Summer Week 1: Change of Plans

I feel like the last week or so can be summed up as "well this was the plan, but then the plan changed and we did this instead. And that turned out well."

Case in point, was our Memorial Day Weekend. 

I never had solid plans for Memorial Day Weekend in the pre-corona days.  School ended for the kids the Thursday before the weekend so I'd looked into campsites are Bruneau Dunes, but they'd all been taken by the time I looked (in early February) so I'd ended up booking a site for the following weekend. 

Before I had a chance to come up with other plans for the weekend Corona virus shut everything down and it seemed futile to plan anything. 

But as things started to open back up again I started to plan again. Idaho announced that visitors from out of state no longer needed to do a 14 day self quarenteen. So I invited Brandon's parents up for a visit on Saturday the 23. They said they'd come. 

At the same time, my sister in law, Shannon, invited us to her house on Memorial Day. We all decided it would be easier if we went to visit my inlaws for the weekend. We'd go down there on Saturday afternoon, spend Sunday with them, and then all of us would go to Shannon's on Monday.  

Veronica even drew a map of our plan and slipped it under my door one evening. 

That was the plan up until Saturday morning.  

On Saturday I was talking with my sister Hillary.  I hadn't planned on seeing Hillary that weekend since she has been taking Corona precautions very seriously. She is considered high risk for the disease since she is pregnant. Also her husband's aunt died of COVID-19 a few weeks ago and that's impacted them all. I had bought a gift for the baby and was asking her if she'd like us to drop it off on her door step or maybe meet up somewhere so we could give it to her.  

She told me that she'd actually like to see me if possible, and she said that she actually felt pretty good that day so she was interested in meeting up at my in laws for a little bit. This was a big deal. Not only was she thinking about going to another person's house - she actually felt good enough to do that.  Hillary has been having pre-term labor since she was 28 weeks pregnant and had spent the last week on bedrest. She'd even spent two nights in the hospital in the last week. She was only 34 weeks along, but she'd been told multiple times that she wouldn't make it to her due date at the end of June. Frankly I was surprised she was still pregnant. 

While we were talking I came up with a new plan.  What if Hillary and Joe came up to my in-laws, but then I went back home with them for Saturday and Sunday nights?  I could be there to help with Walter, clean up the house a bit, and maybe cook for them.  I'd wanted to help Hillary with her pregnancy for weeks, but thanks to travel restrictions and the fact that I had 4 kids home full time I hadn't been able to help yet. Hillary agreed to the plan right away.  

Brandon was grocery shopping so I called him up and told him the new plan.  He agreed it was a good idea too. 

When Brandon came back from the store we unloaded the groceries, had lunch, and then packed everything up and started driving to Utah. The DVD player in the car has had some sound issues so we didn't pack any DVD's. Instead we brought the book Harry Potter 6. I read to the kids for the three hour drive. It was so fun. We finished with the triumphant winning of the Quidditch Cup and Harry finally getting to kiss Ginny.  I joked, "and that's the end of the series and they all lived happily ever after."  

But the kids knew there was more. I told them, "It get's really scary and really sad after this. Are you sure your ready?"  They said yes, so we agreed to read more when we drove home on Monday night.

Hillary, Joe, and Walter arrived at my in-laws a few minutes after we did.  It was so fun to suddenly see so much family. We visited and my mother in law made taco salad for everyone.  Walter was so happy to see his cousins. He especially loves Veronica.  He calls her Ha-Ca. Hillary says that he always loves seeing Veronica on Marco Polo videos.

Hillary was contracting the whole time (which apparently is super normal for her this pregnancy) the contractions started to get more frequent and intense so it seemed like a good idea to get going.  I hurried to move my clothes from the suitcase to my backpack. Then I said goodbye to my kids and Brandon and left with Hillary and Joe.

