Happy new year! It's hard to believe that another 3 months has already passed. And what a crazy three months it has been! Let's relive some of the fun from this past quarter.
January brought the end of the school winter break and the start of the next part of the school year. I think that Enna was really happy to go back and see her friends.
A little later we were able to celebrate my birthday as a family. The kids were only really excited about the cake that comes with the party, but there you go.
The end of the month brought the annual stake winter's morning activity. I love going every year I can as it is a nice break where I get to enjoy time listening to a spiritual message and then a luncheon where I can chat with other ladies in the stake. This year, they had Kenneth Cope come and do a musical message where he sang a lot of his songs and talked about his inspiration for them and the writing process. I enjoyed it a lot as it was music based and the songs were ones that I really liked. After it was over, I made sure to pack some of the desserts to take home to the kiddos as I knew it would be something they would really enjoy.
As it was the 1 year anniversary of my grandma Beach's passing, we traveled up north to spend some time with family singing our family good bye hymn of choice “God be with you 'til we meet again”. We had many people gathered in person and many others by telephone so that pretty much anyone who wanted to be involved could be. We then stood and chatted together for a while. As it was winter, Enna and Aijah spent a few minutes running through the snow and throwing snowballs. Enna even found some big chunks and made a little snowman with them. It is always nice to get to gather together as family.
The end of the month brought Enna's much anticipated dinosaur day. She got to go to school early and learn about dinosaurs, participate in a mini-excavation, decorate cookies, and make necklaces. She cam home all excited and told me all about the dinos she had learned about that day. Her school sure does some fun activities!
A few days later, we were able to celebrate Ryan's birthday. He had been excited because he had been given permission to use some of his vacation time to have it off for the first time in a while. However, a couple of days before, we learned that there had been some miscommunication and his boss asked him if he could work it again. Although understandably bummed, he agreed. So we pushed his birthday forward a few days. The kids didn't seem to mind as they just enjoyed the cake when we pulled it out to eat it.
As we started making plans for what we could do for valentine's day this year, our plans were suddenly made for us. In an unfortunate incident, Ryan's uncle was killed by his fiancee's ex. So we spent time getting ready to attend his funeral which would be held that weekend.
We attended the funeral in the morning, and then while his immediate family/friends went to the luncheon provided by his current ward, we went out to eat with his sister and her family, and then headed over to the farm to let the kids get out some of the energy that they had to hold in all morning. The girls had a lot of fun chasing ducks, pointing out the horses and cows, and running around on the playground. It was also really cute when we were by the ducks and Celeste suddenly shouted “uck! Cack!” (translated Duck, Quack!). I laughed and shouted at Ryan what she had said as he was up ahead, but all of our efforts to get her to repeat herself were in vain (she is still of that attitude when we try to get her to say anything). What about Dallin? Did he have fun at the farm? Well, apparently his energy was spent. So while the girls ran and played with the animals, Dallin happily slept in the stroller, blissfully unaware of anything. Oh well, at least he wouldn't be grumpy later!
After an hour or so at the farm, we headed over to Ryan's brother's house to have some fun with his siblings. While the reason we were gathering as a family was a sad one, we were happy to spend time with all of Ryan's family and get an updated family photo, which hadn't happened in over three years. We enjoyed a dinner, games, and getting examined by his little sister Tiffani who is in her sophomore year of college with the aim to get her medical degree. It was just general info stuff as it was for her work with her EMT training, but we had fun coming up with different scenarios and crafting stories that she then had to decipher and diagnose.
The end of the month held a family trip to the dentist. We didn't have them look at the twins as we figured they were still a bit young for it, but the rest of us did. The girls weren't too keen on going, but they definitely enjoyed the prizes at the end of the visit.
That night I also went to a meeting to learn about Enna's possibility in participating in the school's DLI (dual language immersion) program for the next 5 years. Basically the premise is that the students spend half of the day in English, and the other half is spent learning the same curriculum in a foreign language (in this case, French). Her teacher and many of my friends had highly recommended the program. I also had experienced it a bit as a substitute teacher, so I was a bit familiar with the concept. While I was a bit disappointed it wouldn't be Spanish (as I knew that language at least a little bit), I figured it would be a good way to keep her challenged. There was still the selection process to go through, but they told us that pretty much everyone who applied early (which I had) would be placed in the program. Now it was just a waiting game.
