Connor turned fifteen! He's starting to look and sound pretty grown-up. He celebrated with a birthday breakfast, gifts, an Oreo ice-cream pizza, and dinner at Din Tae Fung, an expensive Chinese restaurant at the Americana mall. We thought twice before eating there, because there were rumors that the "Wuhan Coronavirus" was starting to enter the U.S. via Chinese airline travelers. Chinese businesses were struggling because people were avoiding them. But we went anyway, in part to help support the restaurant.
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Corinne gave him a card and a gift of candy.
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Spicy Chicken Potstickers with Shrimp Fried Rice, and a Mango Slushie
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Despite my warning about germs, Celeste licked that post.
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Cookie Dough and Oreo Pizzas from Baskin Robbins
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Connor and Elise began practices for "Pirates of Penzance", to be performed in the late spring. Connor was cast as Frederic, the lead character, and was going to have to sing a love song, among other things. I was very curious to see how it would turn out!
March, of course, is the climax of Certificate of Merit season, so the kids were cramming for their theory exams and practicing their pieces and technique. Everyone passed the written theory exam with no problems, but as we were in the middle of a practice concert at Mrs. Yoder's house, she got a text message saying that their performance tests (scheduled for two days later) had been cancelled until further notice because of the coronavirus. We were really upset because we all wanted to get it over with and done. It wasn't clear if the tests would be moved until later in the year, or cancelled entirely, so we kinda just threw up our hands and went on our ski trip the next weekend as planned.
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| Ten Minutes after the Text Message |
After I brought the kids home from piano, I went to Vons, to find that the toilet-paper/paper-towel aisle was stripped bare. It was surprisingly disturbing, and the atmosphere in the store was very tense and fearful. Luckily I have a general policy of keeping cupboards full of extra paper goods, but the search for TP became an iconic symbol of what was now being called a pandemic.
We drove to Vegas on Saturday, and got to Brian Head on Sunday afternoon. We were able to find food and some supplies at a store in Saint George, so we went fairly well-stocked to our rented condo. It had been intended to house both my brothers' families as well as our own, so we had lots of space. They were understandably nervous about mixing with Californians, since by then the coronavirus had entered California, but Utah was still clean. My mom was awesome enough to drive all our ski gear down in her pickup. We unloaded everything and chatted with her through her window, but nobody wanted to risk giving her germs.
Several ski resorts had already closed up, and we were nervous that we had arrived too late, but obsessive checks of the Brian Head website assured us that they were still open.
We also got to have our first "home church" Sacrament meeting that day, with little shot glasses serving as water cups. I was so grateful that we could continue to worship without a meetinghouse. It was a unique experience that we ended up getting used to over time.
Skiing the next day was a little more complicated without family babysitters for Celeste, but I figured out a schedule that worked. Corinne and Evan did lessons, Elise stuck with me, and Celeste hung out in the condo with her designated overseer. I had a chance to say hi to Kevin and Liz near the lodge, but we kept our distance. It was a pretty great ski day, though! That night, Ryan started the laborious process of teaching us (and himself) how to play Axis & Allies, the "easy" version.
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Corinne at her Ski Lesson
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I had a hard time sleeping that night. Realizing that public schools were closing in California, I got it into my head that all online classes would be filled up if I didn't hurry and make plans for summer and fall, so I spent a couple hours on my computer in the dark, signing Connor up for Latin and Math and BYU health.
On Tuesday morning (St. Patrick's Day), we found out that it would be the last ski day of the season at Brian Head. I was feeling anxious and tired, so I decided to stay at the condo with Celeste and Elise (who was also feeling anxious and tired). Ryan and the boys went all over the mountain that day, and Corinne did lessons again, despite the potential germs. Our poor friends, the Harveys, had arrived the night before, so this would be their only day of skiing that winter.
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Lunch at the Lodge
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More Axis & Allies
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We headed home the next day. Los Angeles was soon placed under a shelter-in-place order, which meant that we could only leave our homes for necessary groceries or getting exercise. I didn't love the atmosphere at the store, and things like bread and noodles and dairy products were all gone, so we decided to start using our food storage as much as possible - partly just to practice with it and learn something. That started the season of baking. Elise did pies and complicated projects like braided bread and pretzels, and I ground wheat and baked bread and made granola to stretch our cereal supply. We even used powdered milk - cut with fresh milk when possible.
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| These black beans were no good anyway.... |
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| Food Storage Meal Plan |
For posterity, here are the two recipes we ate the most:
Spring Break ended Monday, but the decision had (finally) been made to shut down Highlands and do classes over Zoom. Seminary and youth activities also stopped that week, although plans were made to do those things online as well. Even Ryan began working at home from the desk in our bedroom, which caused me to have to begin locking the bedroom door all day and picking it with an allen wrench every time I needed to get something.
Since the only thing people could do away from home was walk or hike, those actvities became very popular. At one point, they had to close the more popular trails because it wasn't possible to socially distance on them.
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Kyle's kids were hiking in Utah at the same time as us.
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This tick is "questing" - stretching its legs out waiting for someone to brush past.
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Online classes actually worked pretty well. The older kids had their classes at the same times as usual, but shortened to fit into the 40-minute free Zoom window. The younger kids met on Mondays and Wednesdays, but for less time. My 5th Grade Insects class was on Mondays at 9:30, and my Trees/Bio class was Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:45 - 11:25. I disliked how hard it was to check homework and turn things in (we ended up using Google Classroom with mixed results), but I loved that I could easily show them pictures of things we were learning about! The kids interacted with each other between classes almost as much as if they were there in person, with group texts and informal Zoom meetings. By this time, seminary and piano lessons had also moved over to Zoom, so I was glad that we had a decent number of devices at home and good internet service.
Ryan decided to start a vegetable garden, with seedlings sprouting in the garage, and new raised boxes in the backyard. Apparently this hobby, along with baking and hiking, became quite popular everywhere, so things like seeds and baby chicks, along with any kind of flour or yeast, became impossible to find.
Random Shelter-In-Place Photos:
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I did manage to do "Secret Leprechaun" right before we left to go skiing.
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Ryan started photographing the kids to make sprites for a homemade Street-Fighter game.
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Ryan has four pillows. I have one.
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Corinne's friend had just mailed her a little present.
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"Heart Attack" from the Young Women Leaders
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DIY Easter Activity from the Primary Presidency
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The Rules
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Blood Orange Lemonade
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I bought an awesome solar-powered battery pack, in case of Zombies
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Baby Rattlesnake
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| My Alaska road guide arrived! Things weren't looking good for those travel plans, though. |
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| This was March |
To avoid obsessing, I made a rule that I could only look at COVID-19 numbers on Saturdays. I started a little tradition of taking screenshots each week of what was going on.
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