November

 While Megan was in quarantine she wore a mask when other people were in the same room with her, at least until she got tested. One morning she also put on a witch's hat and snuggie to be ready for scriptures as the masked witch. 

The Monday after Megan got quarantined Ryan's best friend, Derek, tested positive, so we decided to keep him home from school just to be safe. Tuesday we tested Ryan at home (negative), then Megan at Walgreens. We all rode together, masked up just in case, then she had to come up front for me to swab her. 

After Megan's test we went over to Dairy Queen where we grabbed lunch an a frozen treat. As we were getting ready to head home her test results came back: negative. Woohoo. So we removed the masks for the ride home.

The next day I was celebrating being done with quarantine when I got a call from the school letting me know that Ryan had had a close contact on Monday, the only day he went to school that week. So he was in quarantine until Monday. Boo.

Tuesday night we got a text from Sabrina letting us know that she was needing to resign as president of the PTA. The following morning Rebecka, Snow and I got together via zoom and decided I would step in as president and we would look for a new secretary. That afternoon was our regularly scheduled monthly PTA meeting, so we accepted the resignation officially and scheduled the election for Dec 1 at our next PTA meeting. I asked the other members that were present if any of them would be willing to step in as secretary and both stared back like deer in the headlights and said they'd think about it. 

That Friday was the slime the principals assembly for all the top readers and earners from the Read-a-thon. Annie and Ryan were top earners in their classes and Megan was one of the top 5 readers in the school so all of them were on the list of slimers.

Megan sliming Mrs. Owens: 

Annie sliming Mrs. Forgacs:

Ryan was pretty bummed to miss it since he was in quarantine, so I told him I'd bring some slime home and he could slime me instead.

It made him happy but was the worst choice ever. It took an hour to make any progress in getting that stuff out of my hair. It was made with flour and baby shampoo, so basically was paper mache stuck real good.

The good thing that came out of the slime assembly was one of the ladies that had been at the PTA meeting also came to help out and liked it so much she agreed to be the new PTA secretary.

The next day we went up to the Mesa Temple open house and met Grandma and Grandpa Campbell there. It was wonderful to be in the temple and see the changes and for the kids to see the inside of the temple. Unfortunately Ryan was still in quarantine, so we left him home with Todd and Savannah just to be safe. 

Grandma and Grandpa came down to Tucson after the open house and hung out for a few days. The kids are always happy to play games with grandma and go to the 99 Cent Only store with her.

Wednesday Ryan got to go back to school after his quarantine ended, then Thursday Ryan skipped school to go with me to temple open house since he had missed it the previous weekend. 

Grandma Knight came with us and it was a nice day. 

We got back to school in time for Ryan to go for a couple hours. Before the end of the day the principal contacted me to let me know that in his one day back at school Ryan had had another close contact and was back in quarantine. Ugh. Luckily he had gotten his 1st vaccine the week before. Megan had missed her 1st vaccine when she was in quarantine, so that afternoon I took her for her first vaccine. 

Since Ryan always finished his school work super fast when he was in quarantine, I decided that he would need to do a science fair project during this second quarantine. He's super curious and loves learning, soI figured the project itself he would love, it just might be a stretch to get him to type up all the report.

He was loving experimenting with the multimeter we got out for Annie's science fair project, so we found another idea involving electricity for his science fair project and he built an electromagnet. 

He didn't love typing up the parts of the science fair project, but doing it on google slides made it more exciting, especially when he discovered he could add special transitions to the slides. He did a great job and knocked out the entire science fair project in 3 days. 

The fun with electricity continued for several more days until we got Annie's project done, too and put away all the alligator clips and the multimeter. Ryan showed Sammy how his snap circuits work and used his alligator clips to make more complicated circuits.

Annie's class had 3 covid cases in her class in the course of a week, and while she wasn't a close contact, we let her stay home for the day before Thanksgiving break to avoid anyone else who might have caught it and just hadn't been diagnosed yet. She did her science fair project that morning, learning which drinks had more electrolytes, and would therefore be better for drinking after working out. 

