Back to School - COVID style and other August happenings

 

Yay for school starting! Alec is in 8th (last year before High School!) Charlie is in 6th (first year at the Middle School) Gwen is in 5th, and Freddy is in 1st (first time going all day!). We weren't sure until like a week before school if the kids would even be attending school or not. Because Freedom Prep already has a smaller kid to teacher ratio they felt they'd be able to keep classes isolated enough to stay up during COVID with a shortened schedule to facilitate sanitizing. They will go M-F just an hour shorter. So school starts at 8:00 and goes until 2:00. The kids have to wear masks to school. They have to wear masks all day at school. They're allowed to take it off when their running outside but thats it. The elementary kids don't eat in the cafeteria, the eat in their classrooms. They don't switch rooms for math or any other specialty subject. Instead the specialty teachers come to them and every class does math all together. This would be bad news for Gwen since she was in the 6 grade math class last year as a 4th grader but blessedly her teacher this year was her math teacher last year and so she knows what Gwen needs. Mrs. Thurston got special permission from the principle to give Gwen her own math. She does it all online through a program with videos while Mrs. Thurston teaches the rest of the class. Its been really great and I'm grateful that Mrs. Thurston was willing to go the extra mile for Gwen.  

Gwen and Freddy started the day before Alec and Charlie. We took a nice family walk to school so we wouldn't have to worry about parking or anything. The allowed one parent to go in with the children and see them safely to their new room since they canceled the orientation day because of COVID. 

In other news, Theo is clapping! He's so adorable. Also, Max is getting so much more expressive. He told me he wanted me to put his hair up in a hair thing.

Tommy had a fun birthday party up Provo Canyon. Mom and Dad were there, it was so good to see everyone. 

Archibald Family Reunion Bear Lake 2020

We rented a big house on the Idaho side of Bear Lake.  COVID cases were low enough that everyone felt comfortable gathering together. It was a lovely break from quarantine mode.  We went to the lake on two different days, did a cave tour and swam in the pool on another day. We also had fun cooking, eating, exercising (some bike rides, some runs, some zoom workouts inside), playing games, making bleach/tie-dye t-shirts, watching the welders work on the giant, cool, metal, play, boat thing attached to deck, and just talking together. On the last night we watched a slide show of all the pictures people took during the week and sang primary songs (at GG's request).  Watching the 4 babies (5 if you include Max) eat and 'play' together was so fun. Eddie and Kayla brought these push/ride on toys that they all loved. Also we got raspberry shakes a lot of nights. Trying to manage all the delicious food with my 4 insulin shots a day was tricky and heartbreaking sometimes. 

Since GG's presence wasn't anticipated when reservations were made we were a bedroom short and it was a little uncomfortable figuring out which couple/family would share a room with her... and for a few minutes it was looking like Chris and I would need to do it as we were the last ones to arrive and get a choice despite having the most kids sleeping in our room with us but Brittany and Thom made the sacrifice to switch rooms with us and got the smallest 2 queen bed room to share with her and have Davis sleep in pack in play in the closet. It was such a kind and selfless gesture that not everyone realized they made. I felt a little bad for grumbling. Not the only time I sort of had a melt down. I had a couple of hard moments this trip, personally. It was my first time traveling since having diabetes and it just makes everything complicated. I hated arriving late, after everyone was eating but we had to unload our entire car first to get to the cooler that had my insulin in it before I could eat. By the time everyone finished eating, they all left to go swimming (my kids begging to go with them) but we still had to eat and figure out where we'd be sleeping. The whole reason we were late was because we made a long detour to stop by Herriman to borrow kayaks and paddle board for everyone to enjoy.  We had to stop to figure out how to get the ties from vibrating in the wind so they wouldn't make an extremely loud and atrocious noise while we drove.   Then half-way during the week I got an email from a medical supply company asking me about my preferences for my pump that was in the process of getting ordered.  I had no idea clue about any of the preferences and felt pressure to make non-reversible decisions about the device that would keep me from dying! I emailed my doctor to get his opinion and yet didn't hear back from him for a couple of days.  This brought home the concept that my life was about to change forever. I would be getting a pump and have to be connected to it, 24/7... for the rest of my life. I was grumpy about it and really felt the lack of privacy to really process all these emotions. It was a rough week for me, but Chris is patient and loving and his family really is wonderful and supportive. I went on a long walk/run with Brittany and cried and vented.