Spring Break 2021: Trip to Branson

We really wanted to do SOMETHING for Spring Break but timing with Jon's job, our own energy levels and schedules, we knew it needed to just be somewhere drivable for a couple of days.  We did some vrbo and airbnb surfing, looking for a place with a hot-tub, because I figured that if we at least had a hot tub then we'd have something to have fun with wherever we went.  We also decided to go South, hoping we'd get somewhere at least a few degrees warmer.  

We ended up finding a little cabin in Branson, MO!  I had heard good things about Branson but never been so we figured it should be a good time!  We just drove down Thursday of Spring break and came back Saturday so it was very short, especially considering the drive ending up being a lot longer than we anticipated.  The 6 hour drive (which was actually 6 1/2 but we had rounded down in our heads), plus 4 kids and food and bathroom breaks, plus pit stops, ended up being more like 9 hours and was very tiring!  Next time we will have to stay in Branson a couple more days to make it worth it!

On the way down we stopped at Adam-Ondi-Ahman.  It was slightly out of the way but we figured we might as well since it was so close!   Adam-Ondi-Ahman was revealed to be the place where Adam and Eve came to live after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden.  It is also the place where Saints are to gather around the 2nd coming of Christ.  It was basically a big empty valley and fields, but it was pretty and neat to be there!

Thursday night was pretty cold when we got to the cabin but everyone still wanted to get in the hot tub!  The kids had a blast playing around in it, even long after Jon and I decided it was too cold to be outside!  

Friday morning we went to a place called Top of the Rock for the Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail.  It was a 2 mile loop you go on on a golf cart that goes by a bunch of waterfalls and through a big cave with waterfalls.  It was really cool and gorgeous!  Only downside was that it was a bit chilly and about halfway through kids started needing to go to the bathroom and whining a bit, but overall it was definitely worth it!  I would go again for sure!

After grabbing some lunch, the kids spent the afternoon playing in the hot tub while Jon and I relaxed and read books.  Then we went out and walked through the cabin community- which appeared to be an old golf course, and explored some of the ponds and trails and played on the playground.  Colton found some tadpoles in the pond and was pretty excited about it, but also pretty bummed he couldn't catch one.  For dinner that night we opted to go to a local restaurant.  It was...not good.  Haha, I tried to stay positive, and I guess it was sort-of fun to be out at a restaurant with the family after the last year of being home all the time, but the food was not good.   After dinner we did another walk around the trails and played on the park some more.  After kids went to bed Jon and I watched a movie, and went out to enjoy some kid-free night time hot tubbing :)

Saturday we stopped by a Wild Animal Safari that had been recommended on the way home.  It was about an hour north of Branson so we opted to do it as a pit-stop on the way home.  In hindsight, it made the drive home REALLY long, so I probably wouldn't do it that way again.  

The safari was cool.  They had a "walk-about" and a drive-through portion.  The drive-through portion was pretty cool and felt legit enough.  The walk about was....interesting.  It felt a little to close to a Joe Exotic establishment (from Tiger King).  It seemed a bit run-down, the cages didn't seem totally up to code, there were monkeys in random cages in the corner of the gift shops and it reeked in there!  It was a little weird.  Hopefully it was all on the up and up!  The drive-through part was pretty fun.  Lot of animals to see and many came right up to the windows for the kids to pet!  Zach was ecstatic that he got to pet a zebra.  He said, "It's always be my dream to pet a Zebra!"  There were some pretty huge long horned cows that freaked us out trying to stick their heads in the window as well, and ended up slobbering all over the inside of the window.  Madi did not much care for the animals sticking their heads in the window.  She would lay all the way down on my lap to get away and shake her hands at them to go away.  She said her favorite were the piggies.  She really wanted to pet the piggies but unfortunately they were too short and we weren't allowed to get out of our car.  We saw ostriches, wild pigs, elk, caribou, bison, zebras, donkeys, something that looked like a mix between a donkey and zebra which we named a Zonkey, a bear, wolves, and much more!  (The more dangerous animals were fenced off.)  It was a pretty fun experience but got a little long in the end.

As I mentioned, the drive home felt REALLY long and we were pretty exhausted when we finally got there but overall, though not a rejuvenating trip, it was fun and nice to get out and do something different!  

ADAM ONDI-AHMAN

Jon told her to shush 😂

BRANSON

So Long John Deere!

