{K} getting ready

In exactly three weeks "Sister Dougall" enters the (home) MTC!!!!

Still no word on reassignment so we are buying everything waterproof.

Happy Birthday to mom

I woke up this morning and came downstairs to a real party happening in the kitchen celebrating my 45th birthday.  No detail was overlooked, complete with balloons, crepe paper, guests and birthday hats.

I love the time and creativity that went into making a surprise for me to wake up to....100% done by Ty.

Happy Birthday to me :)

from Pandemic to Wildfires

The past week has been something unlike anything I've experienced.  

The state of Oregon and California have been dealing with unprecedented numbers of wildfires and, in the manner of a couple of days, we found our community in a state of emergency because of the proximity of the fires.  

While we suffered for weeks with hazardous air quality (we had to actually tape around all of our exterior doors to seal out the pollutants) we were fortunate in that we did not have to actually evacuate from our homes, like so many in our area did.  We live very close to the Willamette River - on the south side of the river they were forced to evacuate but we live on the north side and we remained in a state of "be ready to evacuate" for the duration of the peak fires.  Part of my "be ready" was taking a video of our home and all the belongings in each room...just on the off chance we had to leave and didn't have anything to come back to.  

It was a very humbling experience and while I'm grateful that we fared so well, I recognize that a lot of people lost homes this wildfire season.  After everything that everyone has gone through this year, it was just another reminder that nothing is guaranteed and how quickly life can take a turn.

{K} Summer 2020

Kaitlyn spent her summer living in Morgan, UT at Boppa and Diyah's house and working teaching swim lessons for the Bingham Swim School. 

But, as you can see, her summer also included plenty of friends, outdoors, sunshine and smiles!

 

First Day of School 2020-2021

Remember the summer of 2020 when we were unsure whether the kids would be going back to school in person or not???

Turns out the answer is NOT!

Online school here we come.....6th grade, 8th grade and senior year.

{C} serving the community

Remember the summer of 2020 when Cason's trip to Malawi Africa was cancelled because of COVID???

After collecting donations of clothing for months to raise money for Cason's trip, we had to finally host the sale....trip or no trip, COVID or no COVID.  We needed our garage back!

It was such a fun weekend to be outdoors and to be interacting with people...strangers and friends alike.

 The sale was a huge success...it served the community as Cason collected clothing donations and helped people clean out their closets, it served the community for anyone who came to the sale and was able to buy clothing for $1 and it served the community again when the clothing that remained after the sale was donated to a local church to benefit victims of local wild fires.    

Cason may have not made it to Africa this summer but he absolutely made a difference!