September 2020

I went to work one day the first week of September, and then pretty much did nothing the rest of the week, just to get good and bored and lazy for work to officially start. I visited Kory’s class on September 3. He’s teaching the special needs seminary class for the first time this year and he wanted me to observe and give him some suggestions. On Friday, Sep. 4th, Kory and I got lunch at Panda and had a little picnic on the Greenbelt. That night we had the kids and Austin had the girls here, so we played with them, finished a puzzle, and drove Chloe to a football game. On the 5^th, Caleb got up early to catch the bus to his cross-country meet in Soda Springs. Kory and I did our usual Saturday stuff. The other kids were kind of in and out. Isaac and Phoebe got ready to head up to BYU-Idaho. After Caleb got home from his meet, Kory and I watched Jaws with him. Caleb gets fixated on specific shows, and Jaws is one of the latest ones. I hadn’t watched it in a long time, so I was pretty grossed out when the guy got eaten alive. I was yelling so much, Phoebe and Isaac came to see what was wrong! Kory was getting a kick out of it.

On September 7, we headed up to Victor for our usual Labor Day barbeque at LaRell’s house. We brought corn and LaRell made delicious ribs. The kids had fun riding four-wheelers, playing pool, and chilling. 

I started back-to-school meetings that week, although most of them were over Zoom or social distanced, which is kind of trippy. We had a barbeque on the 9^th at the Nef’s with the seminary teachers and seminary council. Kory rode the zip line! On the 12^th Austin brought the girls over and we watched a movie. Chloe used to do this thing where if they wanted to watch a movie, they layed out about twenty movies and then had this really elaborate voting system. It usually took about an hour to choose a movie. Well, it looks like Andy might have inherited that gene, since she insisted on laying out every Disney movie in the house to choose what to watch. Kory is such a fun grandpa. He plays with the kids so well. 

On the 13^th, Kory and I had Come Follow Me, took Morgan to sacrament meeting with us, and later went to visit my parents. Isaac and Phoebe both moved up to Rexburg that weekend, but they are old pros now, so we didn’t help them. Phoebe is living with Carlie Callahan, Alexis Kuhn, and a few other girls she doesn’t know. I think she enjoys it a lot more this year. Isaac is living with another friend, Isaac, who served in his mission.

BYUI classes started on September 14. I taught my first week on Zoom, just to avoid confusion—I can only meet with my class half at a time face-to-face, so I thought I’d get everything established this week and then start meeting face-to-face next week. I also was able to work from home a couple of days a week, which was great.

On the 20^th, we decided to go up to Victor for dinner and sacrament meeting with Grandpa Kunz and Karen. Kory’s brothers and their families were there also. On the way home, we stopped at the Teton Dam so Caleb, Chloe, and Morgan could see it. On the 22^nd, Chloe decided to attend Kory’s seminary class at Skyline, just for fun. I brought them lunch. On the 25^th, my friend Wendy was in town, so we met for lunch and spent a few hours talking and catching up.

Chloe found out a friend who she had shared a drink with had COVID, so she quarantined for a week or so, doing her work online. Caleb also hurt his foot, so his cross-country season was basically over. On the 26^th, after church, Kory and drove up to Mesa Falls and enjoyed the beginnings of Fall. We also had a bunch of great Fall evenings that week, so we took the kids on some bike rides and went to the driving range to hit some balls.

Covid continued to be a problem, causing a lot of absences from public schools and continued spread of the virus. It seemed like every day there was some new problem or change to school situations, so we were all a little chaotic, but overall, it allowed me to work at home more and the kids to do some school from home.