Out with 2020 and in with 2021!

Despite all the yuck that came our way as a nation in 2020, from a deadly virus to a polarizing election, we felt very blessed and grateful to have so much family time together, especially considering this was the last year the boys would spend with us before moving into the next chapter of their lives.  Being that most of that time together was spent in our backyard, it only makes sense that we'd ring in the new year as a family in the backyard too!  Cheers to a happy new year! 

And we couldn't let the year end without one final trip to Disney Springs for Jack to scope out the light sabers...

CHRISTmas 2020

There is always light at the end of the tunnel and thankfully the same was true with 2020.  As we come to a close of this tumultuous year, how nice it is that no matter how good or bad a year is, it ends with our Savior and an opportunity to reflect on his life, his example and our own.  There were many disappointing things about 2020 but there were also many gifts.  We kicked off the year with a visit from friends,  then as a family we traveled to the Exumas for Spring break and had a fabulous time.  We then followed that up with six weeks of us all being locked down together in our home as the country was doing it's best to try to control Covid. There are far worse ways to spend six weeks than jet skiing in your backyard with your family.  In addition, we finally got around to hiring a builder to install an outdoor kitchen for us which I was really excited about, just in time for Gary and Kelly and the boys to come enjoy some outdoor cooking with us as they looked to escape their lockdown in Utah.  We moved forward with our annual summer trip to Utah in July, and even returned home as land owners after finally finding a couple lots in Heber that we will look forward to building our dream home on soon.  I had the opportunity to return to Utah to drop the boys off at BYU in August, and in Sept Jack and I spent my big 50th birthday enjoying the Florida Keys and Miami beach. Then in October I returned to Utah to spend time with all three of my boys while hoping to get things moving on our house! Needless to say, as Christmas drew closer, I was so excited to end the year the same way as we spent a good portion of it...together.  I tried not to let the gloom of Covid negatively impact our holidays which it didn't!  Thanks to a bishopric member, I was able to continue the tradition of photos with Santa and thanks to Amazon Prime, we had gifts under our tree.  Grandma Roddy made the journey to join us and everyone had a lovely time.  The only thing that could have been better was the weather... 60 degrees is chilly but I guess we need a couple cooler days to give us reason to dust off our sweaters.

Once again Christmas was nearing and no thought had been put into a Christmas card photo.  Thankfully when Ty's girlfriend was visiting I asked her to snap a couple quick photos.  Poor Nova probably wasn't happy about us choosing the one on the right as everyone agreed it wasn't the most flattering photo of him...haha... but I have promised myself that next summer I will be on top of things and will hire a professional, who will make sure we all look great...even Nova!

How grateful I was to Brother Williams who so kindly offered to dress up in his Santa costume on Christmas Eve day and come by so I could take our traditional photo of the kids with Santa!  This was the first time in 18 years that I didn't pay for a photo at the mall...and of course in showing respect to Santa we took a photo with the kids wearing 2020's most trendy fashion accessory...the mask.

Later that evening we jumped in the car to go pay Ty a visit at work.  While I was happy for him that he had been asked to return to work at Basin over the holidays, I had no idea that would mean he would be working on Christmas Eve.  Of course he was thrilled because not only was he getting double pay but he was pretty excited that they were also providing Blaze Pizza.  Well we decided what better night than Christmas Eve to head over to the beautifully decorated Disney Springs and pay him a visit.  Of course it hadn't rained in days and it decided to rain just as we entered the shopping area.  But it was all worth it to see our sweet Ty busy at work on Christmas Eve! 

Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse...

But leave it to this rascal to be the first one up sniffing out his stocking on Christmas morning...

As the kids get older, especially the boys, Christmas gift ideas get tougher and tougher. But I hate the idea of them waking up to an envelope of money...The Wise Men didn't show up with money so I won't either! Luckily everyone was happy with their gifts.  From phones to AirPods to a wake skate and a bunch of other stuff Christmas was a success!  Now if only we could wake up to a white Christmas! For now blue will have to do.

I wasn't certain if our new outdoor kitchen would get much use since Jack has never been a griller and while I love to cook, I grew up with a dad and brothers who did all the grilling.  But thankfully after over 25 years of marriage and a beautiful 44" grill waiting to be taken for a test drive, Jack has taken a liking to it and has actually become really good at it!  So to honor this new found hobby, I had to get him his own personalized apron! 

It wouldn't be Christmas dinner if it wasn't a prime rib dinner!  And someone showed up to dinner in their robe...lol!  Clearly Grandma Roddy was not a fan of having her photo taken in it...

One thing Connor had asked for for Christmas was a chess set!  Looks like the family will have a new game to learn!

I guess it's no surprise that I forgot to take the traditional photos of each of the kids with their gifts as a memory of what we've gotten for them each year...my memory really is going...All I want for Christmas next year is my memory...  Merry Christmas! 

BYU for the WIN!

One of the highlights of college life is the sporting events! Sadly though with Covid in full force, there was a big question mark in regards to if college football teams would end up playing or not.  Thankfully BYU went against most Utah schools and plowed ahead somehow managing to put together a schedule by finding other schools that were also looking to salvage a season.  And while early on, spectators weren't allowed into the stadium  thankfully by mid season they had slowly started to allow a small amount of student tickets to be sold and the boys were fortunate enough to make it to one game. As it turned out BYU had one of it's best seasons in recent history losing only one game.  The jury was out on if it was because they truly had upped their game or if the competition was just not that great. Either way it made for an exciting season that was a blast to watch if even on TV!   So when it was announced that BYU would be playing in the Boca Raton Bowl here in Florida, I knew we had to get tickets...or at least attempt to. Again tickets would be limited but my friend Kayleen and I were determined to get some.  Our boys were best friends back at BYU and how fun it would be for us all to go together. Sage had no interest in going which turned out perfect since you could only get tickets in groups of two or four. Thankfully both Kayleen and I had fast fingers and scored tickets!  So away we went and what a great game it was.  And I think it's fair to say after a commanding 49-23 win over UCF, BYU can feel proud!

