Pandemic Life & Family Pictures 2020

2020 has been a different year for everyone. From quarantines to wearing masks everywhere and so much more, it has been a year we will never forget. 

For us, we were fortunate enough to have all our kids come home and we got to all be together for 4 months!! I honestly did not think all of us would ever live under one roof again, so it was an unexpected blessing. The three oldest kids were at college in Utah when the pandemic hit. They were told to go home and all their classes went online. So, they packed up and drove cross-country from Utah to South Carolina. They had two cars, so the two girls drove together and Alex drove alone. All three of them made it home safely without any complications (thankfully). The girls both left boyfriends at college, so it took some time to figure out if and how long distance relationships would work.

School also went online for Jarem and Micah. They had all zoom classes or home school. Eric's work schedule lightened considerably and he was at home for the entire month of April and a lot of May and June too. He worked at home some days and other days he didn't work at all. We all had a lot of time together. Fortunately, he still received his salary, so we were comfortable financially.

The older 3 finished their college semester at the end of April. Alex graduated with a degree in Political Science and had a job waiting at Echelon Insights in Washington DC. He started his job working from home in May. The girls started job hunting once their semester was complete. Jesikah found a job at Chick-Fil-A. She has always LOVED Chick-Fil-A and wanted to work there. As it turned out, it was a very intense, fast-paced environment, but she eventually got used to it and thrived. She worked 40 hour weeks, so it was a lot. Tessa found a job at Starbucks in Harris Teeter near 6 Mile Road. She enjoyed that, but was a little bored at times. Business was pretty slow and she was the only one working a lot of the time. Jarem found a job at Smoothie King near the bridge where lots of his other church friends were also working. He loved it. When they needed more older workers at Smoothie King, Tessa also started working there part time. It worked out great. They would schedule her and Jarem for the same shifts and she could drive him to and from work!

During those 4 months, (especially during the first 6 weeks) we enjoyed nightly family dinners and lots of other delicious food, like ice cream and soda! We enjoyed lots of game nights including badminton, pickle ball, ultimate frisbee, and lots of board and card games. We also had lots of movie nights. We watched all the Marvel movies in chronological order. We watched Star Wars, Bourne series and much more. The kids rewatched the whole Avatar series that they watched as kids together. Micah learned to ride his bike AND swim during the pandemic. He and I went on lots of bike rides since we were the only two with bikes. :) We also went to the neighborhood pool often with Micah and occasionally with the other kids. The older kids sometimes went for Sonic runs at night. We had weekly church at home and nightly scripture study discussions. Alex planned and lead our nightly scripture study and did a great job making it a safe environment to share thoughts and feelings and learn together. I think we all really enjoyed those.

Having the older kids come home was a huge blessing for Jarem. He loved getting to interact with his older siblings and play games and do things together. He had lots of good times with them and I'm sure they each gave him lots of good advice at different times. He had missed the interaction with them after Tessa went to college. He tried to guilt-trip me for waiting 4 years to have him after Tessa. I told him it was only 3 years and 10 months!! :) It was great for Micah to also have that time with his older siblings. Those are the times he will remember with the older three living at home with us. 

We got these family pictures taken in Downtown Charleston in early July 2020. Alex was getting ready to move to Washington DC, so I wanted to get pictures while we were all still together. Alex moved in July, Jesikah went back to college at the end of August and Tessa stayed with us until she left on her mission in December.

By September, things were feeling a lot more normal. The boys went back to in-person school with masks and other precautions. Eric was back to work most of the time and I was trying to figure out my next goals in life.