Making our own fun

Last Saturday we were ready to leave for Logan but couldn't because there was a bird stuck in the garage. Then it flew into the house and it took some finagling to get it out of the house.

We took our first trip out the county in months and visited my brother and his family in Logan for the day. This day also happened to be the day they pulled their shaved ice shacks out of storage and relocated them in town in preparation for opening this weekend. We volunteered our car to tow them so they didn't have to rent a truck. It was pretty cool (and a little slow and a little dangerous) to see how they are transported. 

But first things first--shaved ice in their garage. We hadn't even gone inside to see their new house before Lisa and Kyra were pulling out flavorings and starting up the ice shaver.

Then we took a tour around their new complex. We'll definitely be coming back when the pool opens.

Then we went to Old Grist Mill for some sandwiches. I have been craving a sandwich from there since the deepest days of stay home orders. I hadn't been that despondent about a food craving since I was pregnant. Their sandwiches are so good. We need an OGM in Utah County.

Then off to the storage unit! It takes a couple of jacks and several people working the jacks to get one side of the shack up to put the wheel on the axle and then repeat on the other side. Then you put the tow bar in the front and then attach that to the hitch on the back of our car. Then we had to drive 20 mph to its summer home at a Nibley carwash and then undo all that.

After the first shack, we departed ways for a little while. Sarah stayed behind to help the shack people and Justin and I took the other 3 kids in Matt's Tesla for a drive around the valley. We then met up at the parking lot of the second shack and helped unload that.

The roof you can see is my old house. We are down in what used to be a gravel pit. But now the whole area down there is raised up and mostly developed. What was once a pretty steep drop-off behind our lot is now a gentle slope. It's so weird.

So many cars honked and waved. I think everyone is excited for summer.

Then we had a bbq at their house where Matt introduced us to Bluey on Disney+ and played pickleball. We got home at midnight. It was a long and fun day and felt sooooo good to go somewhere and do something new.

Erica misses her friend Finley the most. Watching the two of them videocall is hilarious and annoying. After their cute niceties and over-sharing it devolves into making each other laugh with the effects and filters. After about an hour, they have to call it quits because it's just so much giggling and no interaction as Erica is just making herself laugh.

Henry wrote this sweet note to Wayne across the street but then Wayne came home so Henry didn't want to leave him a note, he wanted to tell him in person.

I don't even like Coin Crazy but I'm excite to go.

Big day in the Dye household. James graduated to a booster seat. He's older and bigger than the rest of the kids were when they made the transition. He didn't have a baby coming along kicking him out of his carseat so I kind of forgot he was big enough to be out of it. His favorite feature is unbuckling himself and getting out of the car all by himself and does it super fast. It's nice not to have to unbuckle him or hear the kids argue over who's turn it is to help him.

 

Erica and Henry dressed up as grannies after watching the Grannies episode of Bluey. It's the funniest one we've seen so far.  It's a show that we all watch together and the kids aren't allowed to watch new episodes without us.

We saw 8 National Guard helicopters fly over my parents' house yesterday. They were so loud and awesome. Kind of made up for the air force jets being so far away last week.

Some thoughts on life being so weird:

- March seems so long ago. April was so stressful but kind of went by fast.

-I am so tired of shopping at Walmart and Costco and grocery stores. Amazon is slow. I want more stores to open up!
- I have yet to wear a mask. I will have to next week when I go to Costco.
-There's a near constant ache in my heart over lost school experiences.
-I don't seem to be comfort baking as much was I was. For awhile there I was making bread and cookies out of boredom and to compensate my feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. "Life can't be that bad if we're eating chocolate chip cookies."
- There was a day after general conference that I realized the virus wasn't living up to the hype and food shortages weren't happening and it wasn't going to get any worse than it already had been.
- The only thing we have scheduled this summer is swimming lessons and that ends June 5. It's gonna be a long summer if playgrounds are closed and friends are off-limits and fireworks keep cancelling.
- I'll let my kids play with your kids.
- I wait for the new cases and new deaths stats every day around 12:30. I think the virus has turned us all into statisticians.
- I'm kind of tired of eating out. Apparently once a week is too much for me. I'm ready to go back to once a month but I won't.

Goodbye April

April is the cutest of months and it always goes by so fast--even when you have nowhere to go. But I am so excited for May that I am okay with it being over.

Erica missed her friend Finley from school so much we arranged a video call. At first they were awkward and didn't know what to say but by the time they had to hang up an hour later, they were giggly and silly. Finley will be going to a different school next year because of a boundary change so Erica is sad about that.

 

This is my month. During a nonpandemic month, I have something on nearly every day. Besides a video-call piano lesson for Sarah on Thursdays, we got nothing.

