Ryan & Erinn's Family: May 2020

Throughout March and April, Evan had been begging me for a pet snake. He said he would pay for it with his own money, and promised to show his responsibility first by helping me take care of the bunnies every night for a month. I was surprised when he actually did it, but I had to hold up my end of the deal, so I did a little research on the most kid-friendly snakes and bought him a baby corn snake from a local pet store. "Snakey" eats defrosted frozen mice, and is actually a really cute, good-natured pet!

Snakey shed his skin two days after we got him

When Ryan's company was purchased by Wells Fargo last year, everyone at Analytic knew that they would eventually have to leave their 50th-floor office in the Gas Company Tower and move to the Wells Fargo building. One day in early May, Ryan went in to the office alone and packed up all his stuff - some for the movers, some to bring home. Despite the move, nobody actually worked in the new office in 2020.

Ryan had a lot of work stuff.

We went on a lot more hikes and bike rides, although I only did the hiking parts. Corinne and Celeste aren't strong bikers yet, so I skip those outings to stay with them.

Bike Ride to Millard Falls

Millard Falls Newt

Bike Ride with Aunt Helena

They biked past the LA Zoo. Closed until further notice.

We hiked Mount Baden-Powell, along with Brother "Bad" Hillquist.

Corinne spotted a Mountain Kingsnake!

Snow Plant. It's parasitic!

Snow in May.

Another Dad/Kid Bike Ride

Ryan and I hiked Millard Falls, without kids for a change!

Elise turned 13!! Her birthday wish was to get a high-quality snow cone machine, which made her very popular with her siblings. We also celebrated with an Oreo ice cream cake, dinner of her choice, and a bunch of other edible goodies!

Because it was also Mother's Day, I got a new laptop! Kids aren't supposed to touch it.

We had a visit from a striped racer on the porch!

Birthday Snake

Kevin and Liz occasionally did a "cooking show" on Marco Polo, where they showed the family something ambitious they were making for dinner. One week they challenged us all to do homemade pizza. Elise totally pulled it off, including from-scratch crust. Ryan and I just sent in a picture of the Blaze Pizza we'd ordered. We're too lazy.

Elise's Pizza

Celeste's Pizza

Mom & Dad's Pizza

After replacing the broken dishwasher, Ryan let the kids take the old one apart. They turned the tub into a hideout that stayed in our yard for WAY too long.

Notice the green pool water in the background.

Ryan got a spider bite on his leg that turned into the grossest infection ever. The doctor said it was a brown recluse, but the internet says that's unlikely for where we live. It was probably a regular spider bite that just got infected. Whatever it was, it took several weeks to heal.

He was supposed to draw a line around it to see if it was spreading.

On May 12, we got the happy news from Michelle that Nai'a had delivered six healthy standard poodle puppies! Michelle had contacted us back in January to let us know that she'd be breeding this year, and that the puppies would be from Wiley's dad. I hadn't been planning on a dog so soon, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a Wiley sibling in the family! There were four girls and two boys, but we wouldn't find out which puppy was ours until they were older.

Good Mama

Our resident raccoon really appreciated the local organic produce and bread that came in my veggie box. He or she especially seemed to like the dried mushrooms.

I went back to Trader Joe's for the first time since the pandemic started. They were doing things a little differently from the regular grocery stores - making everyone wait in line outside to keep the store less crowded.

Celeste's Montessori asked me to send a photo of her for the yearbook, and it took a LOT of tries to get her to hold still and smile.

This is the one I went with.

Since I was already taking pictures, we did our "January" Growth Chart photos!

Our pool water had been growing steadily greener, and the pool guy said that after a decade of the same water, the minerals had built up to a point where it couldn't hold chlorine anymore. The only cure was to drain the water and start fresh! Connor was hoping he could skateboard in the empty pool for a day or two, but it was too much of a fall hazard to leave that way, so we ended up refilling it the next day.

Hose water is cold.

The last day of online school arrived! The kids celebrated with Lunchables, as usual.

My brother Quinn is an English teacher in Japan. He teaches private lessons as well as in classrooms, and was interested in giving a few of his private students the chance to talk online with native English-speaking kids. We worked on the project now and then over the summer, which started with photos and introductory letters between Evan and Elise and three Japanese girls. They then made videos, and eventually did a Zoom interview with one another. It was a great experience for the kids, and it was fun for me to talk to Quinn again!

Evan and Elise had a baking competition one day. Corinne got to be the judge. I forget who won.

The sphinx moth pupa we found back in April suddenly hatched out of its box of dirt! We took it outside, and it eventually flew away to live its best moth life. Hopefully it found a big tomato garden to destroy!

Winter figured out how to jump on top of the rabbit hutch inside their pen. She was able to avoid Little Mac and help herself to everything in the hay box at the same time. It became her favorite place to spend the day.

Poor stumpy-legged Little Mac got left out.

We resumed preparation for Certificate of Merit, which had been changed to an online format. We even had a Zoom concert where every kid performed one of their best pieces.

End of Year Concert

Live Video Performance

After the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota, there were widespread protests in almost every city, including Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. We watched internet and TV coverage of the situation the first night, in which the protests turned into violent riots. People could be seen attacking officers, destroying property, and looting downtown stores. As a result, there was a curfew declared in Los Angeles, which was extended to include all of LA County for several days. We were still able to attend a drive-through group missionary farewell without violating curfew, but we snuck out an hour late the next evening to deliver cinnamon roll cake for a youth baking contest!