After over 10 years of working for John Deere, Jon worked his last day for the company this month and moved on to a different company.  We will always love John Deere and the big role in played in our first decade of our lives together.  We will always be grateful for the experiences we've had, the people we've met, and the opportunities we've had to move and see different places with Deere.  People who work for Deere used to always joke about the "golden handcuffs" of working for Deere.  The job/company/benefits that came with working for Deere made it too hard to ever leave, even if you wanted to!  We always though we'd be working for Deere for life, because we didn't foresee ever wanting to leave the comfort, security, and benefits of Deere, and we also didn't foresee another company ever being able to tempt us away!  

Well, the last year has been interesting, for more reasons than just Covid.  Deere got a new CEO and the company started doing a lot of cutback and restructuring.  They've had a couple of voluntary separations- trying to get people to leave.  They've also closed some offices and shuffled a lot of peoples jobs around.   This caused a lot of unrest amongst the employees and several of the people we know who worked for Deere either lost their jobs, or decided that they wanted to take the voluntary separation and leave.  Jon's job stayed safe through all of this, and we were thankful for that stability throughout this crazy year!  Still, as things started to change and shift within Deere, Jon really wasn't feeling like he had any clear paths for advancement within Deere anymore.  It was really demotivating for him.  

At the same time, we have stayed in touch with our good friends Justin and Alissa Thompson from our early years in Davenport, and Justin has been telling Jon for years that he'd like him to come out and work for him.  Off and on over the years he has reached out trying to get Jon on board but it has just never seemed like the right time.  Last February, we decided that we needed to actually go out and see Justin's company he's built in person, and give it some real thought.  After interviewing with the company- Arizona Pain Relief- Jon was really interested but we just didn't feel like we could leave Iowa.  Jon asked if they would consider letting him work the job as a remote position and they told him "no" so sadly we had to turn down the offer.  After a few weeks, Jon reached out to them again and asked if they could do a sort-of trial and Jon could do some part-time work for them remote for a year and they could see how it went.  They agreed, and Jon has been doing about 5 hours a week for them over the last year.  

Well, Covid hit, and the entire world has been working remote for the past year.  Jon was starting to think that his part-time work for Justin was fizzling out, but then out of the blue, around the middle of February this year, Justin told him that they were thinking they could actually do this job as a full-time remote position.  We did a lot of thinking, discussing, praying, and after some negotiating back and forth, we decided to take the job!  He went from being and audit supervisor at John Deere to the VP of Finance at Arizona Pain Relief!

It's an adjustment for sure, and we are still figuring things out, but Jon is really enjoying the change of pace with this new job!  He agreed to fly out there a few days a month to be there in the office, but for this first month he has gone out twice already.  He enjoys being in the office and the people he is working with.  There is a lot to learn and figure out still but it's an exciting opportunity!  We'll see what the next decade brings!  

It's Great to be Eight: Katie's Baptism

Preparing for Katie's baptism was one for the books!  First, with Covid, we weren't even sure what we would be able to do, who would be able to come, and what we needed to plan for the baptism until fairly last minute.   Second, with Jon starting a new job, his first week on the job was the week before Katie's baptism and he was out in Arizona the whole week until the morning of her baptism.  It left me with a lot of last minute prep to handle on my own!

The week leading up to the baptism was chuck full of house cleaning, making fancy sugar cookies to package and hand out at the baptism- since refreshments at the church aren't currently allowed, planning and making her program, printing out pictures, trying to get everyone's clothes ready, and ordering and shopping for food for a lunch after the baptism with family.  I was also trying to make sure I was having conversations with her about baptism and the gospel to help her prepare.  I managed to get in a couple.  She didn't seem to have many questions or be very talkative about it, but I did notice a definite change in her desire to participate in church and read her scriptures as her baptism got closer.  She picked up a Book of Mormon and started reading it to me for her reading minutes several times and she also started trying to be reverent and listen in church.  She even told me she was doing as much!  It made me so proud of her for wanting to do what's right! 

The night before the baptism, we found out that Uncle Mark- one of Katie's witnesses- broke his elbow and wouldn't be coming down anymore.  We didn't know if Jenna and the kids would be able to come either so we had to make some contingency plans!  On Saturday morning we found out Anne- Scott's daughter who is going to PT school in Rochester currently- was going to drive Jenna and the kids down so everyone was excited to still get to see the cousins!  

