Lucie Overload!

Hello friends!   Thanks for visiting my blog today.    Can you believe I've been keeping this up {with varying degrees of devotion} for 16 years now?  I blog for all sorts of reasons, but mostly I blog to capture the memories into one place...my online journal of sorts...and I love that my family uses this blog as a resource to look up old stories or to find that one picture.  I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the  Facebook and Instagram, so lately I've been trying to keep those at arm's length and embrace the details that are better captured in blog format anyway.   Plus I also really like not worrying about how many likes or comments I happen to get.   I figure if someone's reading my blog, that means they chose to read it and not just because it popped up in their social media algorithm that day.   So, thanks for being here!  I'm glad you care enough to read.  Send me a text sometime.  Or call me next time you come to town.  

Now onto the purpose of this blogpost...to inundate all of you,  my dear blog readers, with pictures of the sweetest little 18-month-old in the entire universe!  💗

  I just spent the last two-and-half  weeks hanging out with Lucie May--first in Alabama and then here at home in Utah--and I am more enamored than ever with grandparenthood!  Seriously, I loved {mostly} being a Mom, but being a Gigi is the best of all worlds.  I get to snuggle with, play with, read to, and just enjoy being with Lucie without the hard parts of parenting.   I read a quote that said that "Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for getting old," and it made me laugh and rang true.  😂  There's a lot not to like about having an aging body, but if getting old is what it takes to get to the grandbabies, I'll take it!  

So, let's get started on this Lucie overload.   As mentioned in a previous post, 24-hours after returning from spending 3 days at Trek, Ellie and I caught a plane to Alabama.  Cami was working some crazy hours and her sister-in-law was leaving town, so we came to help out with childcare for a bit.  It was the longest I've ever spent with Lucie all at once, so I feel like I got to know her personality more...and a delightful one it is!  

To keep this from being a 15-page blogpost (I print up my posts into books every so often) and to share as many pics as possible, I  decided to create a whole bunch of collages.  I'll write up a little blurb about each collage...

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 ALABAMA:   Cami and Garrett were both working long hours, so Ellie and I just hung out with Lucie, ran some errands, and made some meals.  We didn't do any sightseeing (not that Birmingham has that many fun places to sightsee anyway 😂).  In this collage you can see Lucie helping Cami bake something yummy {and try out some plain butter}, play at a great park in downtown B-ham, go on some walks (one of her favorite things to do), snuggle with Ellie, and just be her cute expressive self.

ALABAMA:   More walks, learning how to blow bubbles, a trip to the Birmingham Zoo {where she determined that elephants are stinky}, snuggling with her Dada, and reading books with Gigi! 

ALABAMA:  More walks, more helping Cami bake, and just chilling outside.  

AIRPLANE:   After about a week-and-a-few-days in Alabama, Ellie and I had to leave, so Ellie could get back for YW Camp.    Our flight was delayed, so we spent an extra night in Alabama, then woke up in the wee hours of the morning {we left the house at 4:00am} and took Lucie with us back to Utah.   She was clearly very tired, but she was quite the trouper and I was impressed at how well she held up with the long day of flying on such little sleep.  

UTAH/WALKS:  Being on Alabama time, meant she was waking up at 5:30am on the dot each morning.  My sister was also visiting with her 4 kids {who were on California time}, so I took her on  early morning walks most days to get her out of the house until a better time for K's kids to wake up.   She's not a super fan of being in the stroller these days, so Lucie logged a lot of her own steps  on our walks and kept our walks very much toddler-paced.  We looked at a lot of rocks, smelled (and picked 😬) a lot of flowers, and labeled every familiar sight she saw along the way.    We did get her out on a couple adult-paced stroller walks as well, but not as many as usual for sure!   

UTAH/PETS:   For months now, whenever Lucie and Cami Facetime, she asks to see the dogs, so it was with extra excitement that Lucie actually got to spend time with Denali.  She was a tad nervous about Denali's energy at first, but she  grew quite attached by the end and watching their interactions was very sweet.  Denali has the perfect temperament for small children (just as Rocky did)  and she seemed to rather enjoy the extra attention Lucie was eager to give.  She also enjoyed meeting my sister's cat.  We kept Spencer's dog, Kiwi, completely separate, because we were quite nervous about how she might react to a little person. 

