Beauty of Being Human: March: Pandemics, Earthquakes and Toilet Paper

March started with a sick Caleb. He had a little cough and fever for a good 4-5 days. Although he probably felt horrible, he was stoked to get to watch The Lion King on repeat, alternating between the newer CGI version and the classic animated version. We quarantined him to our room, which he was also stoked to get to hang out in his favorite bed in the house all day. After detox baths, ibuprofen and lots of rest, he finally kicked his fever and was back to his silly self in a few days.

Dallin has been working at Clearlink for 10-years! He started out as a sales associate when he first moved to Utah. That wasn't his strongest area of expertise, but instead of firing him, his supervisor shifted him to Quality Assurance. From there, he went to accounting then to IT and now the developer's world of IT. The company honored the employees who have been there with a nice dinner and award ceremony, as well as a month long paid sabbatical and spending money. Not too shabby. We will be using his month for a summer adventure road trip. It was a fun evening, with good food and a sweet baby Aida, stealing the show and hearts of all who met her.

Towards the end of February, we started getting wind of a virus in China that was slowly making its way to the United States. It had ravaged its way through China and Europe, killing many and evoking 2-week quarantines and whole city lockdowns, where people stay in their homes unless they have to grocery shop or have "essential jobs." We thought, "What's the big deal?" But, apparently, we were naive because every store we went to was completely stripped of toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, diapers, dog food, potatoes, onions: "Essentials" that people were apparently scared of not having if they had to be quarantined for 2-weeks. We thought we were pretty well stocked on toilet paper, but half way through our "Stay in, Stay safe" order, we were down to 2 rolls. With 4 people in the house, all day, it was looking like we would need to start using old torn up sheets or bideting it with squirt bottles. Luckily, our sweet neighbor, who works at Costco, knew our situation and showed up one morning with a Costco sized package of toilet paper. She snagged one for us first thing before the masses emptied the shelves again. A true angel.

You read that correctly. The second week of March, we were ordered to "Stay home, stay safe." Dallin's worked moved everyone to remote working. Schools closed and did remote learning. Churches went to home-based church. Within a matter of 24-hours we went from go-go-go, all spread out, to everyone home, all the time. I have to admit, my introverted self kind of loved not having the pressure of going and being social and having all my chicks and hubbers home all the time. We made the most of our time together, took time every day to go for fun walks or hikes, did daily family chores, lots of yoga, learning, playing and growing. The pictures summarize how we spent our time as the COVID-19 Pandemic made it's way to America. The whole purpose was to "Slow the spread," in order to not overwhelm hospitals, give researchers a chance to figure out how the virus works, how to treat it, etc. Many believe it is all a conspiracy. Many believe it is the end of the world. And then there are many, like us, who just think, "Welp. One more little obstacle for the books!" It shall be interesting to see how this all plays out.

St. Patrick's Day was the first day of quarantine and you better believe Luke made a hotel trap for the leprechaun. He made a welcoming abode, in hopes the leprechaun would get nice a cozy, fall asleep and he could snatch him. The tricky leprechaun got away, again and turned our milk green in the process, but left his signature Lucky Charms.

Nana sent Luke a daily Lego building challenge someone put together, which he accepted without any hesitation. Here are some of his creations, including a model of the parable of the olive trees from the Book of Mormon:

On March 18th, Dallin was down feeding the kiddos breakfast, I was reading in bed and earth decided to have a dance party. Yup, a 5.7 earthquake. In Salt Lake City, Utah. There hasn't been on that big since one in St George in 1992. We reign from earthquake country, but this was a little unnerving because they just don't happen here. Everyone was unharmed. There were just a few little cracks in the house. Native Utahans thought for sure the end of the world was coming with each aftershock and it motivated us to get a good 72-hour kit together for our family. The kids thought it was a blast eating breakfast under the table. Oh, to experience catastrophes through the optimistic, playful eyes of a child.

We wanted to share a little hope and light for World Down Syndrome Day, so we grabbed our chalk, called the Halls and decorated the sidewalk outside the boys' school. Trina and I did most of the work, but we didn't mind and it was good for the kiddos to get to visit for a while.