May 2022

Well, our family spent the entire first week of May at home with Covid. There was a wide range of energy levels. I lived on the couch and napped a lot. Hazel reorganized the pantry.  By the middle of the week, we realized that Todd was not asymptomatic like we had assumed, but rather lagging behind the rest of us by a few days. He got a fever and fatigue, but had the mental Jedi power to never give in to the cough. Amazing. Anyway, since everything was cancelled and we still couldn't go to church, either, we headed back up to the cabin for the weekend again. This time, I did a lot of organizing and Todd did a lot of resting. We also drove up the highway to Lake Alpine to check it out: lovely. Mother's Day was incredibly low-key. 

Everyone was excited when our quarantine lifted and life could resume its normal pace. Jack has been enjoying his tennis class. I am terrible at taking decent pictures. I should have stuck my camera up into the fence, but I am lazy and stayed on my bench. 

Gemma has been doing USYVL volleyball on Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings. Todd is her coach. She says it's her favorite sport, and she's got a solid serve. She works a lot on setting with Hazel, who also joins when her busy schedule allows. 

There was more snuggling and earlier bedtimes than usual. Gemma still is getting stomachaches and has a persistent cough, more than a month later. 

Jack started playing piano once a month for our Primary. He rocks. Our chorister said he was just as good as any adult she has ever worked with. 

I chaperoned Jack's class on a field trip to Del Valle. We explored the Visitor's Center, hiked, and studied some of the animals common to the area: bald eagles, mountain lions, and gopher snakes. Jack's favorite part of the trip was touching a live snake. He has always had an affinity for reptiles. 

Gemma has started helping more in the kitchen. She wants to learn how to do everything and use all the tools. She even willingly chopped onion for the opportunity to try to roll the knife back and forth across the cutting board. 

We had three of Hazel's guy friends from school and volleyball over on a Saturday, Armaan, Kieran, and Dinari. They played volleyball in the backyard, we ordered pizza, and we took them with us to pick cherries in Brentwood. They were a delight to have, but were loud, busy, and energetic, and I never took a breath to snap a picture, except this one of Gemma trying to lure a ground squirrel out of his hole to nibble on a cherry. 

Jack is still going strong with his geography cooking boxes. This month, he has made us several Ethiopian meals; they are some of the most unfamiliar meals we've tried so far. Everything has been family friendly and some have been really delicious. 

I went with Gemma's class on a walking tour of Livermore history. It was a hot day, which was too bad, because our tour guide was informative and darling with the kids. We learned about the old train station, the original library buildings, the post office, some wineries, and more. 

The next day, I went on a tour of the middle school with Jack's class. He is so excited to move on and up. 

Hazel's orchestra class had their spring concert. They sounded pretty good! 

Hazel joined the track team halfway through their season, the week after volleyball ended. She hasn't enjoyed it as much as volleyball, although she does like hanging out with her friends who are on the team. She ran the mile in the championship meet and got second place. She is thinking of joining cross country in the fall and thinks she will like running long distances off the track better. 

I came out early one morning to this darling sight: Jack and Hazel are working on a duet to play in church. They were all cuddled up together in the chilly house and collaborating together with whispers and giggles. 

We took our friends the George's up to the cabin with us for Memorial Day weekend. Todd's truck and Katie's van were both packed to the max. We brought up the kayaks, three trifold mattresses for extra beds, lots of food to stock the pantry, blankets galore, ladders and wood so Todd and Ryan could build a loft within the loft (which we have now dubbed The Fifth Floor). 

The kids just had a massive blast, hanging out in the hammocks, shooting the BB gun, playing board games and Mafia. We adults relaxed and worked some and played a few games, but not nearly enough! 

Katie and I took the kids on a hike around Bear Lake on Saturday. It was so beautiful, but just a little muddy because it had been raining that morning. It was fun to see all the houses that have lots right along the water, to smell the pine trees and listen to the quaking aspen. 

We discovered this stunning beauty, as well: a snow plant! Jack was especially excited to see it, because he had already seen it in a flower identification book my Grandma Holley gave him and fallen in love with it, without ever seeing one in real life. 

Todd and Ryan got this extra loft built on Saturday, just barely cleaning up as the sun went down, in time for all the kids to spread out the tri-folds and hang up the hammocks since they all wanted to sleep together. It took a good hour and a little Melatonin to get all the kiddos settled down that first night. 

Hazel braided everyone's hair. Jack and Lucas were good sports about wearing their dreadlocks all day Sunday and competing for poofiest hair on Monday (Lucas won!). 

I taught a lesson on Joshua and keys to help us be courageous as we travel through life to our own promised land. (Sounds pretty clever, I know, but it all came straight from a talk by Ann M. Dibbs.) 

Sunday afternoon was sunny enough that, even though it was only about 60 degrees, the kids wanted to take the kayaks on the lake. Katie and I both thought they'd come back in freezing within fifteen minutes, but we were dead wrong: the kids played hard for two hours! 

Gemma and Paige did try swimming and learned the hard way that it was still too cold for that, but they dried off, warmed up in the sand, and didn't let that stop them from having a great adventure. 

The older three (Hazel, Lucas, and Jack) spent the tail end sunning on the dock and apparently baring their souls to each other. I heard Hazel and Lucas reminding each other later, "What we talked about on the dock, stays on the dock." Hazel admitted they talked about some good stuff, but I didn't pry. 

Monday we packed all the kids in the back of the truck and crossed to the other side of the highway to explore the rock climbing area. Everyone but me bouldered (I tried, but it stressed me out way too much.) I did catch this sweet view before heading back down, though. 

We had a happy, relaxing long weekend. Everyone was sad for it to end. The good news is we can do it again! We are seriously LOVING owning a cabin of our own.