COVID-19 Quarantine: Days 101-105

Day 101: 6-22-20 (Monday)

My pink peonies are in bloom!

Today we are back home and it feels good! On our walk Tyler and I were talking about how nice it is to come home and be happy about it! We enjoy our vacation time and we enjoy our every day time despite being in quarantine! It felt good to putter around in the yard and to catch up on things that we needed to do.

Kirk and I had an appointment with our attorney today. Kirk participated via conference call. It feels good to make some progress; at least on our end. Two of my sisters remain uncooperative. Time to turn over communication to our attorney. He can deal with them. This will definitely lessen the day-to-day stress that Kirk and I experience. Jordin seems to be in alignment with Kirk and I now and that is making things slightly easier. I hope it lasts.

Tyler made us dinner tonight. We walked late. The night was beautiful and warm. Beverly continued to enjoy being dressed like a baby. She is hilarious. Yes, it definitely felt good to be home.

Day 102: 6-23-20 (Tuesday)

We called Kameron's mission office in Minnesota today with a few questions. He needs a passport and our passport office is closed indefinitely. He also needed a print out of his driving record but luckily he was able to get that online. Whew. His bike still isn't ready and may not be ready in time for his mission. The bike shop in Minnesota said that "Bikes are the new toilet paper!" Okay... Apparently with the influx of missionaries reassigned stateside there is now a bike shortage. The mission office assured us that there are a bunch of bikes that have been donated by missionaries heading home that he can use until his bike is available. They also told us that with the borders closed he may not need a passport to head into Canada anytime soon either. He was also told to bring all of his temple clothes and garments and he will go through the temple in MN when it opens. We also got his official departure date...July 22nd. Home MTC will be *interesting* but after the phone call with the mission office Kameron was pretty excited for his mission!! He still needs to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood which should happen this weekend and then he will be set apart as a missionary on July 1st.

Our family member who has had COVID-19 for a few weeks is now NEGATIVE! We are so happy! She was nearly hospitalized a few times and has been so sick so this was FANTASTIC news!

Today was almost 90 degrees! Summer is here! The girls expanded their fairy garden. It is so cute! I need to try to get a better picture!

Day 103: 6-24-20 (Wednesday)

What did we do today? Good question? Not much. Tyler worked and the rest of us were pretty unmotivated. We prepped for Ailey's birthday and my counselors and I started planning an upcoming quarantine Primary Activity. Easier said than done.

Day 104: 6-25-20 (Thursday)

Today is Ailey's SWEET SIXTEEN!!

Sweet sixteen and in quarantine!! It could have been rather depressing but it wasn't!! We had an absolutely incredible day!! Ailey woke up to balloons, as is our family tradition, and she had picked ice cream sandwiches as her birthday breakfast. She ate an entire box. Oh to have the metabolism of a 16 year old!!

Ailey wanted to go boating for her birthday so we headed to Lake Coeur D' Alene and had an extraordinary day!!

Gorgeous!!

We had a new tube that we were excited to try out!

Even I got in and had a few wild rides and was the only one flipped out by my husband! LOL. That was when Kam, Bryn, and I were in the tube together and those two are straight up CRAZY!

We spent the entire day on the water and loved every single minute. We found a fun cove to eat our picnic in and used it as our swimming area. It was perfection.

This kid is a great boat driver! We hate to see him leave for the next two years!!

Tyler had to literally drag us out of the lake that night. We didn't want to leave! But we had some other special surprises for Ailey going on at home. He eventually lured us out of the lake at around 7pm with promises of DQ for dinner. It worked!

When we got home some little birthday elves had been there:

Reilly and Hunter had come over and decorated with more balloons and a birthday banner. They left Ailey all kinds of surprises. Then while we were keeping her busy with this surprise even more birthday elves arrived!

Hannah, Savannah, Ailey, and Maren

Ailey's best friends came over and secretly heart-attacked our entire house with tons of hearts! They had made arrangements with me to surprise Ailey which is not easy to do! We just had to keep her occupied. Easier said than done but we did it! It was so fun for her to be with her friends again. She hasn't been able to hang out with them since quarantine started.

Both the house and the garage were polka dotted with all of these cute hearts!!

They had some funny gifts for her!

Ailey ended up having an awesome birthday despite being in quarantine. Maybe she still can't date or drive or really be social but she felt loved and celebrated today so that is something! We love this cute girl of ours!!

Day 105: 6-26-20 (Friday)

Abbey brought me over these amazing macarons that she MADE!! This girl is one of the most talented people that I know. She has a full ride scholarship to a prestigious university to study biology. She wants to be an anesthesiologist. She is an amazing musician. She is an incredible baker. (French pastries are her specialty.) She even replaced the flooring in her bedroom!! There is nothing she can't do! Her macarons are BETTER than any I have had in a bakery. She is incredible. I am going to miss her when Kam starts his mission. She is an absolute delight and we love her!

