One thing that has kept me and Michelle going through a year of pandemic, homeschooling, work from home, Church responsibilities, and house projects is date night. Our older kids reached the magical age where they can babysit about a year and a half ago, so it's more doable financially, and we now go out every single Friday. It's the absolute best.  We have eaten at a lot of yummy places over the year, most of them sitting in the blue car in a parking lot. Some of our favorites have been Slap Fish in Farmington, El Pollo Loco, Hook and Reel, Crown, Taste of India, Lucky Slice, Pad Thai, and Cafe Sabor. Least favorite is a tie between Taco Time and Rumbi Island Grill (but the latter doesn't really count because Michelle was sick and ordered white rice, macaroni salad, and unseasoned shrimp). We didn't eat inside a restaurant for more than a year, but a couple weeks ago we got reservations at our favorite place, Rooster's. We ate in a booth and ordered round after rou...

We are living during a pretty remarkable time in history. The global coronavirus pandemic has affected every part of our day-to-day business. School, work, church, stores, travel, regular socialization; the list goes on. There have even been months-long food and supply shortages (tp, flour, hand sanitizer, dish soap, I'm looking at you). It hasn't been the most serene time for our family either. We've had multiple earthquakes, which was really bizarre. But they've left enough of an impression that whenever Nate gets up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I wake up a little panicked when he returns to the bed and tosses and turns to get comfortable, thinking that we're having another one.  A couple weeks ago a huge water pipe burst on our street and blew a hole in the asphalt and shot up in a 30 foot geyser until they got it shut off. We were without water all day long and were sure grateful that we'd stored a little in our basement! Also o...

This summer was wild and crazy. We packed it so full. And we loved it! It went too fast. We've got a few more big posts coming before we're caught up, but as has become tradition, here's our whirlwind summer wrap-up. Explorations at Hobbs Leah rocked swimming lessons. As part of a conference, Nate took the girls and got to sit in the choir seats at the tabernacle for a presentation. Tea party. Game night. Lots of pictures of this one, because it was a fave. While Nate was in Detroit, I got brave and loaded up the kids and their bikes and we went to the bike park, which we'd never done before. This got an 11 out of 10! Emmie discovered ducks. Such a happy day. We spent lots of time at the pool. Grandma! Bryn is an artist. And also awesome. The eyes and the door match. Nate and his crew built us some new deck stairs. Emmie entered toddlerhood. I learned what a sego lily looks...