When we got back to their house we had a debate about whether or not Hillary should go to the hospital that night. I am the worst person to talk to about when it's time to go to the hospital, having infamously misjudged the situation with Veronica's birth. So we called our sister Lindsey for her opinion. She is super good at looking at any situation and distilling it down to the most feasible option. She said it didn't sound like it was time to go to the hospital yet. And once she said it Hillary and I realized that she was right.

Walter went to bed really easily and Hillary, Joe and I stayed up and watched Jo Jo Rabbit. It was a good movie. Very funny, and very sad too. There is a climatic scene at the end where everyone was fighting for a world that didn't exist any more. I don't know what the original intent of this scene was, but I think it hits a little different after living through COVID-19. All day my facebook feed had been full of people highlighting attempts at graduation ceremonies. I kept thinking of all the parents attempting to fill school requirements from home. And trying to keep kids' grades up. I couldn't help think, "that a fight for a world that doesn't exist anymore." I know that war and school are two different things, but that's where my head was.

I slept in the guest room that night and honestly felt like I was on a vacation. So far I wasn't sure I'd really helped that much. But before I fell asleep Hillary texted me.  She said there was a possibility they might go into the hospital that night. I told her to keep my posted.

They didn't go in that night, but Hillary was still feeling pretty crummy that morning. Joe had to host a church meeting over zoom at 10:00 so they were waiting for that to be over and then they'd go to the hospital.  This would be visit #6. I was really hoping that all the pain Hillary was in meant her labor was progressing.  It would be so disappointing if she got sent home again without any answers.

I worried that Walter would be upset when they left. He was, for maybe 12 seconds, and then he went back to playing. He was such a chill kid. I've can count on my fingers how many times I've been alone with one baby for longer than a few hours. So part of me wasn't quite sure what to do with Walter.  Mostly he just played and I vacuumed the house. We did hang out downstairs and watch Toy Story 1 and 2 together.

My brother Billy called. He and his wife are eventually moving to New Zealand where he has a job with the Auckland Symphony. But in the meantime they are moving to Becca's parent's house in Texas. Becca, her mom, and the new baby were flying to Texas. Billy was driving from New York to Texas with all their stuff crammed into his car. He and I talked for over 90 minutes while he was driving.

Walter ended up putting himself to bed (seriously, he was so easy to watch) about 30 minutes before Hillary and Joe came back from the hospital.

Yes, Hillary had been sent home again. But this time they'd met with a really good doctor. The doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer for Hillary. Most of her pain hadn't been contractions. Once she had the medicine she said she felt like she could make it though the rest of her pregnancy.  The doctor also set up Hillary with appointments two times a week. This way she could know if she was dilating. They also decided to ask Joe's mom to watch Walter a few hours every day.  Joe was still working from home and keeping Walter entertained and quiet all day was getting harder and harder for Hillary.

When Hillary told me all these things I felt so relieved.  I'm glad she'd been able to get some actual help, and I'm glad I'd been there to watch Walter so she and Joe could take the time they needed to get the help.

We stayed up and watched Polka King on Netflix. It was very funny and was the silly show we all needed.

In the morning Hillary was basically a whole new person. It was good to see the change in her.

She gave me a haircut and styled my hair. Wow that felt good.

Brandon and the kids came to pick me up in the afternoon.  We drove out to Shannon's house in Tooele. She hosted a fun BBQ. It was good to see everyone. Her house is also super cute. The only picture I took though was of this little beach she'd made in a planter.

Around 8:00 we got back in the car and started driving back to Idaho. Normally I wouldn't be thrilled about driving back so late on a weekend, but this time I didn't care. The kids didn't have to get up for school the next morning and Brandon and I didn't have to leave for work super early.

As promised we read Harry Potter in the car. We read through the scary scenes in the cave. And then stopped for a bathroom break at a gas station in Tremonton. Lydia said it was kind of scary to walk though the dark parking lot after reading that chapter.

We read all the way until the big moment at the end of the Lightning Struck Tower chapter. The kids were so tired at that point so I'm not sure it had quite the emotional impact it would have had. Basically everyone fell asleep as soon as I finished that chapter.

