The Baranko Family: Stay at home order

When our FL Spring Break trip was cancelled, we decided to do an alternate Spring Break trip and go RVing. We had always wanted to do this, so Matt rented an RV and mapped out a whole itinerary to the Smoky Mountains. It was the perfect social distance trip! We would eat/sleep/restroom all in the RV, and only get out to hike in the beautiful Smoky Mountains and other scenic nature spots along the way. We had the RV packed and ready to go when Governor Pritzer announced the stay-at-home order and "no discretionary travel". Ugh! Were we ever disappointed. The order went into effect at midnight, so we decided to spend an hour or two driving around locally in the RV, ate pizza and watched a movie in a forest preserve parking spot, and then spent one evening sleeping in the RV in the driveway. It was really fun, we were all bummed that we couldn't go. The kids were troopers about the change in plans (again). Another time!

Other than our cancelled trips, the first few weeks of the pandemic were kind of nice. It was kind of fun to have nowhere to go and nothing to do on the weekends. Working from home / schooling from home allowed more time to see each other during the day, and we had lots of awesome family puzzles/games/movies/baking/walking. We joked that some people rushed out to get toilet paper or weapons, Matt rushed out and bought 3 bags of puzzles! They would soon be sold out, so he was smart! We love our new puzzles and they brought hours of entertainment.

It was Dad/Grandpa Craig's birthday, and we were supposed to be there with him in FL, so we tried to bring cheer to him via a Zoom birthday call and cake with champagne toast. Of course Kristin & co. were on, as well as a few extended family members - Aunt Sue, Katie, Bryson and the kids, Uncle Dan and Aunt Allyson. It was fun to see everyone and catch up! A mini-March birthdays.

Long lines at the grocery stores

Lots of Otto time at home

Wellness class - yoga day

Otto goes to sleep in Claire's room every night

The kids couldn't wait for Matt to come back with the RV!

Matt even rigged it to tow the Mini Cooper so that once we got to our destination we could drive around easier.

Top bunk!

Open road!

Hiking in Open Lands

Got out the sewing machine that Donna gave me and attempted to learn how to sew a mask

My first attempt

Coveted N95 masks found in with Matt's tools and things

Bike riding in the frigid air with her ski helmet on

Hot tub time! Wearing the new swimsuit we bought for Florida.

We had lots of cooking and baking happening since we weren't going anywhere

Snow! Lovely.

My team attempted to "stay connected" outside of the office by doing almost daily video calls and happy hours

Luke and Claire joined Facebook Kids Messenger to stay connected with their school friends - they are also able to add funny things on pictures like this gem

The golf course across the street from our neighborhood became a favorite place for us to walk and ride bikes on the golf cart paths.

Our COVID snowman

Cross Country skiing with my skis!! He's so big!

More tablet time than normal, that's for sure.

Matt set up a schedule for them on the white board and they LOVED it. They loved the structure and routine and they checked it all the time and knew exactly what was happening at any point in the day.