A Big Dinner!

  Entertaining is not something that comes naturally to me.  We've always hosted missionaries for dinner and  had an open door policy when it came to the kids' friends hanging out/eating with us,  but I've never been much of a party planner or big dinner party kind of person.  You can read some very hilarious (but entirely true) blogposts from past days (here and here (part d) being good samplings) when the kids basically planned their own parties and I just did my best to make their chaotic dreams come true.   Chaos is a good description of how I rolled, especially when the kids were younger.  

 It's been pretty quiet since moving to Utah.  I host  book group at our house every month, have hosted the college kids' friends several times for General Conference weekend, and have thrown the random cookie party (see part 3 of this post),  but,  except for when nieces, nephews, and grandkids come to visit, it's rather quiet here on a day-to-day basis.    

Now that we have 180 or so young adult kids, though, we find ourselves hosting a lot more than usual.  One of the regular items on our calendar is a monthly FHE dinner, when 1/3 of the ward at a time is invited to our home for dinner.  Thankfully, 1/3 of the ward doesn't actually show up every time, but we plan on serving about 50...just to be safe.

 This past Monday was the 4th such dinner we've hosted (the 3rd for our current ward).  We've kept the menu the same for each 1/3 of the ward and plan to switch it up for our next three dinners.  This round has  been taco salad, rocky road brownies, and fruit. Everything I make is gluten free, which is something that some people really appreciate and no one complains about, since I go to great lengths to make everything taste great anyway! 

 I make the taco meat, dressing, and brownies on Saturday, then chop everything and  pull together the rest of the details the day-of.     In the middle of getting ready, we talk to our missionary, since it's her p-day.  I always feel a little bad on these Mondays, because we are definitely more distracted than usual talking with her.  I can't wait until she can come join us for these dinners in about 7 months.  :) 

It was very fun to hear  about her first baptism this week!  She was so happy and told me that she'd for sure be extending her mission (scheduled to end in June) if she wasn't finishing up the same transfer as her mission president.  That little tidbit surprised me, but also made me happy to know that she's having a good enough experience on her mission that she'd even consider extending.  

We ended the phone call with Ellie at 6:55pm and quickly did our last-minute prep while awaiting for our guests to arrive at 7:00pm!   This  picture doesn't include the meat, but shows a glimpse of how we set things up for the taco salad menu.  

Our first dinner in this ward ended up being about 45 attendees and each dinner since then has gotten progressively less well attended.  This past Monday, it ended up being about 25 people.   Since we are about 40 minutes from BYU, it's not surprising that fewer people have come as the semester has gotten busier.  

We always start with a spiritual message, before getting to the food. I love the chance to talk with individual members and get to know them better while they are in our home.   And it seems that they enjoy being in a homey setting and eating home-cooked food.  

 
It's  fun to see who gets the most excited  about Denali too.  She generally gets pretty smothered with lots of affection during these evenings and we almost always get a few volunteers for dog-sitting.  She very much enjoys all the attention, though she remains as awkward as ever!  

Since starting to host these dinners regularly, we've invested in way more serving dishes and folding chairs.  It's fun to have a big enough space to actually have room to store them, as well as use them!  

We also have started stocking up on disposable containers from the Dollar Tree, so they can bring all the leftovers home at the end.   

 Our stress level, even outside this calling (mostly to do with Glen's job), has been very high lately, but all in all, serving in a YSA ward is stretching us in positive ways we've never expected.   We are often tired and feel some heaviness at some of the struggles the members face, but we feel it is a privilege to be able to love and serve in this way.  💗 

Free Therapy

I'll be honest...

I'm currently sick with a bad cold (and the worst sore throat I've had in many years) and I have a lot of things swirling around me that are keeping my head in a pretty negative space.   As such, I am using this blog as my free therapy for the evening and I am going to try  and use this post as an opportunity to embrace the positivity as much as I can.   Don't worry though...since I don't pay you to read my blog, I'll keep you out of the muck of my brain!  

I'll post more about this trip later, but last week I was in Rhode Island to celebrate Emma's Halloween birthday with her.  Yes, my third child is 25 now and I am kind of feeling extra old because of it.  Cami has a full-time job and two small children, but she still managed to make a beautiful cake for Ems, as well as put up some decor (neither skill which she learned from her mother).  It was fun to be there with two of my girls...

I also very much enjoyed the opportunity to spend Halloween with these two cutie pies, even if they sent me home with this terrible cold.   

I also very much enjoyed seeing photos of Adam and his roommates' Halloween costumes. 

Speaking of photos of my "babies", I just got this one of Ellie texted to me yesterday by a girl that used to be in Vienna Ward like 20 years ago!   I think she recognized her by her nametag, not her face.  In any case, it totally made my day (which isn't hard when you feel like I do)! 

