a Tennessee tour to cure the travel bug (12/2020)

Throughout 2020, we watched and waited for the opportunity to take the kids oversees to Albania and Greece for a visit of Omi and Grandpa's mission. However, as COVID continued and the holidays loomed, it became painfully obvious that this was another cancelled trip. (We'd also cancelled Bear Lake, a Chicago girls trip, and a flight to Salt Lake.) Tired of quarantining and fresh off of our own COVID cases, we orchestrated plan B - a Tour of Tennessee with Jordyn. We met up in Memphis, traveled on to Nashville and stopped in St Louis on the way home. The kids loved Graceland, paid homage to MLK, ate BBQ, swam every night, discovered diagonal crosswalks, visited Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, saw 'Mask Up' in Mighty Lights, listened at the Honky Tonks, snacked on bonuts, walked the country music hall of fame, made custom Goo-Goo Clusters, checked out Reese Witherspoon's closet, rode the arch tram, and played at the City Museum. (And don't forget brushing against the crime scene tape downtown.) It was a fabulous, unexpected end to 2020.

 

Stay Salty (8/2018)

We took a detour on the way home to enjoy a float in the Great Salt Lake. It's been on mom's bucket list for a very long time and somehow got overlooked throughout college. Dad and Jordyn, who had lived so close most of their lives, had also never been. Everyone enjoyed the wondrous waters until an unthinking adult (ahem Dad) mentioned that the swarm of brine shrimp were 'alive'. Immediately spooked, Dalia and Jack ran for the showers. The thinking adult exited too for the sake of their safety as they ran out of eyesight ...and managed to get a few pictures of said 'greatness'. 

Smiles returned once safely on land and exploring Antelope Island.

a gingerbread boat (11/2018)

We participated in (what we didn't know at the time was) the last gingerbread display at the Mormon Trail center. In years past, we had contributed to the ward display but I naively agreed to create our very own gingerbread product from beginning to end. I quickly felt overwhelmed by the learning curve of gingerbread but David was an enthusiastic force who jumped right in with confidence (perhaps overly so). Determined to create a gingerbread boat, he designed a vessel while I trialed various gingerbread recipes. Already frazzled by an argument about gingerbread firmness and texture, I followed Dad's good-enough cuts with measured pieces to ensure fit. Truthfully, we were the perfect mix of engaged creativity and cautious detail orientation but our patience with eachother's style was depleted long before the kids entered the picture. And when they did, with their wild hairs, I was fighting back tears trying to champion the cause of aesthetics while dad delighted in entertaining each and every idea. The question of how to construct a wrap around, clear window was the final straw and we elected to finish construction at that point... but we did create something pretty wonderful!