The Story of My Life

Captured in one photo. 

#somanywieners

Motherhood

Motherhood is when you end up packing your 5 year old AND the backpack full of toys he insisted on bringing on your hike, while he eats a ring pop and demands, "Keep moving! Keep moving!"

Corona Quarantine Log: Week 6 (April 19-25)

We're still in quarantine. Nearly 4,000 confirmed cases in Utah, 329 hospitalizations, 41 deaths. Some numbers show that more people have been exposed to the virus than we realize, so it's not as deadly as we think. Other info says it's worse than the deaths in WWII. It's hard to cut through all the conflicting info and know what's real. 

My job did layoffs last week, which really sucked. I had to let two employees go, and we lost 18 people total. SkyWest just announced that they will likely be a much smaller company by the end of the year, so that's nerve racking. 

We're just trying to stay positive, not stress too much about the disaster this is going to create for the economy, keep the kids from worrying, and do our yard work. Because what else are we going to do?

We're also hiking as much as we can to get outside a little.

We hiked the turkey pond trail in Santaquin Canyon yesterday. There was more damage to the main canyon road last winter, so the first gates are closed - which is a bummer - but at least we can get to this trail.

Rand and Tukk did some hill climbing.

We found this gorgeous little spring waterfall.

The boys climbed a giant boulder. (Caulder was home teen-aging. Boo!)

We crossed the river.

We found some excellent walking sticks.

And we stopped halfway through for a Cup O Noodles break.

This week we've also been doing preschool, online school, and picking up rocks in the yard. Sooooo many rocks. Cole's hauled a thousand loads of rock out of our yard and a thousand loads of dirt from The Babe's back in.

We finished painting the house and we love the color this time.

And Caulder cheered Rand up one night with his alien balloon head.

Obviously, quarantine is getting to us just a little bit.

Kids Are the Worst

As part of painting our house 18 times, we had to climb up on  the roof and  get the  gable.  I'm not normally bothered  by heights but climbing around to this edge, while holding a bucket and brush (so  I had  zero  hands  free) filled me with terror. I literally could NOT make  myself do it, until Cole came  up to hold the bucket for me and promised to throw himself on top of my falling body if I slipped. 

I mean, we would've both tumbled off the roof, but maybe I would've landed on him and  he would've cushioned my fall? 

So I'm lying here, barely clinging to the edge and praying I don't slip, when Tukker comes out, sees  me,  and yells up, "Hey  Mom, can I have  a snack?"

Freakin' kids.

Corona Quarantine Log: Week 5 (April 13-19)

Utah currently has over 2900 cases of Corona Virus in the state, with 251  hospitalizations and 25 deaths. We still don't know anyone personally who's gotten the virus, so we feeling very lucky. Governor Herbert is talking  about opening businesses back up on May 1, but who knows if that'll really happen.

In  the meantime, we've mostly been doing projects this week. Gross. 

Cole built some custom drawer inserts so we can get  organized. Look how pretty!

I  love organization. So. Much.

Rand  had a scavenger  hunt for preschool, which he loved.



We're getting sprinkler  lines in, and we have a friend in Cali who was sick on  her birthday, so we made her an epic birthday video message, complete with The Trench of Fire. Because nothing says happy birthday like your flame-wielding, redneck friends lighting their yard on fire.

We seriously need to  get out  more.

And we painted our board  and batten on the outside  of  the  house. Three times. Yes, that's right. Three times. We did  two  coats on  Friday, woke up Saturday and  decided we hated the color, so we batched 4 more  colors until we found one we liked and painted it again. 

Halfway.

And then it poured  rain.

And then  I fell asleep on  the couch.

And then Cole went  out between rain storms and finished painting while I had sweet dreams inside, under a  blanket, where it was warm.

And then Cole had to run over and pick up the dump trailer in  Payson so we could get some dirt to fill our  sprinkler pipe trenches in with, because the sprinkler guy thinks our soil is too rocky for backfilling and will  bust the pipes.

And then he had to run back home and load the  skid.

And  then  he had to  run out to The Babe's to steal the sand mine dirt.

And  then he made two trips back to  our house.

And then  he  cleaned out the paint pump. With a Cheese Ball tub.

And then we hid in the pantry and shared the last ice cream sandwich where the boys wouldn't bust us. And then we watched American Housewife and made a solemn vow not to move from the couch until bedtime.

If he doesn't go back to work soon, I'm going to die from project exhaustion.

Living the Dream

Rand had hot chocolate with whipping cream and  TWO ring pops for breakfast one morning in the trailer.

He promptly announced, "I'm living the dream."

Leveling Up Our Social Distancing

After Tukk started  sporting a pregnant belly and a semi-automatic Nerf weapon, we decided maybe we  needed a change of scenery. Since we're still supposed to be social distancing, we headed out to  the desert.

There were 17 million  people there. including HUGE camps of people. There will probably be a  hefty  viral spike two weeks from Easter weekend, but we found a  nice,  isolated spot where no  on  was  around.

See our  trailer in  the top right corner? We definitely have the required 6 feet of  space.

Our friends the Bucks were  going to come, but since isolation restrictions  hadn't been lifted they decided they'd better not. So instead we brought my Sara pillow so they would be with us in spirit.  We crack ourselves up.

You know it's going to bee a good day when you start out with  a hot chocolate mustache.

Rand  was stoked that the Easter bunny found us clear out in the desert.

He  had  a blast hunting for goodies in  the sand.

We pig-tailed Caulder's hair so he could fit his motorcycle helmet over  his head.

Cole taught him how to ride the 100. It  has a  clutch, so  it's a little trickier than the 50, but he picked  it up fast.

We explored a  tunnel.

And I couldn't get enough of the sky out there. It was so beautiful!

Saturday  the weather was gorgeous, so we took  a  long T-rex ride and found Keg Mountain.  It's this weird collection  of  rock formations surrounded by a whole lot of nothing.

Cole playing peek-a-book in  the hole in  this rock.

If you  look closely you can  ee Caulder and Tukk up high on  this cliff.

We hiked  all  over  the place, and I obsessed  over the sky some more.

We also found  these weird,  drilled holes in the rock. Maybe some kind of geologic survey? I  managed to catch the exact moment when Cole told Caulder what we  could use to  measure how deep  they go. And was then required to put a dollar in the Inappropriate Jar.

Caulder thought it was hilarious.

Boys.  Hmpf.

All the adventuring wore Rand out. I'm sure there was some kind of Easter candy sugar coma involved, too.

We also dyed Easter  eggs  in  the trailer, which was super fun.

Even  Sara dyed an  egg!

Tukk was especially proud of his  bright  blue egg. 

This is Caulder's Yoda egg.

And  Rand still  LOVES  sleeping in the trailer. He slept so horrd.