UTAH/FAMILY:  As I mentioned previously, my sister, Kristina, and four of her kids were staying with us that week as well.  That meant our house was full of LOTS of noise, LOTS of mess, and LOTS of fun!  Lucie LOVED all the other little people around and all the extra people to beg food off of!   The boys were a little wary of Lucie, but they were also sweet and tolerant of her at least.   Isaiah decided that offering Lucie food and eagerly awaiting  her to sign "Thank you" was his love language.  Manuel would let Lucie hold his toys and hand them back to him.  Jesus wasn't sure about her at all, especially after she pinched him a few times, so he mostly kept his distance.   Kristina absolutely loved having a little one to dote on and my Mom, Nana (Lucie's great-great grandmother), and sister, Heather, loved spending time with her as well. 

UTAH/FOOD:  Lucie is a very food oriented girl, which isn't much of a surprise considering how strongly the genes for that trait run on our side of the family.  She loves her meal-times, figured out quickly where the popsicles were kept, and would eagerly steal food from whomever happened to be eating at that moment.   She even ate dirt from a plant once!  

UTAH/LEGO HAIR:  With 3 Lego loving boys in our home, our house literally looked like a Lego bomb had gone off while they were here.  Luckily Lucie is mostly past the stage of putting everything in her mouth (though we definitely had to watch her still).  Here's a funny little story:     She was sitting in her highchair waiting while I got her food and was playing with a Lego guy.   She pulled the hair off and handed it to me to fix.  I said, "Oh, did the hair come off?  Let's put that hair back on," then I gave it back.  She heard me say, "HAIR," so she promptly began brush her hair with the Lego guy.    You do have  to admit that Lego hair doesn't look much like real hair, so I can see her confusion! 😂

UTAH/PAPA/ELLIE/EMMA/SPENCE:   Ellie was heading off to YW Camp, so they had to say their goodbyes pretty soon after arriving back home.  Glen was taking off for work in Saint George, so he also had to say his goodbyes after only a day.   Spence just started a new job, so we got to see him in the evenings.  Emma came to visit when she could.  We all loved our Lucie time!

UTAH/MISCELLANEOUS:   Here are some more random Lucie moments I captured.  Lucie following in Uncle Adam's footsteps and trying to figure out the Rubik's cube, pretending the calculator was a phone, stopping to see the garden orbs we have hanging near our front door, finding a gallon of vinegar to tote around at Great-Grandma's house, emptying out the cupboard (and putting everything in the dryer), reading books, and trying to color sort with Gigi. 

UTAH/LARA/GIGI:  And finally, here's the last collage--pics with Lucie and me!  I love this little girl and I love being her Gigi.   💗💗💗 

 

 Now that Lucie's back with her Mama and Dada, our house feels empty and I am very much missing her {and her parents}.

Thank goodness for Facetime to tide me over until the next trip! 
 

PS  Who am I kidding?  Even with the collages, this probably still a 15-page blogpost!   😁

R.I.P. Rocky

As I mentioned in this post, our 15-year-old puggle (1/2 pug, 1/2 beagle) passed away last week.   He'd been slowing down pretty significantly the last few months and we knew he probably wouldn't be around too much longer, but it still took us off guard how hard it was when the day finally came. 😢

To commemorate his life, I thought it would be apt to share the story of how we got him:   

I'll be the first to admit that I am not an animal person!   I grew up in a home without pets and this picture shows pretty accurately how we felt about animals in my family.     My cousins, siblings, and I are sitting on my grandmother's front porch in Oklahoma City and a dog had just wandered into view.   I'm told that it was a very calm, friendly dog, but it didn't matter.   It was a furry creature, which meant that we were petrified.  I am the one in the red dress just looking nervously at it, along with my cousin (the same age) sitting next to me.  My brother (in the suit), cousin (in the stripes),  and sister (in the lavender), however, are completely terrified.   The babies remain oblivious.    

This photo was taken approximately 45 years ago, but still reflects fairly accurately how my family feels about dogs, in particular.   3/8 of the siblings remain pet-less to this day.    4/8 are now cat owners.    We are the only dog-owners.   My brother (in the suit) remains nervous around animals to this day and will not even deign to greet our dogs or any of the other family member's cats when he comes to visit.   

So....how did we end up with dogs?    First off, Glen is allergic to cats, which put all felines off the table instantly for us.   Secondly, we had a very persistent child, who decided that she really, really, really wanted a dog.   Thirdly, I married a dog-lover.     