Turns out chocolate milk, orange juice, and coconut water are all better than Gatorade. 

That afternoon was Starbase graduation so Annie went to school just for that.

Starbase was super awesome and she really enjoyed it. The whole class went on Davis Monthan Air Force Base once a week and did things like shooting off a rocket, engineering a way to keep Eggbert safe, and geocaching. 

Even though it wasn't quite Thanksgiving yet, the kids wanted to decorate the Christmas tree. 

Megan put the star on to top it all off.

Annie turns 11

Annie turned 11 on the same day as the school trunk or treat, so we didn't celebrate until Sunday.  

She was happy to get her art kit.

She also got some cool shirts ("Booooooks," "I'm not weird, I'm limited edition," and "I'm into fitness...fit'ness ice cream into my mouth.") a pop it purse, and other fun stuff. 

She made a peach cobbler for dessert and it was a big hit! 

Her friend party was a week after her actual birthday. 5 minutes before her party was supposed to start we got a call from the assistant principal to tell us that Megan had had a close contact at school and should quarantine. Megan was super disappointed to miss the party. We sent her upstairs and let her watch her own movies. She came out onto the balcony to eat pizza with everyone else eating in the back yard. 

Annie had a good time with her buddies. They had pizza, ice cream cake, opened presents, watched a movie, and drew on themselves with face paint. 

The next week Annie had a few more special days. Monday I picked her up from school for a surprise trip to lunch and to get her covid shot. She wasn't excited about getting a shot, but was a champ and it was the easiest shot she remembers having. And she was excited to be one step closer to being vaccinated. Having Eegees for lunch helped make the experience a bit better. When she gets her second shot she gets to miss a whole day of school to celebrate. 

Then Thursday she went in to get her braces on. This is Annie's last picture braces-free, next to the sign that has her name listed as getting braces. 

She was a champ and now is a brace-face. Her mouth was very sore for the first few days, but is finally starting to feel better. 

I felt bad piling on one thing after another, but I had gotten an email from the school saying she needed her 11 year old shots within 2 weeks of her birthday, so after braces I took her to the doctor (without telling her so she wouldn't worry for the whole drive). After her shots we went to Frost Gelato for the treat she thought she was getting when I stopped at the doctor. 

Overall I'm not sure it was worth it to her, but at least the gelato was delicious and made things a little better on a rough day.

And now our 11 year old is vaccinated, braced, and ready to start YW in January. She's very mature and helpful, and a joy to have in our family. She's been making dinner every other Tuesday, which is a great help to me, and she's getting pretty good at cooking. She's a great student and a good leader at school. She's a great influence and a kind friend. Hope you had a good birthday, Annie! We love you!

October-post fall break

Jumping back into school and real life was a little rough after fall break. It was a crazy busy couple of weeks. Annie got to start Starbase, which is a super awesome STEM program hosted on Davis Monthan Air Force Base. 

The first Saturday after break was FULL. It was Make a Difference Day, which was a huge undertaking to help get ready with the PTA. So many projects were completed with 200 people helping out. Afterwards we got a picture of Ms. Duncan and 3 of the 4 of the PTA board. Left to right: Ms. Duncan, Rebecka Fannon, Sabrina Irizarry, and me. 

After Make a Difference Day was our stake/community picnic. Jacob took the kids over and after cleaning up I made it just in time to get some food as things were wrapping up. 

That night was Jensen Powell's wedding. I was helping with getting some of the food ready beforehand, so Jacob went with me early to help. It's a beautiful setting.

It was fun to see Jillian since she moved across town and we don't get to see each other much any more. And of course visiting with friends that we do see is fun, too.

I went home and slept like a log that night. It was an exhausting day. Savannah volunteered to host dinner the next day since Saturday had been crazy busy for us and my dad had just had gall bladder surgery and was not doing well. (Thankfully a couple of days later he turned a corner and was feeling a lot better pretty quickly.) The kids always end up playing fun games at Todd's house. 