We made it home and the kids all stumbled to their beds. It was *only* 11:30 so Brandon and I weren't that tired.  We've stayed up that late quite a bit the last few months.

Tuesday was the start of our Summer Vacation. But since we still it was still May I decided that this would be more of a practice week. We'd work out some of the kinks before creating a definitive summer plan.

The biggest thing we needed to get used to this week was that I was going back to work. I'd set things up with Derrick's Behavioral Therapy company so that they would have him for 2.5 hours each day Monday - Thursday. That would give me 10 hours to work each week. I'd drop him off at their office on my way to work and then his therapist would drop him off at my office when they were done.  In my mind this worked well.

And it worked well in reality.  This was one plan that didn't have to change.

And you may be wondering what Charlotte and Lydia and Veronica are doing while Derrick and I are gone.  Well they are in charge of babysitting themselves.  At first Brandon and I considered paying Charlotte and Lydia to watch Veronica.  We figured if it was more like a job they would be more inclined to include her in their games.  But then we realized we should probably pay Veronica not to bother Charlotte and Lydia. So in the end I decided to just pay all of them. They each get a dollar every day if there is no fighting.

We bought a Gabb Wireless phone so the kids have a reliable way to get a hold of me or Brandon. Brandon works a mile and a half away from home so he's close. And in a few weeks my office is moving to less than half a mile away from home.

Plus I'm working in the morning. They aren't even that awake when I leave the house. In fact, there were days that Charlotte wasn't even out of bed before I left.

So far this has worked well and the girls love having a reliable source of money.

And it's been great to be back to work for more hours and during the day. There is a lot of paperwork involved in moving office locations so it's good to have time to focus on that.

Most of our week was pretty laid back and so kind of a blur. We all relished the fact that we didn't have to worry about school any more.

On Monday the kids begged me to let them set up our pool. I told them it was not hot enough yet. They whined and cried and I still didn't give in. I told them it may seem hot, but as soon as they got wet they would be shivering and wanting to go back in the house. We have had this conversation at least once a week since March.

Instead I got out Harry Potter and we finished reading book six. We sat outside under the tree. I sat on the picnic blanket and the kids took turns laying in the hammock. Every 5 pages they switched who got to lay in the hammock.  And guess what?  Everyone said they were cold in the shade. We had to get the travel blankets and pillows out of the car.

Instead of getting the pool out we found the popsicle making kit. The kids had fun learning to make popsicles and punch.

One day Charlotte and Lydia made cookies while playing with their dolls. They pretended the dolls were visiting "The Giant Bakery."

The dolls helped mix and add all the ingredients.

Veronica has LOVED having a phone. I put Brandon's and my parents numbers into the contact list. Veronica called them all. We are working on learning when it's appropriate to call people (and how often to do it) but part of me is happy to know that she loves talking with her extended family.

Charlotte and Derrick's bikes got lost in the mail. Charlotte's finally showed up. She was pretty excited.

Charlotte also lost a tooth.

One thing I took care of this week was to start the process for Derrick to do private speech therapy. He was in speech therapy when he was 3, but we stopped it when pre-school and speech therapy was too much. I thought about putting him back in when he was 4, but we moved away from Alabama and then we were just always moving, or I was working, or he already had a lot of behavioral therapy so there didn't seem to be a good time to put him in speech therapy. He received speech therapy at school so I figured that was good enough. 

Well he hasn't had speech therapy at school since March and he's not doing any summer school this summer so I figured now is a perfect time to start speech therapy again. Derrick can talk and he has pretty good diction, but he doesn't have very good skills at the finer points of carrying on a conversation. That's where I want to focus. 

We had to get a referral from his doctor so on Thursday afternoon we went over to his doctors office and met with him briefly. The doctor put in the referral to the place I'd chosen. It felt good to get that taken care of. 

Thursday evening we went outside and did a lot of yard work. When we'd come back from Utah I was happy to see that my garden was thriving.  All the rain the week before had been excellent for it.

