New Normal

 Hello! 

I'll kick off this installment of the blog with a picture I love taken by Quinn's 2nd grade teacher the other day. The class was practicing reading to a partner in a creative way with social distancing. 😂

While there are plenty of things going on now that we don't want to embrace as 'normal' for the long term, I do believe that we've learned some incredible things about resilience and adaptability of human beings in the face of major change. 

Some thoughts below:

1. 99% of the people I come across are following the rules, wearing masks in public and attempting to social distance in public places. There's a country song called something like "most people are good" by Luke Bryan and I really think he's right.

2. Our ability to connect and interact over video conference is really huge and actually quite authentic. There is such a difference when you can see someone's face vs just hearing their voice. I've noticed that folks of all ages and walks of life are learning how to connect better this way whether at work or in their personal lives. 

3. I am hopeful that this time will usher in a new focus on health, wellness and hygiene that will keep people safer and healthier in the long term. Though I do definitely worry about all of the disposables and carry out boxes being used now and the impact on the environment from that.

4. More people are staying home and cooking, learning new skills and connecting with their neighbors. I feel a long term impact from this may be a revitalization and resurgence of smaller towns.

Back to our family experience during this Summer of Covid, the kids had a great Summer despite some interruptions but we all rolled with it. They did several hockey camps and even had a partial swim team season. Both kids are now voracious readers of chapter books. Murphy got to jump in the pool during the last day of the season, what they call Yappy Hour.

This Summer, Jason was in the thick of the car wash build. Here's an aerial view of the project from back in June. We all spent a lot of time at my parent's house in Cascade. S'mores, hiking with friends who joined us on one of the trips, going to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to feed the giraffes and elephant were all highlights!

We took the camper out a few times and had a great time in western Colorado at Ouray and then explored some other places in southern CO. We took side by sides up Imogene Pass, and it was breathtakingly beautiful. We also did a trip back to our fave spot on the White River in Arkansas.  

It was freezing at the top of the pass, over 13,000 feet. 

Jason and I cracked open a beer before heading back down!

This is the most beautiful flagstone stream you can imagine.

Olivia won the prize for catching the biggest fish AND the smallest fish. 😂

Quinn finally got to pitch his first tent!

The kids started school 'in person' on Aug 15th, and so far it is going well. I say that even though Olivia's class was just asked to quarantine at home for 14 days, which is a bad break but we've made the best of it. The e-learning program the school is putting on is so much improved, night and day better. The school upgraded the underlying tech over the Summer and also issued the kids iPads which are pre-programmed with Zoom links which is fabulous.

The picture above is Olivia on the first day of 3rd grade. I can't even believe how time flies and how big the kids have gotten! Mask in hand, she is ready to take it on. I'll say both kids have adjusted really well to the mask wearing, almost to the point that when they get home, I have to ask them to take them off!

Another bright spot is how much the kids truly appreciate the oppty to go to school in person and learn alongside their peers. Like I said, we have been home doing e-learning for almost 2 weeks and they can't wait to go back to the classroom and be with their friends.

Signing off for now. 

xoxo 

Claire & family

Going Viral

 Hello!

So we have just come through what is a very interesting and weird time in our history. On or around March 14, 2020, virtually everything shut down to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the US and beyond.  

We were in Park City for Spring Break and enjoying an apres ski beer when I got a text saying that all ski resorts were shut down effective the following day and basically that all restaurants and hotels were also shutting down. I immediately booked tickets for our group back to KC for the next day. Once we got home, we decided to drive our RV to Colorado and join my parents for a week at their house in Cascade, Colorado before setting off in our RV.

Part of what happens next is a blur, and I wasn't documenting a lot of it, but thankfully, Olivia is our resident photographer and she provided some interesting material to share 😊.

1. In Colorado, we cooked a lot and also did a lot of puzzles. After we finished one that was especially hard, we all signed it and my mom had it framed for display in the house as our COVID-19 quarantine puzzle. Grandma taught the kids a lot of card games. We dug deeper into the bucket of things to do and apparently some of us figured out how to do whatever this is to pictures.. LOL!

