We arrived in Salt Lake City on March 10th and had about one week of normalcy before the coronavirus swept in and upset everyone's apple carts. School was closed on about March 17th and most small businesses closed to help prevent the spread and flatten the curve. On the upside this allowed us to be able to spend a lot more time with our granddaughters. On the downside, our daughter and son-in-law had to cancel their planned 10th Anniversary trip to Hawaii. Also, we wound up having to postpone our trip to Portugal, Hungary, and Serbia/Croatia until next year. We had already paid for all this travel but fortunately, the airlines and our Airbnb host are accommodating us moving all this to 2021.
A week later we had a significant earthquake at about 8 am that had us all out in the front yard just standing there until someone suggested we get in the car to warm up and wait a bit to make sure there were not more major aftershocks. Our middle granddaughter came up with this Earthquake plan so we would know what to do in the future.
Another unique experience was being able to "home school" the kids in math. They all enjoyed learning about how you can use formulas in an Excel spreadsheet to help you do math problems. They were especially excited about the ability to color the cells in the spreadsheet to a color of their own choosing.
Merritt also spent time with them watching all the new Book of Mormon Videos. This became a daily treat for them. Merritt would pause the video presentation every now and then to ask them questions about the story and they had some very good discussions.
There was also time to play "No Sweat Chess". This is a great game to teach children about chess but limits the number of options to make it more manageable for young children to play. We would highly recommend this game to anyone who would like to introduce their kids to the marvelous activity of chess.
It's great that the girls are getting old enough to play other games as well such as Yahtzee! They think it is fun to be the scorekeeper and get to add up all the numbers.
Heather saved our Ministek art game which we purchased in the Netherlands back in 1999. The girls really enjoy using it to make their own creations just like their Mom did 20 years ago.
One of Merritt's "responsibilities" (which he loved) was to make breakfast for the girls every morning at 7:00 am. Heather introduced them to "Noodle Omelet" made with eggs and ramen noodles, they loved them!
Yet another unique experience was having church at home due to the virus. We were able to have the Sacrament and then a short lesson or talk was presented.
..and there was also singing with energetic music leading.
On top of all this, there was also time for just goofing off with the girls. They are so fun to be with.
Here is one last cute photo, they are certainly a fun bunch and act like best friends most of the time.
On April 3rd, we had to say our goodbyes to travel to Fair Oaks, California so we could stay with Heather's father, Ted Allebes during the lockdown. We will miss them but plan to be back for another visit in June.
Ted is 88 and lives independently but we thought it would be good for us to be there with him during this time to make sure he doesn't need to go out for any reason. We drove from Utah and it has been great to be here with him. He has a garden that keeps him busy and we get to help him every now and then with his computer and other things around the house.
Merritt has taken advantage of our being within one mile of one of the best bike trails in the United States by going on a bike ride three times a week and has set a goal to complete a 100-mile ride in the near future. His longest recent ride was 67 miles so he is making good progress. The bike trail parallels the Amerian River for about 30 miles. Here is the recumbent bike he bought from his brother John.
River views from the Hazel Avenue bridge.
He has also enjoyed being able to go on rides with his brother, Milt.
We did some social distancing visits with his sister Brenda and her husband Bob. We were careful to avoid touching anything and stayed the recommended 6-foot distance apart but that didn't make catching up with them any less enjoyable. It is always great to see family.
There is also a public tennis complex less than a mile from Ted's home so Merritt has been enjoying getting some tennis exercise hitting against the wall. Most recently the courts have been re-opened and he has made several friends at the court already.
There is also a wakeless lake nearby so Merritt invested in an inflatable stand up paddleboard so he can go there to cool down when the days are hot. As you can see he is certainly enjoying his retirement!
We have also started eating smarter. We meal prep all our food at the beginning of the week so everything we are going to eat is predetermined. It all goes into the garage refrigerator and then we get each meal out and warm it up during the week. We have been doing this for five weeks now and it has resulted in both of us having better diets. We both really enjoy the 400 calorie breakfasts and lunches and 200 calorie snacks but we are not so excited about the dinners. We plan to try some other 400 calorie dinner recipes in the future.
Sundays here have been very unique. One of the senior couples in our mission has organized a Zoom call each Sunday so we could listen to homecoming reports from missionaries from the ANM. It has been great to hear their inspired messages and also made us happy to see the other missionaries we served with, they are all so amazing and inspiring. After the Zoom call, we have the Sacrament with Ted followed by some discussion.
On Mother's day, our daughters set up a Zoom call so we could visit with all of them. That was great!
The ability to continue to stay connected with others during this time of "isolation" has been a great blessing. We continue to enjoy being with our family and helping out wherever we can.
We are sure that in five years we will all look back on these COVID-19 days as some of the oddest times of our lives and as a very difficult time for many but I think we will also recall some unique learnings that came out of this pandemic experience.
For those of you who are struggling, we hope your situation will improve over time.
