Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! In this picture I think we are watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Although we always start decorating around Thanksgiving time and play Christmas music right after Thanksgiving, I always feel like the First Presidency Christmas Devotional is the real start to the Christmas season. I always feel the spirit so strongly during it and it sets a good tone for thinking about Christ and His birth all the time for the rest of the month. 

This Christmas seemed a little different due to our quarantine. We all had to stay home with only seeing each other for the first couple of weeks of the month. So that meant we had to cram in some of our shopping and other preparations right before Christmas. But, it also meant we got to spend a lot of time together as a family doing different Christmas activities at home. And that was really nice. I think it felt a little more spiritual that way.

I really like how Agnes and Asher are all cuddled up here.

A couple days before Christmas Julia had her dance recital. For the past four months Julia has been doing dance lessons two nights a week (one night is ballet and the other night is jazz). She has really liked it and even pays for it all on her own. She was really excited for the recital, but also a little nervous. Due to COVID-19 concerns, they had to do the recital in their dance studio rather than on a real stage somewhere. They also had to wear masks while they performed (and practiced), but they could take them off for pictures. Here she is in her costumes.

The Abels came over and spent Christmas Eve with us. It was really nice having a few more actors for our nativity. Tianna also brought over a ton of costumes, which they kids preferred much more than the typical towel outfits that we have done in the past.

Here are the children on Christmas morning, really eager to give and receive presents! We let them come out of their rooms at 7am, but said we wouldn't open anything up until 7:30. I was up a little earlier than that, so we ended up watching The Christ Child until it was time. 

Later that morning we went over to the Abels' house for a Christmas brunch. It was really yummy and fun to spend some of Christmas day with family.

Then, the next day, we started on our trip down to Arizona. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Utah. I didn't get any pictures, but we got to visit with Tyler and Hyewon's family briefly and then spent time with Nathanael and Mary-Anne's family. Our children loved playing with cousins and Nathanael and Mary-Anne shared some really yummy food with us.

The drive down to Arizona on Monday went pretty smoothly. We left just after 5am and I think all of the children fell asleep in the car for the first hour or so. The kids ate a lot of their Christmas candy on the way and listened to some audio books, drew, and played computer games. We arrived there at about 4 - just in time for dinner and an evening at the swimming pool.

Here are pictures of one of the hikes that we did while we were there. The hike ended at some cool petroglyphs and rock formations. Rebecca and I loved seeing all of the cacti and the children loved climbing around on all of the rocks. After, Grandma and Grandpa Swift treated us to some delicious ice cream.

The next morning, my Dad, Jim, Rebecca, Julia, Ethan, Christian, Elliott, and I did a harder hike up Superstition Mountain. It was cold for much of it because it was cloudy out and we were in the shade of the mountain while the sun was rising. But it was still very pretty. And this hike was extra fun (and hard) because we had to do actual climbing up boulders and rocks for much of it. It was difficult, but we made it to the top and the view was beautiful. It was about 3 miles each way.

The top point of the hike is in the middle in this picture.

I guess during non-Winter times of the year, this next part of the trail is slick with water. The rock was all smooth in this area.

At the top. It was a little scary having our children up there by the edge because there was a straight drop off. But I think they were a little scared too and never got too close.

At the very end of the hike the sun finally came out. It felt good to warm up some.

We did so much more on our visit, but I forgot to take pictures. It was fun just hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Swift (and the Abels) and see where they live during the winters. We also got to visit my Grandma Rucker and Grandpa Swift who both live down there. We also went to the pools every day, played pickleball and bocce, played lots of games, and ate some yummy food. We hope we can go visit them again sometime soon.

Fall Activities

With everything COVID-19 going on, we were curious to see what school was going to be like for our children this year. What they decided to do was have the elementary school kids go every day, but they would have to wear masks and have the middle school kids alternate with two days in person and three days online. They also had to wear masks all of the time. It wasn't ideal, but our children were excited to get back to school and see their friends again. 

Here are all of their first day of school pictures. Asher wasn't starting school of course, but he wanted to get a picture too. Christian 5th grade, Elliott 3rd grade, Agnes 1st grade, Julia 8th grade, and Ethan 7th grade.

