The In-Between Time

 It's been a whirlwind these past few weeks and I'm a little intimidated by all the events and pictures to sort through to even kind of get caught up here on the blog, but I am committed to try.   This post will be dedicated to the few days right after Adam got home from his mission and before we took off for our family reunion gathering (basically the time period of August 22-25). 

More than any other thing during that time,  I was really happy to just see our kids spending time and having fun together.  It makes my Mom heart joyful to see that my kids not only get along with each other, but are genuinely good friends and enjoy being together.  

My brother, Matt, and two of his kiddos were still with us during most of that time, as was our niece, McKenzie, who was in between summer and fall semesters at BYU. Their presence during this special time for our family only added to the experience.  They are all delightful people to have around and we are really happy that they were here.   Then on Saturday, Matt and kids left for Maryland and a few hours later, Cami, Lucie, and Oliver rolled into town from Alabama.    We also spent a lot of time on Saturday getting ready -baking and shopping-for Adam's homecoming and open house the next day.

With Lucie, Oliver, and Cami's arrival, our house got wild and loud very fast!   Lucie is as sassy, energetic, and talkative as ever and Baby Oliver just may be the sweetest baby I've ever met in my entire life....and I've met quite a few!     He scoots all over the place and basically only cries when he's hungry or when someone takes something away from him that he's excited to hold onto.  

Lucie and McKenzie definitely hit it off and Lucie was calling her "Auntie McKenzie" before long.  I loved, loved, loved seeing all my girls back together again and I loved seeing Spencer's and Adam's soft sides come out with Lucie and Oliver's presence.  I'd have to say that Lucie and Denali's obsession with each other was about equal and Denali LOVED all the attention she got while they were here.

 On Sunday, Adam gave his homecoming talk in our ward and we hosted an open house at our home afterward.  It was a joy to see so many old friends and to meet some of Adam's mission friends, though I neglected to get pictures of everyone that was there.  We  loved hearing him share some of his experiences as a missionary, as well as hearing him testify of Christ's love for each of us.  It was clear that he made a difference to many people over the last two years and we are proud of his willingness to serve the people of Oregon for that time.  

After the homecoming, we just reveled in our Lucie/Oliver time and enjoyed being all together as a family for the first time in more than two years.   My mom (Gramma Rosynanna to Lucie and Oliver) and my sister, Heather, were also very much enjoying all the snuggle and toddler time.  We ate a lot of family dinners all together and eventually we dropped McKenzie off at her new apartment for the fall, so she wouldn't miss her New Student Orientation. 

Next up on the agenda, our adventure to the wilds of Idaho...stay tuned...

Mid-August at a Glance!

It's been a crazy few weeks and we're in the midst of even more craziness, but here's a glimpse at our mid-August happenings around here! 

Enjoyed the sidewalk chalk art at Alpine Days:

Picked up Charity (Ellie's roommate) and stopped at a smoothie place on the way home from the airport.  She stayed with us for a few days!

Went to a family gathering with Bobby and Buddy's families.  I hadn't seen some of my cousins in 20+ years, so it was great to see them.  It was a full house, but fun to be there.

We belatedly sung to my Nana for her 95th birthday:

Ellie, McKenzie, Charity, and Emma dropped in for a few minutes  before they headed out for a concert in Park City.  The performer was Cody Fry, which no one had really heard about, but the four girls were excited to go. 

Went to the Provo Farmer's Market on Saturday...

Went to the Alpine Days parade and other festivities.  It was a tad bit of a let-down without any kids with us.  hahaha

We've been going on lots of walks, which one day was matchy matchy: 

We've been seeing tons of deer...

And lots of raptors lately...

 

Glen flew in his boss's private plane down for some meetings in Saint George for the day...

 

 

Emma and Ellie made us a charcuterie board for our Sunday dinner... It was quite tasty!

Denali was super cute...

I like finding pictures like this in the camera roll! haha

Can't remember if I ever mentioned the sprinkler saga, but basically we found out that our water meter and our neighbor's was switched and we were paying way too much!  It's a long story of how we figured that out, that involved not watering our grass for two weeks to prove to the city that something was wrong with our meter.  We FINALLY got it figured out and our lawn is still suffering the effects. 

Thankfully, we've had a lot more rain than usual lately.  Not quite like  rainy days in the East, but periods of time that are like a good soaking rain in the East.   We are hoping that it helps bring our lawn back to life! 

Ellie has also been enjoying the rain....

This is the least of the excitement of the last few weeks, so stay tuned for lots more coming your way...eventually!

More Summer Happenings (Part 2)

Okay, here's hoping Blogger is working a bit better today.  This is  try #2 trying to get this blog updated with our summer happenings, since I have been struggling to stay in a blogging routine this summer.    (part #1 is here)

Shortly after picking up Ellie from Idaho, we headed to Saint George for Glen to finish up his last couple of days working down there and for Ellie to get her wisdom teeth out at an oral surgeon who is a colleague of Glen's.   

She was very giggly and talkative coming out of the anesthesia, but, much to her own relief, she didn't end up saying anything too incriminating or embarrassing.  She did, however, insist on coming into Target with me to pick up her prescriptions.  I tried really hard to talk her into staying in the car with Glen, but she was very determined and just jumped out of the car.  She was very friendly and waved at everyone she saw, but otherwise didn't do anything too embarrassing.  And she was in a city far from home, so the chances of seeing anyone we knew were remote at best! 

