March 2020 Happenings (pre shelter in place)

March started off like all of our months - filled with plans - two fieldtrips, a getaway, a few birthday parties, and lots of hustle and bustle on the calendar. Jon was still out of town at the beginning of the month. The boys and I made a date with Grandpa and filled a day with boy stuff. We rode around in the golf cart on the ranch, burned an accumulation of old documents, and tried out shooting pellet guns. Grandpa has been around guns his whole life, so that means I have been too. He's extremely careful and respectful of them. He taught the boys about the safety, how to put a gun down, pick it up, hold it and to never point it at anyone regardless if you think it is loaded or not. The boys did a pretty good job listening, took his advice seriously, and both impressed me with what good shots they were.

After spending a full week with Jon gone I was ready for a little girl time and headed to the coast with a couple friends to celebrate C's Birthday. We had a great time, drank lots of wine, made friends with a baby goat, and I got to enjoy a sunrise run all by myself with some beautiful scenery.

By the following week things had started to get weird. COVID19 aka Coronavirus had proven itself as dangerous to certain high risk populations and it was believed to be highly contagious and easily transmitted. Parts of the United States starting limiting gatherings, travel, and other large events. Most companies (including HMC) had ceased corporate travel and were suggesting employees abstain from personal travel. Large events like the annual poetry performance held at Fresno State (which Reed was supposed to perform at again) had also been cancelled. There were rumblings that there were more shutdowns coming. Much to our surprise Kieran's school allowed a school fieldtrip to the zoo on that Thursday. Since Reed's poetry contest had been cancelled I was able to join Kieran and his class. It was a little bit of a surreal day to read our Governor's announcement that all future fieldtrips should be cancelled and gatherings should be limited to 50 people or less while on a fieldtrip with an entire school of kindergartners.

On Friday HMC had its annual company golf tournament and as we have in the past a few of our co-workers/friends and their families came over for pizza afterwards. By this time hoarding at grocery stores had started, toilet paper and cleaning supplies were becoming few and far between, and as we all stood around talking one by one we got calls/emails/texts that the schools our kids attend and that our friends work for would be closing for several weeks. I look back at these pictures and can't believe this was the last time I saw a lot of these people in person and the same for our kids and their friends. It's also kind of funny to think of Jon being the last non-parent adult these kids might have interacted with and that we spent the time trying out a new muscle massager - definitely one of those if we had only known moments!

Sunday was C's Birthday and we had a family dinner to celebrate. As the weekend progressed more and more information was coming out. There are still a lot of unknowns about COVID19 but two months ago there were substantially more and decisions were made by government at all levels to avoid overwhelming hospitals with too many patients sick with the virus. Gatherings were suggested to be limited to 10 people or less and people over the age of 65 or other at risk populations were being advised to stay home. So we had dinner and dessert and tried to celebrate but we all knew Monday was going to look nothing close to normal.

January 2020 Happenings

The new year started out busy we made a trip to the coast and got to see some of my college friends (I failed to take any pictures) and we met up with Clint and his family. The boys had a great time hiking and playing together and Kieran still talks about the potatoes Clint made for dinner.

The following weekend Jon and I went to LA with our friend Natalie to see Jason Isbell in concert. We met up with Natalie's sister for dinner and were seated right next to Sting. We were 99% sure it was Sting and then when we were leaving the concert we saw a billboard advertising him performing in a play the next week. The concert was great but Jon woke up sick the next morning and so instead of having a nice leisurely morning we headed for home, I started feeling worse and worse as I drove and by the time we got home we were both feeling miserable.

The big news for the month was that we bought a new house. Most of the balance of the month was spent figuring out remodel plans so we didn't have a lot of time for much else. There was lots of hanging out at home, reading books, playing games, and watching Star Wars movies. Kieran and I also got to take Jeffrey to school a couple of days to help Erin out when Mikael was out of town. Those two boys are so cute together and would chat non-stop the whole time they were together.

Hawaiian Vacation Part III (the end)

We did manage to get away from the resort a few more times on our vacation. After the boys loved parasailing so much we decided they would probably like ziplining as well. We reserved four spots on a group zipline outing but were the only ones that had reserved that time so we got a private adventure with two guides. It was at an old military base and we found out a lot of history in addition to zipping over the base. The boys had a blast and guides couldn't believe how brave and well behaved they were (proud mom moment).

We tried two different times to go on a kayak/snorkeling trip but both were canceled due to ocean conditions. To say the boys were disappointed was an understatement. The first time we did some quick thinking and instead took a drive up part of the Road to Hana, went on a hike to see some cool waterfalls, and then ended the day at an old sugar mill that had an amazing restaurant, interesting farm tour, and a pond with ducks that the boys thought were really fun to feed.