October 2020

October started with Ainsley getting asked to homecoming. The boy that asked her had asked her on a couple of dates over the summer. Both times they went to Chick-fil-A and did a fun outdoor activity. One time they played frisbee golf, and I can't remember what they did the other time. While we're on the topic of dating, Ainsley actually went out on several dates last year. Usually with boys from her classes at school. I'm always happy when there are kids that reach out to her at school. And ironically she always seems to get along better with boys than girls. Which might be why she gets asked out on dates, but doesn't necessarily have a group of close girl friends. Anyways...I digress.

After ordering a bunch of dresses on Amazon, she ended up picking one that I bought for myself to wear to a wedding a few years ago. Easy, peasy!

With the help of Hobby Lobby and Heather she even made her own boutonniere. I thought it looked great!

Sadly her date missed the memo and didn't let us know where they were taking group pictures, and they were the only couple without parent there.  Sad. But we got some cute pictures of them in the yard! From the sounds of it they had a fun group. There were five couples and Ains said she had a good time. Because there was no actual Homecoming due to Covid, a group of people put together a mini-homecoming in a barn somewhere out in Eagle. Ainsley's group got invited to the mini-homecoming and it sounds like it was the low point of the date. Ainsley's group was a bunch of LDS kids, and the dance was not. Ains said that her group stood out because they were dressed modestly. She said she'd never felt self conscious for wearing sleeves in her entire life until that moment. I guess there were a lot of really low neck lines and short hem lines. She said they made the best of it and had a good time, but they were all happy to leave and finish their date just as their group. They just went to someones house for games and dessert. I'm so happy she had a good time!

Also in October, Leo found a big stick.

                                                    

October also marked the beginning of what would consume our lives for months to come. We started working on financing and getting quotes for the remodel of our kitchen and bathrooms. We got lots and lots and lots of quotes. The kids got sick of having to clean up the house so someone else could come measure. And of course the plans kept changing as the quotes came in and as we finalized our financing. Here are the before pictures of the rooms we were remodeling.

October also marked the beginning of my midlife crisis. Basically I don't know what I want to do now that I'm a grown up with no kids left at home during the day. Actually, I know what I want to do, I want to be a mom with a beautifully organized home, dinner on the table, home canned goods in the pantry, and the laundry always done. But the truth is, I need to feel a little busy and have a bit of a forced schedule for me to be productive. And we've gotten used to the extra money I make and living without it would mean giving up things I don't want to give up. I was offered a coaching position at Lewis and Clark for volleyball again this year, but turned it down because I was a little offended. The head coach hired her friend and bumped me from the B team to the C team (which means you have a horrible schedule) so I decided it wasn't worth my time, plus my shoulder was still bothering me and it wasn't worth damaging that any further. I'm becoming more and more unhappy with my library job. The job itself is amazing, the women I'm working with...not so much. I started looking into what I might want to actually "do". I called Ashlee Erickson and talked to her about her t-shirt printing business. I look at websites daily for job postings, and I try to think about what it is I want to do but nothing fits. I want to work for 2-3 hours a day, make decent money, and have time to still have what I ultimately want, to be a homemaker. So basically I'm still waiting for that magic job to appear.

We also took time to restock our food storage and supply again in October. We made sure that our freezers and cupboards were full so we wouldn't be forced to panic buy like we did at the beginning of the pandemic.

Carving pumpkins was awesome this year. The weather was so nice we were able to do it outside. I plan to carve pumpkins outside for the rest of my life! Its happy and sad all at the same time that all of my kids are now old enough to do their carving on their own. I just hung about while they worked. They are getting so old!

October 2020 marked the great canning supply shortage. With the whole world home and growing gardens all spring during quarantine, now more people than ever were wanting to can that produce, and supply was already limited due to factory shut down. I always checked every store that I went into for bottles and lids and pectin, they were always out. And the prices online were crazy expensive! I eventually found a deal for buying supplies in bulk. So I bought a ton just to get the price per box down to a reasonable price. I had to wait forever for my lids to come. My freezer was bursting with grapes and tomatoes waiting for these lids.