 WE spent the next three days mostly just holed up in the hotel room while Glen was at work.   I was a bit tired of hotel living after those three days, but it went well and Ellie recovered quickly.  

We doordashed some soft foods...

And got ice cream a couple times, because what oral surgery recovery is complete without some ice cream for the occasion? 

The day AFTER her surgery, we headed to the Utah Food Bank and joined with lots of other families from the dental community in Saint George to work for a couple hours. Ellie's oral surgeon was actually at the project too and was very impressed at how well Ellie was doing. 

We laughed a little that the project for the night was  bagging up dog food, but it's very cool that they help people with food insecurity feed their pets too.    

  

Our job for the night was taping together boxes.

We headed on home from Saint George  on Wednesday night, then on Saturday morning, I took off with my mom and Heather for Star Valley for my Mom's 54th high school reunion.  Yes, 54th.  Why they picked this particular year to celebrate, I have no idea, but they did and a whole bunch of people came, so whatever. 

My Mom was very nervous about going, which was why I was there.  Heather wanted nothing to do with attending the reunion and Mom really didn't want to go by herself, so I was her +1.  It ended up being a great experience for her, so I'm glad I went, despite not being very excited to go initially (mostly because of the drive).    I helped make this class picture happen by arranging people and by going outside to get the banner for them to hold. 

 

Her graduating class only had 98 people in it, so this is actually a GREAT turnout, especially considering their ages!   Recognize the circled person in the following picture?

That's Sister Bednar.  The Sister Bednar-wife of a modern day Apostle.   She gave my mom a big hug and was kind as can be...of course.  

I also sent a few postcards from the cute little Grover post office.   Sadly I didn't actually find any Star Valley postcards, but I took a few from home to write along the way.

We also dropped my cousins' house, who both live on the same property my mom grew up on in Grover.  Tara and Kolt are a few years younger than me, so I wasn't super close to them growing up, but it was great to see them after so many years!   They are both so sweet!

The next day, the Grays (friends from Virginia), came to church with us  and stayed the night before they ventured back on their way home. 

Emma went to a Utah YSA conference one weekend recently.  I know nothing about it, other than Elder Uchtdorf spoke (I think) and they were trying to break a Guinness Book of World Record record with the most signatures on a birthday card for President Nelson.  He turns 100 next month.   I have no idea if they broke the record or not.    I also love Emma's temple selfies from the camera roll.

I've had a very full mailbox lately.   One day I had 8 postcards in there...mostly from Postcrossing, but one from my niece, Anna, and this one from my sister, K, which might be one of my favorite postcards ever.  I love it!

Last week was Alpine Days and we took an after-dinner walk down to the auto show.  This beat up looking one made us laugh...

This 1968 Buick Wildcat was refurbished by an old man in a neighboring.  He was very talkative and excited to tell us all about it!

I really liked this whole pink set up! 

And we were informed that this Corvette was the most valuable of all the autos in the whole show.  It's a 1963 all original (even the tires) and apparently it's worth about $500k, although we also heard reports that it may be only $200k!  In any case, we were very careful not to scratch it!  

The other week, Glen was teaching Alma 36-38 for his Gospel Doctrine lesson. The theme of his lesson was "Jesus is Mighty to Save", however  I had no idea  the theme of his lesson when I picked this as the picture for the cover of the program that week.  I thought that the little boy's use of the word "Saver" instead of "Savior" was very sweet and went along perfectly with the theme of  Glen's lesson.  Someone in the class even brought it up on how powerful a child's simple testimony can be. 

 

So this blogpost was a pretty good effort as a catch-up post, but I'm not done yet. 

Stay tuned for more to come...

Marching Onward

 A peek at the last couple weeks, including a little announcement at the end:  

Ellie's been in the Phoenix area staying with a friend from BYU-I, while they work and go on an adventure in a few weeks.  I miss her here at home, but glad she gets this experience...especially since it would be incredibly boring here at home.    Being able to attend a vibrant YSA ward (the one in our community is a bit on the older side), having someone to go to institute and temple prep classes with, and just having a friend to hang out with is a good thing for her.  Not to mention she would have been stuck at home while I head to Alabama soon.

Glen and I went to a ballet performance at BYU of one of Adam's friends from Virginia.  Bella is a stunning dancer...so light and graceful on her feet...and it was a delight to see! 

 I went down to Saint George with Glen not this past week, but the week before.  I enjoyed the milder weather and the opportunity to spend the week with him.  We attended the Saint George temple together for the first time.  It's been closed for renovations for the last few years and only recently reopened.  It's a beautiful temple and I LOVED the colorful celestial room!    Click here to see pictures of it. 

I've been mostly exercising indoors at home (thanks to the wintry weather and all of the  public restrooms being closed for the winter), so I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to walk outside WITHOUT bundling up...

Speaking of Saint George, we are just starting the process of trying to wrap things up up here, so I can join him there permanently.   There are LOTS and LOTS of very complicated emotions  that are involved with starting down this path and I've found myself crying about it more than a few times, but we feel like it's the right way forward.  I imagine it will be a slow process, since getting a house ready to sell is about 1,208,599th on my list of favorite things to do and we have a new grandbaby I'll be trekking to Alabama to meet soon (!!!), but moving boxes have been purchased and the process is beginning.    It may take a long time and we may yet change our minds, but this is the plan for now.  Wish me luck.   I'm going to need it.