"F" is for FORBES: Family Times

Here are a bunch of every day things that are happening at home. Well, some of them I hope are not every day things. Like when our water heater catastrophically failed and flooded our garage, laundry room and my music room closet.

I have now made sure that the only things on the floor in that closet are plastic bins. My women's ensemble music in its cardboard box did not take well to the dousing.

Even if I never have a women's ensemble again, I like to have the music because it reminds me of my mommy. President and Sister Brunsdale have been in a state of extreme limbo for pretty much an entire year. They got set apart...

...but were not able to actually depart, due to that crowned infectious agent shutting down international borders. They have been trying to stay busy living in the cold basement, but that gets old, so they took a little road trip to Arizona to see their parents again. On the "way" they went to Denver to see Kenley, South Dakota to see the presidents, and Albuquerque, to see us! Well, us and many friends. It was an exhausting amount of friends. Good thing I have a couch now! And a squirmy boy to cuddle with.

It was nice to have another goodbye. We discussed how old everyone would be when they come home, which was weird. Nana made us promise we'd take care of Colette when she returns in March.

When they drove off, me and my 32 years of love raced them down to the end of the street and waved until they were out of sight. Then I walked back past all my neighbors' houses ugly crying, but thankfully no one was outside. Not long after, the church was able to do a little deal with the President of Guatemala to get 8 mission presidents and an area authority and his wife on a private jet straight from Salt Lake to Guatemala City in exchange for negative COVID tests all around within 72 hours of arrival. So, my parents live there now. See?

Luckily Dad is now a Zoom pro, so we still sort of get to see them and hear all their good stories.

And Nana left us with some tasty jam, to remember her by.

Why must food be so comforting? I was missing being with my family after we came home from our summer vacation and decided to pretend I was still there with the Fox's signature meal. Not quite as good, but it served.

There are other distractions for missing one's family. Once we had quarantined for 2 weeks we were able to squeeze in a week of swimming lessons. Two families who used to live in our ward but moved away after building gorgeous houses in the next ward over offered up their backyard pools for swimming lessons this summer. The youths of the stake were the teachers. The kids had a great time.

And I think they even made a little progress!

There certainly weren't as many tears as there are when I teach them how to swim.

The Sextons also came into a backyard pool this summer and many an afternoon was spent making whirlpools and playing splashy games.

The seasons march on. As fall approached we had a couple things to do to get ready for school. Cleaning out the car from our summer travels was a must.

Full points for vacuuming themselves. Someday maybe they'll actually vacuum the car themselves.

We also needed to solve the computer situation before school started.

I made a little shelf to house all the computer implements and put 4 shelf-desks in. I had ordered chairs for everybody, then Vivien asked if she could have a floor desk. Much cheaper for me! I cancelled the chairs and pulled out our old Japanese dining pillows again. Now everyone has a place to...spend their precious hour of screen time...

Until we could come up with another option for a computer chair, I was using the bar stool while at the computer. I went running in my xero sandals one day, then the next day I got up and worked on the blog for about 2 hours, stood up and had a horrible pain in the ball of my foot. It seemed consistent with a Morton's neuroma, and I was indignant that I should get such an injury suddenly after years of walking around barefoot, especially since walking barefoot is actually supposed to prevent Morton's neuroma because it allows your toes to splay naturally. I complained bitterly to my mother about the unfairness of getting older and not being able to do things you've always done before. She was very sympathetic:

But the next day when I went to work on the blog a bit more, I discovered the source of my new onset foot pain! Easy fix. My foot is almost better now, four weeks later.

It gave me a good excuse to take things easy on our first family campout of the year. We went up into the Pecos Wilderness to the Panchuela Campground. Drew had learned about it in a presentation someone gave at work about cool places to camp in New Mexico. On arrival, the camp host pointed us towards the furthest campsite from the campground that came with a three sided shelter and a fireplace in the back wall. It suited us perfectly!

There is a back and forth dialogue in the new Netflix movie Eurovision that is just such a joy to quote.

"I see you."

"There you are."

"Here I am."

