked in 4 days! 

Thanksgiving 2020

This was a very different year sharing the holiday between two houses and during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. So, we celebrated in new ways and focused on enjoying our time together. 

On Thanksgiving, I picked the boys up from Jared’s and we stopped by our favorite, city donut shop - Eddie’s. We chatted with Eddie for a few minutes and then headed to the zoo.  It wasn’t crowded at all and the animals were pretty active, so we had a fun time. 

After the zoo, we had a picnic lunch by the lake. Sugarfire catered the lunch and it was delicious - or, at least, I thought so. The boys only liked the meat and mashed potatoes. So, pretty much what they eat on a normal Thanksgiving. Ha! We worked off our lunch with a bike ride around Forest Park. It was a beautiful day!!

Friday night, we decorated for Christmas while listening to holiday songs. Kai picked the soundtrack, the Jackson 5 Christmas album, while Sage added the ornaments to the tree. Afterwards, we watched the long awaited Christmas Chronicles 2.  Great series! 

Saturday, we spent the afternoon socially distanced hiking around Laumeier sculpture park with the grandparents. Later, we had a Zoom Thanksgiving where we played Grandma’s games and had some good laughs. 

Sunday, we spent the day doing yard work! 

Quarantined Halloween 2020

The boys were quarantined for Halloween this year and pretty disappointed they couldn’t celebrate in a more normal way. We tried to make the best of it though by carving pumpkins, a virtual game night with cousins, and a scary movie marathon.  Kai and Sage impressed me with their pumpkin carving skills this year. Then, we played Halloween themed Minute to Win It games on Zoom with their cousins. That was fun and we had lots of laughs! Then, we watched a bunch of episodes of “Bite Size Halloween” on Hulu. The episodes were two to five minute long scary stories. Some were scary, some were dumb, and some were funny. But, we had a good time watching them and talking about each one. Kai came to the conclusion that, “When you hear or see something creepy, you should run the opposite direction, not go towards it.”  Lol!

April 2, 2020 COVID 19

Gas = $1.89

School cancelled - online classes instead

Self-distancing measures on the rise.

Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.

Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.

Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.

Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.

Entire sports seasons cancelled.

Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.

Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.

No masses, churches are closed.

No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 10 or less.

Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.

Children's outdoor play parks are closed.

We are to distance from each other.

Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.

Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.

Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizers.

Shelves are bare.

Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.

Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.

Fines are established for breaking the rules.

Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.

Press conferences daily from the President. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.

Government incentives to stay home.

Barely anyone on the roads.

People wearing masks and gloves outside.

Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.

Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Now for the positives:

- communities rallying together 

- neighbors meeting neighbors

- lots of family time

- the sun is still shining and the Earth still turns

COVID-19 Quarantine

It’s a strange and scary world right now. We are in the middle of a world wide pandemic caused by a Coronavirus named COVID-19. Most of the world including our city is under “stay at home” orders. No work unless you’re essential. No school. No sports - not even the professional kind. No olympics in 2020. Nothing but grocery stores and gas stations for at least another month. 

The last day the boys were at school was Friday, March 13, the day before Spring Break. Since then, we’ve started eLearning. We’re on day 18 of Coronaquarantine and trying to make the best of a concerning situation. 

Good-bye, Basketball

So proud of Kai and his 4th grade, St. Joseph’s Crusaders’ team. They won all but one game in their regular season and won second place in today’s championship tournament game. It was a nail biter, one point loss in the final minute of the game. So close!! Kai was the leading scorer and king of rebounds all season. But, he couldn’t have done it without his awesome teammates. I loved watching them play together and can’t wait until next season!

SOE 2020

Celebrating another year of earning Spirit of Excellence was so special tonight! This is Sage’s third year in a row and Kai’s second year in a row. We had fun celebrating with all the other award winners!

Will You Check On Me?

For as long as Sage could talk, he has had an entire bedtime ritual that involves lots of stalling. When he was a toddler, I would have to lie on the floor next to his bed for hours until he fell asleep and stayed asleep.  For about the last five years, after the prayers, he has had this whole sequence of questions that had to be answered the same every night:

“Will you check on me?” - yes

“In 10 minutes?” - yes

“Even if you’re tired?” - yes

Now, both boys are still very routine at bedtime. First, when it’s bedtime, they pretend to be asleep on the couch or in my bed. This requires tickling them to get them up and moving. Then, it’s toothbrush time. Then, they want their water bottles filled. Then, it’s revised prayer time:

“Now I lay me down to rest, may all the world be blessed.”  

The original “Now I lay me down to rest” was too morbid for Sage.  After prayers, it’s hugs and kisses. A few weeks ago, they wanted to learn challenging math at bedtime. This week, they want a bedtime story from the “Calm” app. We listen to a story to help them fall asleep. Those stories are good because all three of us end up asleep before the story ends.  If they haven’t fallen asleep, and I exit the room, it’s never without exchanging “I love yous.” 

I have to say as maddening as bedtime can be with the boys’ rituals and stalling techniques, it’s also a favorite time of the day for me.  It’s predictable and sweet.  I love tucking my boys in and kissing their sweet faces feeling grateful that they are home safe and loved.  

Snow Days!

The week before winter break, we had two snow days! We made Christmas cookies, went sledding, drank hot chocolate, and enjoyed spending most of the two days in our pjs. We LOVE snow days!

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