 A couple of Fridays ago we drove to "Little Moab" on the west side of Utah Lake. It was so nice and a little weird to see so many people out and about camping and jeeping.

 We found a lot of cool rock formations to climb. My kids are too brave.

 Justin let the kids take turns steering on the dirt roads. I am so glad James doesn't drive for 13 more years. He was turning the wheel back and forth as fast as he could and get pushing Justin's hands away.

 This is our TV after the kids knocked it over. They had built a fort around it and when they took the sheet down, they pulled the TV over with it. I wasn't too mad since it was really old.  We discussed not getting a new TV since Justin and I rarely watch it but I didn't want us to be "that" family that didn't have a TV.

 We were that weird family for 48 hours. All is right in the world. (I have since straightened out my pictures on the wall, don't worry.)

Social distancing be d@#$%& we went to Justin's parents' house to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. It was sooooo nice to be outside and away from our house. The kids got to play on a swingset!

 I've been taking turns baking with my kids and trying really hard to only make something just once a week. One Sunday Erica chose to make Funfetti Bars. They were really easy for her since there was no measuring and this girl loves anything with sprinkles. They were okay--definitely a kid dessert.

 Erica made these flowers for Justin. I took a picture of them after a couple of weeks and threw them away. (We can't keep everything!)

 Pretty sure Erica took this picture of Henry.

 Because we 💗 smores and eating outside, we went up the canyon last Saturday night. There were tons of cars but the picnic area was empty.

 The kids kicked the ball around, the boys did some fishing, James got "really good" he says, at hitting a baseball.

 My good little smore maker.

 Here's more of cute Erica doing her homework. Schoolwork has been going well--especially after hearing stories from others at what a battle it has been in their homes. My kids seem fine about doing it and it doesn't seem to be to onerous (I keep expecting to hear from their teachers that they aren't doing it right or not doing it all but so far so good). Erica asked when she would get to go clean out her cubby and when I told her that her teacher would bring all her stuff out to the car, she started to tear up and then I started to tear up. This is hard. We mourning what we have lost. The losses dawn on them a little at a time and pile up. Field trips, track meets, kindergarten graduation, no mother's day crafts, never got so-and-so's phone number, all the good-byes.

 I hope that once May 22 rolls around and school would have been dismissed anyway, we will not feel the loss.

Speaking of school, look how cute my mom was in 1st grade! She's on the left in the dark dress with the lace ruffle across her dress.

Flashback Friday: When I looked just like Erica

My kids have a hard time distinguishing between each other's baby pictures. My kids also have a hard time distinguishing my childhood pictures and Erica. 

Here are a few from when I was about 6 years old.

I got this outfit at King's in Logan which is gone now. You wouldn't be an 80s kid if you didn't rock a sweatsuit.

We all had that stage where we couldn't take posing for a picture seriously.

 This stuffy is Huggins from "The Hugga Bunch"--a moderately popular cartoon from 1985. And by "moderately popular" I mean my grandma had the videotape and no one besides my cousins and siblings had ever heard of it. But they made toys so we weren't the only ones. I even still have this doll.

 Here's the video for you! I had a good segment of the show memorized and would recite it on command. And even not on command and just annoyed people.

I don't remember loving to bake or even wanting to that much when I was a kid so this isn't one of those "I've been baking all my life" photos. I'm pretty sure whichever sister took this picture also made me put all this one and pose next to the mixer.  This mixer was a bit broken and had to be held down while it was stirring or it would just lift up. My mom would often call someone over to hold it down while she did other things. I remember leaning over it and peering into the bowl. But what's really funny is that even we got a new mixer that locked, I still mixed while holding it down. And I still find myself doing it in my own kitchen. And I sometimes see my kids do it while they help me out.

 This doll is a Magic Nursery Baby. I got it for Christmas. You had to dissolve an envelope in water and inside it would reveal if your doll was a girl or a boy. I got the jackpot when my certificate revealed that it was twins and mailed away for the second (free!) doll. I named them Christopher and Christena. I think I still have the girl.

 No memories with this photo but I am noticing how good the finish on the edge of the table looks. My parents still have this table and the finish is pretty bare. The top is Formica and I really appreciate that as a table surface now that I have 4 kids that ruin everything. My mom didn't stress about what we did on her table (cookie cutters, playdough, etc). I wonder if they make Formica tables nowadays....

 Here's a good example of my curled bangs. Erica laughed when I told her my mom would curl my bangs and I think she was imagining vertical ringlets. Did we always keep the peanut butter next to the cough syrup?

 I remember those yellow cups, the Raiders glass, and the brown bowls. Makes me want to take pictures of inside my cabinets for my kids to geek over later. I would love to see inside all of these.

 I'm pretty sure my mom made this shirt.

Here's a few pictures of my mini me, just for comparison.

I think I'm going to curl her bangs. Just for fun.