Summer 2020 {Week 3: July 6 – 12}

Monday, July 6

Today mostly seemed like a workday.  I had several things I needed to get done on the computer including working on Mike’s books so he can meet with his accountant this week.  Around 2:30pm JKD and I went to the park so that Jason and I could play tennis.  Katie and Drew got their exercise by biking halfway down beast hill and back but by trading turns riding just Drew’s bike – not sure why they left Katie’s bike at the park, but they got their exercise so whatever floats their boat.  

Once home Drew stayed outside to play with our neighbor for a while – I walked circles around our little park so he wouldn’t be outside unattended.  I visited with the boy’s Mom for a while – so weird that these sorts of visits and playing outside would typically be an everyday occurrence and here we were catching up after months and we live right next door.  Crazy times.

I showered and got dressed cute for a GNO to celebrate Sommer’s and my birthdays with a few friends.  This was the first eating out experience for two of the ladies since COVID.  Besides needing to wear face masks in and out of the restaurant it felt very normal and that felt great.  Unbeknownst to us the restaurant closed at 8 so we headed back towards home and ended up visiting in my car for over an hour.  Great conversations – both deep and lighthearted.  I’ve got fantastic friends!   

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the ladies, but Andrea asked me to take a picture of her burger so there’s that.

Tuesday, July 7

Another workday – Mike came over this afternoon and we spent a few hours going over his 2019 books and then tackled several other technical support and financial points.  Then after he left I spent quite a bit of time wrapping things up.  With me being busy all day in the office it was a good day for JKD to redeem a “movie day” with the app we’ve half-heartedly been using for the last several months to keep track of chores – between shows they were supposed to check in with me and spend 10-15 minutes working on a task or two of my choosing.  In the end we got the laundry done and a few other chores.  

Abigail was supposed to make dinner but decided to postpone until Thursday so Justin and I decided to get pizza from Sahara Pizza, a local pizza place, with a coupon we’ve had for ages.  It was actually quite delicious and I particularly loved their soft bready crust.

Justin had to work all evening and the kids were happy to finish up their movie marathon. 

Wednesday, July 8

Since we’d taken a two day break from Legos it was time to hit it hard today.  Jason is pretty much checked out.  Katie likes it for the most part so long as someone helps her find the tough pieces.  And Drew still loves it and will sit by my side pretty much all day assisting me in the search and assembly. 

Abigail made some pizza sandwiches for lunch today – it sounds a bit weird but was quite delicious.  Carly made quinoa wraps for dinner.  A day in which the meals are completely prepared by others is a winning day.  To top it off Abigail had a few friends over tonight and they made some chocolate chip cookies.  Carly had the brilliant idea to sandwich a scoop of ice cream between two cookies – so yum!.  

Justin was able to sneak away from work for about an hour tonight and meet me and JKD at the park and pay spike ball with them while I walked around the track.  It ended up being a nice day weather wise so it was good to get outside for a bit.  It’s been the strangest summer this year not having as many of our normal outdoor activities going on.

Our school district officially rolled out their reopening plan for the fall.  We will start as planned on August 31.  K-2nd grades will attend in-person, full-time, 4-5 days a week.  Grades 3-12 will be split into two groups (A&B) with alternating schedules – each group will attend 2 days on campus for in-person instruction and participate in at-home learning the remaining days each week.  We’d heard wind of the plan already so we weren’t too surprised.  I actually think it’s fine.  Of course I’d love for my kids to start school full-time under normal conditions, but that just isn’t going to happen.  I do like though that when they do go to school it will be for the full-day.  Half days schedules are so hard to work around as parents.  For our family we will have three different schedules which will be strange.  Carly will be completely online through Bellevue College.  Jason and Katie will be on the same split schedule but at different schools and Drew will be “full-time”.

Thursday, July 9

This morning I woke up and decided to go through Drew’s old clothes and try to sell them.  Which requires sorting them by sizes, taking pictures of everything and posting them online.  It seemed to be a fairly quick process but actually took several hours.  Times passes quickly when you’re having fun?  Katie and Drew helped me out a bit and in the end I sold just shy of $100 worth of stuff – worth it to me.

I don’t remember much else about the day so it must not have been too eventful.

Friday, July 10

Katie and I went on a bike ride around Lake Alice this morning.  I hadn’t been on a ride for a few weeks so it was time to concur that hill again.  I cleaned up quickly afterward so Drew and I could head out on his much anticipated lunch date.  I love our tradition of one-on-one summer lunch dates.  Drew chose Chick-fil-A so he could get a large shake all to himself.  I was surprised when we arrived that Chick-fil-A still wasn’t allowing indoor dining.  Since I didn’t want us eating in the car we ate at a little table along the street right near the bus stop.  

