Quarantine

March began with lots of talk about the Corona virus but life was still pretty normal.  Greg took off for Istanbul and Nani and Randy came to visit for Natali's performance of High School Musical.  Then all craziness broke loose.  The US closed travel to Europe, discovered while Greg was currently on a plane in route to Turkey.  There was a bit of drama for several hours worring if he would be able to get back into the country but he eventually responded to our texts and made a plan to return home as soon as possible.  

In the meantime things here started to get crazy.  Church was canceled.  Nani and I went to the temple (it was the last day it would be open for months - so glad I didn't miss that week!) exiting to dozens of devastated texts from Natali about the musical being canceled.  Nani and Randy and I hadn't seen it yet and we were so frustrated.  Luckily, one of the girls got the cast together and they put on the play in her backyard.  They had to improvise quite a bit which led to lots of giggles and fun for the cast.  They even managed to utilize the trampoline - it was hilarious.

The next night they did it again but in a different backyard.  They had a much bigger crowd the second evening and Natali got to fill in for another Brainiac which meant she got to say a few lines and sing some solos.  It was pretty great.  The other girl showed up for the last 20 minutes but Natali enjoyed her few moments in the spotlight.

Nani and Randy headed home, Greg got home and we tried to stay away from anyone just in case Greg had the virus.  And thus began our next several months of quarantine.  School, soccer, ballet, state solo competition, choir, little by little everything was canceled.  Life slowed way down.  We stopped seeing anyone else and loved the mellow time together.

For the first few weeks I had one kid make dinner every night.  It was great to teach them important skills, let them pick their favorites and take responsibility to make it.  After a while though Greg and I were getting tired of all the heavy meals and we took back the menu.  Even without the dinner schedule the kids did a lot of baking.  Natali learned to make Macaroons and Creme Brûlée while Emmy tackled a Baked Alaska.

Natali may have had a lot of fun with the blow torch and Emily was so happy with her dessert.  It was quite delicious.

Covid also brought Grandma and Grandpa Dame home early from Arizona so we starting having some fun times with them.  Lots of sleepovers - Emily came home after one sleepover in this hobo dance festival shirt because she forgot to pack a shirt of her own.  Gave me a good laugh.

We also did a lot of hair cuts.  Some were more successful than others...Natali cut Emmy's and I only had to fix it a little.  I cut Mack and Andrew's a few times 😬. We were all happier when Great Clips reopened.

Kate spent a few hours in the hot tub one night and basically tied her hair in three huge knots.  I was sure we were going to be cutting it, but after 2 hours of patient brushing and piles of conditioner we managed to get it untangled.  She lost a lot of hair though so we went through the next day and gave her some layers to hide all the lost hair.

Online school had it's challenges.  There were days with technical difficulties, internet drama, horrible assignments, and lots of confusion but we managed to get through it. This cake was one of the fun assignments - Kate had to make a visual to go with one of her science units.  The girls had lots of fun making cacti, snakes, rocks, tortoise, and kangaroo rats out of fondant.  

We also spent hours doing puzzles- usually it started with me and Emily and ended with just me.  Occasionally I could suck Greg or Kate in but I'm pretty sure I did the majority of the 3 difficult Disney puzzles completed that spring.

On Facebook people started "adopting" Seniors as a way to make up for all of the things they lost.  The Luke family "adopted" Natali and brought her this awesome basket full of treasures.  It was pretty great.  We even used all the signs to wave out the window during her drive through graduation.

Just Serve sent out a request from St. Al's to make 10,000 masks for the hospitals.  We asked for donations within our neighborhood and got to work on the piles of fabric donated for the cause.  I was so touched by the people who donated money, fabric, and time.  My girls and I sewed over 100 masks, I forgot to tally them all but I think it was around 150.  And I ended up giving a lot of my fabric to other friends in the old 7th ward becuase I couldn't keep up with it all.  St.Al's  ended up recieving over 20,000 masks made in the valley.  Amazing.  Lily was my most consistent helper.  She loved sewing and could often be found zooming away on Kate's little machine.  

We filled our hours at home in creative ways - I loved the tower they build.  It actually touched the top of the celiling in the entry way when completed.  

Panic set in and the grocery stores started to look pretty bare.

Sometime in the last year Lily and Mack created a really special bond which just seemed to grow stronger during our social distancing.  She would let Mack use her special blankets and he would tuck her in bed and give her piggy back rides.  I love watching the two of them together.

One Saturday I told Greg to take the kids and get out of the house.  After weeks of isolation they need to get outdoors and I need to have a little space.  Natali and I stayed home and watched a movie while we sewed masks and the other kids went to see some Oregon Trail ruts with Greg.  They weren't very happy about it but it was just the break I needed.

For a PE assignment Emily and Lily were supposed to bowl at paper cups- somehow that turned into jumping over pyramids of cups and that developed into an offical Quarentine Olympics.  Each child picked 2 events.  We had cup jumping, weeding, noodle throw, balancing, water drinking, yoga ball balancing, lazer maze, relay races, bike racing, sprints, and more.  We had such fun and we even did metal ceremonies complete with Gold (Twix), Silver (3 Musketeers), and Bronze (Rolos).

Mack may have won gold in nearly every event, but everyone still had a blast.

Lily took the gold in the lazer maze.  Her small size helped her move a lot faster than the older kids.

For a change of pace one weekend we all met Grandpa over at the new Gables location in Caldwell to help ready it for opening.  The boys helped Grandpa in the parking lot with some clean up and the girls vacuumed, cut tags off furniture and put patio furniture together.  It was good to do some work together.

Greg grew out a lovely beard...

and painted our bedroom.

Memorial Day we went for a hike up by Idaho City.  We ate lunch in the parking lot and did some great rock posses.

The boys even got some golfing in.

Mack saw a video of someone juggling toliet paper and he had to try.  That turned into experiments with an orange, a potatoe, tennis ball, onion, package of mac and cheese, stuffed animals, ping pong ball, and a lime.  He made a montage of all of the juggling.  Pretty funny - or maybe we were just easily amused.  

It was strange to be home all together day in and day out without anything on the schedule but it was wonderful.  I loved being silly, playing games, and just enjoying time together.