Surgery and Changes

Well it's been one crazy week.  After getting tested on Sunday and having the test come back negative, I was all set for surgery on Tuesday, but we needed to stay in a pretty strict quarantine on Monday.  Tuesday morning bright and early, Dan took me to the hospital, and my mom came  to stay with me.  Surgery went well though I don't remember hardly anything until after I got up to my room.  Once I got up there, it was mostly sleeping, watching TV and reading books, and of course, getting blood drawn and tests run.  I got to eat a liquid diet for my first couple meals, then thankfully I was graduated to regular food.  all went well enough that I was cleared to go home on Wednesday morning.  For me most of the rest of the week has consisted of napping and resting.  Friends from the ward have been very sweet about bringing some meals by for us. 

For Dan the week has been very different.  The company Dan works for is moving its office to Portland area, so we are also moving.  Dan has spent most of the week packing stuff up and getting the house ready to take pictures of so we can get the house on the market.  We are hoping it will sell well and quickly and then we will look into houses on Portland area.  Some of the kids are excited, and some are not and some are indifferent.  Evelyn is upset - she will be leaving some very good friends and a school and neighborhood that she loves.  David is very excited - he keeps talking about going on a "field trip" which is what he calls road trips.  He wants to leave now for Oregon.  So Dan has been exhausting himself getting things ready while I can hardly do anything since I'm exhausted and I can't lift more than 10 lbs.  Thankfully the kids have been helpful (well - the older ones... mostly) 

Now we got the house looking nice, we gotta keep it that way - hopefully not for too long.  Tomorrow we are going to have to be gone most of the day to let the people take pictures of our house for listing.  It feels a bit like we have been running one marathon after another with no time to rest in between.  

Today we got to go to church, which was really nice, and most of the kids wore their masks the whole time.  David got about 15 minutes in.  :)  This evening, we had a really fun time together all playing Spontuneous - which was all about singing songs and music and we had a fun time together - everyone but James and David who were in bed - it was fun getting the older kids to play along!  

Home At Last

This has been a long and busy week.  Lots of driving and seeing friends.  Monday was hiking and enjoying our last day at the cabin.  It was beautiful!  I love being up there and I love the beautiful scenery!

Tuesday, we cleaned up and headed down to Denver.  We got in to town before we were able to check into our airbnb, so we went to Dinosaur Ridge and hiked around and had a fun time together.  The gift shop was open, so I got a family souvenir there along with some shirts for the kids since they were half off.  

The statues in the parking lot all had face masks on them - the kids all thought it was so funny. 

That evening, Eileen got to hang out chatting with her friend for a bit and we picked up Anna's friend Nevaeh to spend a few days with us, then we went back to our Airbnb for bed.  The place was big - but we found out the day before we got there that the laundry machine was broken and wouldn't be fixed while we were there, so we had to try and figure out how to make it through the week and get home with out that washing machine.  I ended up going to Walmart to grab a few clothes and did a bit of laundry at Doug's and then we just dealt with it. 

Wednesday, we met up with Grandpa at the park.  Our place was near Grandpa's apartment, so he chose a park nearby and we met up and had some lunch and the kids played and we walked and chatted.   The kids had a great time!  Eileen found a caterpillar and we found an app that identifies plants and animals and you can try do challenges and complete collections - Eileen describes it like Pokemon Go, but with real plants and animals.  We had a lot of fun taking pictures of things and finding out what it is. 

Wednesday evening, we went and had dinner with Becca and Jeremiah and family.  Becca and I had fun playing around with her laser cutter and we had a wonderful dinner.  The kids had a blast playing together and even had fun playing in the bit of rain.  

Thursday, we took it easy in the morning, then I dropped kids off at Tina's and Anna and Nevaeh went to Nevaeh's house, then I met up with Becky for our craft night!  It was so wonderful to just sit and chat and watch Pride and Prejudice and of course, craft!  In the morning, I started collecting the kids again, then we went back to our place to do a bit of packing and getting ready to go.  In the evening, we went to Doug's for dinner.  We made some guac, ate hamburgers and hot dogs, chatted, played games and had a fun time together.  Before we left, Mark gave the kids some Magic: The Gathering decks!  He's such a great cousin!  We also got to zoom chat with Julia for a bit!  Then we headed back to the house again and Kay and Reggie came over for a bit to chat and hang out.  It was SOOOOO good to see them again!  The only thing that would have made it better was getting to hug Kay - but she's got to keep her grandpa safe - and that's more important.  