Drew was happy to tack on a few errands afterward.  He wanted to buy himself some candy so we popped into Walmart and he bought some sweettarts and Werther’s – I will always and forever think of my Dad whenever I see Werther’s candies.  I love that Drew loves them so much.  This was the first time Drew has been inside a public place (restaurant, store, etc...) in nearly four months. It felt a bit strange doing something so normal.  So wild this world we’re living in. 

I got an email late this afternoon of a rare Lululemon sale going on. I looked online but the items on sale were listed as “final sale” and I can’t invest that kind of money on something without trying it on first. I only have one thing from Lululemon and they are my favorite pants to travel in that I bought last year for our trip to Bali.  I sent Justin an email (yes, we’re in the same house all day and text/email is still the best way to reach him) and asked if there was any chance we could venture into Bellevue to visit an actual store and see the items in person. He was able to sneak away for a “dinner”. When we arrived at the store we were surprised to find there was a line to get into the store. Businesses need to limit the number of people into their stores and with a sale going on we had to wait about 10 minutes to get in. Unfortunately, due to the virus the fitting rooms were closed so I wasn’t able to try anything on and in the end the visit was pretty useless.  

The night wasn’t a complete bust.  We have an American Express card that is currently running a promotion - “Shop Small” encouraging customers to purchase from small businesses. We can visit up to 10 small businesses in the next few months and so long as we spend at least $10 we will get a $5 credit for each transaction. So with a little sleuthing we were able to get Justin some dinner at a seafood restaurant and also pick up a smoothie to share which was delicious. Justin needed to head back home to get back to work. I spent some time reading and ended up waiting up for the girls to get home from their various activities and didn’t get to bed until close to 1am.

Saturday, July 11

Justin asked me yesterday if I wanted to go on an early morning hike with him. When I asked him what time he would want to get started he said 7am. I enjoy hiking, but I enjoy sleeping more so I told him I would pass. However, I woke up this morning earlier than usual and heard Justin shut the front door around 7:40am. I sent him a quick text and asked where he was going and he said he was heading out on the hike. I told him that I was awake and would join him.  He was happy to wait a few minutes for me to quickly get ready. Justin wanted to check out a hike off of Middle Fork Road that Abigail did earlier this week. It’s only a 2 mile hike but a pretty decent incline and would be quick enough that Justin wouldn’t miss too much work if he needed to take a call. The drive out to that area takes a little over a half hour, but it is so pretty that we didn’t mind. We only came across a few people on our way up to Garfield Ledge. The views are pretty amazing for minimal mileage. We came across several more people on our way down and did our best to cover our faces and allow people space. We actually ran quite a bit down as that seemed easier on my knees then resisting.

Katie and Drew were ready to Lego when I got home. They allowed me a quick shower and then we got busy putting together the “Four-Headed Dragon” that we had finished accumulating the pieces for last night before bed. Jason still needed to get in some exercise and asked if I would go play tennis with them which I was happy to do so. We actually spent most of the time playing against each other – normally we just hit back and forth and don’t keep score. This was the closest it has ever been with me winning the first set, him winning the second and me coming back from behind to win the third. I’m not sure if I was having an off day or he was just having a good day. But it was lots of fun. Back at home we worked on getting the boys bedroom put back together now that Carly has finished, for the most part, painting the room.  The boys wanted to setup their beds as bunk beds so we did that, but Justin didn’t have time to put the guardrail and ladder up so Drew’s mattress is on the floor until that happens.  He can hardly wait to sleep on the top bunk.  I was able to sneak in a little reading time while the kids watch some shows. We winged dinner and then Justin and I watched a throwback chick flick with Carly.

Sunday, July 12

Everyone slept in this morning until after 10am except for Katie. Justin actually had an early morning at 6:30am but then came back to bed at 8:30am.  He worked most of the day.  Katie, Drew and I worked on Legos most of the day.  We finally were able to catch Justin call-free around 4:30pm for sacrament and a short lesson from Carly.  We fried up some homemade French-fries for dinner along with some leftovers and then enjoyed some Texas Sheet cake for Abigail’s half birthday today.  Katie and Drew helped me make the cake this afternoon.  We’ll pretty much take any excuse to eat a yummy dessert – actually we don’t even need an excuse.

