Nostalgia in Rhode Island

Hello, friends!  

Rhode Island may be small, my grandkids might be small, and the length of my trip may have been small, but the energy when I visited in October was anything but small!  We played hard while I was there and I left there much more physically tired than when I'd arrived, but  I hadn't gone there for rest.   My main goal for coming was to hang out with my girls and to spend as much time as possible with Lucie and Oliver, so that's what I did.  This blogpost is to show a glimpse of my time there.  

First off, I have a question to ask you.   Have you ever been to New England in the autumn time?     If your answer is, no, then I highly suggest adding it to your bucket list.    I was actually there just barely past the prime of fall colors, and even still it was glorious.    

Living in Utah has many perks, but every autumn I find myself pining for East Coast fall—the real deal, with dramatic leaf colors and enough humidity to make your hair feel feelings. In Utah, the trees try, bless them, but it’s just not the same and I intensely loved the opportunity to experience a taste of a Rhode Island fall.   One morning we three girls took a little jaunt along this trail and the nostalgia was strong!  

 (FUN FACT:  Did you know that in New England, people walk on the left side of trails and pass on the right?   Apparently, it's a regional quirk, which I found quite charming in its own  confusing way.)  

Another day, while the rest of the adults were at work, I kept the kids out of preschool and took them on a traipse through the woods, where I experienced more nostalgia as I reflected on the many woodland adventures I used to bring my kiddos on back in  the day.

We also spent a couple hours at the local library to play with toys and read books.  They had a great time and I was impressed at how toddler friendly a place it was.  We spent a lot of time in the library when our kids were young, but it wasn't quite so fun a place as this one was.  We could have spent all day there, except the kids eventually got hungry and tired.   

Another day, my girlies took the day off of work and we went to Newport together. We visited Beavertail Lighthouse, which was closed, but  we enjoyed walking around and enjoying the ocean views.  

Then we took the Cliff Walk and stopped at the Breakers Mansion for a tour. Lucie decided it was a castle and was trying to figure out where the princesses lived!   

Then it was time for some ice cream  {a family tradition}!  We found this cute spot in town and enjoyed it, despite the cold weather!  

I also very much enjoyed being  with them on Halloween.  Lucie's costume included an Elsa dress, a crown, wand, and butterfly wings, as per her request.  When asked what she was, she gave a different answer every time.  Sometimes she was a fairy ballerina princess.  Other times  a butterfly ballerina.  And still other times, a magic queen.   Whatever she was, she was charming and thoroughly enjoyed herself.   Oliver had no anticipatory excitement about Halloween, but as soon as he realized that people were handing him candy, he caught the excitement bug really quickly.  He was adorable waddling around in his little dino costume. 

Over the course of the few days I was there, we shared a lot of silly, loud, grumpy, and snuggly moments!   

And I loved seeing a glimpse of the life they're building together.  💗

Mostly I just really enjoyed being able to spend time with them without anywhere else I had to be. 

It was good rest for my soul, even if  I left there needing a nap.  

Fall Traditions: Hiking and Fishing

Fall is my favorite season.   There's just something about the mild weather and the vibrant colors that makes me incredibly happy.  I love Spring too, but sometimes it gets too wrapped up in the winter for my taste and, given the choice, I'd choose the fall anytime!  My idea of a perfect autumn day is a long hike on a lovely day, followed by some great food.  The other Saturday, Glen was busy, the weather was gorgeous, and I decided to pack a bag with food and water and just walk along the Murdock Trail without a distance in mind.   I made it 10 miles and loved every minute of it!   Then I went home, ate some good food, worked on the program, and I decided that it  was *almost* a perfect day.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Glen had been able to come along too.   :)

So, that's MY idea of a perfect autumn day, and now here's a glimpse of what Glen's ideal day would be.    For the past six autumns, Glen has taken a Saturday away from home and rented a boat to embark on a day long fishing excursion on Strawberry Reservoir.   No, your math isn't off...this tradition actually began before we even lived in Utah, but was embraced with even more enthusiasm once we did!    Usually Adam and/or Spence join the adventure, along with his brother, Alex, and a couple of his boys, but this year, after several turned down invitations, it ended up only being Glen and Adam.    One of the downfalls of only having the two of them there, meant that it was sometimes difficult to manage the boat and fishing at the same, but together they still managed   to catch about 20 fish.   It was a beautiful day and they both came home feeling like it had been a successful day on the water. 

They brought home a few fish to eat and later that evening, Glen cleaned them up before storing them until we were ready to cook them.    As you probably know, cleaning a fish is not a pretty sight.  It involves chopping off the head and tail, splitting the fish in half, and cleaning out the guts.   I don't even like watching, but my little 6-year-old nephew, Jesus, was FASCINATED.  At first, I tried to keep him away, so as not to disturb him, but after a while I realized that he was very much viewing the whole process like a little scientist and I opted to just let him observe and ask all the questions he wanted.  It was very cute to see how inquisitive (and very much not disturbed) he was. 

