March 2020 COVID-19 Hits

 After returning from Mexico in January, we began to hear about Covid-19.  Spent Feb and early March doing lots of skiing and snowboarding at the local ski hill (Birch Hill), as our daughter was starting to pick up snowboarding. We spent my birthday at Birch Hill realizing we could likely not be doing much for the rest of the month due to the upcoming lock down.  

Then school was cancelled after spring break and soon they shifted the last quarter of kindergarten to remote learning.  This was essentially parent teaching / homeschooling.  Luke and Emily moved their office to the house, setting up Luke's office in the bedroom and my office in the office off the living room.  Emily dropped down to practically 10 hrs of work per week for the next 9 months and Luke worked 30 hours per week.  Emily's field season came to a stop.  We patiently waited and hoped for vaccines.   We spent most of the summer at Tanana Lakes, along with most of Fairbanks. We bought a stand up paddle board and a sit on top kids kayak. All summer camps were cancelled.  Everyone moved outside and the beach was packed with swimming and kayaking kids.   Despite a great fear of illness, we did have some good fun.

In the fall, 1st grade was 1 hour on zoom with her teacher and then another hour with me or Luke as the teacher.  Then we arranged for outdoor playdates nearly every day with neighbor kids and friends. We outfitted our patio with propane heaters and lighting and everyone developed a new love of winter and the outdoors.  The local ski hill, Moose Mountain opened up to self shuttle, where you could drive yourself to the top and ski down, so we bought $100 season passes and Luke and I rotated driving and N. learned to ski and snowboard really well!  Many of our friends did the same and you always had friends to ski with.  Despite the continued anxiety and fear of getting sick, we really embraced the outdoor life and had a pretty good winter, partly due to Moose Mountain.    Of course zoom school was miserable for everyone, so we spent a lot of time petitioning the school board to open the school back up.  Many of our friends still wanted to keep their kids home but it wasn't working for us or my work situation and so we put her back into school as soon as they reopened to in person 1st grade in Jan. 2021.

2019 Florida, NYC, Mexico

 In January 2019, we took a trip to Florida and New York City.  We stayed with Emily's cousins in Orlando and visited St. Augustine, one of the oldest cities in the U.S.. Of course we also spent a day at Disneyland, with an excellent tour guide (Emily's cousin).  

Then it was on to New York City, first with a visit to 90 year old Uncle Zeke's (on Emily's dad's side of the family) house on Rockland county.  Enjoying our time with him and listening to old  family stories was a highlight.  Then onto New York City, staying at his apartment on the Upper East Side.  We visited the Natural History Museum, Lower Manhattan and the tenament museum (in Emily's great-grandparents neighborhood).  Went to see the Big Apple circus as well as Ellis island and we made the hike up to the pedastal of the Statue of Liberty.  A trip to Zabars and we enjoyed knishes and numerous other Jewish delicacies! N. especially enjoyed riding the subway and eating authentic dim sum.

 We had a couple of visits to Ajijic this year.  In fact, we luckily overlapped a few days with Emily's sister and her daughter and spent some time at a wonderful carnival where the kids enjoyed rides.  On this trip, Emily's mom was in a new nursing home, a smaller home where she would maybe get more personalized care.  In Mexico the nursing homes are all pretty small and less institutionalized, more like a home setting.  All private rooms with private bathrooms and home cooked meals.

In December 2019, we met Victor and Linda and her nurse at Melaque, about 1 hour north of Manzanillo.  Victor wanted to meet there because of the nearby handicap accessible beach, the only one in Mexico.  Here they have floating wheelchairs, and after a lot of tears, we pushed Linda into the ocean to float in the wheelchair.  She did NOT enjoy being in the water at all, but she traveled so far we felt she had to get in the water!  She laughs now, thinking back on it, but admits she wouldn't do it again if she had the choice!  After 5 days there, we bussed back to Ajijic to spend Christmas there, where we prepared Linda's favorite, Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce and ris crem for dessert.  By this time, Linda had moved into her 3rd nursing home, a beautiful room on the 3rd floor right on Lake Chapala.  Here she can roll out of her room to her patio and watch the birds and see the lake.  This would be the last time we see Linda and Victor for a few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then in January (2020) the 3 of us said goodbye to Emily's parents in Ajijic and took the bus from Guadalajara to Los Ayala, where we met Luke's family.  We were staying at the house we usually stay at and they rented a big house on the beach to accommodate his parents as well as his brother's family. It was a great time, spent at the beach and our pool, and the kids trying the Mexican cuisine, shopping, and lighting off fireworks on the beach just like the Mexican tourists!  