Everything seemed to have doubled in size.

Our rose bush in the back started blooming. I've always loved these big yellow rose bushes. And so I'm super excited to have one.

The hydrangea was also doing well, but starting to fade. Later Derrick went out and starting hitting the blooms to make all the little flowers fall on him. He said, "It's a party!"

All my strawberries have leaves now.

We mowed the lawn and Brandon started working on fixing a sprinkler pipe. For some reason it wasn't buried along with the other pipes. It cracked over the winter. We wouldn't be able to turn on any of our sprinklers until it was fixed. Fortunately, Brandon is an expert at sprinklers. He used to work on campus landscape when he was a student at ISU. I'd dug out most of the long portion of the trench earlier in the week and so Brandon just had to focus on the hardware. Here he is fixing the section by the gate from the side yard. This is a view of the yard I don't see that often.

The kids realized that there were all sorts of options for where to hang the hammock. So they put it higher in the tree.

I'd been lifting kids in and out of the hammock for several days. When the kids started fighting over whose turn it was next I told them it was my turn. So I climbed up there and hung out in the hammock for a while.

On Friday the original plan - made back in February - was to go camping at Bruneau Dunes. Even when coronavirus started shutting everything down I was still hopeful that things would be open in time for our May 29th camping trip.  Well we missed it by one day. The state campgrounds reopened as of May 30th. Our reservation was cancelled and the money was refunded.

But I still wanted to go camping. Most of the other campgrounds on my 2020 bucket list weren't available. City of Rocks was closed until the 30th as well, Craters of the Moon was closed until further notice, the South Hills still had quite a bit of snow. I was considering making reservations at one of the hot springs  - Nat Soo Pah looked promising - but I was really hoping to get further from Twin Falls.

I was looking through my phone and I saw that I'd marked off the last week in May as the time for the Camas Lily bloom in Fairfield. I'd heard about this on the Secrets Out Podcast and had written it on my calendar. From what I remembered it was when the Purple Camas Lily's bloomed. The town normally had a festival. I didn't think they were doing that this year. But we could still go see the lilies.

I looked up campsites in the area. There was a place called the Pioneer Campground that was free. I called the Fairfield Ranger district to see if I could make a reservation. They said no, but that there would probably be spots available. That sounded okay so the new plan became drive up to the mountains north of Fairfield.

The kids and I took care of getting everything packed while Brandon was at work on Friday. When he came home we were ready to go.  We got in the car and started driving to Fairfield.  I'd heard that Fairfield was in the Camas Valley, but I couldn't figure out why people said that because according to every map I'd seen it was obviously part of the Magic Valley.

Well as we drove to Fairfield I realized why it was in it's own valley. We went up some hills with really cool scenery.

And then dropped down into the valley. I didn't take any pictures until the next day, but here's what it looked like.

We drove through Fairfield and headed up until the canyon.

When we reached the Pioneer Campground we saw that it was full. But we found an unimproved site up the road a bit. As we unloaded the car I had a startling realization. I hadn't had ANY anxiety about going camping without reservations. I hadn't been worried about it at all. This is completely unprecedented in my life.

We set up our new tent for the first time. I loved our old tent, but it's been good to upgrade. 

Someone had already built a rock fire pit. Brandon went to work building a fire. 

Derrick LOVED being right by the stream. He threw tons of rocks in there. The rushing water was actually really loud so we basically had to shout at each other all weekend.

Here's our full campsite.

We had a hill to the north of us.

The hill had yellow flowers on it. Yellow flowers like this always make me laugh when I see them. In Yellowstone the Dunraven Pass had a lot of these flowers and EVERYONE stopped to take pictures of them. The flowers seriously caused traffic jams. But in Idaho it's like, "oh ho hum, yellow flowers."

We had hot dogs for dinner and then s'mores. Derrick and Veronica had a lot of fun adding little sticks to the fire. 