Carly has several toys and crafts she takes babysitting and there were a few loose balls laying around downstairs that I took upstairs to have her put them away in the bag with the rest of them.  I tossed them to her while she was lying on her bed and they landed near her shoulder.  Unfortunately they had caught onto her hair and oh man were they a bugger to get loose.  The balls are fun little toys because they have little hooks all over them that make them all stick together in fun configurations, but they also apparently stick incredibly well to hair.  It took me quite a while to get them loose and by the time I did Carly had quite the rats nest to comb out.  Good thing she’s got the toughest head of the family and took it in good stride.  Funny but not at all funny.

Justin was back at work most of the night too.  In fact I when I finally headed to bed at 1am he was still on a call in our room.  Insane.  We can’t wait for this whole merger with Sprint to die down.

• COVID Update:  Stats as of Sunday, July 12:  Confirmed cases in Washington state – 41,757 with 1,399 deaths.   USA total cases over 3.2 million with over 134k deaths.  Globally over 12.9 million cases and 570k deaths.

Summer 2020 {Week 2: June 29 – July 5}

Monday, June 29

This morning I realized I hadn’t updated the blog with all the graduation weekend festivities nor had I stayed up on my journaling from last week so I spent some time working on that and then KD and I went on a bike ride/walk down to the ridge to pick up a little 4^thof July goodie bag from our HOA.  Unfortunately, all the usual festivities with the big community party and fireworks has been cancelled.  

There’s no way I can keep up with them on bikes – unless I ran, but that’s not gonna happen.  They did pretty circling back though so we could stay somewhat together.  I took a trail route home so I ended up walking about 5 miles.  I was a beautiful morning – sunny and high sixties.

Carly had her second date this afternoon/evening and Abigail was off with friends after work.  Abigail started back at work today after several weeks without any hours. She’ll still qualify for unemployment though since she’s not working a ton.  Unemployment has been very good for these young adults – she’ll leave for college in a pretty sweet spot thanks to Uncle Sam.

I had a firepit powwow with some girlfriends tonight while Justin was home working – he’s swamped at work right now with quarter close and the merger with Sprint.  

Tuesday, June 30

Woke up today to find that the cruise we booked with several friends in December is cancelled because the new ship would not be complete in time due to COVID delays.  So sad!  We can switch to another ship with similar dates, but it’s not brand spanking new and we’re losing a few perks.  So I stewed over that for hours waiting to see what everyone was going to do.

Today felt stressful – not only the changes on the trip, but placing some orders online, choosing the day/time for Abigail to move into BYU housing, and likely because of all of the above the kids seemed extra needy/moody/demanding, etc…  Abigail spent all afternoon in the kitchen baking two double batches of cookies to deliver tonight with thank you notes for graduation goodies.  She was also supposed to cook dinner, but the cookies took way too long and besides that I had a 50% off DoorDash coupon that was expiring tonight so Justin and I decided to go out for dinner.

I’ve been wanting to try Castilla, a Spanish restaurant in Bellevue for a while now and thought we could go next week when we’re supposed to be in Spain, but there’s no way I could pass up saving 50% so we ordered some paella to pick up and take to a park to eat.  It was a bit windy but still beautiful.  

We walked around a bit afterward, picked up some shakes from Chick-fil-A for dessert and then Justin needed to get home to work. Yep, work at 9pm.  I needed to fit in a short walk before showering and then Carly asked if I wanted to watch a show with her and I can’t say no to time my older kids actually want to spend with me.  The show was a bust, but still nice to relax together.

Wednesday, July 1

We had dental appointments this morning.  Abigail couldn’t come since she had to work so Justin took her place since his appointment was cancelled due to COVID.  They did a good job cycling us through pretty quickly and nobody had cavities with is AWESOME!  Jason was the last to go back and since we had two cars Justin took everyone else home. Since it was just Jason and I we decided to have his first summer lunch date today.  Without any hesitation he chose Maggiano’s which I was thrilled about – I would’ve chosen it myself if it were up to me.  Yes, Justin and I just went a few weeks ago, but we’ve been going on a BOGO coupon for about a year now and that coupon doesn’t apply to their buy one for today, get one free for tomorrow deal which offers my favorite pasta dish of all time – their mushroom ravioli is to DIE FOR!  I also had a $10 off coupon and a gift card for the remaining balance so it felt like a wise decision financially as well.  Win.  Win.  Win.  Jason was willing to run a couple quick errands afterward which always feel productive.

