March quarantined at the cabin 3/2020

March 2020 turned out much different than planned.  We were able to go to Mississippi and also see New Orleans, then to Michigan for Dexter's birthday.  When we arrived home on March 11, Dean was pretty sick.  By Thursday, March 12, I was getting pretty sick.  We had to cancel our Pi day party, which was going to be on Saturday, March 14.  By the time Saturday came around, the world pretty much had shut down!   Who knew!  Church services were cancelled, businesses were shut down, here were we had a directive from the government to "Stay home, stay safe".  Then on Wednesday, March 18, there was a 5.7 earthquake, I thought it was the "big one" that has been talked about for years.   Scared me to death.  

We decided no better place to stay home than at the cabin!

So starting on March 19, we basically lived at the cabin, and plan to till the quarantine is lifted.

 We had started our wall project, with about 12 puzzles finished to this point.  Since we were quarantined, it was a perfect time to work like crazy on our puzzle project.  

 First wall complete!

 We stayed down at the cabin, thinking it would only be for a couple of weeks.  We were loving it, we had a huge project, beautiful surrounding to go on walks and 4 wheeler rides, this wasn't going to be too bad!

 Our neighbor, Natalie Diamond, knowing we were sick, brought us over a loaf a bread, and a puzzle to add to our puzzle wall.....the puzzle was 4000 pieces!  It took up 3 full tables for the pieces, and none of our tables were big enough for the puzzle, so we brought up half of our ping pong table to put the puzzle together on.  We put the blue plastic underneath while we were working on it so we wouldn't have to move it to Mod Podge it.  This thing was huge! 

 More walks, and more puzzles.

 We would work on the big puzzle, and get discouraged, complete a couple of 1000 piece puzzles so we could feel good about ourselves and make some progress on our wall.

 On March 26, Braden brought his family down to the cabin parking lot so he could pick up a snowmobile our cabin neighbors gave us.  Braden was going to get it in working order while he was "social distancing".

I got to see Lucy, (didn't get to hold her or play with her) but I got to build a snowman with Livy and Rex.  No hugs, no touching, and tried to keep our distance from each other.  It was awesome to see them, even if for a super short time, and from a distance!

 Then back to the puzzles....Starting to see a little progress on the huge one.

Progress is soooooo slow!

 It was so beautiful at the cabin.  We were loving the time up there, but anxious for the puzzle to be finished, and the quarantine to be done!  Now it was a race to see which finished first!

Neither one ended in March.

Ann Arbor, 3/4/2020

 On the airplane ready to head to Ann Arbor!  We are so excited to see the Francis family!

We arrived really late on the evening of  March 4th.  We woke up the kids, hugged them, and let them go back to sleep.  In the morning, we had all three kids in bed with us snuggling!  It was awesome!

 So many snuggles when the kids got home from school!

 Movie night with the Grands!  Grandpa Deaner may have fallen asleep.

 Dex is always wanting to do card tricks! 

 Miles is always pulling faces!

 We went to the movie Onward.  Every second with these kids has been a blast!

Amanda let the kids miss school on Friday, and then all day Saturday was dedicated to kids basketball.  

First game was Dexter's.  They have the kids come running through the basketball sign, and meet in the middle for a pep talk and prayer.  Cutest thing ever!

 Dexter played great, and even scored!

 Next game was Nora's.  I love this kid!

 Her name was the first one announced.  She is cool that way!

 Shaking hands, as the refs...one of which happens to be Mike....look on.

 ...and she is down!  (still smiling)

 Team meeting and cheer afterwards.

 Last, but not least, is Miles!  He is too cool to run out to center court.

 We got to sit on the bench right next to the players!  Miles was pretty excited about that!

 Miles takes his dribbling pretty seriously!  He practices all day long! 

 Great save Miles!

 And he shoots!

 My favorite player of that whole game!

From the basketball games, we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Road trip with the Francis family!   Doesn't get much better than that!

We spent the night in a hotel in Grand Haven.  Swam in the hotel pool, and got to have the twins share a room with us.

 This is the lighthouse in Grand Haven.  We froze!  It was so pretty, but I can't think of a time I have been so cold.  The air stung our flesh!

 Mike swinging Dex.  Too cold for the twins to hang on.

 So pretty, and so cold!  Did I mention it was freezing?!

 Mike and Amanda

 There was a really cool play set in Muskegon, Michigan, right on the banks of Lake Michigan.  So pretty, but still a little chilly!

 Grandpa Deaner and Miles.

 Nora and Mike.

 Back to the hotel, where Dex entertained us with a couple more card tricks!

The reason we went to Grand Rapids was to see a butterfly exhibit.  Grandpa found it online, and decided that would be a fun thing to see.  I had my doubts.....

 It was amazing!  The kids loved it, as did the adults!

From the butterfly exhibit, we wandered around the statues.  They were equally amazing!

 Nora and Grandpa copying the statue behind them.

 Amanda leading her kids on the labyrinth.

 Yay, they made it!

 Manda Panda....yes, she hated that I made her stand by the panda statue.

 Miles put on these butterfly wings and all of a sudden he was a super butterfly!  One of my most favorite moments of the whole trip!

 That is Dex under the hoof of this huge horse!

 We all rolled down this big hill, and I got motion sickness... I guess I may be too old for this!

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 I think this was everyone's favorite.  This statue was made completely of letters.  We searched for all kinds of works on these.

 Nora and Grandma Eje.

Nora had a vision as to how this photo shoot was going to go....I think we nailed it!

 Monday Dean and I walked into the town of Ann Arbor to meet Amanda for lunch.  Walking along the Heron river is so peaceful and beautiful!  Huge swans in the picture above, and a Cardinal in the picture below.

 It was so nice outside, that we decided to walk home after lunch.  It ended up being 10 miles round trip.  Loved it, saw so many things....

 ...that evening Dean started getting sick....

Dean stayed in bed with a high fever for all of Dexter's birthday, just coming down to see Dex open presents.

 I think the kids were more excited about giving Dex his presents, then Dex was getting them!  Happy 10th birthday Dexter!!!

The next morning, it was time to go home.  It was an amazing trip! We arrived home on March 11.

...and then the corona virus hit the world.  I am so glad we got this trip in before our normal started changing...

Dean and I both got very sick, and stayed in bed for the next week.  On Wednesday, March 18, a 5.7 earthquake hit the Salt Lake Valley.  No damage to our house.  Scared me to death!  We continue to have aftershocks.  Dean and I decided to quarantine our selves down at the cabin for the next week, so for the next week we read about the aftershocks rather the feeling them!