2020

Most people in the world are already condemning 2020 for being one of the worst in history. COVID-19 contaminated the population as the worst pandemic since the Spanish Flu. Although I understand and feel the gravity of the pandemic on a national and worldwide scale, on a personal level, the coronavirus is one of the best things that's ever happened to us!

We enjoyed Mardi Gras 2020, shamelessly using Charlie to get as many signature throws as possible. We ended up with seven shoes from the famous Muses Krewe. 

Four of the Six shoes came with personal notes from the maker. One was a woman who had conquered breast cancer and a brain tumor. She saw Charlie's sign and felt like she had to give us one. She included her email with the note and I emailed her Charlie's story and learned more about her. It was pretty cool to make that connection with someone.

Each time Charlie eats we put him in his stander. It makes him look way more handicapped than he actually is...but it has really helped with his standing. Even though it supports him a ton, it's helped him build bone density and also gets him more used to being in an upright position.

Charlie had another clear MRI in March and the next week New Orleans began Quarantine. The day Scott's school emailed and said he would be doing online classes indefinitely, we booked plane tickets to Salt Lake City Utah and left two hours later. 

For the past two and a half months we've been spending time with family. Beside's Charlie's two UTI's (one turning into a terrible kidney infection), we've mostly had time to rest, relax, reconnect with loved ones, and take a deep breath after the hardest year of our lives. 

Scott's enjoyed a lot of mountain biking, and has gotten into our brother-in-law Garrett's new CrossFit app called Garage Box Fitness. He's been participating in online lectures for an average of three hours a day, which is a significant decrease in his usual school schedule. The Urology Education community decided that away rotations this year will be canceled, and the residency interviews will all take place virtually. Although it's a bit disappointing Scott won't get to see the campus's in person, this will save us around $10,000. In addition to that financial blessing, Scott was behind in school due to missing days for Charlie's cancer treatments. He was going to have to use all of his 4th year vacation time to make up the work. But because his schedule has relaxed so much, they've changed the requirements and by the end of June he will be back on track with the rest of his peers graduating in 2021. He is thrilled (and so am I). 

He had his 27th birthday just before we flew to Utah and I gave him a nice leather messenger bag for interview season (which now he doesn't really need I guess), and some beautiful Ray Bans sunglasses. I also gave him a vintage dart board which he only got to enjoy for a few days before we left it in New Orleans. 

My sister, Bailey, had a wedding date set for May 5, 2020, but everyone began quarantine and the Church began shutting down church and the temples. So Bailey and her fiance, Caden, panicked and decided to elope! They got married on Tuesday, March 24, 2020 in the Draper UT LDS Temple and the following day the church closed the temples for live ordinances indefinitely. 

Bailey was sad she didn't get some of the traditional aspects of wedding celebration so I surprised her by doing all of the wedding flowers in secret so she had a huge bouquet on her wedding day. They turned out lovely, I think. 

Charlie has made so many improvements in his motor skills. He can now crawl up and down the stairs. His posterior walker arrived and he is getting better in it each day. He still needs someone to cue him from behind and help him shift his weight forward, but I see him being able to use it independently soon. We call his walker "Big Blue". He even got accidentally Tik Tok famous when I posted a video of him using his walker as a tester video (trying to learn to use the app). The next day I woke up and it had over 10,000 views! Now it was over 150,000! We were using Tik Tok for a Brimley Tik Tok competition (something to do during Quarantine). We also did a music video competition and did an excellent video to Usher's "Yeah!" featuring Charlie for each "Yeah". 

Charlie went through a few phases while we were staying here. First, he loved big cardboard boxes and had a box house at both his Frampton and Brimley grandparents houses for when he arrived to play. He also fell in love with a Bunny that Anna bought for Nate's birthday, calling it "Nunny". He has a stuffed bunny now and it will forever be known as Nunny. 

He also changes who his favorite person is every week or so. One week it was "Neet" (Nate), then 
"Bop Bop" (Grandpa), then "Ah Yee" (Ali). But he always loves "Nana" (Moana) and "Momo" (Elmo).

He loves the swing, the slide, chalk, sandboxes, and taking walks in the raptor (plastic car). I don't know how I'm supposed to entertain him back in New Orleans...

We took Charlie to the Dinosaur Museum, the Buttery Museum, and the Petting Zoo. He smiled so big while he was riding the pony I am tempted to get him one. I don't know if I've ever seen him so happy.

We also took a Brimley family weekend trip to Moab and took Charlie on his first hike to the Corona Arch It was so beautiful. He went swimming for the first time since his central line was removed and we had lots of fun taking his stroller up and down the main street in Moab.

I started off strong running and preparing for three different races (that all ended up being canceled), but one month into our stay here I injured my foot. I self-diagnosed it as plantar fasciitis but I have an appointment to get it checked out back in NOLA. Sadly, I've had to wear a boot on and off and stay mostly off my foot. I've tried to stay active by modifying Garrett's daily CrossFit workouts and I did a crazy two day fast with Anna, just sort of for the heck of it. 

Both the Frampton's and the Brimley's did family photos. It's the first time our siblings have all been home for a long time. 

My sister, Jenessa, had her third baby girl and I took newborn photos of her. She is precious.

The other interesting thing is that I've been spending my free time writing a book. It's only in the beginning stages, but I've been enjoying it and hope I can make something I'm proud of.  

I picked up piano lessons (virtually) while I've lived in Utah with Sydni Garvin and I've loved it! I've really gotten some of my old skills back. I relearned Claire De Lune and played it for my Grandma Frampton since she is dying. She always requested I learn that and play it at her funeral. I also learned The Swan and Morning Mood.

Scott and I decided to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary a week early while we were still in Utah. We spent the first two nights of our honeymoon at Sundance Mountain Resort, so we thought it would be sentimental and fun to spend a night there again for our anniversary. This time we got the Table for Two package which was supposed to include dinner at the Tree Room and breakfast at the Foundry Grill. We made reservations, but when we arrived at the Tree Room it was closed. We were pretty disappointed. We ate at the Foundry Grill instead and ordered $170 worth of food! Best fried chicken I've ever tasted in my life. We explained to the front desk about the mishap and they reduced our room rate and we basically ate dinner and breakfast completely free of charge. They also didn't charge us for the hot tub in our room.  It was awesome. The first day we took the ski lift up to Ray's Lift and hiked down the mountain on Black Forest Trail. Then the second day we finished by doing the Bearclaw Zipline Tour. It was so awesome! Basically we took the lift all the way up the mountain (it felt like we were right next to Mnt. Timpanogos), then we took three long ziplines down back to the base. The first zip, the line just disappeared it was so long! It was scary and fun. Such a great adventure. I can't believe we've been married five years. We made another five year plan and our future looks bright! Can't wait to see what is in store for our family.