Idaho holds, then folds. Earthquake, april fools day and some fun.

 Love this saying that I found in my email this day. It's so true man. We should be kind to our spouse and love them and see the good in them.

 Idaho for a long time had zero cases. We held out as one of the very last states to have anyone with the virus. We were pretty lucky for a while. Then we got cases and now we have 60 dead and almost 2000 cases.

 Every Wednesday night Puggs and Stacey will call us and talk to us. This one night they called and sang to us. They're such great friends to us and it's great to look forward to talking to them each Wednesday night. I can't believe how quickly Wednesday's come for how little we're doing. It's a good thing.

 I also loved this saying that came into my email one day as well.

NY isn't faring too well and it's pretty bad, but this meme makes me laugh even though it's horrible.

 We might have to do this for Emiko if it's still bad in NZ hahahaha

 We're getting out on our bikes and having a good time with it. So that's always fun.

Then one afternoon we were sitting and reading a book and then the house started shaking. I thought it was a semi going past our house and shaking it up and it turned out it was an earthquake. Talk about crazy town mate. I mean we've never had an earthquake before in Boise and then we get one. Crazy times alright. I had the kids get into the doorways and Dru was out in the shop and didn't feel a thing hahahahahaha

 Some people in USA have been wearing some cool things to go shopping. Take a look.

Crack up

 April's fools day I wasn't feeling it man and didn't want to do anything. Then I wake up to Takeshi cracking up that he'd done this to all our doors.
This kid is the life of the party mate and I'm glad he's a part of our lives.
When I'm not feeling it, he helps me to remember to relax and have fun. I love it and I love him.

 Then Yuki's youth group were thinking about drawings for the theme for their camp for t-shirts etc and so Yuki drew this. Pretty good I'd say for the theme.

Dru wore his Thompson cat shirt mtb the other week. Super fun.

 One day the kids decided to wear onsies all day as well.

 Masaru and I getting out there and having some fun.

 Dru and I found a double sleeping bag for our camping trips. Dru always wants to share a bag and we finally found one. I'll be interested to see how it does.

 I got this note on my bed and don't know who it was from. But I was super grateful for it and love my kids and love that they love me. Little things man.

Takeshi doing three bears for the first time. He did the lunchtime loop and totally rocked it. He's doing great out there on his mtb. Fun times.

Takeshi entertaining himself with the help of his sidekick the cute kokopops

So just a catch up on some quarentine life stuff. The kids got school extended to not going to the 20th of April then later on it got extended for the rest of the school year. It was a tough reality for the kids. They miss their mates and their teachers and their lives.
Super sad.
So we got the teachers some gifts and wrote to them and sent them out to let them know we love them.
They appreciated it and I think it made the  kids feel better.
We all miss their school and teachers and regular lives.
But we're making the most of what we've got going on.

Some quarantine entertainment

So we've been up and down with what's working and not.
We had some bad weather and so decided to play bball inside one time which I caught some video's of.

Masaru

Yuki

A couple of Yuki's layups on slow mo

We've got the pumptrack that the boys work on as well. So I have a of video of that as well. This jump Masaru does on his front tire looks awesome right?

Masaru also decided to make a trampoline bike that he worked hard on for a couple of days.
I got some video of him making it and doing some tricks on it.
It's pretty cool.

Here's a timelapse of him working on it. I like timelapse' they're pretty cool right?

Finally got it done and time to try it out.

He also worked hard for a couple of days trying to figure out how to get dice to stand up straight in a cup. He realized that it's all about the cup and the dice, both which he didn't have the right ones for. So he took matters into his own hands.

Then he went back to practicing his moves on his trampoline bike.

Here's the next few moves that he learned. Here's the single.

Here's the double.

Here's the front flip

The side kick flip

Here's the 'I'm and idiot' move.

And the 360 no hander.

So it's been good that he's been trying to find some fun in this whole thing. Takeshi has been practicing as well and having fun on it.