Here I am looking rather homeless, but also very happy. Brandon and I realized that this was our first family camping trip to the mountains with just our family since we stayed at Scout Mountain in 2017. It felt good to be back in the mountains.

More fire antics. 

We stayed up very late. Lydia and Veronica were the first to go to bed at maybe 9:30. Charlotte and Derrick made it to almost 11:00.   I was laying in the tent while Lydia and Veronica were falling asleep. I realized I was completely relaxed. Like completely. I didn't have a single thing pressing on my mind. It was a very odd, very rare feeling of complete contentment.

Brandon and I stayed up a little bit after the kids were in bed, but soon we went to the tent. I peeked at all the kids and took pictures of them sleeping in their "rooms" on either side of the tent. Derrick and Veronica share one room. (You can see Derrick loves his new mummy bag.)

And Charlotte and Lydia shared the other side.

Brandon and I slept in the middle on our new air mattress. We all slept really well. Everyone was warm enough. 

In the morning Derrick was the first one up. Brandon got up with him and they relit the fire and made breakfast. When I got up eventually Derrick wanted to go for a hike so I took him to the trail on the hill.

Here's looking down at our campsite.

Here's the view on the trail.

Derrick wanted to climb up the hill and I figured why not. So I let him scamper up the rocks. He made it much farther than I anticipated.

Here's the picture I took of him with the zoom on my camera.

You can just barely see the orange of his pants up near the top. (And actually this is a little more zoomed out than it looked in real life.)

I had my concerns about getting him back down. Part of me was worried he'd go over the ridge line and wander off. It didn't help that he was too far up to hear me very well. But I wasn't too worried. Derrick is always very careful and cautious (in unfamiliar situations.) I could see him working out his route methodically. I figured this was good for his problem solving skills. He kept looking back to check in with me. I gave him the thumbs up and he'd give it back to me. 

I realized that he wouldn't be able to get back down the way he went up. I motioned for him to move back along the ridge line.  He followed my directions and found the place where there were less rocks.  He made his way back down to me without any problems. He was so excited. We went back down to came and Derrick told Brandon all about his adventure climbing up the big hill.

Brandon had brought his tactical vest loaded with everything he needed for the trip. I'd bought this for him for either Christmas or his birthday, but I'd completely forgot about it.  Many things in the vest ended up being super useful. Brandon was able to use the matches to light the fire, the water filter to refill our water container, and the bug spray for the kids. I wanted a picture of Brandon with the vest. Lydia hopped in at the last minute. I joked that they looked like they were on two different camping trips.

Here's Lydia on her own.

And her I am with Charlotte and Lydia.

Veronica (she was happier than she looks in this picture.)

All three girls.

Brandon took this picture of the loud stream.

And this picture of Marcia. 

Lydia with the vest.

Lydia with the water.

Eventually we packed everything up and left. Charlotte remarked that it was finally quiet again. We drove down the mountain and into Fairfield Then we went west of Fairfield to the Centennial Marsh which according to Google was the best place to see the Camas Lily. 

I'd assumed that the purple flowers would be easy to see. But they were actually a little tricky. If you look closely you can see them in this picture. 

We made it to the marsh and had a picnic. I'd made the hoagie sandwiches the day before. 

Then we went for a walk along the marsh. There were pretty flowers. But what really interested the kids were the feathers they could find among the flowers.

The found so many feathers.

So many feathers.

Even though we weren't seeing a lot of flowers the scenery was really pretty.

And we did see a few of the Camas Lilies.

We left the marsh and started heading back to Twin Falls. We stopped at the Little City of Rock's BLM sight north of Gooding. This was another place I'd heard of on the Secrets Out Podcast.  I took this picture of the map of the area.  There are a lot of places I want to explore in this area. 

We were on the very Eastern edge.

We drove down a dirt road to a parking area.

Then we got out to do a little exploring. 

The rocks were so cool looking.

The kids were interested in climbing this man made wall.

They were NOT excited about hiking.

I told them we weren't going far. It was nearly 2:00 on a hot day at the end of May. This was not the time to be going on a long hike.