Jon got home at 1am Saturday morning and slept in a bit Saturday morning.  Mike & Lisa's family and Grandma Day arrived around 11am Saturday and we headed up to the church to get ready and set up the zoom for those watching from home  (a plus of Covid!  It was nice to be able to have far away family be able to still participate in the baptism!).  I was rushing trying to get it all ready so I could help Katie get into her jumpsuit when Madi came running up the church hallway yelling, "Mom!  Mom!  I peed in my underwear!"  Sure enough she had had a big accident.  I didn't have any extra clothes for her so I had to take her to the bathroom, take off her wet shoes, tights, and underwear and strap her in a 2 sizes too small diaper I found in the car and then baby wipe off her dress.  Thankfully Grandma Day stepped in and helped Katie get into her jumpsuit for me!  

After all the rushing around, I felt a little frantic during the baptism but overall I think it went nicely.  I feel like I could have delivered my talk better if I'd been a little more calm, but oh well!  It was nice to have our MN family there and our Day cousins in our ward (Jon's cousin Jason, wife Kendra, and kids) came as well as Katie's friends Talia and Kenley with their moms.  The sister missionaries were able to step in and help with music since I struggled to find someone to play for us.

Katie said the water was really hot but she felt good getting baptized.  Colton stepped in for Uncle Mark as a Witness and Jenna was the other one.  Katie's cousin Emily gave a talk on the Holy Ghost as well as a necklace she made her and then Jon confirmed her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  

After the baptism the family members came back to our house for pizza, fruit, veggies, and icecream.  It was fun to have everyone around for a few hours to hang out!  

Here is my talk I gave at Katie's Baptism:

Katie, last week you turned 8 years old and today you’re getting baptized!  In your 8 years here on earth, you’ve been through a lot!  You were born with something called hip dysplasia where you hip bone didn’t fit into your leg bone the right way.  The doctor told us that if we didn’t fix it, you might never be able to walk or run very well.  When you were just a tiny baby, you got put into an uncomfortable harness that you had to wear all the time for 3 months to fix that problem.  Shortly after that, you fell out of your bouncer and broke your leg.  When you were about 2 years old, you got very sick with the flu and mom and dad had to call 911 and take you to the emergency room.  When you were three years old, you broke your other leg on the trampoline.  When you were 4, you jumped off of a couch and landed funny and sprained your foot badly and couldn’t walk for a week.  When you were 6, you fell on some stairs and broke your collar bone.  You, young lady, have had more x-rays, more broken bones, more emergency room visits,  and missed more holidays being sick than anyone else in our family.   You might look at that and think, “Boy- I sure have been picked on!”   

But as I’ve thought about all of the things that you’ve already overcome in you short eight years, the thought that I keep having is, “Boy- Heavenly Father must know how strong Katie is!  Look how much she has overcome!  Look how well she has handled each challenge that has come her way!”

You are a very strong and very special spirit Katie, and Heavenly Father knows that!   You are tough and determined and always try your best!  Life is going to continue to have some tough things that you will have to deal with.  For all our sakes, I really hope you don’t have any more broken bones in your future,  but I know that whatever challenges you have in your future, you also have the ability and strength to overcome each one!   Heavenly Father has also promised us that when we follow the path that he has set for us and make good choices then we will be blessed with a LOT of joy in between and even during all the tough times! 

Today, as you make the choice to be baptized, you are taking a really important step along that path!  You are choosing to follow Jesus’s example and walk down the path of righteousness.  Each and every step you take along this path will lead to blessings and happiness in your life, Katie! 

When you’re baptized, you will also be making a covenant, or sacred promise to Heavenly Father.  When you are baptized you promise to follow Jesus, always remember Jesus, and keep His commandments and serve Him.   Heavenly Father promises YOU that as you keep those promises, He will forgive you when you make mistakes, He will give you the gift of the Holy Ghost, and He will give you the gift of eternal life.   Each Sunday when you take the sacrament, you are given the chance to think about those promises and renew your baptism covenants with Heavenly Father.  

Katie, we love you and are so proud of you for making this choice to be baptized, and for all of the other good choices we have seen you make.  We are proud of you for being such a kind sister and friend to others.  We are proud of you for always trying your best, and we are so proud of you for and the challenges you have overcome and all that you will continue to overcome.  You are so strong!  Heavenly Father loves you so much!  We’re so grateful He sent you to our family! 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Katie Girl Turns 8!

On March 5th our sweet Katie girl turned 8 years old!  She is getting so grown up!  

Katie's birthday usually ends up falling on a dress up week for school, since it is the same week as Dr. Suess's birthday.  Her birthday was pajama day, so to start off the day she got to open a new pair of pajamas to wear to school!  She told me she KNEW she was going to get new pajamas, even thought I tried to be pretty evasive about it.  I guess I am getting too predictable!