The weather has been pretty good considering. But we did manage to get some snow as well which was crazy. But only for a second.

For the most part the weather has been fantastic, and that is a true blessing in these times of, at home-ness.

 One day these guys decided to be FBI agents who were trying to collect a suitcase to save the world which had a bomb in it.
Pretty cute.

 Then Auntie Ashaan sent us the instructions to do a kiwi origami. So we gave that a go. Takeshi finally got it sorted to where it looked awesome.
He's really good at origami.

Then Emiko got creative and decided that she was going to make herself some roasted marshmallows over the candle. She said they tasted great. 

Then lastly our family in NZ have been communicating with us more about everything that's going on. They're on a lockdown and so we're keeping things fun by doing little challenges and such. It's been fun. We did some dances together and put them up as well. Here's the ones that we did.

Last one.

We continue to try to entertain ourselves and do the best we can in the situations we're in.
It's been a weird time but we're trying to make the most of it.

When the world changed

So there's a virus called corona or COVID-19, which is it's official name, that is going around the world.
The word on the street is that it started from a Chinese person eating a bat and it all went pear shaped after that.
Anyway he spread this virus around to a few Chinese and then with all the travel that the Chinese do around the world it spread like wildfire around the world.
More word on the street is that China are lying about how bad it's spreading in it's country and the amount of people it's killed.
According to China it's all under control and only 3k people died which the whole world finds extremely hard to believe for a place with 1 billion people.
I think it's safe to say they're full of it.
Anyway the virus has started spreading, just like a viru does, and I figured it'd just spread like normal virus' do, and we'd all get through it, like normal, and we'd be fine.
More words on the street are that the virus is like the flu but hit's people with respiratory problems harsher than others.
So of course older people were more prone to die from it, than others, because they're older and their bodies aren't as good as they once were. Then those who have respiratory problems were more likely to have a tough time or even die from it as well.
But to me, it felt like just a flu and most would be fine, like the flu seasons, and some would die, like normal each year and it'd be gone soon like the others.
For me because it didn't affect my family, I didn't think twice about it. I figured we may catch it and then work through it and keep moving forward.
But the world leaders had a different attitude once we started seeing what happened to Italy.
So Italy caught it and it spread like wildfire and started killing a lot of people. There were so many sick that the hospitals couldn't keep up and they had to turn some people who might not make it, away. So that's super sad.
So I guess the rest of the world watched that and started thinking that that's not what they want to have happen to them.
It'd be tough to have the hospitals and the medical staff swamped with so many sick. So as quickly as it could happen governments started to make changes to the way we lived.
NY caught it really bad and that was an example for the USA of what could happen state to state and so local leaders started making decisions for their states.
Idaho was one of the very last states to have any cases of the virus, but we then had to come to our state because of a wedding that happened in Sun Valley where the rich live and private jet fly themselves into the state, then attended this wedding, and then spread it around the state. So that was great.
I guess it just goes to show how quickly virus' can spread, especially with all the travel and with large social events.
So the first place to shutdown all gatherings was our church.
The church sent out an announcement waaaaaaay before anything else, that they would be shutting down meetings on Sunday's as well as gatherings for the children, adults and the youth on the weekdays.
At the time I figured it was a little crazy, but it turns out the church was more on top of things than we all knew.
And I think that the church will be one of the last places to open back up as well.
So we've been doing church at home and it's been great. Our family enjoy Sunday's and what it's done for our family and the study and talking and the spiritual upliftment we've been feeling.
The transition has been pretty seamless and so I don't have too much complaints about it at all.
I miss seeing people and I miss teaching my class to a live audience. For now myself and my teaching partner are flip flopping weeks and teaching on a facebook live session to the ward facebook page.
It's a different way of teaching but I"m getting more and more used to it the more I teach. It's a lot different teaching on a video that people are watching rather than in real life. I enjoy seeing people and reading their body language and with a video you get none of that. It's a little weird, but I think we'll be doing it for a while, so might as well get used to it.
Another area that was a huge change was EVERYTHING else got canceled as well and I mean everything. All sports, all schools, and like I said church activities.
So the kids finished school on Friday and then over the weekend were told 'Okay no school for a couple of weeks'
So that was kind've weird but we figured we'd use it as a holiday and have a fun time. Which we did. But then the news came out that there'd be no school for the rest of the school year and the kids were really upset.
That means that they wouldn't be with their awesome teachers in their awesome classes again. It was a harsh reality for them as they love their classes and love their teachers.
There were some tears shed and some sad faces.
The kids now do school online and are doing well with it all. They've been pretty good about it all and have been doing their school work in the mornings and then having their own time in the afternoons and it seems to be going well.
We do that kind've thing in the summer anyway, so they're used to it.
To start off with it was just social distancing in Idaho and so we had the chance to go for a walk with friends and stuff and then the state came out with the stay at home thing and it upped the level a little.
So now we don't really see anyone at all apart from the Bredes' who live behind us. We basically share a bubble with them and the kids get to go back and forth between our and their house.
That's been a life saver for the kids. We decided to do that from the beginning and so that worked.
The gyms are all closed and so I've been working out from home which is working out pretty good as well.
Emiko and I did a drive by bday party drive for her friend Asher. That was cute and we decided to visit some other people as well, which was nice.
I go between missing people and not. It depends on the day.
Some days I'm glad just to be with my family, and other days I miss seeing people.
I started off doing too much for the kids and forgetting myself to now trying to figure out the balance better so I'm better for all involved.
It's been very up and down and very weird but it's becoming our new normal.
There's a lot of feelings that everyone has and it's complicated. Some people see it as black and white and it's not. There's many variables that all count. There's extremists on both ends. Our family is in the middle and trying to do the best we can at staying at home and doing our part.
2020 has been the craziest year ever.
I didn't think that it'd go like this, that's for sure haahahah
I'm sure in my future posts I'll talk about it more, but that's the jist of it.
Idaho's numbers are declining, which is great news, so the stay at home is working. But we do have many that have died. I'm pretty sure it's up to 50. More than I ever thought would die have died.
Anyway let's put some pictures up and then go from there.