Of the three months of this quarter, we had finally arrived at what would be deemed the craziest: March. The month started out normal with us getting Enna to school and back and holding stake conference, but then something hit that would change everything COVID-19 aka coronovirus. As this was a novel virus, no one really knew how to best handle or kill it off so everything became a guessing game. We were asked by our political leaders to stay home as much as possible for the next two weeks and only make essential trips. Basic necessities like toilet paper and cleaners were no where to be found, and school was to be moved online. There were definitely some big changes to our every day routines, but we went with it in the hope that the crisis would be over soon.
We were told that they would be giving the teachers a couple of days to prep their online classrooms and that online school would begin on the 18th. No biggie, Enna just enjoyed having a couple of days of no school work. That morning, however, promised no easy switch over. This was due to a 5.7 earthquake that hit the town of Magna. Although we are about 25-30 minutes away, we could feel its affects. As this was the first earthquake I had ever experienced, it definitely threw me for a loop. The twins who were eating breakfast didn't seem bothered, and the girls had been just getting out of bed. When I asked if they had felt the quake, they responded that they had, but as they didn't seem too concerned/scared, I just let it go at that. The next few hours we just spent time checking in with all of our family members. Thankfully, although all felt it, no one saw significant damage from it. So that at least was good.
Later that day, we began the new world of online learning. It took a while to learn the platform and get everything set up, but it seemed to go OK. One thing was for sure, I was going to have to review concepts that I haven't really thought about for at least 2 decades. Oy.
After the initial 2 week “stay at home” period ended, we got the news that it was being extended again as cases were continuing to rise. They told us that they would reevaluate school returning to normal after spring break. Enna wasn't that thrilled about that prospect as she was beginning to miss her friends and the freedom we had to go to the park whenever we wanted. We just crossed our fingers and hoped that the tides would turn back to normal.
Well, that does it for us here at the Blackburner, see you in three months (digitally at least).
January brought the end of the school winter break and the start of the next part of the school year. I think that Enna was really happy to go back and see her friends.
A little later we were able to celebrate my birthday as a family. The kids were only really excited about the cake that comes with the party, but there you go.
The end of the month brought the annual stake winter's morning activity. I love going every year I can as it is a nice break where I get to enjoy time listening to a spiritual message and then a luncheon where I can chat with other ladies in the stake. This year, they had Kenneth Cope come and do a musical message where he sang a lot of his songs and talked about his inspiration for them and the writing process. I enjoyed it a lot as it was music based and the songs were ones that I really liked. After it was over, I made sure to pack some of the desserts to take home to the kiddos as I knew it would be something they would really enjoy.
As it was the 1 year anniversary of my grandma Beach's passing, we traveled up north to spend some time with family singing our family good bye hymn of choice “God be with you 'til we meet again”. We had many people gathered in person and many others by telephone so that pretty much anyone who wanted to be involved could be. We then stood and chatted together for a while. As it was winter, Enna and Aijah spent a few minutes running through the snow and throwing snowballs. Enna even found some big chunks and made a little snowman with them. It is always nice to get to gather together as family.
The end of the month brought Enna's much anticipated dinosaur day. She got to go to school early and learn about dinosaurs, participate in a mini-excavation, decorate cookies, and make necklaces. She cam home all excited and told me all about the dinos she had learned about that day. Her school sure does some fun activities!
A few days later, we were able to celebrate Ryan's birthday. He had been excited because he had been given permission to use some of his vacation time to have it off for the first time in a while. However, a couple of days before, we learned that there had been some miscommunication and his boss asked him if he could work it again. Although understandably bummed, he agreed. So we pushed his birthday forward a few days. The kids didn't seem to mind as they just enjoyed the cake when we pulled it out to eat it.
As we started making plans for what we could do for valentine's day this year, our plans were suddenly made for us. In an unfortunate incident, Ryan's uncle was killed by his fiancee's ex. So we spent time getting ready to attend his funeral which would be held that weekend.
