Coronavirus Pandemic

My, oh my, what 2020 has been!  Never in a million years would I have thought our life would be in this current situation.  Everything happened abruptly.

First off, we were kicking off to a good start.  Vivian entered a painting in the Azalea Festival youth art contest and won 1st place in her division, K-2 of all the kids that entered in our state.  We were excited and on cloud 9!  She was suppose to present her painting to Gov Roy Cooper in Raleigh, ride in the parade, attend the Azalea Festival Queen coronation, have children's tea and have her artwork displayed in the art museum downtown.  At least she was able to attend her presentation with all the other placed artwork that happened a week prior to all of this.

3/12/21 --  Almost exactly a year to the date I never finished my post 😆  We are still living in a global pandemic, but we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Vaccines are being administered, the girls FINALLY returned to school full-time THIS week.  We finished grade 1 virtually, Joanna preschool days ended on 3/12/20 ( no prek graduation which was heartbreaking), started 2nd and kindergarten virtually for 9 weeks which turned to hybrid...at school Mon & Tues, virtual Wed-Fri, back to all virtual for 3 weeks in Jan, back to hybrid until March 8.  Bananas!!!!  

V's teacher

V's art teacher

J's preschool director

We celebrated the girls birthdays at home, we did take a trip over the summer to Jellystone Campground (we were suppose to go to Banff NP, but obviously that never happened) then stayed in a cabin outside of Boone.  V and B went whitewater rafting and J and I went to Grandfather Mtn. The girls also went zip lining for the first time.  B and I also celebrated our 14 year wedding anniversary.  On our anniversary day, we all got caught in a crazy thunderstorm .8 miles down a mountain.  I've never seen J run so fast in my life!  Those little legs never stopped until we go to the top. I was crazy and traumatizing experience for her.  She stopped going on trails and was afraid if she saw a cloud in the sky.  Thankfully that fear has finally passed.  Took a while.  Lots of pool swim over the summer which was great.  Mama did lots of wine drinking LOL.

 

 

Jo learned how to ride a bike shortly after her 5th birthday.  Very exciting!

July 4 was so fun at home.  Waterslide, popsicles, hotdogs, wine, crawfish, fireworks.  

Hurricane Isaias hit August 3rd.  We lost power and a huge limb broke in our oak tree.

I turned 40 in October.  What?!

My parents came for a visit in the fall, We did go to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and Christmas was just us.  The girls started 2nd and Kindergarten virtually.  We went to a corn maze and the pumpkin patch.  Both girls played on the fall soccer league.  Jo's 1st and last time playing.

Christmas was a hit!  Both girls got electric scooters.  Viv got a new bike and rollerblades.  Jo got lots of Barbie toys.  I eventually had to get her roller skates bc she was obsessed with Viv's.

The girls finally returned to school full time on March 8, 2021!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

We've had lots of happy days and lots of really hard days.  This will definitely be a time in our lives that none of us will ever forget!  The girls will tell their children how they had to wear masks everywhere they went, clean hands constantly while out, how they had to do school virtually, how they couldn't get close to their friends.  What a crazy crazy time!