The first weekend after the start of school was a long weekend. The weather was supposed to be nice, so we decided to do one last hike for the season. Ethan, Christian, Elliott, Agnes, and I did this one. For it, we climbed Mount Bonneville, which is the highest peak in the county. It is only 2 miles each way, but the first mile averages about a 50% incline. There also is not a set trail, so we had to step over and through brush most of the way. It starts off at the ski slopes.

At the top - 9,271 feet tall.

In this next picture you can see all the brush that we had to walk through. For Agnes, she was having to step over bushes that we waist tall for much of the uphill and downhill part of the hike. She was pretty proud that she did the whole thing on her own and memorized that name of the mountain and the elevation to tell her teacher the next time she went to school.

Christian got braces this fall. He seems so young, but they wanted to start getting things in the right place as the rest of his teeth come in. Turns out that he will need to have braces on twice. This time for a year and a half, then off for some time, then on again. I can tell they hurt him sometimes, but he has been a trooper. And he is always really good about taking care of them.

Agnes and Asher helped Julia get all dressed up one day.

Ethan was really proud of the sticker design he made for art class. This is an early version of it. The class ended up voting for his as the best and the teacher made a bunch of actual stickers out of it for him.

I got a new bike this Fall. I had this road bike (the one in the picture) for about 5 years and it served me well. However, I was having trouble with one of the brakes on it and figured it was time for a new one. I ended up finding a really nice used bike online from someone in Idaho Falls and I like it a lot. I ended up getting in a pretty bad wreck with it just one week after I got it, but fortunately it only had some very minor damage. 

During the fall we tried to use our firepit at least once a week. We had some great weather for it.

Ethan did cross country again this year. The only COVID-19 changes that they did for that was require the kids to wear their masks when not running and only have boys or girls from one grade go at a time. Ethan did a great job and worked really hard throughout the season. Here are some pictures from his first and last races.

Here we are carving pumpkins with the Abel family right before Halloween.

Most of the city Halloween activities were canceled. But the mission put on some outdoor activities at the historic Pocatello site.

Right before trick-or-treating we had a Halloween dinner at the Abel house. Tianna made a ton of spooky fun food for us. It was a real treat. Trick-or-treating was great this year. Most of the houses in our neighborhood still participated. So it was nice to get out and see other people out and feel like it was a regular day instead of one completely restricted by COVID-19.

Agnes turned 7 in November. She picked to have a family party and a separate friend party. All of the friends she invited were able to come, we just had everyone wear masks. They still had a fun time though. Even though Agnes is 7 now, she has managed to keep all of her cuteness, which helps her get away with a lot around our house.

And Julia turned 14 in November. She had a family party and a friend party too. She is getting to be such a big young woman. We love seeing her grow. It is fun to now have more adult conversations with her and play adult games and things. She is very responsible and is excited to learn how to drive this year.

And then was Thanksgiving. Nathanael and Mary-Anne's family came up for the weekend. Our children loved playing with their cousins. We played a lot of games, did some football, went on a hike, played around the house, and of course ate a lot of food. We had planned on doing some things with the Abel family too, but unfortunately due to some people getting COVID-19, we had to stay apart. We only found out Thanksgiving morning and our families had split up the Thanksgiving dinner dishes. So it was a scramble to last minute put things together. It turned out well though and we had more than we could eat.

A few days later, I started feeling sick. Rebecca started to get a sore throat too and since we had contact with the Abel family, we decided it would be best for all of us to go in and get tested. Turned out that Julia and Elliott tested positive for COVID-19, but the rest of us were negative. It was so strange. We have no idea where they got it from or even when they had it (they said they could test positive up to 3 months after they have COVID). Neither one of them had any symptoms at all, but that meant that we all had to quarantine for a couple of weeks. I also don't know how they could have had it and the rest of us not picked it up from them. We are giving them hugs and kisses and sharing cups and stuff all of the time. Even though the quarantine period was tedious, I am glad that it was not serious for any of us.