In a few more years, Glen may even have a new fishing buddy to join him on his autumn excursions! 
 
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Utah Skies

Ask me how I like Utah and my reviews will definitely be mixed.  While I love being closer to family and old friends, the weather, the lack of trees, and some cultural things are going to take some time for me to adjust to.   One thing I unequivocally love though...is the Utah skies.  Because of the hilly/mountainous terrain and the aforementioned lack of trees, you get a much better view of the skies here and I love it.   While we definitely had some pretty spectacular sunsets and sunrises in the East, you generally only got to glimpse them through an opening in the trees or from vista point that you hiked 5 miles to get to.    I love that I can take my morning walk around the neighborhood and get views like this on a daily basis...

 My favorite place to sky-watch is from atop a hill in our city cemetery.  It's only about a five-minute walk from our house and it offers some pretty spectacular views!  

With the pops of fall colors thrown in there too, I've been pretty obsessed with going there to enjoy the view a few times a week.  

This is a 180° pano shot I took from atop the cemetery hill one day last week.  Sometime I need to get up there with my sister's nice camera...

This shot was taken at sunset along our favorite trek up to the Horsetail Falls trailhead.   There was a baby cow in the field  (not in this picture) that had Ellie ooohing and ahhing over it, but for  me it was all about that gorgeous lighting!

The following three photos were taken that on that same walk on that same evening.   

I can't even begin to express how completely and totally in awe I am that this view is within walking distance to our house...

Man!   Look at those twinkling lights in the distance, the vibrant sky reflecting in Utah Lake, and the beautiful wild foliage.  It takes my breath away all over again looking at these pictures! 

A few days ago, while I was out walking Rocky, I looked up and saw this stunning sight!   It had been a cloudy day and I guess the way the sun was setting interplayed with the clouds just perfectly to make it look like the mountains were alight with a glowing spotlight!   I had never seen that phenomenon before and I couldn't peel my eyes away from it!  I called anyone I could think of  to make sure they saw it too! 

And breaking from the sunrise/sunset theme, here's a gorgeous rainbow my dad and I saw the other day while we were driving home from the dentist.  It was much brighter and fuller before we stopped to take a picture, but we couldn't resist this view of the Mount Timpanogas Temple with the rainbow.  

Meanwhile here's a gorgeous sunset shot Adam took down on campus the other day. This tree blocked angle reminded me of how we saw most East Coast sunsets.   Still vibrant and lovely as can be, but with an obstructed view.   

Speaking of trees....here is another glimpse at the glorious fall colors we've been enjoying...

  

I think that this farm up the road from our home just may be the most beautiful spot in all of Utah this autumn.   It's right at the corner where two mountain ranges come together and I am completely enchanted with the backdrop, the landscaping, the rock wall, and the overall idyllic scene.  Every day I walk by it and have to take deep breath to soak in the beauty of it.  

Whew...this ended up being a longer post than I expected!

 I think I might be obsessed.  😍 

The Paper Heart

When I pulled out my fall decorations a few weeks ago, 

I laughed when I found a cute little paper heart taped to our pumpkin door sign.

 It took me a minute to remember where it came from, but when I did it made me smile even more. 

 Here’s the story…

As most of you all know, we lived in the same house in Virginia for 20 years. Moving to Pennsylvania in 2019 was a HUGE leap of faith for us, but we felt strongly that that’s where we were supposed to be, and we went with open hearts, ready to embrace our new community. Six months into our new adventure, COVID kicked in and Pennsylvania locked down hard. We had already struggled to find our footing with the new social landscape of PA anyway and we found that COVID made it infinitely harder. Then our landlords came home from their overseas sabbatical and we found out that we had to move yet again.

That’s where the cute paper heart comes in. In the summer of 2020, we moved to the new house in Phoenixville…just 20 minutes away from our old one….but in a whole new ward and community. Honestly we were feeling quite lonely at this point and pretty discouraged at what our prospects looked like—with almost nothing happening in person to give us the opportunity to get to know people and me having some strained/weird social things going on with the old ward. 

That’s when the dear Latey family swooped in and made sure we knew we were loved and welcomed. I think we initially bonded over sweet sister missionaries starting their missions only a few weeks apart and both getting reassigned to Utah, but the connection definitely went beyond that and they made sure we didn't get lost in COVID anonymity.  They sent us letters, they invited us for socially distanced walks, and one day we came home to our door covered with hearts and sweet welcoming messages.  They didn't let us feel forgotten and it meant the world to us.  

The Lateys are the type of people I aspire to be...not just builders who help people feel loved, but true friends that  listen without judgment and show up when it matters.   

So....we were thrilled to hear they were coming to Utah last week for BYU homecoming and extra glad that their responsibilities as alumni directors for the Philly area didn't keep them too busy to come visit us.     

We had a lovely visit together and enjoyed catching up and renewing our friendship!

And of course we had to share the story of the paper heart with them (which I'm totally leaving up as long as possible)...

