Timehop Tuesday

First up, we have wedding dress try-on sessions 5 years apart:

And then cute toddlers!

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was cloudy a lot of the weekend, and we didn’t do much! Here are the pictures from Saturday.

Today I worked on my new puzzle while watching Hamilton for maybe the 5th time?

And then G-ma, Pa, Uncle Dan, Auntie Hanna, Mitchell and Shambles came over!

As you can see, there was definitely a water balloon fight!

Have a great week!

A Picture Update: Summer 2020 Week 9

Another week has FLOWN by!  It was a good one.  The weather was beautiful and we did some fun things.  

On Monday and Tuesday the girls played with the neighbor boys and we spent a lot of time on the swing set.

For lunch on Tuesday we met G-ma, Auntie Hanna and Mitchell for a walk around Centennial Lakes, played in the fountains, and then we ordered yummy take-out.

On Wednesday I finally finished my puzzle!  The kids wrote an performed a play...something about ice powers, fire powers and death powers. Ha!

Wednesday afternoon we went to Boom's house where the girls were weird played (can you find Callie in the top picture?) and I went on a walk around the Stonearch Bridge.

On Thursday morning we met friends at the park and the girls did some kid yoga, before we all tried on my 15-YEAR-OLD WEDDING DRESS (no, I definitely could not zip it up...LOL). 

G-ma and Pa took the girls on a fun outing to Hastings so Chris and I could celebrate our anniversary.

We drove to Minneopa State Park and hiked around these beautiful waterfalls.

Then we got ice cream for a snack, and later went out for dinner on a patio. 15 years!

And the sunset was beautiful.

Meanwhile, the girls watched "Wizard of Oz" at G-ma and Pa's, woke up this morning and painted rocks.

This morning I met G-ma, Pa and the girls over at Mitchell's house!  

Then we headed to church to volunteer.  We collected, counted, and organized items that people dropped off.  Then we went to DQ for a treat!

Tonight we went for a bike/walk and Maya and Chris had a pinecone war!

Click here for some videos from the last couple weeks!

15 Years!

Well, at the start of this year I think we both thought we’d be in some tropical location today, on our 15th wedding anniversary.

Alas, we are not. The world is very different than it was 15 years ago, as are our lives. 

We were babies 15 years ago, and have grown up a bit since then, as shown by these subsequent anniversary pictures:

That brings us to today...not in a tropical location, but happy all the same.

School 2020 Musings and Memes

Way back when, in June and July, the school decision felt far off, distant, and a far away problem to deal with.  

But now freaking August is here.

And COVID is worse than ever and there are so may things to think about and no one knows anything really and we have to make big scary decisions with no actual information and it feels IMPOSSIBLE.

Thankfully, I have curated a scrollable "community" on Instagram that expresses things that I'm feeling at all the exact right times.

As you can see, I follow an account called "Anxious Moms."  Very on brand for me, you might be thinking.  You would be right. A couple of weeks ago (or maybe just days?  or hours?  or months?  What is time anymore?) the account posted this:

ARGH.  BUT HOW DO I KNOW??????

So then cut to more weeks (months? hours? days?) of stressing and reading various news articles and everything is awful and no one still knows anything and here are all your options and decide now please so we can plan (which as an educator, I TOTALLY GET) but like WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?

And then I saw this:

And I have never related more to a Disney princess than finding this meme.

So cut to last night, when I listened to some district Q&A from the girls' school and this morning when I read some suggestions from my school and it looks like the hybrid situation (likely 2-3 days on campus at 50% capacity and 3 days distance learning at home) is where everyone seems to be landing and I still think BUT THAT'S SO MANY PEOPLE IN PERSON AT ONE TIME INSIDE AND CHILDREN DON'T ALWAYS LIKE TO FOLLOW RULES AND ARE SO GERMY.

I'll be honest, I want to start the year with 100% distance learning again.

I will also say that I have absolute faith that the school officials that we are blessed to have making these impossible decisions for so many people.  I know they are doing everything they can to make choices that will keep people as safe as possible.

BUT DANG.  My mind has just been doing mental gymnastics for days and I'm tired.

I also completely understand that I am coming at this with a perspective of complete privilege in that Chris is now working from home, basically indefinitely, our girls are able to be pretty independent, and distance learning wouldn't majorly affect our lifestyle, finances, etc.  

All this to say, that 2020 has been a disaster from start to now, and my favorite mom comedians of #imomsohard made this and I FEEL IT SO HARD:

Good luck to everyone out there. We’re all in this together. Let’s all be kind, patient, and compassionate with one another. The world needs it more than ever.

Timehop Tuesday

Here you go! I meant to post this duck one a few weeks ago. It is one of my faves!

And then we have this...baby cousins in the summer!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday Evening (already)!

The girls slept over at G-ma and Pa’s house on Friday night, and had fun playing (and eating personalized pancakes) on Saturday morning!

Not much else happened yesterday besides hanging out at our house and watching Harry Potter (for the billionth time).

This morning we played a bit of Dogopoly and played outside with Luna.

Then we played softball and G-ma and Pa’s house, and picked some of G-ma’s beautiful flowers!

Then Boom, Auntie Yoda, Uncle Craigles, Lucy and Mila came over for a deck dinner.

I took Luna on a walk after bedtime and the clouds were beautiful.

Have a great week!