Eight has been a year we've been looking forward to for a long time, for a lot of reasons!  One of those reasons is that 8 is the year I told Katie she could get her ears pierced.  She has been looking forward to it for years!   As it got closer, she did start to show some nervousness but overall she was very brave.  Her birthday was a Friday so right after school, I picked her up and took her to a place called Shear Madness.  I had booked her an appointment there for both ear piercing and a manicure.  

Ear piercing was first.  She got to pick out a pair of earrings- she picked a cute flower pair- and then they marked her ears and got the piercing guns out.  She was pretty stoic when the punched the holes, but afterwards she told me it hurt worse than getting a shot.  I guess she just wanted to put on a brave face!  After the ear piercing she got to have her first professional manicure.  She enjoyed it but I also think she thought it was a bit long, haha.  She also didn't seem to get why she had to stick her hands in soapy water and thought that was kind of weird.  

On the way home we picked up Taco Bell, at Katie's request, for dinner.  She wanted donuts instead of birthday cake so for dessert we had Krispy Kreme donuts and strawberry icecream (her favorite).  Jon got suckered into purchased a new movie on Disney Plus for the kids to watch that night, Raya and the Last Dragon, since Katie asked nicely and it was her birthday.  After the movie, the kids had a sleepover together!

The next day, Saturday, we had a small little party for Katie.  With Covid, things are slowly getting back to normal but they are still a bit weird.  We limited the number of people we invited over and asked them all to wear masks just so everyone could feel comfortable.   Everyone feels so differently about it right now.  Some people are completely over masks, others are strict mask-wearers, and others-like us-fall somewhere in the middle.  Katie had six girls come over, a couple from school, a couple from the ward, and a couple from our street.  We had a crafting accessories party and they made their own shrinky dink key chains, pendant necklaces, and coloring some little handbags with fabric markers.  They seemed to have a good time, despite the masks!  Instead of eating at the house, we sent home donuts with each of the girls, along with other snacks, treats, and party favors.  Overall, it went pretty well for a Covid party, though the mess to clean up afterwards was no joke!  

We love Katie so much!  She is showing more and more maturity and responsibility all of the time.  She is so helpful with her sister Madi, who she shares a room with.  She often is helping her get dressed, brush her teeth, say her prayers, etc.  She also reads stories to both Madi and Zach every night before bed.  She has the best hand-writing of any 2nd grader I've known and is always going the extra mile with her school work.  She wants to do it all right and perfectly.  She is actually a bit of a perfectionist in everything and it can lead to some serious meltdowns when things don't go quite right.  We are working on that and trying to help her focus on doing her best, not doing it perfectly.  She told me she tries to remember to say to herself, "It doesn't need to be perfect.  It will be ok."  She is a great reader and loves to dance, roller-blade, play with friends, color, do crafts, and lots more.    

Katie's Favorites, Etc.

Favorite Dinner:  Sloppy Joes

Favorite Dessert/Treat:  Skittles, Cookies and Cream Candybars, Donuts

Least Favorite Food: Anything spicy, broccoli, seafood (although she has only ever tasted tuna so I'm not sure she even knows, haha)

Favorite Color:  Light Pink, light blue, light purple, yellow, and orange

Favorite Sport/Activity:  Dance

Favorite Book:  Star Friends

Favorite Movie/Show:  Raya and the Last Dragon, Descendants, and horse movie, Teen Titans Go

Favorite Boy ;) : Apparently some William character in her class.  He is really cute and she is going to marry him someday...

When she grows up she wants to be:  When she is a teenager she wants to be a dancer teacher or assistant dance teacher and when she's a grown up she wants to be a school teacher.  

33 for Me!

 This February I turned 33!  It was a chilly day, as per the norm in Iowa, but I was greeted with a beautiful wintery morning with frost all over the trees.  Beautiful mornings like that almost make seemingly endless winters feel worth it!  

I bought myself an icecream cake from Dairy Queen and Jon got me an entry table and a Del Parsons picture I've always loved!  I also had a couple friends stop by and bring me a couple of small gifts.  It was a nice day.  

I was able to get together with my good friends Natalie, Melanie, Emily, Ann, and Christina at Olive Garden for dinner the day before my birthday.  I was almost afraid it wasn't going to happen because of a big snow storm that blew in.  It turned out not being quite as bad as predicted, however, and thankfully we were all able to get together and enjoy some Italian yumminess!  Most restaurants are open now at limited capacity.  They usually require facemasks except for when you are sitting at your table eating.  I'm not really sure how wearing a facemask when you walk in helps anything if you are still taking them off to eat, but oh well.  I'm just glad they are open again!