Cuteness

Some cuteness in my life currently...

Oliver is a very happy baby and he is getting quite vocal.   Of course he can't say anything understandable yet, but he jabbers like he has a lot to say!   He is also rolling over independently and starting to sit up.   I love how interactive he is on Facetime and I think it won't be long before he's chatting it up like his big sister!  

And Lucie continues to be a joy in my life from afar.   I love, love, love my conversations with her and eagerly look forward to every photo Cami sends me of either her or Oliver!    Here she is posing with a postcard I sent for a self-imposed postcard challenge I created for myself. 

Glen  turned on the Westminster Dog Show the other day and we thought it was hilarious that Denali seemed to be very interested too.  She watched the screen intently while it was on.  

  

Okay, maybe we aren't cute, but...  

McKenzie is and it was so fun to be a small part of getting McKenzie settled into her dorm room at BYU.   They were easy houseguests to have and I love that she'll be so much closer now that she's at BYU for the school year!  

Last but not least, I made cookies for a funeral this week and shared the leftovers with some other people.  I thought it was quite cute how Denali kept peeking her head up at the kitchen table to see if she could reach some of that yumminess.  

We may have given her a bit!  :)

So is anything cute happening in your life right now?   Tell me all about it in the comments.  I expect zillions.  

Reunion, Facetimes, Blood, and Birds...

Here's a  little glimpse at the past week at our house: 

I tried to send a bunch of graduation cards out to graduating seniors and was thwarted when the post office decided that they were "non-machineable" and will cost extra postage.  I'm kind of feeling grumpy about it, but don't know that I have any options other than slapping on the extra 45 cents each.   Hope all the graduates appreciate how much I love them!  😊

Denali got groomed again this past Thursday and we are very much keeping Kiwi and Denali separated again.  We did a soft reintroduction a few days in, but Denali still seemed very nervous, so we are taking it slow and easy!  No more injuries!

Glen and I donated blood last Thursday.   It went very smoothly and it's fun to have someone to go with again now that having lived in England for the two years of his mission is no longer a hurdle to him donating!   I also appreciate not having to stress about my iron levels when donating anymore! 

On Friday, I took my Mom up to Rexburg for a Clarence Joshua & Rose Ellen Hepworth family reunion.  I mostly planned this same reunion a couple summers ago, so my interest was piqued to see another one in action. 

   We were the sole representatives of the Fay/Florize Hepworth family there and honestly the main reason why I made the effort to go was to see Ellie while we were in Rexburg.  Fay and Florize were my maternal grandparents and I have several aunts and uncles and over 60 first cousins that COULD have been there, so the fact we were the only ones was saying something. 

It was fun to spend some time with Ellie and to see some long lost relatives as well.  And when I say, "long-lost," I mean LONG LONG lost...in that I'd never met the vast majority  of them in my life before.  It was fun to be able to see my Mom interact with several of her first cousins there though.   Apparently Rexburg is a hub for other lines of the Hepworth family.  I had no idea. 

While we were gone,  Glen played golf with his brother, Alex, for his birthday and then disc golf with Spence...

Then we celebrated Father's Day on Sunday by looking through old photos and enjoying some yummy food!   I can't believe how little my kids look here!    What was probably 17ish years ago seems like yesterday!  How am I that old? 

I've been enjoying my Lucie Facetimes lately.  The previous few weeks for them have been a little extra crazy with a family reunion with Garrett's side of the family, several houseguests, a  road trip to Chicago where Garrett was giving a work presentation, and Cami back to working full-time.  Additionally, Cam was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which was a relief in one way to explain all the symptoms she was having, but also added an element of stress to their lives. In other words, for a few weeks they didn't have a ton of time for Facetimes, but just the past week or so, things have finally started to settle down for them and, I, once again, have been eagerly looking forward to my sweet Lucie conversations.  Usually the conversations involve at least one of the following requests:   1.  to see our umbrella, 2. to turn on the facetime filters, usually the octopus or giraffe,  3. to see the lollipops which she requested me save for her and Bear Friend for when they come in August, 4. to have me read her a book.  

 

She is currently obsessed with "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle and "If You Find a Rock," by Peggy Christian... both of which make me super happy!  She is delightful to talk to and a little smarty pants too!   I can't wait to see them in August again! 

I got this awesome postcard from Belarus from my Postcrossing exchange.   It's a great spotted woodpecker and it totally made me smile. 

Speaking of birds, I found this photo of a very pretty bird in  Norway in the camera roll today...where Emma is currently on her public health study abroad.   I haven't kept track of how many countries she's been to, but she is traveling all over Europe and seemingly having a great time.   I hope to be able to talk her into writing a blogpost about it when she gets back. 

 

Here's a random photo of Ellie and her roommate, Claire, from the camera roll this week...

Also, last week was the first week Glen started working remotely from the home office.  I rather enjoyed having him around more...and I think Denali did too! 

This week, he's back to Saint George again. 😑   Only 4 more times (I think) and he will be fully working remotely from home!

