The Adventure Continues - from Home

More weeks have passed and not much has changed. Alison and I have settled into our new normal. We strive to follow the advice of health professionals to keep ourselves and our family safe. We watch and wait. The uncertainty is stifling at times and we do our best to deal with it while remaining optimistic for the future. Here are a few of the ways we have kept ourselves busy over the past couple of weeks:

Working from home

Alison and I both continue to work from home. We are fortunate to be able to do so. Alison recently found out she will not be returning to her office until September. I will be working from home until at least June. At this point we are kind of regretting not putting together a more permanent office space. When we first were sent home we didn't really see it extending many months. At this point, with Utah moving into the low risk phase it is likely I may transition to working in the office sooner than later, and Alison is still hopeful to begin travelling for work in the coming months. We probably won't invest in a more permanent office space, but maybe we should. 

Alison's primary work setup - the animals want to be close to her

CC is likely tired of having us around all of the time. She spends most days sitting on this chair

Churro bites

We are missing Disneyland. We had a trip planned in April that we cancelled due to the pandemic. Since we can't visit the park we found another way to bring a little Disney magic into our lives. A while back Disney released a recipe for churro bites. Finally we made churro bites and enjoyed them while we watched Avengers: Infinity War. 

Skylee was a great helper

Daily walks

Alison and I have continued to take daily walks around Daybreak. Rain or shine, hot or cold, windy or calm we talk a walk almost everyday. We have a 2.5 mile loop we like to walk from our house down to the Daybreak lake and back. Even if we don't leave the house for any other reason we make sure to get some fresh air. 

Alison sitting on the hill taking a call on a dusty, windy day 

Skylee's Birthday

We got to celebrate Skylee's birthday. Birthdays during this period of time are kind of strange. They are smaller and limited in what can really be done. Despite these limitations we were excited to celebrate our niece.

Mother's Day

It took a global pandemic, but we were home for Mother's day for the first time in a few years. We would have been in South America, had all of this not happened. Instead we postponed the trip and we were at home. This year for Mother's Day Alison baked some challah bread for our grandparents. We even delivered it to them while it was still warm. 

On Mother's Day we had a small gathering at Kristin and Dan's house. First we held home church and then we enjoyed a Mother's Day brunch. We ordered brunch from Gourmandise. It was excellent - scones, salad, fruit, and souffle. Afterward we hung out and enjoyed spending the day with family. We played with Skylee and Holly. We released some butterflies that Skylee grew from caterpillars. We sure love our nieces. 

Marvel Movie Night

We wrapped up our Marvel movie nights way ahead of schedule. We started watching all of the Marvel movies in chronological order with Kristin and Dan in 2019. Alison hadn't seen any of them, except for Iron Man. We averaged ~3 per month before the pandemic and I expected we would finish in July. With the stay at home order we finished in May. This has been a fun activity and now we are planning the next series of movies we will watch together. 

Another puzzle

Alison worked on another puzzle. This one was a 1,000 piece puzzle of New York. She mostly did it on her own, while I was working on month-end close. She assured me this was the hardest one to date. The pieces came in all kinds of strange shapes making it harder than the average puzzle. It looked very challenging, but Alison never passes on a good challenge and wasn't about to give up. 

More Baking/Cooking

Since we have more time at home we have taken trying out some new recipes. One that I found on social media was for Churro Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. These were phenomenal. The frosting in particular, was the perfect compliment to the cupcakes. It enhanced the overall flavor. We will most definitely make these next time we are looking for a slam dunk dessert. 

In the spirit of trying new things we bought a bamboo steamer basket to make bao buns. While the end product was tasty, this was a learning experience. The recipe itself is not particularly complicated. When we were done with our first batch we watched a few more videos about making bao buns and dumplings to enhance our knowledge on how to perfect the dough. First, we learned our dough was too sticky. Next time we will have a better water to flour ratio. We also learned that the dough we used thick, particularly around the edges. Next time we will make sure it is thinner, especially along the edges. We are excited to try our hand at momo, dumpings, and more bao buns. 

Watching Television

We have had lots of extra time during the past few months and we have spent part of that time watching shows and movies. A few of our favorites during the stay at home period include:

Little Fires Everywhere

Game of Thrones

Sex in the City

Bad Education

Medici: The Magnificent - Season 3

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

Unorthodox

Watchman (Only Eric watched this series)

Special Delivery

The other day Skylee stopped by to drop off some cookies she made. It made our day a little brighter. She was adorable. She told us she couldn't stay long because she was on her way to a playdate with her friend, but she wanted to give us some cookies. She did have enough time to take a picture with Alison before she ran out the door. 

The last couple of months have been full of the unexpected. The next few months will likely hold more of the same. We are anxiously waiting for the world to settle into a new normal - it seems to inching toward that direction. Until then we will continue to move forward and to find ways to enjoy the time we have been given. 

Our first rose bloom of 2020

I will leave you with this video of Tex showing off his awesome listening skills: