Vacation Part 3--Sioux Center and COVID-19

After four days at Swan Lake, we returned to my parents on Thursday afternoon.  Unbeknownst to us (or Russ's sister), her family had been exposed to COVID-19 a few days before they drove down to meet us in Iowa.  Russ spent all day Friday outside helping trim my dad's trees and wasn't feeling great on Friday night.  We met with a bunch of college friends that evening still not realizing that Russ's achiness was not, in fact, from hauling logs and branches all day, but initial symptoms of COVID-19.  He began running a temp Friday evening and by Saturday, I was feeling achy and running a temp.  Anna had actually felt sick all day Friday, but we didn't think anything of it until she, too, began running a temp Saturday night.  By Saturday, Renee's family was also sick (as was Philip's), and Renee let us know that they had just found out their family had been exposed to COVID.  Russ went in on Saturday morning to get tested and the results on Tuesday showed that he was indeed positive for COVID-19.  At this point, Lydia and Seth had also had symptoms and some of us had lost our sense of smell and/or taste.  Unfortunately, we had been around my parents before we realized we were contagious and they too became sick.  Most of us had mild symptoms--low-grade fever, aches, headaches, fatigue, runny/stuffy noses, mild diarrhea.  My mom, however, became intimately acquainted with what is known as "COVID diarrhea" and wished she had known that Imodium-AD works wonders for that symptom!  So the ten days we had in Sioux Center were spent quarantining from the rest of the extended family.  Thankfully, none of the tree-trimmers, our friends that Friday night or any of the rest of the extended family became ill.  Caleb and Nicolas continued to spend time with us (no social distancing or masks) and neither became sick.  

Thursday evening before we knew of our exposure to COVID we went to Willow's softball game😬

Friday tree-trimming

This "little" dead branch had been hanging in a tree for over a year!

College and Orange City friends!

ColeValley Christian rescheduled their graduation ceremony for the Sunday we were in Iowa.  We were able to live-stream the ceremony and Grandma ordered a graduation cake.  It truly was a quarantine COVID-19 graduation complete with masks!  

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 As my parents became sick, the rest of felt much better so we helped out by spending lots of time in Dad's beautiful garden. Seth was delighted to be on the riding mower again.  

We teased Russ that he could just dump his shells in a pile; he didn't need to stack them in rows so nicely.

Towards the end of the week, when our quarantine time was almost over, we went to watch Jaron's baseball game.  We sat quite a distance from most people just to be extra safe.  We stopped for "Bob's Dogs" in LeMars afterward and I remember being so disturbed because I couldn't taste anything.

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This picture was taken at Siouxnami, Sioux Center's water park after we got back from Big Sand the day before the family left to head home to Idaho.  They had just spent the entire week together, but they just needed one more day.😊

Vacation Part 2--Swan Lake

We had about 24 hours after returning home from St. Joseph before we left to drive to Iowa--just enough time to do laundry and repack and for Russ to officiate a graveside service.  Friday night we stayed just inside the Wyoming border and made a really long day of driving on Saturday.  

We stayed by my parents over the weekend and headed to Swan Lake State Park in Caroll, IA on Monday to spend time with some of Russ' family.  Renee and Andy and family and Philip and Pam and their three youngest joined us.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we spent most of our time outside.  Caleb and Nicolas had to work, but they drove down on Tuesday and spent the day with us and Grandpa and Grandma Herman both at the state park and at the farm.

Picking mulberries!

We played lots of games, took lots of walks, and had great conversations around the campfire.

The trumpeter swans of Swan Lake

Turtle eggs

Vacation Part 1--Lake Wallowa, Oregon

We decided to take the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway on our trip to Joseph, Oregon.  It was a cold rainy day so we knew we had the time to take in some beauty along the way.  As we meandered along the curvy forested road, we were thankful we didn't hit the free-range cattle that were roaming around!

We did some exploring/shopping in Joseph since we arrived early and it was raining and just too cold to enjoy much of the outdoors.  After we moved into our lovely vacation rental we started a fire and got the games out!

The rain had stopped by the next morning so after breakfast, we hiked Chief Joseph Trail at the Wallowa Lake Trailhead.

We thought this rock had an interesting profile.

Destination--BC Falls

I asked them to stop so I could take a picture.  Not quite what I had in mind. 🙄

I decided to just take the picture while they were walking instead.😂

 After lunch even though it was quite overcast we decided to take the tram to the top of Mt. Howard.  The views on the way up were breathtaking, but once we got to the top visibility was zero...initially.  As we hiked through the snow, the sun finally broke through giving us awesome views!

These little guys were all over the top of the mountain and were not afraid of us.  

The next three pictures show how the clouds eventually moved out to give us those great views.

The views out of both sides of the tram car--lake and mountains.

 After warming up by the fireplace and playing a few games, we ate dinner and then walked by the lake.  The kids skipped stones and we just enjoyed the beautiful evening.