Family Week 2021

Each year we get a week off from school for Family Week. Monday is a provincial holiday - Family Day and then Thursday and  Friday is teachers convention so we get the whole week off. In normal life, we would have a Southern Circuit Rodeo on Family Day, but not during pandemic shutdowns of no gatherings. Some years we are happy for the break, but since December 1, we had 3 weeks of online school, 2 weeks of Christmas break, 1 more week of online school, Lucy had 1.5 weeks off for testing week, and Carly had to stay home in quarantine for 1.5 weeks because a student in one of her classes tested positive for covid.

So Carly made a list of ideas of things we could do this week and one of the ideas was - Not do Nothing.

Luckily, Austin pulled through and made a fun week and it had warmed up 30 degrees from our deep freeze.

Monday they got to rope at Academy and then we took Grandpa and Grandma to Waterton and had a hot dog roast. (Monday morning I hurt my back doing nothing and was in a lot of pain).

Lucy had basketball practice on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. 

Wednesday and Thursday Austin took Lucy and Carly snowmobiling in Mountain View thanks to the generosity of Troy and Stacey Jacobs. The second day Jason, Piper & Max Janisko snowmobiled with them to the top of Pole Haven. They were a little nervous and timid at first, but Austin said they got brave and cruised right along.

On Friday, we went to Calgary and Austin gave Lucy and Carly each $200 to spend at Irvine Cowboy Store. We went out to lunch at Montana's Steakhouse and stopped at CrossIron Mills Mall and then headed home. It was actually a fun day, and we bought some things we needed.

On Saturday they went roping again and then they both went to friend parties on Saturday night.

We love our family!

 

February in Alberta

We have had a mild winter for the last few weeks, and then we had a week or more of a deep freeze. Carly had to stay home for 2 weeks because she had a student in one of her classes test positive for covid. The day she finished her quarantine, we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate even though it was -26 Celsius.

Brandon John left on his mission this week to Las Vegas West Mission after he finished his at-home MTC.

We went to a drive-by wedding reception for Harli Wilde (a girl Jill's age). It was -25 and no gatherings are allowed, but they did the best they could and had a drive by reception and a super cool fireworks show in the Thompson's field. It was impressive to make the best of this situation. Luckily the temple opened back up to phase 2 so Harli could receive her endowment and they could be sealed - at least it was warm in the temple.

Valentine's Day

 

Sweet 16 - Lucy's Birthday

What do you do to celebrate a 16th Birthday on a Sunday during a pandemic?

We started her birthday celebration on Friday and invited her friends to meet us near Waterton on Chief Mountain Highway to take some friend pictures. I asked Taneal Olsen to do Lucy's hair. We totally lucked out on weather in January - sunny, 3 C / 37 F with no wind. It was actually -6C in Cardston when we left home, but it was warmer in Waterton. It was still chilly, but as good as it can get in January.

Her friends looked so cute as they met us up there. Dana Schaffer, Kamree's mom, was our photographer. Friends that came: Taylor Heninger, Kamree Schaffer, Brooke Hardy, Skylie Holland, Allie Leishman, Hallie Pilling, Alyssa Bevans, Raygan Norton

On Saturday Lucy had a few friends over to hang out by our fire. The current pandemic restrictions are that you can have gatherings outside with only 10 people. Another weather blessing for a short time by the fire - it could have been so much colder or snowier.

On Sunday, we had sticky buns, bacon and chocolate milk for birthday breakfast. 

Then we got to watch Hanna give a talk in her Spanish ward. She did such a good job. This is definitely one of the blessings of the pandemic is that everything is on broadcast on zoom so we can watch things like this.

We grilled steak and had twice baked potatoes and skor cake for Lucy's birthday dinner with Grandpa & Grandma.

Hanna gets to call on birthdays, so waited until Hanna could call to open presents. 

Lucy's theme of birthday gifts was shirts - from me, Jill and Grandma Carol. We also gave her a backpack.

Happy birthday to Lucy - on to driving and dating!!!

 

January 2021

January events:

- Grandpa and Grandma Nunn celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Gatherings of any kind are prohibited because of the pandemic, so we had a drive by celebration. We were under a wind warning that day (of course Alberta had wind), so we had them sit on a porch at Mel and Kim Weston's house and people drove by to say hi. When we told Grandma the idea she said she was digesting the idea and then she pretty much said no, we are okay, we don't need that. Grandpa was for it, and we decided to do it anyway. 17 cars came with their friends - they felt loved. It was the perfect amount.

- New puppy Stella (from Heather Schmitke with the goal of training her as a cowdog)

-Lucy came upstairs ready for church in her new dress she had gotten for Christmas and she said, "Who am I?" Definitely Hanna's look alike.

-Restaurants aren't allowed to have people come in to eat, but they can do pick up, so we ordered dinner and drove to Twin Butte to a cute little restaurant and ordered Mexican food and drove to a look out and parked next to Grandma and Grandpa and rolled down our windows and ate dinner together. 

New car (new to us, Bonnie the blue Ford Escape. We sold Hanna's black pontiac grand prix and bought the escape instead. We will drive it until she gets back)

 

New Year's Eve 2020

For our New Year's Eve celebration, we went on a moonlight hike to Cameron Lake in Waterton. We are still under pandemic lockdown so any gatherings are prohibited. So we just hiked at the same time as the Hardys (Kendall, Jewel, Ava, Mia, Brooke & Dane) and Erica Burt. No gathering. 

It was such a nice night, although we went early in the evening and so the moon didn't actually make it up over the mountain until we were finished, so on the way up to the lake we just used flashlights. On the way back we just used night vision and could see pretty good.

We had hot chocolate to celebrate the end of the year.

It was so fun to talk to people, and it really was a nice night. We stayed plenty warm since we were bundled up and hiking.

Lucy wished she was at a New Year's Eve Youth Dance, but since there are no activities these days, it was a good substitute activity.

 Let's hope 2021 is an improvement over 2020!