October 2020

 

7th grade soccer 

Caleb and friends at Gavin's Lake MI cottage

Pirate and Ninja

Elsa and Hotdog (I think she regretted the costume choice)

Laser tag

Lake MI overlook

Arcadia Dunes hike with Gabrielse and DeWitts

Caleb running XC

Nolbi's 7th birthday

-We celebrated Nolbi's birthday and gave him all things Minions.

-Caleb's cross country team had fewer meets because of covid.  He cut down his time over the season and his fastest time was 21:40. Nate had fun re-living his cross country high school days. 

-Our friend Kristen DeWitt died from suicide after struggling with severe depression. She had been trying different treatment options for over a year. Her son, Nathan, is one of Caleb's good friends and our family was becoming closer with the DeWitts as well over the past year. Sometimes there are no words.

-The outage finished on Oct 21- yes! 

-The kids had fall break and we rented a place near Crystal Mountain with the Gabrielse and DeWitts. We all quarantined for a week before the trip so we could stay together without masks, but it still felt a little unnerving to vacation together during covid. The rental had a basement game room/tv room for the teen boys and a large family room/kitchen so we could hang out and eat together. It was wonderful to just go somewhere! We played games, went on a hike and played laser tag. Nate and Lexi went to the alpine slide as we weren't sure she could do laser tag. When they came back and saw our group playing, Lexi was devastated and desperately wanted to play. So I gave her my laser gun and she loved it. The whole group had fun, although a little odd to look at the pictures of us intently shooting at each other... 

-At some point during the fall we began attending church in person again. Church allowed 100 people, spaced out with masks and no singing. Eventually we re-instated singing, with masks on of course. There is no Sunday School or kid programs this year. (The MS/HS youth group has found creative ways to meet.) Our church split the congregation into geographical "small groups" to maintain some sense of community within the church, and we are leaders for our group. We met outdoors about twice/month. Our family enjoyed the months of watching church online from the comfort of our pajamas and family room. It wasn't perfect, some of the kids struggled with behaviors. Transitioning back to in person church was also challenging for some of our kids. Lexi is in a stage where she is quite adamant that she does not like church. Covid life makes everything different. Being an elder during covid has also been an unique experience for Nate. 

-Stephen and Lexi are great playmates and their imagination with stuffed animals is cute. They will have conversations between the animals and make up story lines. Some of the animals are Beach, Big, Scratch, Fifi, Fluffy, and other names I can't remember at the moment. 

-We did not do trick or treating this year. We took Stephen and Lexi over to Tim's house for a fire and a candy scavenger hunt that Jenny put together. The older boys got together with friends and Julia went to a trunk or treat with a friend.