 We've been doing a bunch of spring cleaning in the yard and it's been great. We weeded and planted and re-planted and it's looking so great out there.
We found this little guy as well. So Yuki made sure all the disturbed animals got put back in a safe place while we worked.
I'm glad for all the help and the time to really make the yard to look good. I need to move one more plant and then I'll be happy.
We planted more raspberries as well. So hopefully they'll grow ok.

 Just a picture of what Yuki eats compared to me.

 There's been good memes coming out of this whole thing.

 The next week we decided to go on a hike outside with our friends the Bleazard's. It was a great hike and they all did really well.
It was nice to get out and to be with friends.

 Here's Emiko at the Albertsons commercial with her friend before the whole lockdown. She got to keep the PJ's and a  lot of money. So that was fun.

 They haven't shut down the foothills. So our family are getting out about three or more times a week to mtb together. It's been great weather and so it's been wonderful.

 We also got our cupping stuff and so the kids tried it on themselves.

So now Masaru has this stupid mark on his neck hahahahaha

 Another funny meme.

 This was a note that Wesly sent Masaru for his birthday.

 This is how he translated it. It kind've makes sense and is pretty creative.

Here's another funny one.

 Yuki drew this beautiful picture that she'd seen about the world being sick. So cute right?

So one of the things that have happened is mass hoarding from people.
The first thing to go was ALL OF THE TOILET PAPER.
It's been crazy man. I can't even believe it.
Then rice, flour, hand sanitizer has all been out for weeks. If you want any of these items you've had to line up for a long time then hope for the best.
I'm not about that and so just go when I can and have found things we've needed.
I found this rice and I was way pumped about it. I shared it with some others but I was happy to find it.
So it turns out everyone loves the same short grain rice as we do. There's always long grain rice but no short grain.
I never knew that there was so many short grain loving idahoans out there.
It's been interesting to say the least with all this hoarding man. Crazy town.
Our family has about 3 months supply of food, so we're ok.
But I think the whole world was doing a bit of a panic buy for a while there and it was crazy.
Some people are pretty tense and you can feel it man.
When push comes to shove, you see who's for themselves and who are truly selfless. It's been interesting and amazing.

