Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Christmas Holidays 2020

 We managed to make the best of the situation and have a safe, socially distanced holiday with family.  Here are some highlights...

Twas' the Night Before Christmas

Matching PJs Picture!

At 5:30am, Kai comes in the bed and says, "Santa came!"

Sage goes back to sleep. 






Santa came through with a hard to find gift - Oculus Quest 2 VR



Watching Pixar's "Soul" 

Christmas Zoom with the Clines - doing Grandma's puzzles


Friday, December 25, 2020

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! 









Sunday, November 29, 2020

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! 
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Sunday, November 1, 2020

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!
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Thursday, April 2, 2020

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

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

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.