2. Next, we drove to Texas and found this tiny RV park right on the beach. The owner, Tim, was particularly fond of Murphy and would let him basically have free roam of the place, though most of the time, there was only one other couple at the entire place which had 7 camper spots. Also on this trip, Jason and I discovered that you can 'take out' gallon jugs of margaritas! Game changer. Here is Murphy playing a game of "run around the Camper".

We actually went to the same place in TX two separate times during quarantine because we liked it so much and the internet service was excellent. Each morning I would walk Murphy along the beach and watch the sunrise. It was magical especially with what sometimes felt like the world crashing down all around. And we took our bikes for rides up and down the coast and we also went riding in a TX state park known for its huge alligators. We saw lots of them! You definitely don't want to veer off the trail in that park. 😊

3. We did make it back home to KC a few times and also back to Colorado to quarantine in the mountains. Jason was working on a car wash build in the Springs so it was convenient for him to have us work and do e-Learning from Colorado when possible. Here's a pic from one of our trips back and forth from KC to Colorado Springs in "Mom's Taxi" aka the Grocery Getter.

Right before shutdown, we had just finished a long remodel project on our kitchen. We love the end result and the new kitchen appliances were really fun to play with especially with all of the baking and cooking that went on during quarantine. Olivia and Quinn learned how to master a few different dishes and I experimented with things like lasagna and other new recipes. 

3. e-Learning was an interesting road and I will say it was extremely challenging for all parents, and especially for parents who were working remotely full-time, to try to supervise this stuff. Our teachers at St. Paul's did their best, I am sure, but it ended up feeling like a scavenger hunt to find the correct zoom link, password, date and time. Though I hate to admit it, there were times when I just said, "forget it" and we just had to pass on some of the stuff.  

I found these pictures that Olivia took and I think they reflect perfectly the gamut of emotions we all had... from anger and frustration, then moving on to intense snacking and finally to smug resignation and acceptance.

We were blessed to be all together during quarantine and making some really incredible family memories. The freedom to sleep until you wake up and not needing an alarm was amazing. We created our own campfire sing along nights with S'mores and joke-telling. Olivia got inspired to work with her guitar, writing songs and performing them for us. 

Though I was really happy when things started opening back up, I can hardly complain about how we fared during the shutdown. I know how lucky we are and I thank God that we were in a place of protection during this uncertain time.

Love Always, Claire & Family

Shenanigans

 Hello!

This blog is to chronicle our family stories and memories. I told the kids about it and said I would print it out and let them read it sometime. Now they are super-curious about it and I practically have to sneak off to write it without one of them (usually Olivia) hawking over me! 🤣

This installment is a random accumulation of things that happened in early 2020 before the world got super-serious and shut down for COVID-19. This blog is about our shenanigans before all that hit.

1. The kids continued hockey and we had a great season. They are improving with skating and it is by far the favorite sport that Jason and I (don't actually) play 😊.  My uncle Kelly came up to watch a game and we hung out. He raised 4 girls in hockey and enjoys watching the kids play.

2. We had some birthday action! Quinn had a bowling party for Lucky #7 followed by a dinner with Grandma Kim and Grandpa Craig at Capital Grille. Fun was had by all. Jason also rang in the Big 45 with his crew at Capital. Give him a martini, a steak dinner, his loves and cap it off with dessert. All I can say is "Life is Good" and WE LOVE YOU DADDY!

 

3. The skiing continued. The kids passed me up, skills-wise, last year sometime and therefore it is old news (meaning I don't want to talk about it, ok?) 🤣 Seriously, we really enjoy the family aspect of it. Taking in amazing views, crisp mountain air, meeting up with friends, etc. I was telling someone the other day about how the kids learned to ski. At about 3 and 4 respectively, they both revolted against ski school and refused to go. So from then on, Jason and I skied with them and learning that way together was such a bonding experience. 

The kids enjoy the 'reward' offered at Beaver Creek after a great day on the slopes. We love the ice rink they have in the village. The kids took their hockey skates and tore it up. Quinn reached out to a father of 4 from WI to give him some skating pointers 🤣, the guy really appreciated it!

It was so fun seeing my friend Elizabeth a few times in Breck and also BC for dinner. At the Canyons, Olivia and Elle became "fast" friends on the slopes and it was so great seeing my long-time friend Lauren there. This pic was taken the day before everything shut down. Connecting with friends like that before all of the isolation helped to soften the blow a bit.