"I'm checking you out."

"I'm checking you out."

Here is Drew bring stuff back and forth from the parking lot while we check each other out:

Our campsite was close to the river, but we had neglected to have the children pack water shoes or sandals. Our shoes were never dry this trip.

In fact most of the time the kids went around barefooted. The bathrooms were a little far for a barefoot trek across the gravel. That's when having a nice Daddy comes in handy.

They didn't mind the lack of shoes for river exploration though. What magic a mountain stream is for children!

Here is a dam Merrick made:

It was a weekend of off and on rainstorms, which also failed to contribute to dry shoes.

We all had plenty of chances to bundle up and read the books we brought with us.

Rafe has been burning his way through Magic Tree House Fact Trackers.

Rainy forest was the perfect setting for this read!

Merrick does not read, so he just took a window seat and gazed out at the rain.

Annie wanted a turn too.

It was fun to see Vivien's waves come out to play in the misty air.

For dinner that night we had beans and weenies. It was so nice to have a chimney and not have to battle the wandering smoke column.

By dessert the rain had slacked off enough for smores to be outside. Vivien is swinging a roasting stick wildly in the background.

Saturday morning we had eggies, then the kids hung out while we got read for a hike.

It was completely refreshing.

You will now be subjected to some closeups of beautiful things. Like dew drops on aspen leaves.

And the interesting rock faces along the trail.

The sheets of rock were so thin!

All the different shades and shapes!

More tender greens and dew drops.

About halfway through the hike we heard unearthly screams behind us, filtering through the misty trees. We knew what it was, but it was so loud and so unexpected as to startle us exceedingly. It made me think of all those indigenous Americans seeing horses in action for the very first time; must have been completely terrifying! I wasn't fast enough to get the can of beer the cowboy was holding in the picture.

Here's a pretty stream crossing.

It's kind of hard to balance when your hands are full of matchlock pistols.

Vivien took the rest this leaning tree afforded.

Merrick emulates his brother in all things.

We had forgotten our headlamps to explore the caves, so we all inched down into the depths by light of iPhone flashlight.

The bigger ones let in more natural light to work with.

We had a great time esploring.

There were a couple sections that required a tight hold on the reigns of maternal anxiety.

On the way back we passed someone who asked our children, "How's life?" Rafe charmingly responded, "Terrible." It was rather embarrassing. I pulled him aside and talked to him about the importance of telling the truth, focusing on gratitude, and making a good impression. He just wanted to keep whining about hiking. He and Vivien took off and soon left Annie in the dust, which made her cry. I told her if we ran, we could catch up with them. She gave it a try, and lo and behold, we did catch up! She was surprised and pleased that it was possible.

Back at camp the children hung out some more...

...while I prepared our foil dinners. I used our purple majesty potatoes from the garden.

These foil dinners were amazing. Potatoes, onions, green beans, mushrooms, andouille sausage, butter, cajun seasoning, and garnished with fresh parsley at the end. It was really nice not to have to worry about if the meat was cooked all the way through.

We had pineapple upside down doughnuts for dessert.

Here are Drew and Annie helping with dishes.

Here is Merrick being filthy.

And not caring one bit.

I must note that the bathrooms at this campground were the cleanest of their kind I have ever used. The camp host said, "If I'm going to use them, they're going to be clean. I don't like to look at spiders while I go."

We watched The Secret of Kells the first night and Homeward Bound the second night on our iPad tucked into a mesh tent pocket. Secret of Kells was a little tricky to hear because it was raining and my little bluetooth speaker didn't quite cut it. The movies are more to help everyone fall asleep without fighting or being too loud though, and it's easy to sleep in a movie you can't hear! Here is Merrick Angel Face preparing to dream sweet dreams.

And here he is actually dreaming them.

Here is Annie eating oatmeal the next morning.

And one more view of the beautiful forest.

A smattering for each child! We'll start with Vivien because we started everything with Vivien.

Vivien's favorite thing to do when she's bored is to take pictures and decorate them.

I think this might be Allen underneath Hela.