For years, Glen talked about how he'd like to get a dog....someday.   I always told him I'd think about it when we didn't have any small children anymore.   I knew myself well enough to know that having a dog AND small children would be too much for me.   Then when Cami was a tween, she had a couple of close friends with dogs and she got the idea in her head that she really wanted one as well.      For fun, she would beg to visit pet stores, so she could ogle over and sometimes even hold the puppies.   I'm pretty sure that seeing a puggle puppy in a pet store that had a sign next to it that said, "Good with kids," was what got her sold on that breed as her dream pet.    Over the course of a couple years, we received several letters from her outlining all the reasons why we needed a dog, why a puggle was an especially good breed to look at, and what she would do to take care of a dog.    

I remained resistant until the day when figurative lightning struck.   

One day, Diane,  the Mom of one of Cami's good friends called me and told me that a good friend of theirs was bringing their 1-year-old puggle to the shelter because they didn't have a fenced yard for him.   He was already house-trained, was great with kids, and they were willing to give him to us for free.  Glen and I quickly  discussed and decided that if we were ever going to get a dog, this was the way to do it.  We were saving him from having to go to the shelter, he was young, but already house-trained, and it was Cami's "dream breed".     So we decided to go for it. 

The kids and Glen were instantly smitten, but I won't lie....it was a rough adjustment for me.  Rocky was sweet and gentle, but he was also super barky, shed a ton, was constantly figuring out ways to escape our fenced yard, and loved to get into mischief around the house.   I was mad at him A LOT....especially those first few years we had him.    But he somehow wiggled his way into our hearts and here we are 14-years later mourning that a piece of our hearts has gone.   

Kids generally adored him, especially the last few years when he stopped being able to jump up on them.  Though his bark was loud, he was truly gentle and loved being close to his people.    With all his old-agedness that plagued him the last several months, he never lost his appetite and you could set a clock to his barking when dinner time arrived.  Between his age, his struggles to walk, and his final symptom (blood dripping from his mouth without any visible injuries) we knew that he wouldn't be coming home from the vet, so we made sure he got to eat some of his favorite foods (cheese and yogurt) before bringing him in.  It felt apt that he was well-fed, had a day full of snuggles,  and was being held by his biggest champion (Glen) when he left this world.    He will be missed.  

     Here are some picture collages with some of our favorite photos of him.   

Here are the mementos we received from the vet's office:  

Rest in peace, Rocky!   We miss you!  

(Read here for my very first post about Rocky and here's another one all about him a couple years later)

What Else We've Been Up to: Euthanization, Coloring Books, and More

 In between our trip to Virginia, Trek, and our trip to Alabama (which is where I'm writing this post from), we also spent a little  time at home!   Here is a glimpse of the whirlwind...

I created an alphabet coloring book.  It's cute and perfect for any vehicle loving 3-8 year olds you might know, although 18-month-old Lucie's been enjoying it too.  Check it out here and if you buy one, please leave a review.   I have visions of designing more in the future.  

Lucie and Cami came for a quick weekend visit...in the couple days after we returned from Virginia and right before Trek started. 

Glen smoked steak (for the third time in a month), so Cami could give it a try.  

 Lucie was in love with this little Grogu toy!   

Also, I'll do a more detailed post about it soon, but it's worth mentioning here that in the 24-hours between when  Trek ended and Ellie and I catching a plane to Alabama (with me still feeling quite sick), Rocky developed a concerning symptom and we felt like it was time to euthanize him.   It's something we'd been thinking about for a while, since he's been struggling to walk for the last several weeks, but the new symptom  hastened our decision and made it feel more urgent.   It was heart-wrenching and difficult to do and even more so because it needed to be done  in the midst of leaving town.    Glen stayed by his side and held him.   Ellie and I cried the whole way to the airport.    

Stay tuned for a post all about Rocky coming soon...

TREK 2023

TREK is an immersive multi-day experience, where the participants not only dress in period clothing from the mid-1800's, but they also reenact the journey of the pioneers crossing the plains.  The experience is  meant to be as authentic as possible, without people actually dying, getting lost, giving birth, or starving along the trail.   In other words, it's basically a long walk while pulling/pushing a handcart.   Someone else cooks, our camping gear is "magically" delivered to the campsite each night, there are porta-potties along the way, and the only gear we tote in the handcarts is the gear we may need along the way (water, ponchos, sunblock, flashlights, snacks, etc.)   They have little "vignettes" along the way to remind us of some of the actual pioneers who crossed the plains and their inspiring stories. 

