2020

What a year! We started off the year on a high! Chase and I celebrated being married 6 years, and I got pregnant in January and was so excited to add to this crazy little family of mine!

In February, Chase and I had a fun Valentines Date with friends.

In March, Chase and I went to Nashville, TN with Chase's parents for a quick 2 night stay. It was so fun though going to a bunch of country music museums, walking down Honky Tonk Row, going to the Ryman to see the Oakridge Boys and other country singers, riding scooters, and eating lots of good food! This trip kind of turned into a wild one as about a week before, a tornado hit in Nashville and received more tornado warnings while we were there that Thursday, March 12. That same day, the whole country was informed that a lockdown was going to begin the following day, Friday, March 13 because of coronavirus. We travelled home Friday and the world as well as my own, private world came crashing down. What was supposed to be a 2 week lockdown (no church, school, work from home, only essential businesses were open like grocery stores and everything was out of stock), turned into a month, then 2 months, then 3 months. That same Friday lockdowns began, I began to bleed. This lead to the longest 3 weeks of ups and downs. I shared the experience in my leather journal, but I ended up miscarrying the baby on April 6.

In April we celebrated Easter. Then in May we went to Red Cliffs with the Robinsons and Lake Powell with the Boyces where Ashton surfed for his first time, and although he didn't love it, I was so proud! 

June, July and August was eventful as summer usually is. In June, after my miscarriage in April, I got pregnant and kept it extremely quiet until I was 13/14 weeks along. Also in June, Jill came to visit for a week when she was 32 weeks pregnant with Josie and after being in pain for the whole week, she finally went to the hospital to discover she had HELLP Syndrome and went into an emergency C Section that day on June 20 and had her baby over 7 weeks early. After almost a month in the NICU, Josie came home and Hallie met her first girl cousin on the Boyce side! July was fun with the 4th of July at the Lake and fireworks, then the 24th and Chase's birthday at the cabin hiking, riding horses, and fishing! Then in August, Chase and I went surfing with friends, Natalie and Rhett got sealed in the temple and I made her cake, Ashton turned 5 and started his last year of preschool and started his first year of flag football with Chase as his coach!

In September, I announced I was pregnant with a boy! We told Chase's parents just at their house and then my family at Lake Powell. Everyone was shocked and so excited! Also at Lake Powell, Hallie kneeboarded for the first time and wasn't even scared! Then, I got the rare chance to leave Chase with the kids for a weekend and went to my good friend's wedding! Chase, of course, took the kids to Beaver for the weekend.

Chase's Grandpa Gentry passed away in October, and after some coronavirus drama with Michon getting the virus, we celebrated him. Then Chase killed an Elk over the Spike Hunt, then we took the kids camping at the Deer Camp! And then, of course, we went trick-or-treating with Benny 'The Jet' Rodriguez and Elsa.

November came and Hallie turned big 3 years old! We also got the kids bunkbeds and they love them! Then we had Thanksgiving with the Boyce side and went and got our Christmas Tree in Beaver!

For Christmas this year, a week early, we had a Boyce Christmas Party. We took them to all ride horses (some for their first time), decorated gingerbread candy trains, opened a few gifts and played games. For Christmas weekend, we were with Chase's family. This Christmas turned into a crazy one. All month long, Ashton begged and begged... and begged for a dog for Christmas. When I would say no (like I've said no for 5 years), he would tell me he will just ask Santa then since I won't listen and Santa listens. After a LOT of discussing, Chase and I decided to do it. So we surprised them with Gunner Christmas morning. 

2020 was a weird year. Coronavirus took over and the world and the country went downhill fast. Joe Biden became president... Don't get me started on Politics. I've never cared about Politics until this year. Now it fires me up when I talk about it. I'm just extremely grateful to live in Southern Utah where the majority of the state still believes in Freedom and also don't fear the coronavirus. I lost a baby for the first time and learned how devastating that really is, then I got pregnant with a baby boy as well. Lots of memories, good and bad, and lots of lessons learned.