Back home we spent about an hour or so cleaning up. It’s crazy how cluttered the house can get in a short amount of time.  It feels great to have a clean kitchen and not be tripping over shoes.  Speaking of tripping…. Justin slipped down the stairs today.  Not sure how that happened but he had a pretty sweet rug burn. 

Abigail made spaghetti and meatballs tonight for dinner and then Justin and I watched the sequel – Return to Snowy River with JKD.

Doesn’t look too appetizing to me, but everyone else loved it.

Carly started painting the boys room – it’s a bit darker than I expected, but I really do love it.  

Thursday, July 2

The weather sure doesn’t feel like summer around here and it doesn’t look like we’ll get above 71 in the next 10 days either. I’d intended on it being a productive day in the office, but instead we (KD and I – and Jason when required) Legoed today – pretty much all day.  After dinner (Carly made crunchwrap supremes) JKD and I went to the park to get outdoors. Abigail was there with friends playing spikeball so KD hovered around them.  Jason and I played some tennis when the courts opened up.  After we hit around for a while he wanted to keep score. Thankfully, I beat him, but with some more practice serving we might find ourselves pretty evenly matched.

Friday, July 3

I spent this morning chatting online with a Chase rep to follow up on some cancelled flights that we are still waiting for refunds on.  Cancelling travel has been such a huge process.  I was online for nearly two hours for something so simple and that was supposedly already cancelled and taken care of when I contacted them back in May.  If all goes well I’m hoping that the only part of our Europe trip that we won’t get back is our hotel in Barcelona – they’ve issued us a credit, but that will be hard for us to use by the end of 2021.  

Looks like the kids did some laundry today – it seems to be never-ending.  And that pile of boxes in the corner of the hall is our COVID donation pile.  Hopefully I get that outta here soon now that DI had finally opened.

And there musta been some bike-riding as well cause I had this picture on my camera.  We got this old bike from Linda earlier this year and Katie has enjoyed riding it.  It’s got the comfiest seat of all of our bikes.

Drew has started to have some interactions with his neighbor buddy again.  They still haven’t played at each other’s houses, but they’ve played a bit outside. They must not mind the interactions either cause here’s Drew riding around on his friends little riding toy.

Saturday, July 4 (Independence Day)

This morning was a spent in the kitchen. Katie and Drew helped me make a quintuple batch of smores rice krispie treats for our get together this afternoon at the lake.  

Then I also made crepes for brunch complete with strawberries, blueberries, whipped topping and Nutella (for those of us not allergic to nuts).  

As we were finishing up brunch around noon we got a message that several of the families were already heading to the lake.  It was previously suggested we’d meet at 2pm.  So we hustled to get ready and load up the car and cooler.  So much stuff!

We were the last family to arrive and our friends had secured a pretty private spot at the end of the beach for us to hangout. It’s wasn’t a really warm day, but I’d prefer it be a bit cool than blazing hot so I didn’t mind.  Knowing we’d only reach the low 70s I didn’t even wear my swimsuit and spent the entire day sitting and chatting.  It was very relaxing and we had TONS of food to enjoy.  

Abigail gave Justin some short to wear which perfectly matched with Kalli

Everyone ended up staying until dusk (9:30pm) when we had to leave so the park could close.  There was some talk about gathering at someone’s house for fireworks, but in the end we all went our separate ways though Abigail and Carly went off in search of fireworks with Kalli and Nicole.  Jason wasn’t interested in joining Justin, Katie, Drew and myself as we walked around the neighborhood to check out the fireworks across the valley.  I think a lot of people went overboard this year on the private firework displays to make up for all the restrictions on regular activities due to COVID.  There were so many.

I know this is totally blurry but I love that you can still see the look of pure joy on his face

In the end it was a great day though we certainly missed our normal July 4th festivities.

Sunday, July 5 (My 43rd Birthday)

I stayed in bed for a while this morning responding to birthday greetings on Facebook and text.  Birthdays are always a fun opportunity to connect with people you don’t hear from very often.  

My sister Robyn sent me a link to a google drive with videos from her first wedding in 1994.  Months ago I reached out to my siblings asking them to please send me any video recordings they have that would include my Dad.  I don’t remember his voice and that makes me so sad.  It’s hard to imagine a time when taking video wasn’t possible or common, but that’s the way it was two decades ago.  Robyn didn’t have any clips of our Dad talking, but I loved seeing him walking around and interacting with others.  It was emotional for me and I was so grateful that she shared them.  I’m still hopeful Tyrone will have something of my Dad that he will share with us someday soon. My Dad was big into taking pictures and I’ve always been the friend with the camera as well.  It’s fun that Abigail has that same passion.  Capturing and recording memories is so important to me.  I certainly can’t rely on my memory to preserve them.