We attended the funeral in the morning, and then while his immediate family/friends went to the luncheon provided by his current ward, we went out to eat with his sister and her family, and then headed over to the farm to let the kids get out some of the energy that they had to hold in all morning. The girls had a lot of fun chasing ducks, pointing out the horses and cows, and running around on the playground. It was also really cute when we were by the ducks and Celeste suddenly shouted “uck! Cack!” (translated Duck, Quack!). I laughed and shouted at Ryan what she had said as he was up ahead, but all of our efforts to get her to repeat herself were in vain (she is still of that attitude when we try to get her to say anything). What about Dallin? Did he have fun at the farm? Well, apparently his energy was spent. So while the girls ran and played with the animals, Dallin happily slept in the stroller, blissfully unaware of anything. Oh well, at least he wouldn't be grumpy later!
After an hour or so at the farm, we headed over to Ryan's brother's house to have some fun with his siblings. While the reason we were gathering as a family was a sad one, we were happy to spend time with all of Ryan's family and get an updated family photo, which hadn't happened in over three years. We enjoyed a dinner, games, and getting examined by his little sister Tiffani who is in her sophomore year of college with the aim to get her medical degree. It was just general info stuff as it was for her work with her EMT training, but we had fun coming up with different scenarios and crafting stories that she then had to decipher and diagnose.
The end of the month held a family trip to the dentist. We didn't have them look at the twins as we figured they were still a bit young for it, but the rest of us did. The girls weren't too keen on going, but they definitely enjoyed the prizes at the end of the visit.
That night I also went to a meeting to learn about Enna's possibility in participating in the school's DLI (dual language immersion) program for the next 5 years. Basically the premise is that the students spend half of the day in English, and the other half is spent learning the same curriculum in a foreign language (in this case, French). Her teacher and many of my friends had highly recommended the program. I also had experienced it a bit as a substitute teacher, so I was a bit familiar with the concept. While I was a bit disappointed it wouldn't be Spanish (as I knew that language at least a little bit), I figured it would be a good way to keep her challenged. There was still the selection process to go through, but they told us that pretty much everyone who applied early (which I had) would be placed in the program. Now it was just a waiting game.
Of the three months of this quarter, we had finally arrived at what would be deemed the craziest: March. The month started out normal with us getting Enna to school and back and holding stake conference, but then something hit that would change everything COVID-19 aka coronovirus. As this was a novel virus, no one really knew how to best handle or kill it off so everything became a guessing game. We were asked by our political leaders to stay home as much as possible for the next two weeks and only make essential trips. Basic necessities like toilet paper and cleaners were no where to be found, and school was to be moved online. There were definitely some big changes to our every day routines, but we went with it in the hope that the crisis would be over soon.
We were told that they would be giving the teachers a couple of days to prep their online classrooms and that online school would begin on the 18th. No biggie, Enna just enjoyed having a couple of days of no school work. That morning, however, promised no easy switch over. This was due to a 5.7 earthquake that hit the town of Magna. Although we are about 25-30 minutes away, we could feel its affects. As this was the first earthquake I had ever experienced, it definitely threw me for a loop. The twins who were eating breakfast didn't seem bothered, and the girls had been just getting out of bed. When I asked if they had felt the quake, they responded that they had, but as they didn't seem too concerned/scared, I just let it go at that. The next few hours we just spent time checking in with all of our family members. Thankfully, although all felt it, no one saw significant damage from it. So that at least was good.
Later that day, we began the new world of online learning. It took a while to learn the platform and get everything set up, but it seemed to go OK. One thing was for sure, I was going to have to review concepts that I haven't really thought about for at least 2 decades. Oy.
After the initial 2 week “stay at home” period ended, we got the news that it was being extended again as cases were continuing to rise. They told us that they would reevaluate school returning to normal after spring break. Enna wasn't that thrilled about that prospect as she was beginning to miss her friends and the freedom we had to go to the park whenever we wanted. We just crossed our fingers and hoped that the tides would turn back to normal.
Well, that does it for us here at the Blackburner, see you in three months (digitally at least).
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