Welcome to our World

For Hubby's birthday my parents divided and conquered the babysitting by keeping the two dogs at their house with my dad and the four children at our house with my mom.  Hubby and I headed to Denver and failed to complete our Cuban Crisis mission at Escapology before eating at the 5280 Burger Bar.  There is no one else I would rather fail or succeed in life with!  We stayed overnight at The Brown Palace, which opened in 1892 and has hosted celebrities like the Beatles, Molly Brown, Charles Lindbergh, and Helen Keller, royals from Russia and Romania and Sweden in the 1920s, and politicians like Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin.  And not to leave sports out, the Brown Palace also claims to be the birthplace of the Denver Broncos since the first meetings to discuss a Denver team were held in the very fancy lobby.  During Hubby's fancy birthday breakfast the next morning we got a phone call saying that our son had been at his very first Young Men's ac...

I could go on for a long time about what happened at the Capitol when Trump supporters tried to stop the legislative branch from completing their job concerning the electoral college. I must admit I spent way too much time on the news those few days. But I will only write down what I emphasized to the children. Our elected officials stayed up until 3:30am to get the job done.  Many gold stars for Mike Pence in my book.  The first week my children were back in school I got emails saying there had been one Covid case at both the elementary and the middle school. Then we got news our postponed spring break Disney Cruise had been canceled once again. (At least I hadn’t already packed this time.) So, instead of an Eastern Caribbean cruise this spring we are now signed up for an Alaskan cruise this summer. I’m not holding my breath! And honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t cancel sooner with the way numbers were and the vaccine distribution not going as quickly as previously hoped...

This Christmas included a cancelation of our plans to join family in Utah due to Covid numbers there but we tried to make the best of staying home.  We baked cookies, celebrated Michelle's virtual Holiday Performance with Chinese food, wrapped and delivered presents, and waited on the sledding hill for a giant cloud to move so we could see the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter aka The Christmas Star. As part of Danny's Christmas presents we rented out our favorite laser tag place and let him bring two friends along.  I drove the boys in my car and Hubby drove the girls in his truck.  Emma also had permission from Danny to come along and I'm glad she did.  We all had a wonderful time with not only laser tag but also rope climbing, bumper cars and the arcade.  So much fun to own the place for a couple of hours.  I wouldn't be surprised if Danny asked for the same present again next year. The next day, on Christmas Eve, we got into matching pajamas and took a ...

Well, we made it out of quarantine just in time for hybrid to be canceled.  Not like it was a surprise but still a major disappointment.  As I’ve watched my children hate online school I have spent hours trying to find a place with excellent schools that are open, that I would be willing to move to in January and have affordable short term housing.  Doesn’t really exist.  So, we soldier on and do things like take a day trip to Denver.  After introducing Kate and Natalie to Voodoo Donuts we saw the traveling Dog exhibit and the remodeled Space exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  (We liked the campfire, fantasy spaceship and heat/cold temporary tattoos best.)  We then drove to the newly opened In-N-Out Burger for lunch but were told by an employee the drive through line would be a five and a half hour wait!  We headed over to the nearest Chick-Fil-A instead.  In-N-Out Burger will have to wait for another day.  Sadly, I had...