Cam's Big Summer Update

Alright, here we go with the next installment in our series of  What Our Family is Up To where I go person by person and give a little update on what we're all doing this summer.  You can see previous updates on Ellie, Adam, and Emma here and more will be coming soon.     This update is the only one that will feature more than one person, since Cami now has a couple cute little attachments (and a tall handsome one) that come along with her on her life adventures!  

Speaking of cute little family members, I guess I'll start off with the family pictures they had taken in May.  They were taken by a photographer friend of theirs on the grounds of the apartment complex they've lived in the last 3 years (Tributary Rise).  They turned out quite adorably if you ask me and it's fun that the photos captured a glimpse of the place that they've grown to love so much!   

 Next, I'll get on to the biggest family update of all...

 In June, Garrett finished up his internal medicine residency at the University of Alabama - Birmingham and Cami worked her last day as a nurse at Children's of Alabama and they packed up their apartment and moved approximately 1200 miles northeast for Garrett's fellowship at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.   

The moving crew consisted of 5 full-time missionaries, Garrett's parents, and of course Cami and Garrett...

And Lucie and Oliver...

Sadly, Rhode Island is approximately 500 miles further away from us, but I am happy to report that plane tickets there are cheaper and more plentiful than they were to Birmingham, so we are taking that as a win!  

Plus their state bird is a chicken, so that's fun... 😆

They took three days to drive to Rhode Island, hitting a new state along the way (South Carolina), visited Garrett's sister Ashley and family in North Carolina, and spent a night in Virginia where they visited the house we raised our family in...

and visited with AnnaLisa and Tim where Lucie and Oliver apparently charmed the socks off them and quite enjoyed playing with Tim's cat, Ash...

Then on Monday, they rolled up to the house they'll likely be living in for the next 3 years!   It's old and doesn't have AC or a dishwasher, but after apartment living for the last several years, they're excited to have a little room to run around!   

In the meantime, Oliver started walking (finally!) and Lucie is really excited to make new friends.   I was also quite delighted with Lucie's reaction (shown above) when she received her first postcard from me in their new mailbox.   She didn't realize that postcards could come to Rhode Island too!   Each new discovery of something familiar in Rhode Island (like a farm, Lifetime Fitness, primary, etc), makes her happy!

Now, I am eagerly trying to figure out when I can come visit  my favorite  new New Englanders!   

My Last (?) Trek to Alabama

We didn't like Alabama much when we first visited as a family back in 2017.   We were touring the Deep South as part of our quest to get to all 50 states and the part of Alabama we explored was kind of sketchy, so when Cami and Garrett got matched to the University of Alabama - Birmingham  for G's internal medicine residency,  we  were honestly a little nervous for them!   It  turns out, though, that we had nothing to worry about!  Birmingham is a far cry from Mobile, and it's turned out to be  quite a lovely and interesting place to live. 

The weather in Birmingham is mild (without the propensity for big storms that plagues much of the South), the landscape is green and hilly and reminds us of Virginia, the people are the very epitome of Southern hospitality, the shopping near them is way better than what we have here in Utah, there is a temple nearby, the traffic isn't terrible, and the church network is good.   Honestly, I would totally live there without hesitation if we had family nearby. 
 
Now Cami and Garrett are moving to Rhode Island this summer for his three year long hematology-oncology fellowship, and we were a little sad to realize that this most recent trek to Alabama was likely going to be our last.   

So we seized the day and tried to enjoy every moment!  

The main reason for our visit was to babysit the kiddos while C & G headed to Rhode Island for a house-hunting quest.  That meant we only had a little time all together at the beginning of our time there:  

And after a quick shopping trip and some adjustment time for the kids, C & G took off for RI.

 

 As I mentioned here, Glen had a bit more of a misadventure getting here than he'd hoped and he started his time in AL quite exhausted...

But he didn't mind a bit!  We still  had a lot of wedding dance parties, read a lot of books, went to the park...

Did some exploring in the stream during Oliver's nap-time.  

