Today I was looking through old posts looking for pictures of my early knitting projects and realized I should probably do a recap of this year for the sake of posterity. I didn't even do a Back to School post. Shame on me. How am I supposed to know what we did for school in ten years if I don't write it down now?
Anyway.
I went through my photos on my phone and since it is such an arduous process to move photos from Apple to Google platforms, I will probably do our year in three parts!
Last January, we still had to wear masks wherever we went. We thought the pandemic was starting to wane, but Omicron was just getting started on the heels of Delta. I rarely took the kids to the store because I just didn't want to have to deal with anything. I didn't want to manage finding kid sized masks or deal with weird strangers or anything. So the picture above was when I took Heidi and Jason into the market and they were like kids who had never seen the inside of a store. It's amazing how much they forgot being left home for a couple of years. January was also when we had covid come through the house for the first time. How silly I was to think it was one and done!
We had the opportunity to get into some physical activity when a special "wrestling camp" started. Peninsula Youth Wrestling is the program Ian and Shane used to be a part of. In 2022, they were allowed to operate a modified season as long as the coaches and kids followed covid conscience rules. Daniel, Lula, Heidi, and Jason all spent a few weeks working out and learning some skills. Our season was cut short when we had covid come through a second time.
Ian moved out of our house and in with a couple of friends at the end of 2021. We missed him terribly, but moving out is just what happens when children grow up (as I've learned to my sorrow-I do not regret a single minute I let him nap on my lap when I was supposed to be cleaning instead). When Fiona and Genevieve started bugging me to take them to Starbucks and Target for weekend shopping and we started running in to Ian out and about, I entered a whole new stage of parenting.
Fiona, Daniel, and Lula were playing in the Peninsula Youth Orchestra and had a Winter concert. They had to wear masks on stage, but at least everyone wore matching black masks.
The picture above accurately represents my four youngest kids during these months. Grey, dark grey, and video games. There wasn't much else we could do... except go to Great Wolf Lodge!
We took two back to back trips to GWL, one at the end of February with Julie and her kids and one mid March with my sisters and their kids! Because GWL is on tribal lands, they don't have to follow Washington State laws, so masks were optional. It was the first time we felt like normal people for a long time. And it was really fun getting all the cousins together again!
Spring of 2022 was gorgeous and sunny and I have hundreds of pictures of trees and dogs and LingLing and kids and chickens and geese. When we weren't on these random little trips, we just hung out in our yard. I actually enjoyed this past spring.
Mid March is when Genevieve and I started our vaulting travel season, and what a season it was! Our first trip was up to Vancouver Island, Canada. This was our first time crossing the border with covid regulations in place. We had so many rules to follow and it was overwhelming and stressful. But we did it and returned to Canada five more times in 2022! Some trips are worth mentioning on their own, so look forward to that in the next installment.
In between trips I enjoyed my stay at home kids so much!
Jack and Mazzy have developed a nice relationship. Originally I thought Kai would outlive Jack and he needed another puppy to play with, but we lost Kai to the horrible heart issues that dobermans are cursed with and Jack was stuck with an ever younger, more energetic pup. Jack has had some tangles with wildlife this year. He's just not as fast as he used to be and got chomped on the behind by coyotes this past spring. Poor fella.
In April, we really started a marathon. Daniel turned 12 years old:
And then Genevieve and I hit the road to go to Oregon for the first competition of the year: The Mozart Memorial Classic
This vehicle is called The BAT. BAT stands for Big Ass Trailer. It holds four big horses and has a tack room, a bathroom, and living quarters that we hang out in.
Genna got first place at Mozart Memorial and then the very next weekend we took a trip up to Canada for the Canada Cup
She had a pretty significant fall in her third round, so she went from first place to third. Learning how to pull yourself up and smile and bow to the judges is the very definition of indomitable spirit.
The worst thing about the spring vaulting competitions is that they are at the same time as Fiona's birthday. I had to miss Fiona's birthday this year because covid laws wouldn't let Genevieve enter Canada without me. Fiona was able to spend her 14th birthday at one of her favorite friend's house and I will forever be thankful to the other moms in my life that help me out when I can't be there.
