A Glimpse at May 2021

I pretty much know that I'm blogging into thin air these days {feel free to send me a note if any of you blog readers is still around}, but it's been fun trying to get caught back up to speed for our family records.    May was a very full month of getting ready for our move across the country and some other big and small things.   Here are a few of the highlights...

--In the course of going through things and packing up our belongings, I came across some awesome old pictures.  Here are a couple of my favorites....

Me in college with my Larsen cousins (the ones that named their rat after me)

Look how cute and  little my kiddos were!   This must have been winter 2000/2001.  

--When we came to Utah to hunt for the perfect house for us, we ended up taking a hike up to Horsetail Falls.   The trailhead for it is about 2 miles away from our new house and we'd never hiked it before, so we were excited to explore our future stomping grounds!  There was still snow on the ground and though we were very much still flatlanders and the elevation change (about 1600 feet) knocked our socks off, we enjoyed the hike and the scenery.    (MAY 1st)

--When we got back to Pennsylvania, we made sure to hike our favorite trails as often as we could, because we knew we'd miss them once we were gone.  The Schuylkill Canal Towpath was within a 5 minute drive from our home and it was one of our very favorites.  Lined with trees and  sandwiched between the Schuylkill Canal and the Schuylkill River,  there were always ducks and other wildlife along the trail.   Plus the scenery was peaceful and idyllic!  

Though the trail starts right in the middle of Phoenixville, the path was generally quiet and little traveled.  It  was often my first choice when we were deciding where to hike and I definitely miss it now that we're gone!   

--You can read all about it here, but we drove down to Tennessee for the LDSHE East Homeschool Conference and for a graduation ceremony for Adam.  

--Since AnnaLisa knew our time on the East Coast was short, she came up for another visit...something we've missed since moving away from Virginia!  It was great to spend time with her again!

--What can I say?   I mentioned previously that Pennsylvania was a hard place for us to live.  Not only was our church community spread out significantly more than our church community in Virginia, but most of our time was spent during COVID, which pretty much sucked.   Everything shut down instantly in PA.  There was no church, the kids' classes and activities all got canceled, and being the new people meant we didn't have our tribe yet.   We were very lonely.   After a year there we found ourselves needing to move houses again....smack in the middle of COVID.    At that point we knew we likely weren't going to be in PA long-term, so we tried hard to stay in the same ward.   Fortunately for us, that plan didn't work.   While we never did find our tribe in the first ward we were in (which was technically the 2nd Ward), we found instant connections in the second ward, which were exactly what we needed for our lonely hearts.  We unknowingly rented a house down the street from the Richards' family.  We didn't know them before we moved in, but their sweet family brought us so much joy during our year in Phoenixville!  

Weirdly enough, they were moving to Utah too...only a few weeks before us, so we spent as much time as we could with them before they moved!  

Little Emmaline won all of her hearts and I miss her cute smiles and happy conversations. 

--PACKING! This was our main occupation for the month of May!  Glen was working remotely and the rest of us packed, packed, and packed some more...and I resorted to caffeine and silliness more than once!     

--Our ward in Virginia had some great traditions for graduating seniors. As the end of the school year approached I asked our ward in Pennsylvania what they did and when they said, "nothing," I decided that we would just drive Adam to Virginia to participate with the Vienna Ward.   At this point, we knew we were moving and I had no desire to rock any boats, so I was happy with this plan.   Too bad me asking planted a seed and they wanted to hear all about it.  Next thing I knew, I was in charge of planning the first ever Senior Roast for the VF1st Ward!  

It was a lot of work in the middle of moving, but it was a smashing success!  Of the seven graduating seniors, I had only met three of them (including Adam) and all of them came except one! 

It was a fun way to honor the seniors and I heard nothing but great reports from the seniors and their parents.  A lot of them hadn't set foot at a church activity in a couple years and I loved meeting them for the first time. The best part was that the reports were so good that I think it may be a new tradition there.  The Bishop and youth leaders all said that they hoped to do in future years now.  

The snuggies were a gift for each of the seniors to remind them of the warmth of God's love for each of them and that they had a ward family cheering them on. 

 Here are Adam and Ellie with their good friend, Kennedy. 

--Ellie got her COVID vaccine!    She's under 18, so she had to get a different version than the rest of us, but she's good to go on her overseas trip this summer now!   In case you're wondering, yes, she's totally  magnetic now. 😆

--Here is Glen's ministering buddy, Don.   They spent a lot of time together in the couple months before we moved.  

--So we didn't need to go to Virginia for the Senior Roast, but Mormon Prom was another story.  They weren't doing ANYTHING of the sort in Pennsylvania and I was so sad to think that Adam would graduate from high school without ever having the experience of a formal dance or prom.  We happily drove down for the occasion and lent all the help we could in the short time we were there for!   

It was an absolutely lovely event and I was so happy that Adam was able to be a part of it! 

And Ellie too for that matter.  She wasn't old enough to officially attend, but she was thrilled to hang out with her friends and help serve food!

It was a great night for the teens...

and we hung out with the Palmers.  

All in all, it was a welcome reprieve from all the packing to spend time with old friends and to let Adam have a quintessential experience of high school.  

--At the end of the month we headed back to Utah to officially buy our house.  The day we got there we ended up rushing my dad to the hospital with sepsis.  He and my mom had just returned home from their mission and he was quite ill with an infection that settled into his bloodstream.   Thankfully he got to the hospital quickly, because it was a serious infection that took several days of hospitalization to recover from.  

Here he is after coming home...

In the meantime (between driving my mom to and from the hospital and visiting dad when we could), we tried to squeeze in some time at the LDSHE West Homeschool Conference as well.  It was our first time attending the West version and though it wasn't the same experience as being amongst "our people" in the East, it was still great to meet people and be inspired.  The kids had a great time making new friends and spending time with some East Coast friends that had come as well.  

We also enjoyed hanging out with Spence and his new pup, Kiwi. 

It was a full month that started in Utah, then brought us back to Pennsylvania, down to Tennessee for LDSHE and Adam's graduation, back to PA for packing and  life stuff, down to Virginia for prom, back to Pennsylvania  for more packing, then back to Utah with a hospital stay.    I'd like to say that next month calms down a bit, but it was just as crazy...