 Our stake in Virginia had Pioneer Trek reenactments scheduled for a youth conference activity every four years.   Spencer and Emma each attended once, Cami attended twice (#1, #2), Adam never got to go and Ellie missed her first opportunity (thanks to a scheduling snafu by the stake the year it was supposed to happen).  Then between COVID and all of our moving around the last few years,  I wasn't sure if Ellie would end up like Adam and never have the opportunity to participate or not.   As luck would have it though,  this year ended up being the year!  

 Here is a picture of the group from our ward that went.  Weirdly enough, we were the smallest ward, though with that size we likely would have been one of the biggest wards in our stakes out east.   

  Not only did Ellie get to go, but they asked Glen and I to be a Ma and Pa, so we got to be a part of the whole shebang  as well.  We'd helped {pretty significantly} at Treks a few times before, but this was our first time actually trekking along with the youth and having the full experience.      

I was a little nervous about the dynamics of it beforehand, but it ended up being a great experience and I'm glad we were able to go.   Here is a picture of us with our "family".   They were a great hard-working group, albeit  a little on the young side...especially the boys.    The kids called us "Mama G. and Papa G.".   😁

Ellie was a part of the B. family and barely ever had to pull or push the handcart, since her family had some older boys who liked to do it.  No worries though...our family needed all the help we could get, so she came and helped push/pull our handcart several times to have the experience.   

Our kids really worked hard, but they were young and needed some breaks too.   Glen and I were almost always either helping to pull or push as well.   

These were our boys...all of them 12 or 13 years old...except of course for Papa G!     

We had 5 girls, two of which were 12   .  

I had a minor meltdown on the very first day when we went to pick up our lunches and was informed that no food allergy accommodations were being made whatsoever.  They had the gall to ask me whether I got  the memo that anyone with food allergies was supposed to bring their own food?    Um, no.    Minor detail everyone forgot to mention to me and I was not happy.  There I was at the beginning of 3 days of physical exertion, many miles from a store,  being told that they had minimal food I could actually eat.   I tried really hard to be nice, but I won't lie, I may have copped a bit of an attitude about it.   I have spent my whole adult life as a sort of food allergy advocate--trying really hard to make sure that people with food allergies are well fed and feel like they're not an inconvenience, and it hurt, on the one hand, to be told that my food allergies were not important enough for them to accommodate, but even more so because NO ONE TOLD ME!   That was a HUGE oversight on the stake's part and I still feel like I need to have words with someone about it, so it doesn't happen again in the future.   In the end,  it ended up "okay" with the food people from our ward  pulling ingredients for me before combining them and them saving leftovers from one night's dinner to fill in for another night, but I did not like how this went down.   Here I am with a lunchmeat lettuce roll-up that I had every day for lunch.  

Alright....enough complaining!   The three of us all wore thick socks and hiking shoes the whole way, so we managed to escape any blisters, though we were definitely  in the minority on that!   I felt bad for Emily, our ward nurse, who was tasked with keeping moleskin on anyone who felt like they were getting a blister.  She had a full-time {rather gross} job!   

   I changed into my water shoes at the end of each day and I laughed at how much easier the dirt was to see without any socks on.  We were FILTHY!  😂  

It was fun to be there with Ellie...even if she wasn't officially in our Trek family!  

We had 3 "families" in our ward and these were the buckets we toted around for the 3 days (divided up amongst the 3 handcarts).   

The weather was mostly sunny and the low 80's while we were there, but we did get a little rain and thunder every day.   I was VERY grateful we were trekking at the beginning of June, rather than the end!   

I started coming down with symptoms of a bad cold during Trek and I ended up totally EXHAUSTED!   I felt bad for exposing others, but felt like I didn't really have the option of going home in the middle, so I just had a more authentic experience....plus we were outside the whole time, so I'm hoping exposure was actually minimal.    

Here is Connor--one of our Trek sons.  He was in our Sunday School class last year and we were very excited to have him as one of our sons for the journey!  

I loved this picture he drew about Trek.  😍

We were sweaty, smelly, and covered head-to-toe with a layer of dirt at the end, but that didn't stop us from making a quick stop with our car-full of youth to get some Coldstone on the way home.  The cashier officially thought we were whack, but the ice cream was just what we needed after 3 days in the sun, so  whatevs.   And Trek probably is kind of  whack.  

Here's one last look at the awesome family of Mama and Papa G!  

All in all, other than the food debacle, we are calling Trek 2023 (our last, perhaps?) a success!