Had a lot of kitchen adventures and misadventures...and had to admit that I had forgotten how crazy it is to cook with littles around. Yes, plain butter was consumed...😂

I had also forgotten how crazy it is to shop with a very verbal 3-year-old who could articulately explain why almost everything in the store was on our shopping list that day!  And, no, I did not buy her any cereal, but I did spoil her a bit, since I am Gigi and that's my job! 

We took a trek to the McWane Science Museum in downtown B-ham...

I found A LOT of Lucie selfies on my phone...

And we definitely had some bedtime battles, grumpy afternoons, and early mornings...

But it was worth every minute to be here with them (and their parents when they got home a few days later)...

After C & G got home, I was excited to knock an Alabama bucket-list item off my list...Kelly Ingram Park, which is park filled with some pretty emotionally charged statues and monuments commemorating many of the Civil Rights struggles that took place in Birmingham.   It's crazy that all these horrific events took place in the decade before my birth.

We also visited Sloss National Historical Landmark.  We went too close to closing to really explore, but it was an interesting place.

 I left even more tired than I'd been when I'd come, but it was a great final (?) visit to Alabama...

And I'm already looking forward to next time...
 

I LOVE THESE SWEETIES!  💗💗💗

Lots of Stuff

We've had A LOT on our calendar lately and this post is all about a few days we took for a work conference in Saint George in the middle of all that.     Glen works for a cool company that supports dentists in a unique and innovative way and this event was technically considered a retreat.  The word "retreat" sounds it should have been nice and relaxing, and it was for the dentists, and for me and for the other employees' spouses, but it definitely was anything but retreat-like for Glen and his colleagues who worked their tails off to make this event happen, which is why I am referring to it as a work conference for him.    

There were fun events scheduled, but mostly it was a time for the dentists to interact with each other and for Glen's team to meet, coordinate, and problem solve together.   We met A LOT of new people (especially me) over the few days of the conference and I am about tapped out on small talk for the next year, but poor Glen had to be ON ON the whole time and it was especially exhausting for him.  

While Glen was in meetings, I hiked to Scout Cave in Snow Canyon with Katie, who is the wife of Glen's boss.  We knew them back in VA, so it was fun to catch up.  

The weather wasn't too bad yet and the scenery was pretty grand!

 We spent a lot of time small talking around the pool....

We had a cookie decorating class, which I very much enjoyed...

I thought I was quite hilarious when I washed my hair the next day and realized that I matched my cookie.   

And I was quite excited to bring that cookie with me to Alabama to share with Lucie, who appreciated my artistic attempts by immediately gobbling it up!   Haha!  

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to ride e-bikes through Snow Canyon.  I'd never ridden an e-bike before and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.  

Even though I'd hiked in Snow Canyon just a day or two before, I'd forgotten how incredibly beautiful it is in the depths of the canyon, which we did not get to on our hike.  

It truly was a delightful experience for both of us and I am already concocting a plan to get Emma and Adam down there for a similar trek sometime!  

The conference technically ended around 8:30pm on Saturday, which meant that most people stayed overnight and went home on Sunday morning.   But we had a YSA ward to attend and a plane to catch...so we headed home that night.  WE got home a little before 1:00am, where I then packed for Alabama (including dirty clothes I didn't have time to wash), and eventually crashed into bed.  We were off to church meetings at 8:20am, then left straight for SLC from Provo after church.   We made a quick pit-stop at a hotel in SLC to visit our long-lost friend, Terri, we hadn't seen in 25ish years, who was in town with  her husband for a  business trip.  Sadly, her husband was in meetings and couldn't meet with us, but it was fun to catch up after all these years.   They had been our neighbors in Baltimore and have kids the same ages as Spencer and Cami, which meant we had a lot of play dates back in the day!     