Emmie Dressed up as an M&M this year with a group of the girls from the neighborhood. She really only hangs out withe Elsie (the rest of the girls are older) but she still had a good time dressing up with them. 

Because of Covid most people came out into their yards with their candy this year. Owen went out trick or treating with his friends, which didn't last long. They ended the night just eating candy and watching a movie at a friends house. John and Ains set up the projector and showed "Nightmare before Christmas" on the garage while passing out candy. And I ran around picking up and dropping off kids while trying to take down the Halloween Decorations. I'm a bit of a pooper on Halloween. By the time Halloween night rolls around I just want to pass out candy and take down all the decorations and get ready for Thanksgiving. 

                                                    
 

September 2020

September brought us the beginning of a strange school year. School started late because of Covid. WestAda started extra late because they didn't want to start until they had devices for all students and a way to teach online. Elementary-Highschool started completely online with the hope that they would switch to in person learning eventually. I can't remember how long the kids were online only but eventually, Elementary school began with half of the kids in each class online while the others were in class with the teacher. High school had remote Mondays (where everyone was online) and then half of the kids were in class 2 days a week, while the other half was at home on their computers. If I'm being honest, I loved having the kids home more and the slower pace. Emmie and Elsie did school together on their at home days. We were super lucky that they were in the same class and they were on the same schedule. I was still working Monday-Friday at the library for about 4 hours each day. Before school started we passed out over 1,000 computers. Masks were required at school and there were a lot of parents that were upset about that. I was just happy that the kids were able to be in school at least part time. Masks were a minor inconvenience in my opinion. 

Before school started we rounded up supplies to make the kids some desks. Each of them would need a learning area if this was going to be their new classroom. Emmie and Elsie would use this long desk we made in our downstairs family room.

And we made Owen this little desk for his bedroom. Nothing fancy but it would work!

Here's a picture from when Owen and Ainlsey got to actually go to school. How sad is it that I don't have a picture of Emmie! That shows just how crazy of a year it was.

Ainsley started a job at Welch Music as well. She was hired to work about 10 hours a week, and with the low key covid schedule, it was completely doable. Owen and his friend Logan decided not to join the cross country team. I was a little relieved because I was still a little nervous about him running all of those hills with his knee. These boys had a plan to run and lift weights and get super buff. I'd say it went about as well as most workout plans do. They got in a lot of running at first, and Owen bought weights for strength training, but the workouts faded a bit over time.

During September there was extra time spent sleeping and being lazy. Learning while laying in bed. And basically following Leo's lead for the day...

We also got grapes! So many grapes. This is just a portion of what I picked that we would later turn into grape jelly.

Emme, Ashley, Lacey, and Elsie after a soccer game.

Heather and I worked with the 10-11 year olds for our primary activity group. The girls decided they wanted to play Quidditch. This is what they came up with. It was so fun. They were seriously the best group of girls!

 

This is the french bread recipe that began my family's love of BLT's. Add some mayo, cheese, and avacado to the BLT on this french bread and everyone in my family is happy. Which is RARE!

We also celebrated my dad's birthday. It's always hard trying to decide what to get for a person that has everything. So we gave him "62 memories of you" for his 62nd birthday. It was really fun to read everyone's memories of him. And I might be wrong, but I think he might have been a little choked up as he read some of our memories. I have the document saved...if I'm awesome I will copy the memories here one day.

August 2020

August started with a trip to Denver. After Owen got tested for COVID because he had a sore throat...but it was just allergies. Syd drove there with us and then flew home from there. We had a 12 week old puppy and a toddler in our van...so a good time was pretty much guaranteed. The highlight of the drive there was our stop in Rawlings, Wyoming. We managed to find the most run down, sad park to stop for a potty and play break followed by the most disgusting bathroom on this side of the Mississippi. Evan sits on the toilet backwards, and when he was trying to disrobe and hold on to the disgusting toilet drama ensued. There were tears from both Evan and Syd, and I literally made everyone wipe the bottom of their shoes with Clorox wipes before getting in the car. Flash forward 4 months and John got me a Rawlings, WY t-shirt for Christmas to commemorate the occasion. 

