Warm Weekend

First off, the highlight for me today was that this was the first time I heard Peter say "LOVE YOU!" It was so adorable! I had to kiss and apologize to him for locking him out of my room as I took a bath, and as I kissed his cheek and said "I love you" he said "love you" and I laughed with joy, it was the cutest thing ever. I haven't heard him say that before, I don't know if the other kids have. I love it when he does words with "L" in them. He's been able to say "color" for probably 2 weeks, and I tell him to say it whenever I get a chance. He's very careful and pronounced as he does two syllables and makes the L sound. Anyway, that was my biggest delight today. 

The weather is getting cold again. We should be getting a little bit of snow tomorrow. Thinking that this might be our last chance for bike rides, Corey took Daniel on the shotgun last night and Lily and Wes went with him for one last late ride. 

Daniel thought it looked a little scary going down the steep hill into the trees...

They were just getting on the trail around 5:30, which I knew was late. Cars coming down the canyon has their lights on as we were going up, and it was dark by the time I had turned around and was at the bottom, so I didn't go home. I just pulled into the parking lot and waited for them. I was watching them on life 360 and I started the car and drove up a little bit to Wasatch Resort to pick them up when I saw they were close to there. Which was a good thing, cause it was pitch black when I picked them up. Daniel didn't like the shotgun so much on the trail. It was too bumpy.

This morning Corey took them on a little ride around the neighborhood. 

Peter's legs were stretched out as far as they would reach, and he locked his knees, it was so cute. 

Peter is so cute. 

I can't decide which picture is the best, so I'm putting them all. I love his little smile.

I love that little face.

Daniel's cute face when it was finally is turn to go on a ride with Corey. 

Daniel was squealing with delight all the way up and down the street. I raked leaves as they drove around. It was very windy, so I don't know that it matters how much of the lawn we cleared. The big kids helped us rake pine needles in the back yard. And I was thinking that a bad thing about pine needles is that they don't blow away after they fall. They're just stuck in the lawn till you get them off. I prefer leaves, but I won't complain. I am happy to have green out our windows, even if they are slowly killing the green in our lawn. 

So around noon, I started to work a little bit more on Hawaii stuff. Yesterday I started to dabble with figuring out the details of all the things we need to have in order to be let into their state, but I got interrupted when we left to buy the train and didn't finish. Today Corey and I were at it again. I found another wood train and took the kids with me again to get that, and then, since it was out in West Jordan where I got it, I took a little drive by the Walgreens in Taylorsville to see if I could learn anything new. Our flight leaves Thursday at 12:05 Seattle time, and we need to be tested within 72 hours of that departure, which puts us at being able to be tested after 1:05 pm on Monday. We tried to schedule appointments, knowing that: "The state of Hawai‘i will ONLY accept Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) from a certified Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) lab test results from TRUSTED TESTING AND TRAVEL PARTNERS". They had a list of partners, and the only ones we can do from Utah is Walgreens. And Walgreens is free, so that's nice. We could do CVS from Nevada, but it would be $139 a pop, so thank goodness for free tests.

So I tried to schedule it on the Walgreens website, but it was ALL booked for tomorrow, ALL booked for Monday, and ALL BOOKED for Tuesday!! Like what are we supposed to do? How do I get an appointment!?!? I tried to call the store but their automated thing was totally unhelpful. I couldn't click to move to the Thursday.... so as far as we knew, there were currently no available appointments for us anywhere in Utah and Wednesday is our last day to do it before we leave for Vegas. Corey found some openings in Twin Falls on Tuesday, and booked those. So I got the little kids in the car and first went to go get more wood train toys (these ones were solid wood and had lots of good pieces, yay) and then drove by the Walgreens in Taylorsville, which is the only place with the "Red dot" test in Utah (on the Walgreens page, there are blue dots or red dots - Blue is for the RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel Test - NAAT which is valid, just takes longer. The Red dot test is the Rapid Point-Of-Care (POC) Test - NAAT. SO ANYWAY - I waited in line to ask for mercy or for any insights as to what we could do... "Please have mercy..."

