Snow Day

 

Yesterday morning it started snowing, and it has continued to snow today. It's supposed to stop by tomorrow morning. We still went to church yesterday morning, but the youth group didn't meet last night due to the snow. When we shoveled the driveway this morning we had 8 inches of snow. Later today when we measured we had 11 inches of snow. We shall see what the total will be tomorrow morning. I don't think it will exceed the 19 inches we got in one snowfall in December. Last Monday and Tuesday the kids and I didn't leave the house. Today we had two appointments - Milo at the groomers and Ian at the orthodontist. I called the groomer and rescheduled his appointment for Wednesday. The orthodontist's office called me to reschedule Ian's appointment. Originally he was supposed to get his expander on January 25, but due to a part not being in and now the snow, it's scheduled for February 15. Paul stayed home from work due to the snow. He usually only gets a one day weekend (Sunday), but he got a two day weekend due to the snow. Because I met a friend for lunch on Friday, the kids did very little school work last Friday so I didn't give them the day off today. 

It feels so strange to have hardly any field trips planned for the coming months. It's typical that we don't go on many in January or February, but March through June is a completely different story normally. In some cases it's because I'm just not sure when to go back to normal in terms of certain activities. Do we resume going roller skating on the first Wednesday of the month? Do we attend the homeschool meetup again that includes trampolines, laser tag, and arcade games? Or is it better to wait a few more months because of the risk of contracting COVID-19? In other cases, I am leery of scheduling things only to have them cancelled as that's happened plenty over the past 10.5 months. For example,  I was looking at the Blue Angels schedule for the year, but I'm still hesitant to actually make plans at this point. There is always a chance of plans being altered or canceled for a myriad of reasons, but I really, really am looking forward to the day when the thought that events might be cancelled is not so prevalent. I have been working on possible plans for our family vacation this fall. I realize it might not happen this year. If the visitor centers at the national parks aren't open, I'd rather wait until another year, but I'm holding out some hope that maybe just maybe things will be better in about 9 months. I had originally thought we'd fly to Salt Lake City and rent a car, but due to COVID-19 I thought it would be better if we drove. Considering that negative COVID tests might be required for domestic flights, I am even more convinced that if we go we will need to drive to avoid paying for 10 COVID tests. When one of my cousins asked me for the addresses of my sisters, myself, and my dad so that she could send wedding invitations for her daughter's wedding in October, I thought I could work the timing of our trip to include a stop in Indiana for the wedding. 

Over the last few weeks I've come up with two different possible itineraries. The newest plan takes us farther south on the way out west than my previous two plans did. If we used the latest plan, the kids would do something in eighteen states that they've never been in before! That would bring them to 35 total states. In some states we'd be spending multiple days such as Arizona and Wyoming, and in other states we'd only be doing one thing in that state such as the US Space and Rocket Center in Alabama, Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana, Pipestone National Monument in Minnesota, and the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. The vast majority of the stops are at national parks or science museums. At the moment the sites that don't fit in either of those categories are Lava Hot Springs, Yellowstone Bear World, Utah Olympic Park, Popcorn Cannery (only industrial tour in that plan thus far), Riversport OKC, Lower Antelope Canyon, Ford Rouge Tour, Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Museum, Erie Maritime Museum, Shedd's Aquarium, Art Institute, and the Navy Pier. I think the two biggest hurdles for this trip to actually take place are: #1 life returning closer to normal in terms of COVID-19 and #2 Paul agreeing to go on a vacation that lasts around 3 1/2 weeks. Getting time off for vacations was never a problem until he went back to the family business in May 2016. He had one week of vacation in 2016, zero in 2017, two weeks in 2018, two weeks in 2019, and one week in 2020. Since he only took one week off last year, I'm lobbying for him to take three weeks off in 2021. We spent 3 weeks in China in 2006, but generally our vacations are only 1-2 weeks long. I don't anticipate planning other vacations of this length, but the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc. are very far from Pennsylvania! Well time will tell if we go out west this fall, and if we do exactly what places we end up seeing. The newest plan doesn't include a few national parks that were included in the other plans. Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park are two that aren't included in the latest plan. I remember really enjoying Bryce Canyon years ago so I was hesitant to eliminate it, but a few places I've never seen before are included in this plan. 

I can't write a post on February 1 without mentioning my brother. He would have turned 37 years old today. I love and miss you, Maurice.