When we first moved in to our house nearly 15 years ago, we had over 200 trees on our 1.98-acre property. In case you weren't aware, that's a lot of trees. We've had to cut down several over the years (some were sick, some were in the way, some were dead), but the ones we cut down on Friday, April 17 were by far the trickiest trees we've removed.
We needed to get the trees out of the way since we are scheduled to break ground on our home addition/remodel later in May, and they stood in the way of our new great room. Because they were so tall and so close to the house, we rented a boom and called in the reinforcements (Dennis, Neal and Tyson) to help Seth with the cutting.
After our three trees were down, we moved the boom to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house to take down a few of their dead poplars. And the next day, Seth returned the boom and we put the girls to work loading limbs and hauling logs.
The boom set up in the back yard with Seth in the bucket.
Tyson tying off the top part of the tree so after Seth cut it, it would swing down harmlessly from the remaining trunk instead of falling all the way to the ground (or possibly into the house).
Seth the manly man with the sawdust-a-flyin'.
Tyson and Seth were quite the team.
Winnie helping to haul logs the next day.
The pile of logs we stacked on the road and advertised as free. It was all gone within 24 hours. All the branches we piled onto the trailer in three loads and took to the Hatch Pit.
Here's a glimpse into our lives as we've stayed home from school, work and church. There are lots of computers involved.
Enjoying lunch on the trampoline pre-spring break.
Going for a walk (and seeing lots of dead fish) at Snake River Landing.
Going on a bike ride in the neighborhood and stopping to pet the animals.
Miriam's first time seeing her teacher and classmates post-stay-at-home order.
Grandma and Grandpa Scott giving air hugs after dropping off Miriam's birthday present (the first three Michael Vey books).
Bekah hunting for Easter eggs by the shop. Usually we have an egg hunt at Grandma's, but quarantine prevented that.
Miriam looking in the mailbox by the playhouse.
Winnie traipsing among the pavers we pulled up to find Easter eggs.
Ana after successfully finding one.
Seth helping the girls to find their last eggs. They each had a designated color of egg to find. Seth hid them so well that we really had to search to find the last ones.
Listening to a ward devotional via Zoom on Easter.
Ana doing Wii Fit for P.E. The students have to log so many minutes of physical activity every week. Ana has walked on the treadmill, gone on bike rides, gone on walks and used Wii Fit for her activity.
Winnie doing math with her class via Google Meet.
Ana meeting with her class via Google Meet. You can wear pajama pants all day when you have virtual school.
Bekah's Google Meet in her room.
Digital piano lessons. We prop the laptop up on a music stand so their teachers can see them and the piano keys. We have to send photos of their piano music so they can follow along from home.
Dance class via Zoom. Again, the laptop gets propped up on a music stand.
Date night. Instead of going out to movies or thrift store shopping, we've been getting takeout and watching movies in the shop, going to the park or going on drives.
Winnie and Miriam playing Prodigy (an online math game) on neighboring laptops.
Bekah dressed up as Dr. Ellie Sattler from Jurassic Park for her online band class. The teacher assigned fun theme days for online class, and this day was "dress up as your favorite character from a book or movie." Bekah loves Michael Crichton books, so she chose one of his recognizable characters to dress up as.
Bekah's view of her laptop showing how she positioned the dinosaurs to be in the foreground.
Bekah and I playing "Be Thou My Vision," an Irish hymn I fell in love with earlier this year. I found the music and begged Rebekah to play a duet with me for a musical number in sacrament meeting. We were scheduled to play it in April, but with church services being held in homes due to COVID, we weren't able to perform the number in sacrament meeting. When our ward scheduled an online devotional and needed a musical number, it was easy for us to record it and have it played on Zoom.
Ana sewing a quilt for her Young Women leader's new baby while Rebekah shares hamster memes with her.
The tie Ana bedazzled for her dance recital which has been pushed back from May 12 to June 23.
Winnie and Miriam tracing suns onto freezer paper for a T-shirt to be used as a costume in their dance recital.
Winnie listening to her teacher read a book on Google Meet while wearing the sun shirt.
Ana with her finished baby quilt. She dropped it off on her leader's door step.
Seth's work-from-home setup in the mezzanine of the shop. I believe it involves three monitors, one desktop computer, two laptops and a space heater.
Back before quarantine, Ana was hired to make a wedding cake for a neighbor's daughter getting married on April 21. I was hired to take the photos of them after their temple sealing and at their reception. But when April 21 came, temples were closed and receptions were a big no-no. The couple still got married, but at a park with only their immediate family members, the bishop and the photographer there. And instead of a big public reception, they had a dinner together with just those immediate family members.
I got to take their pictures at the park, and Ana was offered the opportunity to make a scaled-down version of their wedding cake for the family to have at their dinner. She didn't have anywhere else to go or much to do otherwise, so she spent the day before the wedding constructing this beauty.
Filling the piping bag with buttercream.
Layering the cake.
The vanilla cake with raspberry filling pre-crumb coat.
Crumb coating.
Post-ganache and fondant. Now artistically making it into a slice of an aspen or birch tree.
As soon as school-from-home started up on April, I declared Fridays "field trip Fridays." We haven't gone nuts, but we have taken time every week to get out of the house and spend some time together doing something out of the ordinary.
Week 1: Cemetery scavenger hunt
I had never been to the Grant Cemetery before, but a friend of mine had said that it was beautiful. So I put together a little generic cemetery scavenger hunt, we split up into teams (Rebekah and Ana, Miri, Winnie and me), and we explored the cemetery.
Winnie hugging the dog statue at the cemetery.
One of the 10 crosses we were tasked with finding.
Week 2: Kite flying
Seth had this Friday off, so we all headed over to the church field and successfully flew several kites. Peach also successfully said hello to anyone else who showed up in the field.
Ana steering her kite with her toes.
Seth flying the kite he deemed "Charlie Brown."
Miriam chilling with Peach.
Week 3: Sweet sips and a drive
We actually had this field trip on a Thursday since we spent all day Friday taking out three trees in our yard (more on that to come). I took the girls to Soda Tsunami to pick out flavored pops, and we drove around the foothills looking at all the ritzy houses. ("Will our house be as big as this one when the remodel is done?" "Nope. Not even close.")
Week 4: North Menan Butte
The last time we hiked this, I was carrying a baby in a pouch. The girls didn't remember it at all, so we managed to find a spot in the parking lot and followed the trail to the top and along the rim.
Winnie Miri, Ana, Bekah and Peach at a cave on the top. Miriam got a little worried about the height and steepness of the trail toward the end, but all she needed was to hold her mama's hand and get a little encouragement.
Group selfie from the top to send to Seth.
Climbing back up along the rim after checking out the wind bowl.
Winnie the mountain goat.
Another cool cave on the way back down.
Week 5: Snake River
We live about a mile from a public access point on the Snake River, so while Rebekah went on one of her drives for driver's education (which finally was allowed on May 1!), I took the younger three and the dog down to the banks to check it out.
The girls found a crawdad claw, and Winnie needed a picture taken with it.
