Just January

I'd like to say that I'm getting caught up on this blog. While in some ways it's true, I've taken so many dang pictures here in Southern Utah that it also feels like a hopeless cause. Fortunately, many days are more "normal."

Speaking of relatively normal, here are photos from our first few weeks in January.

Friday, January 2nd--we went to the Bountiful Temple to do baptisms as a family. I love this tradition! Annika's Sunday School teacher challenged her class to attend 40 times in 2026. We'll see if she makes it. :)

Saturday, January 3rd--Our first day on the ski slopes! Annika was quite excited to try out her new helmet. Both she and Eli were eager to demo their new-to-them boots and skis as well. The snow at Brighton was okay, but so much less than in prior years. We desperately need precipitation!

Before Brooklyn went to college, she made arepas for the whole family. So many thanks to NomiAnn and Papa Kay for hosting in their beautiful Christmas home!

The adorable chefs. Brooklyn learned how to make arepas on her mission and kindly taught Talia. As for me, I am an outstanding consumer.

Just looking at these makes me hungry!

A fun bird's eye view of their living area from the loft above. Their home really is great!

Three cheers for family.

 

Of course, not every moment in January was happy. Jason tested positive for Covid, then both Eli and Annika got Influenza B. Blech Plus, Brooklyn got some awful unidentified virus that caused so much congestion that her eardrum burst! Ouch. It makes the miracle of everyone staying healthy in New York all the more astonishing.

Backing up to happier moments, here's Brooklyn moving into her cute new apartment. She came to BYU healthy, then promptly discovered the joy of roommates sharing everything, including germs.

Here's the move-in crew: me, Lily, Brooklyn and NomiAnn.

I still love that cute bedspread! Plus thanks heavens for beds that can loft. In truth, I'm amazed that we managed to get Brooklyn moved in at all. When move-in day arrived, the basement/flood zone was still in shambles. This made locating all of her stuff a true treasure hunt. We almost lost track of the linens completely but finally discovered them deep in our bedroom blanket abyss. Lesson learned: when the next missionary leaves home, we need to make a list of where we stash all their junk beloved belongings.

Trying out her comfy bed. We may have gone a little overboard with mattress toppers.

Speaking of parting ways with lovely treasures, we took a picture of Brooklyn with her cello trophy--earned after receiving Superior ratings at federation over multiple years. Congratulations, cute girl! Great news is that the musicianship outlasts any tangible award, plus we promise to never donate your cello.  :)

Brooklyn and Talia both came home from college after a few days so that we could attend a hockey game together. Go Mammoths! This is the first year Salt Lake has had a professional hockey team, so it was super fun to see them play.

Hanging out with Soudabeh and Nadir.

Great crowd! I'm glad they are filling the arena.

Plus, we even scored some free hot dogs. Let's be honest--free food most always makes me happy.

Even though Christmas was over, we kept the tree up a little longer and spent more evenings doing devotionals with our advent wreath. Annika was particularly entranced by the matches.

Another fun Annika moment: going to a laser maze with her friend Atticus. These two are quite twitterpated, but I figure it's pretty harmless since they live thirty minutes apart, don't attend the same school, and don't drive.

Obligatory puppy pics. 

Love this guy on the trails. 

Don't love when he eats scat and then gets diarrhea... (Thankfully not in our bed.)

Having a dog might be a pain, but there are stranger pets. Like these two black widows that Annika brought home from school.  I'm dead serious! They were named Eclipse and Webekah, but Eclipse died. Annika explained that Eclipse likely starved because Webekah was bigger and wouldn't let her eat. Not one to be overly sentimental, Annika decided that she still liked the name Eclipse better and renamed the surviving spider in honor of her victim.  

Sometimes I look at my life and wonder, is this for real? 

In case you are wondering how in the world we ended up with black widows for pets, her art teacher reached out because they had captured two at the middle school. Annika expressed a keen interest, so Ms. Proctor wondered if our family would be willing to adopt them. Eeek! In the end, I decided that life is short and we'd take the risk in favor of her joy. As Jason expressed, "Best case scenario: they die. Worst case scenario: we die."

The things we do out of love for our children!