December

Alyssa and I went hiking with Christian the second to last weekend before he left.  It was freezing but so beautiful!  And this is Christian being silly.

We got to go on a couple pretty good dates in December.  We went to Luminaria with the Henlines and it was amazing.  The gardens with Christ in them were touching.  Then we were able to go and see A Christmas Carol at the Hale.  It's our favorite and we felt lucky to be able to go!

Just lighting the world!

Grandma sent us a charcuterie board from Chris.

Then we had our Christmas celebrations before Christian left.  We had our big dinner, opened crackers and watched Christian grow up on the blog.  The Coynes came over to drop off a package and his friends came over as well to say good-bye.  

At the airport.  I kept it together pretty good but it was a lot harder than I ever thought it would be!  But I had so many people reach out me, it was nice.  

This kid looks so different!  It's crazy to me how much he's changed in 2 months.

Safe Arrival in Sacramento

Christmas!  It was weird to keep celebrating because it kind of felt like we had already had Christmas.  But we had Christmas Eve at the Pagnanis with soup and presents.  Then we woke up and opened presents and spent the day playing video games and eating junk food until we went and watched Wonder Woman.  Christian was finally able to call and we talked to him for 2 hours.  He has been busy teaching (he's already had 10-20 lessons, a couple in Hmong and some Hmong phone calls), serving at a farm, delivering cookies, calling people and he said lots of meetings!  haha

We went from this...

to this!  

But it's okay cause I love my girls!

November

 

Super fun doing a colonoscopy after getting back from Hawaii.  But it was worth knowing everything looked great.

Christian had a hard time in the MTC.  He wasn't sure he wanted to go on a mission, so we took a LOT of walks.  Sometimes multiple a day.  But it was so fun to talk with him and get to know him better.  Weekends were really tough so I tried to plan activities.  We went and did an escape room one weekend.

Soran is the slime queen.  She is constantly making all sorts of slime all the time.

Thanksgiving 2020 was fun.  We played ultimate frisbee, had lunch with the Thompsons and then went and drove through the Spanish Fork Festival of Lights.  

Despite all his doubts, Christian enjoyed the MTC.  This is him during the last week of his classes, with his companion Elder Dodge.

October

Amber planned an elaborate murder dinner and had it in the shed.  They had fun figuring out Amber was the murderer.

Cornbellys 2020.  At least some traditions lasted!  

Cute girls

Christian squeaked in getting to the temple.  They had just opened to Phase 2 which allowed for live endowments.  It was so wonderful to be back, and to be with our family and friends (the Henlines and the Coynes came as well).  It was a perfect morning.  Then we went to home and had a brunch and hung out.  

Dad took christian and Grandpa hunting.  They got another deer!  Christian learned some good life hacks from Uncle Ian--like don't go out into the woods alone with a drunk man who wants to kill a bear.

Love these good men

AND---HAWAII!!  We couldn't believe it actually worked out that we could go.  Until 2 weeks before we weren't sure, and then we had to still have a negative corona test.  It was a wild ride, but worth it!  Hawaii was so beautiful and there was no one else there.  We had every beach to ourselves.  It was a perfect vacation.

Snorkeling--we saw a huge turtle and sooo many fish!

We made it home just in time for Halloween.  It was a great day.  Christian went hiking with some of the elders in his district.  The girls went to a party at the Reeces and Scott and I hung out and then went to the Coynes for homemade root beer floats.