Kam met with the stake tonight for his Melchizedek Priesthood interview. It went well. I have been a little stressed with him getting everything done in time but things have worked out. Tyler and I went walking and then had a little date night. Nothing too exciting. We got takeout...Osaka bowls... and then drove around to look at some rural boat storage places for winterizing the boat. We did stumble upon an awesome wedding venue that could be a great place for Reilly and Hunter.

Face coverings are now mandatory in the State of Washington.

COVID-19 Quarantine: Day 96-100

Day 96: 6-17-20 (Wednesday)

We woke up to awesome weather!! I spent some time this morning out on the dock, looking at the water, and journaling. I love my little morning routine. Super peaceful and relaxing. We had a visit from our favorite feathered friend... Harold the Heron.

Once the sun hit the dock it was a great day for boating and wakeboarding.

Both girls are great little wakeboarders! Bryn has gotten so good! She just popped right up and took a long run her very first time! They are super excited for a summer of wakeboarding. We are too!

I love that big grin!!

We had a fantastic day on the water!!

In between wakeboarding and swimming Ailey had some school work to finish up. School doesn't seem so bad when you can do it on the dock. LOL. That night we ordered pizza and watched movies. I was able to catch up with my good friend Rebecca who lives in Wisconsin now. While everyone was occupied we were able to have a great visit! I love this picture that she had of me and my mom. 

I wrote this on Instagram about this picture:

 This is how my mom will forever look in my memory! Happy and tan... her love of suntan oil never diminished while I slathered myself in the highest SPF sunscreen possible! I used to give her so much crap about her suntan oil. I found two bottles in the boat! I can’t bring myself to throw them away. I can hear her laughing!

Day 97: 6-18-20 (Thursday)

This morning Tyler and I ran Bryn into Spokane. She had her appointment time at the elementary school to drop off her books and supplies and to pick up all of the things that were left in her desk and classroom. Bryn got to see her teachers. She was so happy to see our beloved Mrs. Antonio. It's the end of an era with Mrs. Antonio and the last of the Johnsons. Mrs. Antonio is the one in the hat. She has been battling breast cancer this year. She is now cancer free! She was excited to show Bryn that her hair is growing back. The other teacher is their substitute that co-taught with Mrs. A this year. It was nice for Bryn to be able to see both of them. It was also the girls official last day of school.

After a quick stop at home so that I could water my plants we headed right back to the lake! The weather was beautiful. Hot and sunny!

The girls doing their schools-out-for-summer jumps!

See ya fifth and 10th grade! It's been weird.

Ailey is looking so grown up these days.

It's hard to believe that she is now half way through high school. Gulp.

Kam and Abbey were awfully cute!

You couldn't drag us out of the lake! It was so nice. We ended up eating dinner at 9pm. The water was perfection. We played all day!

Finally Tyler made us a bonfire and we had tin foil dinners and s'mores. The kids loved it! We needed a break from the usual hot dogs and veggie dogs. Tyler and I have truly perfected our tin foil dinners!

The kids hanging out on the dock waiting for their dinners to cook. It's hard to believe it's almost 9 pm in this picture. I love how long it is staying light now! Summer is my favorite!





The night was stunningly beautiful. We sat around the bonfire and talked and laughed for hours. Man, it felt good. We also made a new s'more recipe...well really Albertsons did. LOL. I always buy graham crackers from Costco so we already had a bunch in our food storage and we were just down to one box so before heading out to the lake I ran into Albertsons to grab another couple of boxes. They only had three on the shelf but I grabbed a box and some marshmallows and headed to the check out. The checkout girl was shocked and asked where I had gotten the graham crackers and I said.."Uh..on the shelf" and then she asked me if there were any left and I said that there was another couple of boxes and then she had the bagger girl run and grab them for her. Apparently there has been a graham cracker shortage and Albertsons hasn't had graham crackers since March. Who knew?! She pointed to the front of the store and the prepacked s'mores kits that they put together every year in the summer that have graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey bars. This year instead of graham crackers they had Nilla Wafers in the kits. Sounded weird but since I also had some Nilla Wafers we decided to try the "Albertsons S'mores". We didn't have Hershey bars...my family prefers Nutella...so we used that. Umm...DELICIOUS! Nilla Wafers, S'mores, and Nutella is a delightful combination.

We stayed out super late tonight...even after we were done with the bonfire we went and sat on the dock and looked up at the Milky Way. The stars are so gorgeous at the lake. It was such a great day!!