As soon as I was up I was guided into the bonus room for some Legoing and there I stayed for the next 8+ hours.  Justin prepared a yummy omelet for me for breakfast and had it delivered to me.  

For lunch he prepared white chocolate, macadamia pancakes and had them delivered to me.  They were delicious.  

There were a few deliveries of watermelon throughout the day.  For dinner Justin made an avocado chicken salad and for that I came downstairs and ended the Legoing marathon for the day.  We had a late CFM lesson and sacrament.  Sommer delivered some freshly picked cherries just as we were finishing up around 8pm and gave the kids a bit of a hard time about not praising their Mom on her birthday. We sent JKD to bed fairly early since they had been up so late the night before and then we watched the first half of Hamilton with AC.

• COVID Update:  Washington state announced a pause on counties moving to phase 4 due to rising concerns about the spread and announced a statewide requirement for businesses to require face coverings of all employees and customers.  Stats as of Sunday, July 5:  Confirmed cases in Washington state – 36,985 with 1,370 deaths.   USA total cases over 2.8 million with over 129k deaths.  Globally over 11.5 million cases and 535k deaths.

Summer 2020 {Week 1: June 22 – 28}

Monday, June 22

The kids kept me busy today and I didn’t accomplish much else – we legoed, played tennis, hung out outside under an umbrella, brought some Legos outside with us, then they got to tune into some shows in the cool air conditioned indoors.  Abigail made chicken biscuits for dinner tonight and then after a few rounds of spike ball she took off with friends.  Carly was gone all day at the lake with a friend from AFY and then all night with her regular friend group.    

This memory popped up in my Instagram account today. I can’t believe it’s been four years since Tyrone and his girls visited.

Tuesday, June 23

Carly and I went to HomeGoods today to look for nightstands for her room – no luck.  This was my first non-grocery store experience since March.  We also swung by Fred Meyer to use my latest $10 off $40 coupon.  Today we bought several spices to reach the required spend.  I typically buy spices at Winco, but bulk shopping in bins is not allowed with COVID.  It was nice to spend some time with my girl.  She’s so busy these days with lots of babysitting and lots of socializing. It seems once a kid gets their driver’s license you rarely see them.  She started her nannying job this afternoon.  Three days a week (T-Th) from 1-5pm – then she’s got several other gigs besides that.  

Back at home I made some caprese garlic bread– yum and then I cooked up some hulk muffins and smores rice krispie treats to use up some spinach and old rice krispies.  

Wednesday, June 24

I can’t remember much about today – pretty sure there was some legoing involved.  We keep discovering more sets so we keep on building. 

Justin wanted to sneak in a bike ride this afternoon while he was on a conference call with work so we rode our usual 7-mile loop and made it home in record time.  Every time I feel like I’m gonna die riding up that hill home.

Thursday, June 25

We’ve had the weirdest weather lately – mostly beautiful weekdays and then rainy weekends.  Makes it hard to make fun outdoor plans on the weekends when we actually have time all together.

Justin and I went to lunch today at Infusion.  Glad to have our BOGO free deal back though they tried to charge me extra for swapping out swiss cheese for blue cheese and for a small side of mayo so I could make fry sauce.  They took it off this time – hopefully it’s not a new policy but just to be safe I’m gonna bring my own side of mayo next time – ha!

Carly had her friend Chloe give her a haircut this evening.  Chloe has never cut hair before, but I guess the fun of having a friend cut your hair was worth the risk and Carly has more than enough hair to spare any oopsies.  

Friday, June 26

Our first summer lake day!  Sommer and I were going to hike, but she suggested a lake day instead and I’m so glad she did. She use to organize a lake day every week of the summer when we first moved here.  I went to a few but taking a bunch of little kids to the lake is a lot of work since they can’t just play on their own without risk of dying.  A lake day without toddlers was blissful.  The temperature was in the low 80’s and there was a nice breeze – perfect!

Jason had a few boys a year younger than him to hang out with.  They dug out a person in the sand.

I had a friend recommend watching The Man from Snowy River earlier in the week so tonight we made that happen with JKD.  I wasn’t sure if I’d seen in before – if I have it had been decades since.  I thought it was a great movie and I’m looking forward to seeing the second movie soon.

