A Happy Swirl of Chaos

I've mentioned here on the blog a few times recently, that life has been in a bit of chaos mode the last few months.   It's not that anything is wrong, it's just that we are long on things to do on our calendar and short on routine and spare time.  As part of that happy swirl of chaos,  in the last month we've had the following houseguests stay with us:  

💗Cami and her family 

💗My cousin, Aaron,  and 2 of his kiddos

💗Cami's sister-in-law, Marissa, and her 2 kiddos

💗My sister-in-law, Mika, and my niece, McKenzie, who was just heading into the Provo MTC

💗Adam, who is in between 2 apartment contracts (#byuhomelessweek)


Honestly, we love hosting people and being able to host is one of my favorite parts about living in Utah.   In addition to the bonus it is to live in a crossroads area, where so many people come and go, we also enjoy having a house with enough beds that we can even host more than one group of people at once, which happened a couple times this summer.  

I didn't take any pics of Aaron or Marissa while they were here, but below you will find pictures galore that show a glimpse of the fun we've had over the last few weeks!  

🐔  One of Lucie's dreams before arriving to Utah was to hold one of our chickens.   We aren't quite sure how that particular activity made it onto her bucket list, but she talked about it incessantly after arriving and we decided that was a dream that was easy to help come true, so we brought her out to the chicken coop bright and early the morning after they arrived.   When it came down to it, she was a little too nervous about actually holding one, but I think sitting close to a chicken and being able to touch it more than satisfied her chicken holding dreams.    Finding the eggs in the nesting box sealed the deal and she was happy as a clam about it all!   

🐴  Lucie's other big Utah dream was to ride a pony.  I had taken her to the farm at Thanksgiving Point a year or two ago, and apparently it was a core memory for her, because she still remembers many of the details of it.   She happily got on the pony and was feeling pretty confident about the whole experience, but about 30 seconds into the ride, we had a little hiccup when one of the ponies got spooked and they all stopped suddenly...  

🐴They took everyone off the ponies and let them chill for a bit without any riders, then allowed them everyone back on again...only this time she was very nervous.   We eventually convinced her to get back on (a different pony) and with her Mom at her side, she was able to overcome her fear and try again.  

🏡We also enjoyed frequent visits from Adam, Emma, Heather, and Rosy-Nanna while Cam was here.   I loved loved loved having the sights and sounds of having a houseful again!   

😣I am so kicking myself that Glen and I didn't hop into these photos my sister, Heather, took while she was visiting one day.   We are still missing Ellie on her mission and Garrett, who hadn't arrived yet, but it was an almost full crew otherwise.  I think it had a good chance of becoming our Christmas card photo this year, but now we will have to see.   I'm thinking a collage...

🍛The night after my cousin, Aaron, and his two boys stayed here, we hosted a YSA dinner at our home.  We loved having the extra sets of hands, with Cam here, to help with the cleaning and prep.    Glen smoked a brisket and we served brisket tacos, roasted corn salad, watermelon, and lemon strawberry shortcake.  The food was VERY well-received and we loved having the YSAs in our home for an evening! 

👶Oliver is at a delightful stage of life (around 18-months-old) and I very much enjoyed watching him learn and grow right before our eyes. He's only been walking for a month or two, but he's quite the adventurer now and I loved hearing him try to say new words.  He was obsessed with our toy cars and he ended up adopting one of the few teddy bears we still had left in the house, after hew grew pretty attached to it during his time here.  He is a sweetie pie!   

👸I also really enjoyed my interactions with Little Miss Sassy Lucie!   She'll be four in a couple months and she is a girl who knows what she wants in life...which is made-up stories, dress-up clothes, all the good food, and no naps!   When she's slept well, she's fun, talkative, and silly.  When she's fighting bedtime or skipping her naps, she can be quite the grump, but she's still pretty darn sweet even when she's grumpy! 

👪Some adventures we went on together included, early morning walks to my Dad's grave and the neighborhood farm where we saw peacocks, camels, horses, cows, etc , Thanksgiving Point to see the butterflies and ride the ponies, meals out on the deck, holding the chickens, a visit to our YSA ward... 

🚗And a  visit to Midway to hang out with Cami's sisters-in-law and Lucie and Oliver's cousins.  We visited the Ballerina Farm Store, where we got some good food.  Then we mostly just window shopped at several cute boutiques.     Marissa, Annie Grace, and Jack stayed with us one of those nights too.  

🌄Cami and Adam hiked Kyhv Peak together.  Spence started out with them, but ended up turning back before they reached the top.  I think they both really enjoyed the sunset hike together.  