After I posted this on my insta stories I had three people reach out to me. One was Tara Nielson who gave us 12 rolls from her stash. One was Brooke Warthen who sold us a set that her and her father and just lined up for and purchased. And the other was Kayla Parker who said she has some to share if we needed it.

I was really touched by these three examples of kindness and it changed me in a way to make me want to be better. Their examples in this time made me want to be a better person and I'm super grateful for them. I should probably tell them actually. 

Here's the kids doing some reading together. They're pretty great.

Here we are, making sure we're getting our daily exersize as a family.

Here's Yuki keeping us happy by playing some fun songs.

Here's Masaru and I going on a mtb ride. This is what he does to keep himself entertained while I'm just trying to keep up. It's pretty funny.

Here's the video's of the kids getting to know the cupping a little better. Crack up.

Well I could go on but I wanna go for a mtb ride so I'm gonna stop for now.
Peace out homies
Milz

Bunch of random things..............before the Covid-19 really hit

 So Masaru's rugby team decided to do a fundraiser and he wanted me to put it up on my social media. Liz and Kristin helped out, which was super nice of them, and Dru and I brought a ticket as well and called it good. Masaru was saying that he needed to go door to door and Dru and I looked at each other and were like "Sure" knowing full well that he wouldn't do it.
But we supported him with enthusiastic nods and thumbs up.
In his defence though this COVID-19 came and he kinda ran out of enthusiasm cause his whole life changed.

 Everyone went snowboarding and it was just Emiko and I at home. We had a great night together and then I just wanted to be alone and it was time for her to go to bed.
But Emiko doesn't like to go to bed by herself and the others weren't due to come home for a while and I just wanted to have a little time to myself.
So I put her to bed.
She didn't like that and kept trying to come out.
Then there was a spider, so it was double trouble. Cause now she's scared and she's double scared so she was out of control and I was totally over it man.
I'd spend all day working for the family and just wanted to sit in bed and watch a show and decompress and she wanted to be with me the whole night.
So I yelled at her and told her to get in bed and forced her to stay there, scared.
Yeah pretty much I'm a dork, but I was over it.
Anyway the next day I felt super bad so I wrote her a note apologizing to her. Then she wrote this note back to me.
Super cute. I love her and I'm grateful for her forgiveness.

 Masaru had just starting playing rugby games and was doing great and then this virus hit and they cancelled everything. He was gutted.

 Emiko went to school, then got her hair cut at Phil's and it's SUPER CUTE right!!!!!
She was so excited to show her friends at school on the Monday but the virus hit and she never had a chance to show her friends in real life. Sad. It's a really good cut for her hair. I thought I'd be sad for her hair to be cut, but it was so knotty that it was just enough you know. I figured this is a good move so that she can look after her own hair and it's working out great. I'm glad it's done.

One morning I went to work out with Jobecka and she gave me these earings as a gift. It was my father's birthday and she gifted these to let me know she cares. It was pretty awesome. It came with a message as well.

 We got a call from Albertsons asking if Emiko and I could be a part of an ad that they're doing. We said yes and made some money for doing a couple of days work. First day was just me and I did a couple of hours then the next day we went in and did another couple of hours but with Emiko. It was pretty easy and not a big deal.
Emiko got $500 and I got $700. So that worked out just great for us.

Then I needed to put this video of Masaru protecting his shoes when he first got them. Pretty funny. He's wearing them normally now hahahaha

So I've caught up with everything before life became all weird and crazy.
So in the next blog we can talk about how our lives changed.