Saturday, June 27

As I’ve mentioned before, if we go into a Saturday without a plan or even a general idea of what we’d like to do the day typically gets wasted away.  Justin mentioned wanting to go on a hike but didn’t commit to one and then it got rainy. Jason had plans to play basketball with two buddies (twins) at 1:30pm – we were excited for him to finally get to see some friends.  He hasn’t gotten together with any peers since mid-March.  And K&D had piano lessons in the late afternoon (their last until mid-August).

At 1pm, and at Katie’s persistence, I decided to take Katie out for her first summer lunch date since we didn’t get around to it during the week.  I wouldn’t typically do it on a Saturday, but nothing else was going on and I needed to pick up some groceries as well.  Katie chose Chipotle.

I was pretty tired this evening and decided to spend time catching up on my scripture study, marco polos, and watch some talks in preparation for my CFM lesson tomorrow.  

Sunday, June 28

Justin had some early morning zoom calls this morning for church and then crashed on the office bench seat for hours.  The kids didn’t bother him because they were up in my room bothering me – J/K.  Actually I think everyone slept in and K&D didn’t come into my room until after 9am so I really can’t complain.  We had sacrament around 1pm and then I had the family watch this BYU address which had spurred my suggestion to watch The Man from Snowy River on Friday night.  It was a good analogy about trusting in the Lord and I tied that into the different missions that Ammon and Aaron each had in our CFM lesson today.  I thought it went well.

Lunch today was cold cereal.  It was so weird sitting around the table eating cereal as a family that I went to grab my camera to take a picture.  By the time I got back two people had picked up their bowls so not to be in a photo, but still worth documenting.  For some families cereal for meal isn’t so out of the ordinary.

Justin cooked up some pork sandwiches for dinner tonight and then Drew joined us for our Sunday walk around Oxbow Lake  - it was a nice short, flat walk in a beautiful area new to us, but I was too anxious about it being dusk and the possibility of running into any wildlife to relax and enjoy it.  Especially because Drew kept running up ahead where we couldn’t see him.  My fears were validated when a couple we passed by mentioned they saw a bear there last week.  Note: I did just buy bear spray this week but didn’t bring it with us.  

We stopped on the drive back so I could jump out of the car and take a couple pictures from a bridge – so pretty! 

The rest of the evening was pretty noneventful. Katie and Drew were dying to finish putting together a Lego set we were working on earlier today, but I was on the computer stressing about whether to buy a new camera lens that was on sale until 9pm. In the end I couldn’t decide which one to get in time.  Bummer.

• COVID Update:  Effective Friday, June 26 masks became mandatory in indoor public spaces and outdoors where you can’t maintain 6 feet of social distancing.  Stats as of Sunday, June 28:  Confirmed cases in Washington state – 32,253 with 1,320 deaths.   USA total cases over 2.5 million with over 125k deaths.  Globally over 10 million cases and 500k deaths.

-->

COVID Day 101 – Sunday, June 21 (Father’s Day)

This past weekend we exposed ourselves to several families outside of our own for the first time in over three months.  We entered Phase 2 officially on Friday and though technically we’re still supposed to limit the number of people we associate with outside of our household to five per week I feel like we’ve begun reentered the world.  We had several busy days last week which felt “normal” but I also didn’t fully love it. I’ve liked our simple, quiet days at home.  

Anyhow, this will be my last COVID day.  I would’ve stopped the count on Friday since it was the last day of school and also the first day of Phase 2, but I like my summer weeks to run Monday-Sunday so I had to round off these last few days.  With that said…

Today ran much differently than our normal Sundays at home.  We didn’t end up having Sacrament meeting until 4pm and then Justin gave one of the shortest CFM lessons yet.  Jason made biscuits and gravy for brunch.  He did a great job.  We made a triple batch of biscuits so we’d have some leftover to enjoy.  I spent the morning in the kitchen starting dinner. There was chicken to prep, dessert to make, and yeast to rise.  I actually thought I chose a pretty easy meal, but it took much longer than expected. We had tikka masala and homemade naan bread with a no-bake lemon blueberry cheesecake for dessert.  Everything was super yum.  Indian food is a new discovery for our family and we’re loving it.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. Drew REALLY wanted to Lego.  Both Justin and I each spent a little time with Drew doing that.  Justin and Jason played some chess.  And Justin took a few little naps here and there.  Justin and I also went out on a walk with Katie along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in the late afternoon.  We walked about a mile and then decided to turn around when we saw a huge pile of scat along the path – could be bear, could be horse, I didn’t want to find out.

• June 21: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 28,870 with 1,276 deaths.