Life on the Road Less Traveled: Normalcy before the pandemic, a recap of January-March 2020

What a year 2020 has been. Little did we know what would transpire as we brought in the new year. We started the year off with a New Year's hike in Umstead State Park and hiked to a really cool chainsaw art tree that I had read about online. We ran into some friends from Zoe's preschool and enjoyed a beautiful day in the park. It was a lovely start to the new year, that followed with several hikes and explorations to local parks throughout the mild January we had.

Chainsaw tree art at Umstead State Park

Some of our hikes included:
The Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, where we got to play in the children's play area, see deer, and enjoy the nature trails, and
Lake Crabtree County Park, where we got to experiment with taking pictures with our digital cameras, play in the sand at the waterfront and on the volleyball court, and hike on the mountain bike trails.

We joked that one of our New Year's resolutions should be to set a goal of how many different trails we could hike this year. Little did we know that the world would change in a few months that would make staying close to home and finding things to do a necessity. I have been so grateful to live where we do and have state, county, and town parks to explore this year.

Rose and Zoe at Lake Crabtree County Park

Family photo at Lake Crabtree County Park

All winter and into the spring, Zoe has been into wearing elaborate headbands. She's always hated having her hair brushed and doesn't like to let me give her a ponytail, so I'll take whatever she'll do to keep her hair out of her eyes. You may see some of her headbands in the posts from this year.

Zoe's wearing her New Year's "Cheers" headband for our trip to the Durham Museum of Life and Sciences

Zoe wearing her unicorn headband at school

Zoe's class focused on learning about the world this winter. The children each got to teach their classmates about their own origins. Zoe was able to teach her classmates about Portugal and learned about Germany, Ecuador, and Guyana from her classmates. When fires raged in Australia, the children learned about the country and the animals needing help. The school took up a collection to rescue koalas, which meant we got to talk about koalas at home for weeks.

Zoe learning about the world at school

Winter in North Carolina is really only the month of February. It's typically when we actually see some snow, frozen rain, or ice. The winter continued to be mild, allowing us to continuing enjoying outdoor adventures. We did have one snow "storm" that shut things down for a day and melted before noon.

February is also the month we celebrate Rose's birthday. We usually celebrate on the day, have a party with friends over the weekend closest to the day, and then travel to New York to celebrate the three February birthdays in the family. Our Southwest airlines companion fares expired on December 31, 2019, so we no longer had the "buy four tickets for the price of two" deal. Instead, we decided to try Spirit airlines, flying from Raleigh to Boston and renting a car to drive to Albany. Our Thursday evening flight ended up being canceled (because of a maintenance issue), so we flew out on a Friday morning, and while our return flight from Boston to Raleigh was uneventful, it was a late flight, getting us home around midnight. The girls did well traveling once again, and it was nice celebrating the Miller birthdays with the whole family. While it's always nice visiting family, it's difficult seeing Colin's dad battle Parkinson's with dementia. Each time we visit, he seems to know who we are less and appears more and more frail. The past year has been filled with urgent care and emergency room visits from pneumonias and falls.

The birthday girl wanted Duck Donuts for breakfast on her birthday before going to school

Celebrating with a small cake on her birthday after gymnastics and dinner

Rose's birthday party cake from Costco

Rose's birthday party with friends was at the bowling ally and was a combination of new friends from kindergarten and old friends from pre-school. The kids had a great time bowling, in the arcade, and coming back to our house for the "after party." We spent the second half of the weekend at the Durham Museum of Life and Sciences with Avo and Vovo, riding the train, seeing the butterflies and building forts in the treehouse area.

Rose's fancy New York birthday cake

Being in a year-round school, Rose had 3 weeks off in late February and early March. In addition to the trip to New York, we also took a trip to the beloved Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte. Colin's great aunt passed away shortly after we left New York, so he flew back for the funeral and met us in Charlotte on his flight back. On our way to Charlotte, we stopped in at the NC Zoo. It was a rainy day, so it wasn't crowded, but many of the animals were active.

Rose is always looking to make a great deal. She asked Avo and VoVo for $20 for $3 worth of quarters!

The girls love the Great Wolf Lodge

We love going to the Great Wolf Lodge during track outs when prices are low and there are few crowds.

Darwin celebrated his 9th birthday at the beginning of January. He's getting more grey around the face.
Rose has loved him so much since birth and greets him just about every morning.

We did swim lessons for Zoe to get her comfortable in the water in preparation for summer swim team

It would have been lovely to be off three weeks with Rose for her track out, but we did have to work. She went to camp a few days at XL Sports while Zoe went to daycare.
She picked up roller blading so quickly!

In early March, Colin lost his job just around the time I had a work trip planned to Asheville. Little did we know how much more things were going to change after that trip, and that traveling would look different for a long time. We celebrated my birthday early, first just the two of us, and then with my parents. The girls stayed in South Carolina with my parents while Colin went with me to Asheville. We had a lovely lunch at an Indian restaurant downtown called Mela. When I wrapped up my work in Asheville, we continued celebrating my birthday in South Carolina before heading back home for Rose to start back to school on March 9th. She had 5 days back in school and then the county closed schools because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We got a message on Sunday March 15th that schools would be closed starting Monday March 16th (my birthday) and there would be a 5 hour window on March 17th where personal belongings could be picked up. We kept Zoe home from daycare, and found ways to engage the girls in creativity at home. I was so thankful Colin wasn't working so he could set them up with crafts and daily learning (and structured learning once the county set that up by the end of the month). We started daily walks (I would usually join Colin and the girls on my lunch break), afternoon reading sessions (and attempted to give Zoe rest time like at daycare), and bought some age-appropriate workbooks. Lots of times, I worked at the kitchen table alongside the girls, or they did reading in my office so Colin could send out job applications or take interviews. In addition to being grateful that my job was flexible (and already remote), that Colin was not working and could manage most of the daily parenting needs, I was also grateful that unemployment benefits increased during the pandemic, that we lived in such close proximity to so many wonderful parks, and that March brings spring weather in NC, allowing us to be outdoors most days.