I've been in physical therapy for months to get my shoulder pain to go away. It was finally starting to go away, but before our trip to Utah I got a flu shot in my other shoulder and it had been in pain ever since, with tight muscles and all. So my second to last PT appointment the therapist worked on my other arm the whole time and the next morning I woke up with both shoulders feeling great for the first time in forever. Then Monday I went to get my covid booster since boosters were just approved for those who got a Johnson and Johnson shot. The next day my shoulder was sore and I thought I had messed it up again. Then my back got achy and I was super tired by lunchtime, so I laid down to sleep, knowing that it was just side effects from the shot. When I woke up a while later all the body aches and shoulder pain was completely gone. It was amazing. That Friday I finally graduated from PT. Yahoo! It's so nice to be able to use my body how it's supposed to work.

Friday was the trunk or treat at school, which was a big PTA event. I have never gone because I don't like Halloween and figure the church trunk or treat and walking around the neighborhood is enough candy for my kids. But since Halloween was on a Sunday, and I had to be at the trunk or treat since I'm on the PTA board, I figured the kids could come to the school trunk or treat this time. It was crazy busy with so many people the line took an hour to get through. I never even got a picture of most of the kids in their costumes, and Megan was only a rainbow witch that night (changed her costume for the church trunk or treat) so we don't have any pictures of that costume. I did manage to get a picture of Rachel and Eliza as Mabel and Dipper from Gravity Falls. 

I ended up having to run to the store twice that night, first for sodas, and then for more candy when it was all running out and there was still a super long line of people waiting to come in to the trunk or treat. I guess it was a successful night, but it didn't make me love Halloween or trunk or treating any more.

The following night was our ward party and trunk or treat, and I liked that one a lot more. Annie, Kenzie and Eloise dressed up as greek godesses, Rachel was Dipper again, Peyton was Mabel, Megan was Waddles the pig, and Ryan was Hank the Cowdog. 

The youth had a few games and face painting going on, then the kids went around the parking lot a couple of times and we headed home. 

They ended up with tons of candy and spent lots of time that night and the following day sorting and trading candy.

 We were just happy to be done with Halloween and the two weeks of craziness with two huge PTA events. 

Fall Break-Utah part 3 and home

By Thursday school was out for the Utah kids (and grown ups) and we got together at the church to have plenty of room to run around.  

They played colors, mafia, and who knows what else before we headed to the Bean Museum, also known as the dead animal museum. After checking out all the dead animals we headed back to Grandma's. We had some questions about who was taller than whom, so we ended up measuring everyone. 

Turns out Mark is taller than Jacob and I am both taller and shorter than Rachel. She is 5' 6" and I am 5' 5 1/2" on my right leg and 5' 6 1/2" on my left leg. 

Scum is always a popular game when everyone gets together. 

Friday we headed to Springville to visit a pumpkin patch/corn maze for some fun. They used corn like playground sand. It was everywhere. Even when we got back to Tucson we kept finding kernals of corn in our shoes and car. 

They buried Cari in the corn.

Joy's favorite animals are llamas, so she was excited to get to see some.

Look! Miri found a head sitting on the ground. 

There was a giant slide. The kids started filling their shirts with corn to send down with them, then finally filled Lena's sweatshirt with corn and it took 3 kids to carry it to the top of the slide. The shirt was stretched beyond use afterwards, but the kids had fun.

We went on a hayride, then topped things off by going through the corn maze.

Looks like Jacob should take over the operation.

Here's a picture of the whole crew. If only Lisa and Braden had come we'd have all the grandkids together in the picture. 

After the corn maze the kids were kind of wiped out so we did some chill activites for our last night in Utah. Sharon had lots of good "would you rather" options for some funny discussions.

There were games played including hitty, pinchy, flatty, cutty cow.

Saturday morning we headed for Arizona. The drive was pretty uneventful and went really smoothly, unlike our last drive home from Utah. We found a great playground and dinosaur at the bottom of highway 20 that will be the kids' top choice for a pit stop from here on out. 

It was a great trip and we got home with one day to decompress and recover from travel before we had to jump back into school and real life again.