So that's it.   A week in the life!    Hope you have an amazing week! 

Alpine Poppy Fields

 Shortly after arriving back home from our trip to Ecuador (an entire day later than we expected), we spontaneously decided to visit the famous Alpine Poppy Fields!  

They aren't far from our home, but this was our first time and we just happened across them as we were trekking through Lambert Park and decided to follow the hordes of people. 

Apparently the original owners of Lambert Park (a family by the name of Lambert) planted these in the early 1900's and they still blossom every year. 

 I can see why people come from near and far to see them.

I don't actually know how far people come from, but we met several people from nearby towns at least...

My favorite view was the poppies with the mountains as the backdrop.  

Now that I know where they are, I've already ventured back on a morning walk and they may be a regular stop until they're done blooming. 

We sure do live in a beautiful place. 

Adventure in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

Glen had a few days off of work as he transitioned from one job to another and we decided to go on an adventure.   We found some great last-minute deals and ended up in Ecuador--our very first time in South America!  It's hard to capture in a blogpost how amazing our trip was, but here are a few highlights.

1. The epic birdwatching in the Galapagos and outside of Quito!   We visited the nesting grounds of waved albatrosses and the blue and red footed boobies,  fed hummingbirds from our hands, and saw an incredibly diverse array of tropical bird species (including flamingos).
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   The blue and red footed boobies were among our favorites! 
   
   
   We also really enjoyed watching the waved albatrosses. 
   

   

   
   We found this hawk feather and wish we could have taken it home for Adam, but we weren't allowed to take ANYTHING natural from the Galapagos, so I had to leave it behind.
   
   
2. Seeing so much native wildlife in the Galapagos.  For how dry and scrubby the Galápagos Islands mostly are, it’s crazy that they have the variety of wildlife they do and how different the variety is from island to island.   We explored by hiking, snorkeling, and kayaking.    I look forward to reading a book more about Charles Darwin's travels there. 
   
    
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
   
3. Meeting Elder Rasband (a modern day apostle) in the lobby of our hotel in Quito.  He was in the middle of a 4 country South American tour and was on his way to play pickleball when we ran into him!  He was kind and easy to talk to.
   
   
4. Visiting the equator and getting to stand in the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time.   I get surprisingly geeky about this type of thing!   We also enjoyed the science experiments they demonstrated at the equator.
   
   
   
   
5. Ecuadorean chocolate!  I had no idea Ecuador (one of the smallest countries in South America) supplies 50% of the world’s chocolate!  We enjoyed sampling different varieties!
   
   
   

   
   

   
6. The Ecuadorean food in general.  I was able to find good authentic Ecuadorean food that was also gluten free.  Yay!
   
   
   
7. The people we met!  We loved our native tour guides, the people we interacted with around town, and the interesting array of  people on our cruise. 
   
   
   
8. The whole city of Quito is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and we loved learning about the culture.  The architecture is a cool mix of European and indigenous style and visiting a museum featuring pre-columbian art was one of our favorites!   The following were scenes we found wandering around Quito.
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
    
    
9. Sending postcards from a country with no postal service!  I literally dropped them in a barrel on a deserted island in the Galapagos and future visitors will pick up postcards addressed to people who live close to them and hand deliver them.  It’s a tradition going back to the 1700’s and I am totally geeking out about it!  I took the only two addressed to people in Utah and I’m excited to deliver them in the next few weeks!
   
   
   
10. We love how open people are about religion here.  We had some great conversations with a few different Ecuadorean natives who clearly love Jesus too!   This photo is of the Virgin Mary at the top of El Panecillo Hill right in the middle of Quito.
    
    
11. Doing a session at  the Quito temple!  We had hoped to get to the temple while we were here, but the weekday hours were too limited and we gave up on being able to go.  Then….our flight home was canceled and we got a bonus day.  It was too perfect!    The temple has been open since November 2022 and it's clear that non-Spanish speaking tourists doing sessions is a rarity.  We wore the headphones and loved seeing that temple filled with locals! 
    
    
12. The stargazing on the cruise was epic.   I took this picture with my i-phone from a moving boat! 
    

13.  The views!   Quito is situated at 9300 feet above sea level and the surrounding mountains tower to 15,000+ feet.   We took a gondola up to Telerifico (about 13,500 feet).  We took a hike around there and ended up at this epic swing overlooking the city of Quito!    The alpacas (I think) were also hanging around up there at Telerifico. 

14.  The hiking in general!   One of the days, we went into the Cloud Forest near Mindo and did some hiking there.   Nambillo Waterfall certainly wasn't the most exciting waterfall we'd ever seen, but it was a pretty beautiful hike, so we enjoyed it anyway! 

Pretty much the whole trip was a HUGE bucket list item crossed off our list and we loved every second of it.     Here are a few more random photos to finish up....

Now, we're back home to reality, struggling with jetlag after spending a night on an airplane,  trying to get the house put back together, and daydreaming about our next adventure!