The kids got out of their seatbelts and played with the train table in the back while we waited. When it was my turn, I told them I didn't have an appointment, but I want one, and it's booked through Tuesday, and we're flying out THURSDAY and what do we do? Is there any hope for us?!?! The nice guy told me that the system resets at 6pm and there will be appointments available then for the next day. Ok, great, and I left. Then I turned around and went back and waited again - "There are also 10 of us that need tests.... do they each need an appointment?" (worry worry - will they even have 10 openings?? yikes...) Yes, everyone needs an appointment, make sure the birthday is right and names are spelled exactly as they are on the boarding pass. I had set an alarm to check it at midnight, so I'm glad he told us 6 or else it would have all been filled up. Hooray for being able to talk to a person. I sent a polo to my siblings to say "AHHHH!" thinking that all of this could be for not if we can't even make appointments to get tested here... Corey booked some up at Twin Falls, so maybe we'll just be taking a road trip on Tuesday. 

I would have been about to tear my hair out had I waited until 6, cause it was all filled up by then. Thankfully I told Corey, he was watching their website like a hawk, and noticed it was slow and appeared to be rebooting around 5, and then "Tiff! It's open!" What!?!? and in a flurry we were hurrying and answering the same seven questions over and over again for all 10 of us... I was upstairs and he was downstairs and we were yelling info to each other and then I was like "ahh fine!" and I came out to where the children were able to bother us (instead of being safely locked in at the desk in the laundry room... I kept telling Corey to come up where we could lock the door but I guess he didn't hear me). So kids were kinda running around but we focused hard and told Abi to try and get Daniel away as we tried to save the trip.... We entered in our names, birthdates, and addresses one at a time... then hurry and click through all the questions:

1. Do you currently have any of the following symptoms? (Select all that apply)

 - Fever less than 102°F or feeling feverish

 - Chills

 - Repeated shaking with chills

 - New or worsening cough

 - Sore throat

 - Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing (not severe)

 - Muscle pain

 - Headache

 - New loss of taste or smell

 - Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea

 - None of the above

2. In the last 2 weeks, have you had contact (within 6 ft. of the person for a prolonged period of time or been coughed on) with someone who has been diagnosed with or presumed to have COVID-19?

 - Yes

 - No

3. In the last 2 weeks, have you been in contact (within 6 ft. of the person for a prolonged period of time or been coughed on) with someone who is sick but has not been diagnosed with COVID-19?

 - Yes

 - No

4. In the last 2 weeks, have you had any of the following exposures? (Select all that apply)

 - International travel

 - Live in or have visited an area where there has been community spread of COVID-19*

 - None of these

5. Do any of the following describe your work setting? (Select all that apply)

 - Healthcare Facility: I work in a clinic, hospital, nursing home, or senior care facility or other healthcare facility

 - First Responder: I am a first responder, such as an ambulance worker, law enforcement officer, or firefighter

 - None of the above

6. Do you have any of the following conditions? (Select all that apply)

 - Chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma

 - Serious heart condition (including high blood pressure, previous heart attacks, heart failure, etc.)

 - I have a neurologic condition that affects my ability to cough (e.g., had a stroke)

 - Condition that can cause a person to be immunocompromised (including cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV positive, prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications)

 - I smoke

 - I have been told by my doctor that I am very overweight or obese (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)

 - Diabetes

 - Chronic kidney disease or undergoing dialysis

 - Liver disease

 - None of the above

7. Are you currently pregnant?

 - Yes

 - No

 - Does not apply to me

Thankfully we were "No, No, No, None of the Above" for all the questions. Corey works a lot faster than I do, and he finished the form for himself, me, and HWALS in the time that it took me to do myself and Daniel, Owen, and Natalie. (I worked from the bottom up, he did top down, I didn't know he did me, so we later cancelled that so I didn't have two appointments, another reason why I had to come down stairs... so I could hear what he was hollering up at me "I already did you!")

And so good news - we had it all done by 5:40, which is really good cause Taylorsville was all filled up by then! Joseph called and told us to schedule him too, and it was booked, so he's going up to Ogden, which is the other place in Utah that has the red dot test. He's going to try to fly out late Friday. I hope he figures it out ok, we're not going to be able to be much help to him. Good luck Joseph! We hope you make it! If we make it! I guess if we don't make it you don't get to go either, so... "AHHHH!" this is kinda stressful. It's hard enough getting places without covid, yikes. Good luck to us. Step 1 is done though - we have appointments to get tested for covid. 

And then we went and played Trains for a while. I made a pretty good system. 

Someday we'll need a bigger table. I left the new table downstairs, we might use it for Lego city or might re-sell it. But it was a good buy.

Right now, I'd like a vacation. Good luck us. If we make it, I guess that we'll have two more "warm" weekends in Hawaii. I hope it happens, it would be a wonderful memory to have with the kids.