 I still don’t know all the reasons why we needed to live in Pennsylvania for two years, but meeting the Latey family was definitely one of them! 

Fish, Smoke, Snow, and Leaves

 A letter sent to our missionary 10/10/21:  

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Hola Emma Girl!

Don't get too excited, but I think I've set a new record for starting your letter before 8:00pm. Never mind that it's literally 7:59pm, I think you should give me some kind of award or something (or at least eat a cookie for me or something). But then again, earlier does not always equal better (as you know from the goofy letter from a couple weeks ago), so refrain from too much anticipation. 😜

So, what are we doing this week? Eating, eating, and more eating. I don't know why, but suddenly there's good food everywhere and I'm eating it all.    

Also, have I told you that you're going to like our new kitchen? It's not fancy, but it is nice and certainly bigger and more organized than any other kitchen we've ever had. I think you'll enjoy it.

Also, GUESS WHAT?!! I'm finding you some new friends for when you get home. One is named I----- and she lives with her parents in the ward. I don't know her story, but 1. she was homeschooled 2. she's about your age 3. she's very nice. Also, I met A----- today. She lives two doors down from us and she is recently returned from the Vancouver, Washington mission. There's also the BYU student whose family lives kiddy corner behind us who served in the Toronto Mission (she just happened to already be out when COVID went down, so she got to stay), so you were basically meant to be friends one way or the other. We will definitely have a YSA gathering at our house when you get home, so you all can get to know each other. :)

My next mission is to start finding you some dates too.  

Yesterday Dad took Adam, Logan, and Ryan H. fishing on Strawberry Reservoir.

If you remember the weather yesterday, it was COLD, SNOWY, and WET, but they dressed for it and had a successful day. They caught 20+ fish--including a monster big one that Adam caught....

Tonight Dad smoked a few and we ate well (see the eating problem I mentioned above).

YUM!

 

Speaking of cold, snowy, and wet--have you seen this weather alert? 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

It's funny, because last time I lived in Utah, I was coming from Minnesota and I remembered the Utah winters as pretty wimpy. Now we're coming from somewhere where they cancel everything every time there's an inch of snow and I'm getting increasingly worried that these winters are going to knock my socks off. As it is, I am 10000% NOT excited about a winter storm in October!   😱

I heard that leaves were at their peak this past week, so we braved the cold, soggy weather this week and took a drive through Big Cottonwood Canyon, over Guardsmen Pass, back through Heber Valley and back home through Provo Canyon. The weather in the mountains was a good 20 degrees colder than home and significantly windier too, so we pretty much froze. But we did get some beautiful pictures and I think the bad weather kept the crowds away.

What else did we do this week?  

Adam went to homecoming with his friend, Sydney...

I heard they had a fun time and I found these pictures in the camera roll, so it looks like a success.  

We also found the cutest little alpaca farm about a mile from our house and I think Ellie is ready to be adopted into their family, so she can see this cute little fellow every day...

We talked her into staying home after I promised to drive by at least once a week.  Be sure to remind us and we'll drive you by when you get home too.    It's so stinking cute it's sure to make you smile when you're having a grumpy day! 

A couple last things....

The L---- family (from VF1 in Pennsylvania) came to breakfast this morning.  It was great to see them and I truly feel like they were one of the reasons why we needed to live in PA.   

On Thursday, we went to BYU Homecoming Spectacular.  I sent you a couple videos from it, so you can see that it was AMAZING!!!!    Brian Stokes Mitchell was the headliner and the whole thing was so fun and so well done!   

Spence opted not to come, so we searched for someone to take his place.   Katelin D. was available and  we enjoyed spending the evening with her.  

This month is a pretty busy month.  Next weekend is Ellie's Fall Break and Dad is going on ANOTHER fishing trip with a colleague.  Later Dad will fly to Dallas for a wedding, after which Ellie and I will fly to Austin for Cami's baby shower.  I'm getting so stinking excited to be a grandma I can barely stand it!  I just hope that they end up getting residency somewhere closer than Texas.

Speaking of babies....Dad's cousins (Marilyn's girls) all had babies within a few months of each other and they asked me to take pictures of them when they came to town.  I was SUPER intimidated, but talked Heather into coming along too, and I think they turned out beautifully (thanks to Heather).  It was fun to see them again and meet their sweet babies.   

Jane's baby is P----.  He is about 8 months old.   Stephanie's is C----- and he is 2-3 months old.   Jill's is M---- and I believe she is about 7 months old.   They live in 3 different states currently (Texas, Virginia, and Utah).  

They were all completely adorable ...

And it was fun to see the sisters reunited!   

They sent these beautiful flowers as a thank you gift.  😍

Well, I've definitely set a new record.   I'm wrapping up now and it's not even 9:30 yet, so HALLELUJAH, I might actually get to bed at a reasonable time!  

I hope you have an AMAZING week!  WE love you!!! 

Love, 
Mom