Laura's 15th Birthday

In May, Laura turned 15. Because it was such a weird year, we couldn't have a family party or a normal friend party. But we celebrated with our little family and Laura invited a few friends over for an outdoor lunch and pottery painting. We ordered her favorite--costa vida--and picked up some mugs and paint kits from Color Me Mine. Laura's 9th grade year was not what she expected it to be...her group of friends changed, her final soccer season was canceled, and the school year didn't end like she thought it would. She missed awards ceremonies, the 9th grade dance and Lagoon day. But, she handled it so well and stayed pretty optimistic in spite of everything. Laura is very dedicated to whatever she does. She gets good grades and has really developed her talent for playing the piano. She loves to organize, loves to clean out the car with me, loves Taylor Swift and asks to go to Costa Vida at least twice a week. She's kind to others and has a way of seeing things the way they are and makes good decisions because of it. We love Laura and are so grateful for her!

Remodel

After thinking about it for a long time, we decided to remodel the main floor of our house. We started by taking down the fireplace. It was a HUGE project! We knew it would be big, but it was bigger than we thought. It was a disaster! I was vacuuming up dust for months. Nate was a champ and so were the kids and thankfully Kristen and Cam and their family came to help us finish the job. We also painted the whole house and re-carpeted the basement. So we basically moved out without moving out. We did A LOT of packing and unpacking and moving furniture, had sleepovers all over the house, ate out of the garage and the backyard for 6 weeks, and did a lot of clean up every night. We are so happy with the results though and it was so fun hanging out with Kristen who helped us with the whole project. 

Spring

As the weeks dragged on during covid, Ollie got plenty of attention, we did some more mountain biking, I spent a lot of time cooking, we hot tubbed, did puzzles, drew with chalk, read books, and Josh did some more driving. 

April

In April, we played with Ollie (and gave him a new temporary hair color), went on a mountain bike ride as a family (where I was definitely in the very back of the pack), Josh practiced his driving in the church parking lot, Josh led his Deacon's quorum in their first zoom meeting, and we checked out Darren and Sarah's new beehives with Grandma Nelson.