Thanksgiving 2018

Kindergarten began in fall 2018 for our daughter!

 In November 2018, we headed to Chacala, Nayarit for a week.  We had stayed here back in 2006 with Linda and Victor and enjoyed the quiet and laid back vibe and beautiful bay on the north end of Jaltemba Bay.  We rented an apartment with a shared pool and our own rooftop palapa.  There were a couple of English speaking kids and N. made a friend for a day or two.  We found a tiny restaurant that served chicken mole, and took a day trip in to nearby Las Vara's for groceries and a change of scenery. 

We had arranged to meet Emily's Dad and Mom, and her nurse, as well as Emily's siblings, sister in law, and neice in Rincon de Guayabitos.  This would be Linda's first outing away from Ajijic.  Linda still could not walk or speak much and needed significant care.  We rented a big B&B on the beach and Linda had a room on ground level overlooking the ocean.  We had 5 nights and it was a great joy for Linda, to have all her family, her kids and grandchildren in one place and at the beach.  

2017 and Emily's Mom

 Emily enjoyed a trip with her Mom, Linda in February 2017, where they met in Seattle for a long weekend of genealogy research.  They made great progress finding out the details of a missing branch of Emily's grandma Florence's side of the family.  They rented a place in the University district and also met a distant cousin on Emily's father's side of the family.  We shopped at Trader Joe's and ate Linda's favorite, Chocolate Peanut Butter Haagen Daz ice cream.

In March, a few weeks after returning to Ajijic from Seattle, Linda suffered a brain aneurysm and had to undergo surgery.  During the surgery, she had a paralyzing stroke, and was in the ICU at hospital country 2000 in Guadalajara for a few weeks. Her 3 kids, as well as her sister, flew down for several weeks.  When she came out of her medically induced coma, she was paralyzed on her right side and couldn't speak. She had left side brain damage and swelling from the stroke. She was put in a Guadalajara nursing home for a month after 3 weeks in the hospital, and then we moved her to a nursing home in Ajijic about 1 mile from her and Victor's rental house.

She started physical and speech therapy, but it was clear that walking again was going to take great practice and motivation.  Everyone, including and especially her, was devastated by the stroke.  

Over the year, Emily had at least 4 trips to Ajijic to check in on Victor and Linda. Luke and N. came along on several of the trips as well. We spent a fair bit of time in Guadalajara, as my mom spent almost 2 months there. 

2016

In 2016, N. started preschool at Bunnell House.  Family visited us that summer and we did a few camper trips (Tangle Lakes, Valdez, Denali Park) and an early winter cabin trip to Coal Mine Lakes.  There was no snow yet so we could drive the cabin and then we pushed our daughter the final few yards to the cabin in the chariot stroller. We brought ice skates for the lake.

In December we met family back in Los Ayala, Mexico, the the beach house. Both sets of grandparents met us down there and it was to be the last trip and family get together for all of us before Emily's mom, Linda, had a stroke.  Linda enjoyed decorating the 2 foot tall fake Christmas tree with her 3 year old granddaughter.

Exploring 2015

 

In 2015, lots of fun exploring ice at the children's ice park.

We also took a trip to MN/WI in the summer and enjoyed seeing family.

In Dec 2015 we traveled to meet the all the Youcha's in San Pancho, Nayarit, where we rented 2 houses.  Emily's siblings, neice, parents, and Aunt met us.  The kids built forts on the beach, played on the beach trampoline, ate chiclet paletas, played at the entreamigos center in town.  Here the ocean is too rough for swimming so much of the time was spent in the pool. Later,  Luke's parents met us for a week and rented a house a few doors down.  San Pancho is one of our favorite towns on the Nayarit coast, it's a quiet town with numerous good restaurants, and a beautiful beach with huge surf.  In San Pancho, volunteers collect and protect turtle eggs and they have frequent  baby turtles releases back to the sea.