                        

Once we finally got to Denver we managed to have a good time. Kort was gracious and crammed us all into her house. We completely overtook it! Between my parents, Syd and her kids and my family we added 11 people to her house. I placed my bet that there would be a minimum of 3 crier's per day. And I was right. Some days we even had more! And even amidst all that we still had fun! We visited a train museum, Buffalo Bill's gravesite, got ice cream and wandered around down town, drew Disney animations with all the grandkids, and went kayaking and paddle boarding at the lake near Kort's house, and even dyed our eyebrows. Kortney's turned out so dark that I couldn't look at her without laughing. It was the perfect little get away for a few days and a fun way to end the summer.

August ended with us trying to squeeze in the last bit of summer fun. Summer was longer because school didn't start until September because of Covid. Schools wanted time to prepare so kids weren't back in class until September. Which was awesome, but it also meant that school wouldn't get out until June 11th. 

We offered kids trip to the coast...but they chose camping. In true Welch camping fashion the trip started out as a bit of a disaster. We had to postpone out trip due to flat tires, un-renewed registration, and the lights on trailer weren't working. Once we finally got on the road the trip was awesome! I found my new favorite camping spot. Northwest Passage in McCall. We drove up on Sunday afternoon with Michael's family and John. John left us that night because he had to work. We were right next to a river where the kids could play in the water and Kayak. We were less than 5 minutes away from the north beach area, and there were lots of wildlife. We saw a moose and deer in our campground right behind our tents. We even felt an aftershock from the earthquake. Michael and Rachelle stayed with us for 2 nights and then Brooke brought her kids up to spend the last night with us. We went into town and got my fathers place for dinner, had a windy storm that night, and then got up the next day and spent some time at the beach. It was great. I don't get to see Brooke as often as I used to, so I especially enjoyed the time with her.  

We also got to take a quick little trip to lagoon. I hadn't been there since college and my kids had never been so we bought tickets and hopped in the car. Elsie came with us, which gave Emmie the added courage she needed to go on all the big rides. We also got to see Mel and Quinn, Melanie was at the Dingers' dropping off Quinn at BYU. Ironically we also ran into the Flakes at lagoon. It was kind of nice to have some adults with me for part of the day! I think we went on every roller coaster. Once Emmie decided she was going to conquer her fear and go on Cannibal, she decided she loved it and went on it a couple more times. My favorite moment of the day was when Owen got drenched first thing in the morning riding a water ride all by himself. He looked miserable as he spun around all alone on the ride getting soaked. But those of us watching couldn't stop laughing. After we had had our fill of roller coasters and Lagoon fun we hopped in the car and drove home late that night.

We celebrated Owen's birthday when we got home from Denver. He chose to go to Roaring Springs with Logan and his sisters. Which I thought was awesome. And he wanted Doughnuts for a cake. Which was as easy for me as it was delicious!

The rest of August was spent playing with Leo. He got his first haircut. Owen spent lots of time running with his friend Logan. I was bummed that they decided not to sign up for cross countyr. Emmie's soccer season started. And stopped. And started again. And then stopped again. We bribed emmie with curtains (her choice not ours...I actually laughed when the thing she wanted most in the world was curtains!) if she could run a mile in under 8:30. She's not a great runnera and its starting to effect her during her soccer games. And since she wants to keep playing soccer, she has to work a little harder at running. Anyways, after months of trying, and she finally did it! And immediately ordered her beloved curtains.  

We also started reaping the benefits of our garden. Lots of zucchini and tomatoes, and lots of grapes from our neighbors vines that grow over our fence!