All Together Again

Grant and Steph made it back to Texas last night. Neil and Amy's flight got delayed 4 times then postponed until today. We're hoping they make it! Corey and Abi stayed last night in a hotel close to the airport. They got there nice and early today with plenty of time to spare. It's looking pretty empty.

They arrived here in SL very close to on time, but I wasn't ready and was still at home when they landed. We hurried out to the pick up. Yay we're all together again. On the way home, I dropped Corey off at the store to grab some fresh fruit (five bunches of bananas and two things of strawberries) while Abi ran into her school to get homework out of her locker. Now we're back home again and we all washed our hands. We're ready to hunker down for a while! Ethan and Abi both had their music lessons online - Abi with Hangouts, E with zoom. Pretty cool. After the kids are done with all their music, I'm sure they'll be playing several hours of video games again to help them cope as they adjust to the school and friend withdrawl. Yes, they should probably be doing more studying, but as the kid says in Mark Rober's video, after it was announced that school would be out for 3 weeks... "Fortnite!" (we like Mark Rober)

Update: Here is a March 20th post from Neil and Amy that she shared on Facebook - we were all watching and wondering what would happen, and it tells a little of how crazy things are, so I thought I'd include it here as part of Abi's story:

To say the last 10 days have been a wild and crazy adventure is an understatement. 5 months ago, Neil and I started planning a trip to visit Portugal, where over 20 years ago Neil served a two-year mission for our church. As current events unfolded about coronavirus we questioned if it was the right thing to do but as we prayed we still felt peace about going. As we boarded our flight to Europe, Trump announced the European travel ban and as we were flying home from Europe, Utah had an earthquake and our flight home was cancelled. Our trip was laced with a feeling of uncertainty as our plans changed each day but we made the most of it. It was an extension of his mission. Tender mercies and miracles were plentiful. My faith and testimony of Jesus Christ were strengthened. He loves us and is aware of us at all times and in all places. Our trip was cut short but we experienced all that was needful. I'm thankful to be home with my kiddos and looking forward to hunkering down for the next two weeks and beyond.

The streets were not typically empty. Very rare. It was like a ghost town. The country was shutting down, just like in the states.