Mama bear happy to have her cubs home!

I had been counting down to Thanksgiving, when everyone would be back together again under one roof since the day I dropped the boys off at BYU in August.  Unfortunately when Jack got sick with Covid a week before Thanksgiving and was stuck in Utah our family reuniting was pushed back another couple weeks.  But how grateful I was when everyone was once again under one roof and how nice it was to have the boys home from Thanksgiving through the new year doing school work remotely during this time.  Now it was time for the festivities to begin like decorating the house!  One of my favorite holiday traditions is Jack making his breakfast of champions.  He may not be known as the cook in the family but he makes a mean cheesy egg! One day we'll trade in using this old griddle from our wedding for the one that remains untouched on our cooktop...ha!

Sadly the day has arrived when I am no longer the only woman in the boys' lives.  Connor was very excited to return to Florida to see his girlfriend Abby and Ty had given me a few days notice to alert me that his "Friend" Lael would be flying out to see him over the break. I think by the end of the visit it would be fair to say she was also his girlfriend.  I certainly couldn't complain about having a few extra hands to help with the decorating and what sweet girls they both are.

It wouldn't be the holidays without Jack purchasing several different types of egg nog to enjoy.  This year we had everyone participate in a taste testing contest to see if price/brand matters.  Ty took a pass on this activity after throwing up all his egg nog last year but it was fun to see which one each person thought was the brand name one vs the Publix brand and then to see which flavor everyone preferred!

I have to give Ty credit for doing such a great job giving Lael a true Florida experience.  He took her to DisneyWorld, they snorkeled in a spring, drove through a nature reserve to see all the wild gators, and watched the sun set at the beach.  In amongst these and all their other adventures he assured me his classwork was still getting done.  Here are just a couple photos he shared with me!

While Sage didn't get to hang out at home between Thanksgiving and Christmas like the boys did since she's in school, she did manage to enjoy her holiday break doing some fun things like her jingle row on the lake with her crew team, ice skating and a holiday party with her church youth group, and hanging out with friends!

I don't know who was happier, me or Ty when he told me that Basin had asked him to return to work during the holidays.  He had worked for them briefly at the beginning of 2020 (and by briefly I mean like a total of 7 shifts before everything shut down due to Covid).   By Christmas though things were starting to pick up and Ty was thrilled to be asked to return! At the rate he blows through money, it was a good thing.  He was also missing his college lifestyle of being busy and social so this was a great way to keep him from getting too bored during the break while earning a little bit of extra spending money! I loved going to Disney Springs to spy on him. It was so sweet to see how much they loved having him there!  

Thanksgiving Covid style...

I had been looking forward to Thanksgiving, when I'd have the whole family together again here in Florida, ever since I had dropped the boys off at BYU in August.  But sadly, a week before Jack and the boys were scheduled to fly home for Thanksgiving Jack started to feel sick and being that he lives with my parents when he's working in UT we knew it was important for him to get tested.  It hadn't even dawned on us though until after he tested that he would be unable to jump on a flight if he tested positive because Delta requires 14 days of quarantine from the day you get the results back.  Sure enough the results came back positive. Sigh... And while it would have been easy to lie to Delta about the result, especially since he no longer had symptoms and was feeling fine, we knew that would be wrong.  Moral of the story: Don't take a Covid test before you are scheduled to jump on a flight... kidding!

So after sharing that news with a friend, she insisted we join them for Thanksgiving which was so nice. I was still able to cook my turkey and share that with them since they had planned on doing ham but boy how nice it was to not have to worry about all the other dishes.  Thanks to the Utzingers a depressing dinner without Jack turned out to be a great time...even though we still missed him dearly.  It turned out ok though because Jack was able to make the drive to Flagstaff to spend Thanksgiving with his mom and was also able to see his sister in Phoenix.  So we all did our best to make lemonade out of lemons.  

Halloween during a pandemic or the 2020 presidential election. Not sure which one is more scary...

Even a pandemic wasn't going to prevent Sage and her friend Olivia from squeezing out another year of trick or treating!  When she told me that they were going as Barnacle Boy and Mermaid Man from Sponge Bob, I had to ask to see a photo since I had no clue who these characters were.  But I must say, I was quite impressed with their creativity!  Here are just a couple photos from their extensive photo shoot!  I think they were more interested in capturing the right photo than they were of actually trick or treating!

 

Sweet Nova waiting for trick or treaters to arrive! 

Talk about scary!  Seriously who would have thought with a national pandemic still in our midst and many people refusing to even leave their homes, let alone hand out candy to strangers, these girls would manage to still return home with this much candy.  

As a nation we are viewed as divided but in our family we like to call it balanced.  We may have cancelled each other out in the voting booth this time, but we both recognize the importance of exercising our right to vote even if neither of us were thrilled with the candidate we were voting for.  If you don't vote, you have no right to complain.  Regardless of the outcome, we pray in the end, the American people win. Go red, white, and blue!