We just wanted to take a peek so we could know a little bit of what to expect next time we came here.

And trust me, there will be a next time.

It was definitely an interesting place.

We went back to the car and drove the rest of the way home. At home we unloaded the car and started laundry. Everyone took baths and Brandon made pizza for dinner. Then we took the pizza into the basement and ate that while watching the sixth Harry Potter Movie.

As Harry Potter movies go, this one was less of a mess. For the life of me I can't remember if I've ever seen this one. I remember the part when the Burrow catches on fire. (because I remember being mad about how that part wasn't in the book and made absolutely no sense) but I literally couldn't remember anything else.

The movie was 2 and a half hours long, but actually moved along at a quick pace. When it was over we went outside to enjoy the cool evening. (I think Movie Afternoon will replaced Movie Night for the summer.)

My yellow rosebush was in full full bloom.

We spent a long time outside. I watered the garden and all the trees really well. Brandon kept working on the sprinkler. 

Eventually Derrick decided it was bed time.  While I helped him get ready for bed he recited the entire diolog and sound effects of the Pixar Short "Doug's Special Mission."  He's done this before for other shorts. My personal favorite is when he recites "Jack Jack Attack." I wasn't thinking much of it When he got in bed he said, "Let's do it again." And then recited the whole thing again. He repeated everything exactly the same as before. This was when I started to wonder when he'd last seen "Doug's Special Mission." I didn't think the kids had watched Up in months.

Derrick finished and then said, "Let's do it again."  And I said, "Wait, I need to film this."  So I pulled out my phone and recorded him reciting everything for a third time. I took the video in part to show his new speech therapists office when I meet with them for an assessment, but I also took it because it's a cool talent.  I'm still hoping to get a video of him doing Jack Jack Attack.

I came upstairs and found this little city scape that Lydia had made in a box. My kids are pretty awesome. 

It was dark by this point, but Brandon wasn't quite done with the pipe. He'd set up lights and was working on the last little bit. Lydia was out there helping him.

It was so cute to see them working together.

Back inside I found Veronica making her own little diorama.

It was something like 10:00 at this point. It was definitely bedtime for everyone. But what a wonderful day it had been. 

This morning we all slept in and then had a nice lazy day. I found out that Washington State has opened up reservations for their state parks. We have a trip planned to Washington for the end of June. It was supposed to be in conjunction with Brandon's family. We were going to stay with them at an AirBNB on the Pacific Coast for a few days and then head out on our own adventure to Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands.  

Well the AirBNB part of the trip was cancelled, but my reservations for hotels and for campsites in the National Park and at the County Park on San Juan Island weren't cancelled.  With a little bit of adjustments we could still do our trip. But I needed campsites for three more nights. I'd been waiting and hoping to hear that the State Parks would be open soon.  So as soon as I saw that reservations were open I hoped on my laptop and started figuring out the rest of the trip. I made got reservations for the three nights I needed. 

Derrick and I spent the rest of the morning talking about the trip and drawing out the schedule of what we'll do. This whole trip started with his obsession with Killer Whales. So he is very excited to go on the trip.  Everyone else is too. 

Veronica even drew another map about our trip upcoming trip.  Yep we are all excited.  

 Charlotte and Lydia spent the whole day playing Barbies. It was the babies birthdays so the dads bought them fish as a present.

 We had dinner out on the patio. It's so fun that we can do that. 

I spent quite a bit of time outside today. At one point I was looking at the tree and thinking. "That's MY tree. I OWN a tree."  A year ago Brandon had just started working in Twin Falls. Buying a house here was our biggest goal, but it felt so daunting. And yet here I am, a year later, the proud owner of a house that has a yard and that yard has a tree in it. 

I certainly didn't expect that Brandon would have four jobs in a little less than a year. Nor did I expect the school year to take a bizarre right turn into Homeschool. But we ended up a pretty good place anyway. 

It all works out. Sometimes it takes a while, but it all works out.