Here is Annie with undewear.

She is also fond of drawing faces on pictures of people's bottoms.

It is a strange art form.

It kept them occupied and giggling for an entire afternoon, though.

Do all mothers feel like their children's legs get shockingly long? Certainly every baby's body changes proportions as they grow. Vivien just seems to have legs for days.

And I know I am not alone as a mother who thinks her child is uncommonly beautiful. Nevertheless, I think she is. Even when she is pouty.

Here is a mask Vivien sewed for herself.

It was, of course, very soft.

I have a couple Vivien funnies. She was trying to say something was spic and span, but she said it was "smick and smack!"

I told Vivien Drew was going to make steak and eggs for breakfast, but I mumbled, so she followed up with a suspicious, "Stinkin' eggs?"

I was printing off some handwriting paper from the internet the other day and the Print button had a looping spiral animation in the background. Vivien said, "That thing is hyponophizing me!" When one reads like a speed demon, one doesn't always have the time to sound out "hypnotizing" very carefully.

Rafe is frequently invited to Pop Pop's Italian Ice with the Sextons. They are way more fun than we are.

He usually comes home with exciting tongue colors and in need of a good tooth brushing. He described his electric toothbrush brushing technique for me: "My teeth are like little tiny squad ships and my toothbrush is like a giant transport ship looming over them."

I was trying to convince Rafe that learning to play basketball is a good idea. I reminded him how much his uncles love to play together, and said someday he might have a lot of fun getting to play with them. He countered, "But they play like rough bears!"

Rafe was sad when Stella died because he was hoping Stella and Crutchy could live happily ever after. "I think they'd be a good couple, cause they both have problems."

Annie, my magical goose. She is calling down the rain.

Here she is for her well child check-up. She was reluctant to talk through the mask, but she was able to demonstrate her development enough for our nurse practitioner to pronounce her perfectly on track.

She continues to have the most amazing bedhead. I need to get her a satin pillowcase; I think it would help.

I don't know what it is about her hair that makes it so much more prone to snarling. Vivien's gets wild, but not matted. Maybe Annie is just an especially active sleeper?

Here is that squishy white Annie belly that is so fun to tickle. Photo cred to Vivs.

The Sextons put up a little rope swing in the front yard. It is Annie's new favorite place to be.

Here is the face she makes when she realizes you have the card she needs in Go Fish.

And here is the face she makes when she asks you for it and you say you have it.

I only have one funny written down for Annie. It was while we were camping with the Richardsons. The wood was particularly wet for one fire so they used lighter fluid to start it. A little later Drew stood up to help the fire again and Annie asked, "Ai you going to use moi oil?"

Merrick, cucumber boy.

He is getting very good at climbing up this rope. He is very strong and when he wraps his little arms around your neck to give you a big, sweet hug there is always the fear that he might pop your head off.

He still loves his Daddy.

He ate an ice cream sandwich all the way across instead of top to bottom at family night one night.

Drew made him a wooden sword, since he "already hits people with sticks." The logic of how this is supposed to help with that behavior is beyond me, but far be it from me to disagree with the safety professional.

We tried a family healthy habits challenge. I will let this graph speak for itself.

At work they just streamlined the screening process for employees. We take our temperatures at home now and call in the answers to our screening to get cleared for work. We no longer need a sticker on our badge to show that we are ok to be there. Here is the stack of stickers representing all my COVID times shifts, starting in mid-April.

Our COVID numbers are low enough that we were finally able to dissolve our team's COVID containment unit. No more spending 13 hours in full PPE! Now if we have positive or rule out patients we just put all the stuff on to go in their individual rooms, same as we do with c-diff or influenza patients. It's nice to have my locker back (it was taped off as part of the COVID containment side). I'm not sure when they'll reopen the healing garden though. The rabbits that have taken up residence there will be sad when it starts getting more traffic.

We had our APO town hall meeting via Zoom and I was officially voted in as personnel manager. Even though it's a position I volunteered for because nobody else wanted to do it, it was still anxiety-inducing to await the results of my election.