Ryan & Erinn's Family: 2021

By September, our fluffy puppy was looking pretty gross, so she got to go to her first grooming appointment. She came back a fancy lady.

Celeste turned four! She celebrated with "rainbow cereal", bean burritos from Del Taco, and an Elsa cake. Her favorite presents were a set of Octonauts characters, some Octonauts books, and a "Happy Napper" sleeping bag.

On Labor Day weekend, there was a terrible heat wave, so we left the bunnies inside under the care of our pet sitter, and drove up to Big Bear to spend the weekend with our camping friends. There was a fairly large forest fire creating smoke clouds in the area, which were both beautiful and creepy. Ryan slept in his own tent, the boys and Phoebe in the new blue tent, and the girls in the new green tent. We had decided to replace our big tents with separate smaller ones, since they're easier to set up. The extra space was awesome!

Phoebe was pretty well behaved, but still took a lot of babysitting.

Phoebe also got very carsick on the drives up and back.

In the crazy traffic going home, Ryan let the boys climb out the sunroof.

The Bobcat fire started in the Angeles Crest that weekend. It grew to be huge.

The first day of school was a little strange. I had already decided to keep the little girls home, and to send Evan to only two classes. A week or so later, I pulled Elise and Connor from most of their Thursday classes, as well. We supplemented with formal and informal online classes, and the kids did pretty well with the adjusted schedule, although Connor and Elise didn't love being the only kids wearing masks when they were on-campus.

First Day of Highlands!

Miss Jessica's Enrichment Class!

Memoria Press Online Narrative Comp.

After the first day of Highlands (I didn't get his picture in the morning.)

Ice Cream

First Enrichment Craft Day!

Our schedule was actually pretty complicated, especially since I was teaching twice (later three times) per week. Activity Days boys and girls met together online, as did the Young Men and Young Women, and the Relief Society actually held an in-person activity behind the church with music and speakers. It was weird to be together again, but nice.

Activity Days Craft

Connor was the Teachers' Quorum President, and actually put a lot of work into it.

Teachers' Quorum "Title of Liberty"

Relief Society Meeting

The nearby Bobcat fire blocked out sunlight for more than a week, and dropped a lot of ash on our yard, including complete leaves! It made things seem even more apocalyptic outside than usual, especially on walks.

Phoebe's First On-Leash Walk

After a few weeks, we worked it out that Elise would do middle-school Classical Studies and Literature with Mrs. Monroe and Ms. Standage online, and Connor would do the same subjects in a semi-private tutoring session with Ms. Standage on Fridays.

We were outside admiring the climbing wall one evening, when we felt a medium-strong earthquake! It turned out to be a 4.6, but we hung around in the backyard for awhile waiting for aftershocks.

By the end of September, Ryan finished his climbing wall!

My mom was going through some old photos that belonged to my Grandma, and shared these with me:

Grandma Cloe as a Toddler, held by her Dad

Wedding Announcement, and Grandma Cloe as a Baby

Uncle Kirk

After the Relief Society's in-person meeting, some of the other groups started to meet together, as well! Everything was outside, masked, and distanced, but it was great for the kids to be going places again.