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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Forbidden Riding

April 20:  

My kids think bike riding is the irresistible forbidden fruit.  We avoided it for so long because of Ellie's seizures, but they still beg to do it all the time.  Her seizures finally seem to be getting a little better lately, so today I took them to the park to practice riding their bikes in a safe place.   

It was awesome.     

They rode so long, they got tired and bored.  

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Cami Goes for a Bike Ride...

...and comes back home with a good facebook post! 

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Better Late Than Never

What happens when two forgetful parents  drop the ball on teaching their fourth child how to ride a bike?  Then the fifth child comes along and has a health condition that makes riding a bike a potentially dangerous activity? 

In our case, you get an eight- and an almost eleven-year-old who have never learned to ride a bike.

We never meant for them to go so long without learning, but when Ellie started having seizures when she was five, we just figured it was easier to not make biking a very important part of our lives rather than us holding her back from participating.  

All the bikes but Glen's have been put away for three years now.

Recently, though, they both started showing a lot of interest in learning and we figured it was time to put things right.  We brought them to the place where we'd taught the rest of the kids to ride their bikes--a gentle grassy slope at our local park--and let them give it a try.  

This is how they started out....

and there was a fair bit of falling at first (thankfully only on the grass)...

but it wasn't long before they were both zipping along the trails and having a great time! 

Adam is excited to practice a little more and start going on Saturday bike rides with Dad...

 and while we'll still need to be very cautious with Ellie and not let her ride near streets or busy trails, it was so fun to see her delight as she gained momentum!

The only problem with all this new biking fervor in the family....

is that I'm feeling like it might be time to get me a bike too

and I'm not sure our garage is ready for that! 

ONE YEAR!!!!!!

A year ago today (May 31) Spence busted out of the hospital once and for all....

 

 At that point I thought the hard part was over.  But I was wrong.

Everything about leukemia was out of our control.  Him getting it was out of our control.  His treatment was out of our control.  And whether or not the treatment was successful was out of our control.  All we had to do was pray and support him the best way we knew how.

Then he came home and suddenly everything seemed to shift back to us.  The doctors told us that his chance for relapse was quite high, so we've found ourselves celebrating each milestone  with a somewhat reserved enthusiasm and a pervading worry about whether we are doing enough to "help" him stay healthy.

Much to Spence's own chagrin (and teenage appetite) that worry has led me to keep adding things to the list of what  we need to change to keep him healthy.  We've thrown away all of our plastic dishes, I stopped buying processed meats, banished artificial colors and sweeteners, started baking our bread, grinding wheat, and I still sometimes wonder if we should move further away from the freeway.  And yet deep down I worry that it's all too little, too late and can't help but wonder if anything would be different if only I had started all this sooner.

Glen has felt the same helplessness that I have since the end of Spencer's treatment, but has battled it  in a much different way than me.  Instead of selfishly just trying to keep it away from our family like I have, he has chosen to battle against leukemia by putting his heart and soul into finding a cure.  He has tirelessly fundraised over $10,000 all the while training for a marathon, which he ran in March.  Now he is in NY for a 108-mile bike ride which he will ride in the morning.

It seems only apt that he is riding to find a cure,  the day after Spencer's anniversary for being cured.

I think we will celebrate big with some homemade bread and organic peaches....and maybe some ice cream!

Go Glen!   Yay Spence!  

This is the senior ad I created for his HS yearbook.

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