 If you happen to know me in real life, you may or may not know that I  have two core love languages...one is food, the other is postcards.    I love sending and receiving both.   I send  A LOT  of postcards in a month (probably 50+ most months), but don't get too many in return.  That's okay, because I love sending them so much, I don't really care.   Recently, though,  I got a homemade one from my sister-in-law...

And another one from a friend I met in Portugal...

 Both made me very happy.  

Also, every Monday we get to do this...

The calls with Ellie are always a bit chaotic and we are usually missing one family member or another (this week Adam), but being able to gather virtually with the fam is something that brings me incredible joy...the next best thing to being all together in person.  

So, yes, life is hard right now, but it's also good.     Hope you're having a beautiful week.  

 

If You Give Lara a Blog

Hello, hello!  It's me, your friendly neighborhood blogger trying to get this little blog all caught up again.   

Should I blog about the amazing trip we took back in September?  Yes, yes, I should.   But my brain isn't quite there yet, so that will have to wait for another day.  

That also means that I'm not blogging about politics, my philosophy on shoes, nor an in depth look at the life cycle of bananas.  But, who am I kidding?   If I ever post anything remotely political on here, you'll know that this blog has been hacked.  It's not that I don't have strong opinions on many political issues, but I feel zero need to ever pontificate on them in public forums.  I like keeping my friends.   My philosophy on shoes may be mildly interesting to a few of you, so perhaps I'll put that in my idea list for another day far far in the future.  And don't ask me where I came up with blogging about the life cycle of a banana, but stay tuned...that might be fun.   

So what can my brain handle blogging about right now? 
 
A good go-to light topic is the weather, so perhaps we'll start there and see where it goes...

  The first part of October was quite rainy by Utah standards (something we quite enjoyed since it generally only ever drizzles here), then on Adam's birthday we woke up to snow!   Yes, I was about as happy about snow in mid-October as you can imagine, but you'll be happy to know that I didn't cry.  I may have been a little grumpy about it, but no tears were shed.  Yay me. 

Thankfully I survived and the weather has redeemed itself since then.  The last couple of weeks have been breathtakingly beautiful and I am spending as much time outside as humanly possible (which is less than I'd like).     This was a glimpse of our walk this afternoon along the Provo River Trail... 

The weather was perfection, the surroundings lovely, and the company excellent!  

We've been spending A LOT of time in Provo lately with our new calling, but the  reason why we were hiking in Provo today (instead of closer to home) was super exciting.  We had a convert baptism in our BYU ward this morning!  M. is a new freshman from the mid-west who had a lot of LDS friends in high school, which influenced her decision to attend BYU as a nonmember.  It's been an absolute delight to watch her testimony grow over the last couple months and we loved celebrating this special day with her.    I made the programs...of course!  

Last Saturday we also spent the day in Provo for another exciting, but much, much different event than a baptism....the BYU vs Utah football game.    Rather than getting season tickets for BYU football, Glen likes picking one game a season to attend and this was the one he picked.   We spent the afternoon tailgating with a bunch of Glen's work colleagues (and Adam)...

Then we headed in to watch the game, which ended exactly the way we hoped it would!   

Speaking of  excitement...I get to go play with these cutie pies soon and I'm so stinking excited I can barely stand it.   

Life has been so busy and, honestly pretty heavy lately, and I am very much looking forward to slowing down and enjoying some Lucie and Oliver time soon.   Oh, and I guess hanging out with Cam, Garrett, and Ems will be pretty awesome too.  

That's all I have for now, but before I sign off for the night, let me leave you with a glimpse at the glorious sunrise this morning.    

It made our entire room glow and it was a beautiful start to a beautiful day.   

Have a wonderful week!  💗

A Visit to Adam's Mission in Portland, Oregon

When Adam got home from his mission back at the end of August 2024, less than two weeks before BYU started back up again,  we promised him a trip back to visit his mission the following summer.   

A couple months ago, we finally made good on that promise and I am just now finally blogging about it.    

We waited until the craziness of his full-time FSY office job wound down, then, in mid-August, Adam and I took off for a week and a day to spend in the beautiful Portland area!  

It's a pretty short flight from Utah to Portland, so we hit the ground running when we got there.   We started with a visit to The Grotto, which is a serene woodland sanctuary in the city--not far from the airport.   It's home to the outdoor National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, beautiful botanical gardens, meandering paths, peaceful forestland, and many statues and artworks of Jesus Christ .   It was a lovely place to begin our journey exploring the place Adam grew to love so much over the two years he spent there testifying of Christ! 