Day 98: 6-19-20 (Friday)

Today was another gem of a day! Beautiful and warm. It was basically a repeat of the day before. More swimming, boating, and wakeboarding. Bryn took her longest wakeboard run!! All the way around Excelsior Beach and past Point Delight. It was exciting!!

We just played on and in the water all day long. That evening Kam and Abbey headed back into Spokane. They were having dinner with Abbey's parents.

We did some evening paddleboarding and kayaking. We had another round of tin foil dinners. Again...delicious! We also had another great bonfire night but not nearly as late. We were so tired!

Day 99: 6-20-20 (Saturday)

Today was AWESOME! We called it "Father's Day with a BANG!!" We celebrated Father's Day a day early. Having adult children who have to split their time between two families really sucks. This year we opted for celebrating early and having Reilly and Hunter there with us all day rather than them splitting up their time up which is garbage for both families. It worked really well! Tyler's Father's Day theme was also "Fourth of July"! Two holidays for the price of one! The Fourth of July is Kameron's favorite holiday and since he will technically be on his mission and from the sounds of it can't be left alone...I think Tyler will be his companion while he does his couple of weeks of training...we decided to celebrate early! We had a blast! No pun intended!!

Everyone dressed up in red, white, and blue and we took a bunch of family pictures. I am still trying to wrap my mind around Kameron being gone for two years.

Even Beverly got gussied up for the occasion!

I'll post more pictures on the Fourth of July. LOL. If you are wondering if our kids loved this little family picture taking session... they did not. If you are wondering if other people at the lake looked at us like we were insane...yes they did!

But this momma didn't care!!  Lol. Even when I found pictures like this on my phone...

You will take family pictures and you will like it!! Eventually they all got with the program and even had Reilly do little photo shoots of them. Ha!!

I broke them down and then they got into it! As you will see on the 4th of July. LOL. The rest of the day we boated and played on the water despite the cloudy weather and eventual rain. We did our favorite Fourth of July activities too! Even the bald eagle came out and flew over us a few times! Nothing feels more patriotic than seeing a bald eagle on the 4th of July or even on fake 4th of July/Father's Day! We had to move our picnic inside due to rain but it still worked. Tyler requested a KFC picnic for his Father's Day meal so it was very easy to turn it into a Fourth of July theme.

Tyler LOVED his feast and please note the delightful children in the background. Good grief. Can they just be normal for one day? The sun eventually came out and we headed outside again.

Later that day Reilly finally cut Tyler's terrible quarantine hair. It was getting so long and mad scientist-ish! We styled it a few other hideous ways during the process. LOL.

The comb over.

The hipster. Oh H-No!

There were a few other iterations but I was laughing too hard to take pictures. I was super grateful to see my man looking more normal after months of quarantine! I didn't take a picture of the finished product either. Reilly also trimmed Ailey's hair and then I trimmed Reilly. It was quite the PAR-TAY! But we did have the music cranked and in between haircuts we busted out some of our best dance moves!

The girls also found an old baby jammie and put Beverly in it. Enjoyable.

Tyler requested pudding for dessert as he does each year. This year pickins were slim and so we just had a giant box of snackpacks from Costco. Tyler LOVED it! He is a man of simple pleasures!

We played games including many rounds of our favorite "Violent Spoons"!!

Tyler was out first this round! Trust me... they LOVE this game! We learned these violent rules from my Grandma McKinnon! LOL. My mom didn't hesitate to yank a spoon out of your hand either!

Today was a FANTASTIC day!!

Day 100 6-21-20 (Sunday)

I love that sparkly water!!

Day 100!!! Wow. I know that some states are out of quarantine and some families have gone back to normal life but we haven't.  We are still only in phase 2 with no signs of moving to phase 3 anytime soon. Tyler still hasn't gone back to work, churches aren't open, schools are closed indefinitely, cases keep spiking... so we are still in quarantine. The only difference is that we can now be around Reilly and Hunter and Abbey and we have had some limited interactions with extended family. If cases continue to spike we might have to go back to stricter isolation. It's hard to keep our family apart when Kam heads out on his mission so soon.



Today is our last day at the lake. :( Our week has flown by so quickly. Today the weather was nice again. We pulled the boat out last night and Tyler and Kam ran it back home early this morning. We also had our cargo trailer to bring out our bikes, kayak, and paddleboards so we needed to tow that home too. We played and enjoyed the water until about 7:30 pm...in between packing up, loads of laundry, yard work, and cleaning. We did a bunch of swimming! It was super hot so it felt nice!

We stopped for an ice cream dinner on our way home. So healthy! LOL. Time to get back on the ol' exercise and diet plan!! We had a wonderful week! It was relaxing and fun. Just what we needed. We haven't been that relaxed in a long time!