4. We had an amazing time in Cabo with Jason's mom in Feb! Getting away from the cold, dreary weather in Kansas City at that time was just what we needed. We stayed with Patti at her condo right on the marina. Jason and I have been to Cabo many times but it was really fun introducing it to the kids. They made fast friends with a talented spray paint artist right on the marina steps from Patti's place. The guy was so nice and would let them sit and watch him do various works of art. We came home with several custom pieces! 

Pictured below is a 'balloon hat' pic with me and my sweet girl and I'm told this is the thing to do when you go to Squid Rowe 😊

We had the most incredible day on the water fishing for marlin and other fish. Don't quote me, but I think we technically caught 14 marlin and a few other fish as well. All catch and release, except for a tuna that Quinn caught that we ate for dinner. 

Olivia got the best picture with her marlin, shown below (I love the belly hug!). Dad helped her reel it in but she did a lot of the work herself. I think towards the end she was begging the fish to just stop fighting! 

We also did this really fun buggy adventure tour on the beach on the Pacific side north of Cabo. I don't have pictures of that, but on the way back we stopped for tacos at this little dive place near Todos Santos which is a cool artist town in Baja. Quinn loves Squirt after having it once at his aunt and uncle's house in KC and so he always asks for it but no one ever has it (!). At this place, he nearly fell out of his chair when they said they had it!

5. Quinn turned in a stellar performance as Harry S. Truman for his class program Hooray for the USA. It was really neat as he got to dress as Harry and give a little speech. Now we all know where the buck stops! Note: We love St. Paul's and this is the kind of kids school program that you never forget. It is so fun to see each kid learn about and work to represent a famous American. 

Back in KC and back to the real world (kind of), the kids set their minds to catching a leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day. I have not seen them this absolutely determined since they made me figure out the way to upgrade their Minecraft accounts to add 'worlds' or something. 

Anyhow, I told them I thought it was a bad idea and the leprechaun might not go quietly, would certainly not appreciate their shenanigans. Anyhow, Kirk and Patty helped them build this elaborate trap. I was asked to prepare a meal similar to 'bangers and mash' that would lure them and tempt them to forget their surroundings.

Alas, they did not catch a leprechaun. Lord knows I'm glad for that because I would have no idea what to even do with it!

Signing off for now. Next up, Going Viral.

Love, Claire & Fam

Home Away

 Hello!

As always, I am catching up on blog posts. Last time I left off when we were boarding the long flight to the Cook Islands. We treasure our memories and relaxation time in the Cook Islands where life takes on a different speed and the 'weight' of the world seems to slip away for awhile.

We think of Pacific Resort's Villa 100 (aka The Crab Shack) as our little home away from home. 

Here's the view from our beach chairs steps from the patio.

This year the kids had fun doing stand up paddle (SUP). We also had fun kayaking together to the little deserted islands nearby and hunting for crabs. We saw some really big coconut crabs too! And any trip to the islands would not be complete without Olivia having her favorite drink... You guessed it! This was one of many she had. She sweet-talked a guy with a house nearby and trees chock full of nu coconuts to cut her down a few of them. :)

We did the day tour to Aitutaki with the full lagoon tour and One Foot Island. Olivia made a bunch of friends on the pontoon boat, and there was really good music and food to enjoy. It was a blast.

We enjoy going to "market night" for dinner where they have various food vendors and you BYOB. Sometimes they have live music. It's fun, casual and great interaction with the locals. Jason snapped a picture of Quinn that was the SAME picture essentially that we got in 2016. This shows what 3 years looks like!

We love ringing in the new year in Cook! This is a picture from that night before Quinn fell asleep on Jason (Olivia with her 'snaggle tooth!'). There was a raging dance party going, and of course, Olivia was out there dancing with Grandpa and making new friends while Quinn slept most of the evening on two chairs pushed together ;)

We met this really nice family from Sydney, Australia and they have family ties to Aitutaki and Cook Islands. Olivia made fast friends (and now pen pals) with Kalani who is in the same grade as her. We hope to visit our new Mates in Australia sometime!

I'll leave you with a picture of the beautiful Cook Islands sunset.

Til next time 

xoxo Claire & Family