After arriving to the airport, my flight was delayed, which meant I had yet another long night in front of me, though not as long as Glen's proved to be the very next night.   His flight to Alabama ended up getting totally canceled after arriving to the airport and rather than missing another day of work for the rescheduled flight the next day, he opted to take a red-eye to Atlanta, where he rented a car, then drove here to Birmingham (about a 2 hour drive), and arrived here early on Tuesday morning.   But it was worth it for this...

Lucie is OBSESSED with Glen!   

Glen is trying to keep working while he's here, but he's eating up this time with them...

As am I.   

And now you know not to judge how completely and totally exhausted we look...because we were...and it was worth it a million times over to be here with them!  

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PS  Don't worry, there will be at least one whole blogpost  dedicated to our time here in Alabama, so consider this just a little teaser.   😁
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Sweet Home Alabama Love

I've recently returned home from visiting some of my favorite people in the universe!   

Right now they happen to live in Alabama, but they'll be moving to Rhode Island this summer for G's hem-onc fellowship, which will mean my regular easterly treks will take a northward turn later this year.   

This trip was filled with "Princess Lucie" stories which Lucie  requests several times a day and has a whole host of stipulations she wants included--like bad guys, a mean witch who messes up her room, Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder, and a giant cake.   I'll be honest, my stories were getting pretty ridiculous there at the end, but she didn't seem to mind too much.  😂 As mentioned in my previous post, this trip also included little Ollie's first birthday, so that was a fun thing to be a part of!     Both Lucie and Oliver are sweetie pies and I loved the chance I had to love on them while I was there.  

Another fun part of this trip, included visiting a collegiate track meet that UAB was hosting and my nephew, Andrew, was participating in as a shot-put thrower.  He attends the University of Louisiana-Monroe and this was his first time competing collegiately and his first time competing indoors.  He didn't end up performing as well as he'd hoped, but he performed solidly in the middle of the pack, so not bad at all for his first time!   Afterward, we took him out for lunch at T-Bones, a taste of Philadelphia right there in Birmingham!    It was his first time meeting Lucie and Oliver and the first time I'd seen him in about a year. 

I truly enjoy my visits with the B crew and I'm already looking forward to my next visit coming up in May...most likely my last visit to Alabama in quite a while! 

💗 Have a lovely Valentine's Day! 💗




 

Ellie the Nanny

We have entered the stage of life when our home seems to be an ever evolving door of kids coming and going. It's a good thing, but sometimes it's challenging  transitioning back to an empty house after the goings have happened.    Shortly after our family reunion in Idaho and us getting back from our semi-spontaneous trek to California, we sent Ellie along with Cam and kids back to Alabama, so that Ellie could help watch the kids while Cami transitioned to a new work schedule.  With Emma and Adam back to school, our house seemed VERY empty after everyone left! 

Despite feeling a little lonely, though, I was happy that Ellie got that time with the B family before heading out on her mission and also happy that Cami got a sweet built-in babysitter who loves her kids fiercely! 

It seemed that Ellie very much enjoyed her month in Alabama and I enjoyed hearing about their escapades together.

Her and Lucie became quite attached to each other and Lucie still requests that Ellie be added to drawings of her family.  

And there's nothing quite like Oliver snuggles.  He's about as sweet as sweet comes  and looking at these pictures makes me miss them tremendously.  

I'm glad they had the time together, but I'm a bit jealous about having to watch the fun from afar.   Ellie is home now, Cami back to arranging childcare on her own again,   and I am shopping for airplane tickets.  💗

A Little Side-Trip

As soon as the trip to Nashville had been booked, I knew that I needed to find a way to see my sweet grandbabies while I was so close.  Close meaning only 3-1/2 hours away!   It was a lot of driving for only about 20 hours to spend there (including sleeping time), but it was worth every second and somehow I was able to talk my Mom and sister, Kristina, to join me as well!  

I may have been a little giddy while I was there...

I read as many books as I could, had many hilarious toddler conversations, snuggled Baby Oliver, and just enjoyed some bonus Gigi time...

And I didn't mind sharing them too much...especially since they seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as I was. 

Now only 34 more days until I see them again!