Saturday morning, bright and early, the we packed up the van and hit the road.  It was a long, long car ride home, but we made it - we got in around midnight that night and crashed hard!  

Today has been so great getting to be all back together.  Aaron has been playing Magic with Dan and anyone else willing to play with him.  I'm just glad to be back with Dan and back in my own bed!  This morning, I had to head to the hospital to get a pre-op COVID test done.  It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't too bad and I enjoyed chatting with a really nice lady while waiting for the testing.  

Now I just gotta get through next week!  Surgery here we come.... 

On the Road Again

Monday afternoon, we got to go rafting on the river - we were out there for 3 hours, but it was a ton of fun!  The kids mostly had a blast - though James got a bit cold sometimes. 

 

Tuesday morning, was checkout and then we headed down to Utah to stay the night with Paul and Candace. 

Wednesday morning, Dan headed to the airport to head home and the kids and I took off for the cabin.  We got to play and have fun with Becca and her two cute little girls, Doug and Mark came up on Thursday night, and Tina and Frankie came up on Saturday for the day to play and have fun.  

The kids have been having a blast playing Magic with Mark - especially Aaron - and walking around and whacking at trees and making forts.  David especially loves throwing "pooh sticks" into the creek.  We had fun playing Space Base and Killer Bunnies with Tina and playing Dominion with Doug and Mark.  There was lots of singing and lots of playing and lots of outdoor time.  It's been a wonderful week - but so full it feels like it's been much longer!  

By Sunday afternoon, we were all that was left at the cabin and we had a great church time and played games together and had Chipped Beef on toast for dinner - for the first time ever, the biscuits actually came out well!  The kids are missing everyone, but we will hopefully see them all again soon!  

On The Road

We had a fun and busy start to our week getting ready for our trip.  Trying to eat up all the food and trying to get stuff done without the kids driving us crazy.  Plus Dan had a release at work that he needed to make sure was done and up and running as it was supposed to.  Thankfully things went well there.  I had my last doctor's appointment on Monday to get all the paperwork in order before the surgery and thankfully that went pretty quickly.  After church last Sunday, we realized that David no longer had church shoes that fit or tennis shoes that fit - so we got him some new shoes and he was SO excited!  

Wednesday morning bright and early (well - not really all that early) we loaded up the car wearing our Jones Family reunion shirts and headed out on the road!  We had a long and fun day of driving that ended with a stop at a hotel in Farmington, New Mexico.  We got in and divided into girls and boys rooms and crashed! 

Our second leg of the trip was almost as long as the first, but it ended up in meeting up with Paul and Candace's family for dinner and our hotel stay.  We let the kids have fun in the pool for a bit before we divided up into our rooms for the night.  Poor Dan got the younger, and therefore slightly more difficult set of kids - plus he was sharing a bed with David, who sleeps like a moving helicopter - he is all over the place and kicks and wiggles and sometimes falls off the bed (it's why we have him on a mattress on the floor at home - but he refuses to sleep on the floor now....)  One early morning, he fell off the bed and then poked his eyes above the side of the bed and looked at Dan and said "oopps - I fell"  But then he climbed back on and went back to sleep. 

Friday was the day for arriving at the reunion.  We let the kids swim a bit in the morning, had some breakfast and then headed out to the cabin.  We stopped in Boise for lunch and a Costco run to get food for the reunion, then on to the reunion!  We were the second to arrive after Dan's parents.  So we claimed our room and unloaded and then watched and helped as the family began to trickle in.  Everyone arrived except for Steve and Claire who had a crazy series of events, including a sick dog, and a landslide blocking the way, that prevented them from arriving until Saturday afternoon. 

Saturday morning, we went to a nearby national park to play in the water, hike around the area and play games in the open areas.  It was a beautiful day!  The kids had a blast, but after a short time in the water, most of the ended up freezing.

We had a fun little 4th of July weekend including roasting marshmallows and having s'mores and setting off little firecrackers. We had a blast playing Jones Ball (which is basically baseball, but with fewer rules and more fun)

Sunday was wonderful!  We had a wonderful meeting with amazing talks and music and the spirit so strong!  In the afternoon, we had a baby shower for Emmalee.  We all had a fun time chatting and playing games.  

David loved playing with the uncle that he is named for.  He adamantly let everyone know that he was big David and Uncle David was little David.  He also had a blast playing with his cousin Ezra who is only a few months older than he is.  These two are the end of this generation of Jones' - now we are eagerly awaiting Emmalee's baby and the new generation!