The Grotto 

After The Grotto, we headed out to one of the areas he spent the most time in--Damascus/Boring/Gresham, where we were spending the first few days.  Right next to one of the chapels he served in was the North American Bigfoot Center, which was about as weird as it sounds!   It was hard to tell if the creators of this quirky exhibit dedicated to proving the existence of Bigfoot were serious, but it was highly entertaining.   We enjoyed examining the supposed "buttprint" of Bigfoot and looking at all the "evidence" of why Bigfoot could be real, as well as all the reasons why we shouldn't dismiss his existence due to lack of hard evidence.   This museum postulates that Bigfoots are likely a yet undiscovered species of elusive mammals.    We laughed a lot and spent the rest of the trip looking for Bigfoot in the wilds of the lush Oregon forests.  😂

Bigfoot Museum

 We planned the trip to cover two Sundays,  and Adam picked areas where he'd served in multiple wards serving in the same building, so we could maximize the number of wards we visited.    Damascus and Powell Valley Wards were literally the first and last areas of his mission, so that's where we visited the first Sunday.   It had been almost three whole years since the few transfers he served in Damascus, but he was clearly remembered and very well loved there.  He got lots of hugs and even got invited to a BBQ later that day.   He only served one transfer in Powell Valley, so the reception there wasn't quite as grand, but those that did remember him were excited to see him.  The BBQ turned out to be a super fun, laid-back way to visit with lots of people.  I felt a little like a fish out of water there, but it was great to see Adam in his element reconnecting with the people he'd served and loved!  

Damascus and Powell Valley Wards

After Sunday, we spent a couple days exploring the beautiful Columbia River Gorge!    We spent a lot of time driving, hiking, and exploring!  It was unusually hot  for Oregon--about 100*--but we thoroughly enjoyed soaking in that rugged green beauty!  

Exploring the Columbia River Gorge

Next on our list was heading to the shore!   The Oregon Coast is a popular weekend destination for Oregonians, so he heard a lot about it on his mission, but never got the chance to go.  The weather was much cooler on the shore, but it was also pretty foggy. 

 Most of our hikes' destinations were to cool lookout points, which proved to be a little disappointing when shrouded in heavy fog...

 but dipping our feet in the {cold} Pacific Ocean was quite rejuvenating.  We loved our laid-back time here on the shore, although Adam was thwarted in his attempt to find an intact sand dollar.  

Oregon Coast

One of our can't miss places to visit while we were on the coast, was the Tillamook Creamery...

Tillamook Creamery

We enjoyed learning  all about how they make cheese...then got to sample a bunch tasty (and old) varieties!  

After Tillamook we headed  to Cape Meares Lighthouse, which was our last stop on the way back to the Portland area.  We were surprised, after a few days of fog and clouds all along the shore (even in Tillamook),  that the skies, just a few miles away, were clear as can be!  

Cape Meares Lighthouse

After we got back to Portland from the shore, we picked up Glen from the airport, so he could participate in the rest of our adventures!    

Some of those adventures included...

 Visiting the End of the Oregon Trail 

Trying the Famous Voodoo Doughnuts 
(alas, they did not offer any gluten free options, so I did not partake)

Attending the Portland Temple

Taking a Very Muddy Hike 
after which I threw my shoes away

Hiking To "Witches Castle" and Pittock Mansion
and visiting Cathedral Park/Saint John's Bridge

 Tonga Festival
after being invited by a local member

Trying Out Different Food Trucks
Portland is quite well-known for its active food truck culinary scene, so we tried out a few different food truck locations while we were there

Rose Gardens/Dahlia Festival
I did not know before our visit that Portland is famous for its many flowers and gardens.  In fact, it even has the nickname of "Rose City", though we enjoyed many more flowers than just roses

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm
It was long past tulip season, so we enjoyed the fields of sunflowers and other flowers, the fun colorful tractors, and the bucolic surroundings.

Lan Su Chinese Gardens 
This was a peaceful little haven right in the city

We definitely enjoyed much of Oregon's natural beauty while we were there, but one of our very favorite parts about our visit was getting to meet the people--some  people that he taught, as well as many members that he interacted with during his time there.    It's hard sending a kid off into the world to serve a mission without seeing them for 18-24 months and it was very meaningful to us hearing about how Adam had impacted their journeys for good.

The People

 Over the last few days there, we also visited the mission office, drove by several of his apartments, and got to meet his beloved mission leaders--the Botchways!     
 

Mission Leaders, Mission Office, and his Mission Apartments

The Botchways are faith filled people sacrificing much to serve the missionaries  in the Portland mission.

On the second Sunday, we visited the two wards he served in in Tualatin.  Once again, people were quite excited to see him, though I didn't take any pics there! 

All in all, it was a good trip...

and I think we did a good job keeping Portland plenty weird.