😐After a few days, Cami and her family took off for a B family reunion at Sundance.  It was sad knowing they were so close, yet mostly out of reach, but we tried to embrace sharing them like the mature adults we are (most of the time).  We did join them for a dinner one night in the canyon, which was fun, because we love Garrett's family and it was fun to be able to spend a little bonus time with them!   (a couple of these photos are from the evening in the canyon, but, sadly, I did not take many).  

💕Then Mika and McKenzie came to stay with us for a few days!   McKenzie had just finished Home MTC and was heading to Provo MTC before her mission to Gilbert, AZ.  It was delightful to have a missionary in our home again for a bit and I very much enjoyed the time to catch up with my sister-in-law, Mika!   We miss living close to them!   Sadly, they just missed seeing Cami and kids, as McKenzie's drop-off time was at the exact time Cami had a couple hours back here at home before we  drove them to the airport.   

👴👵As per usual, we loved the opportunity to be Gigi and Papa in real life.   It's fun to send postcards and do Facetimes with them  when they are far away, but there's nothing quite like the snuggles, giggles, and  general silliness that come with spending time together in the same house

💗💗💗

Our Fourth and Climbing Kyhv Peak

Between lots of out of town visitors, planning for some upcoming travel, some health stuff with my Mom, two of our kids moving, and some other random time consuming responsibilities, life has been a bit chaotic lately.   For a while, I kept hoping that things would calm down once we got past a few certain calendar items, but now it's looking like the pace is about to escalate even further.  And on an indefinite basis.   As such, it's definitely going to be harder to find the time to sit down and blog, however, I still have the desire to keep up with it, so here I go adding blogging to my to-do list, so it actually happens in between all the other things!  

This blogpost will be all about our Independence Day happenings.   

Glen and I decided to take advantage of his day off and do some hiking in the mountains.  We log a lot of miles in a week walking around our community on our morning walks, but it's actually pretty rare for us to venture into the mountains.  It's mostly time and a little bit of an intimidation factor that keeps us away, so the holiday was a perfect excuse to set all that aside and hike Kyhv Peak (formerly known as Squaw Peak).  

Adam had told us that it was the perfect hike for someone at our level (generally fit, but not super into hiking mountains).    

Some of the uphills were definitely challenging, but with views like this along the way... 

we did our best to enjoy the journey...

The view from the top was lovely in all directions...

And it was fun that we arrived to the peak at the same time as some college kids who'd toted a flag up there for the Fourth.   They were kind enough to let us take a few pics with it, so we felt a little extra festive.

I slipped in some loose gravel on the way down and ended up with a minor sprained ankle.  Luckily, it wasn't too bad and I was able to make my way to the car without difficulty.  The pain didn't actually set in until later and I did end up hobbling around for a bit, but I'm back to 100% again now, so thankfully it wasn't too bad.   

Because of my hurt ankle, we just hung around home the rest of the day while I put my foot up.   Despite the injury, I consider the hike a success and we would totally recommend that hike for someone looking to hike a mountain without committing to an all-day adventure!   

 And that was pretty much a wrap for our Fourth, so here's a look at other family members' experiences.  

Cami and family had just barely moved to Rhode Island a week or two before, so they spent the day in a cute New England town, just exploring and enjoying the old town vibes, including a parade and fireworks!  

Lucie was a little cutie pie in the festive clothes I'd sent in a package for the occasion ! 

 

Emma did a little hike with her friends...

And went to the balloon festival...

Adam had to work during the day, but spent the evening with friends...

Ellie (currently known as Hermana G) didn't do much in the way of celebrating that day, but this photo is dated July 4th, so shows a little glimpse of the amazing things she was up to that day!  

I have no pics of Spence from that day, but he did have the day off, so I'm sure it was enjoyed!  

And that is all for this blogpost.  

Have a beautiful day!  

Adam's Summer Update

Alright, alright...we're off to blogpost #2 in our person-by-person update series here on the blog.  This post will be catching us up on what our Adam is doing!  As is usual with my kids, he doesn't sit still often, so it's been a busy summer for him.

Here are the bare-bones basics of what he's up to, then I'll add a little more detail about each below that: 

1-He's currently taking a spring class
2-He's currently working full-time at the FSY office on campus
3-He has two side gigs, in addition to his full-time job
4-He's been really into hiking lately. 

1- He's currently taking a spring class.  

So, he officially declared his major as "computer engineering" this past year, which he realized is a long major, and would require him taking spring/summer classes just to stay on a 5-year graduation plan!   This spring he opted to take a psychology class that would fulfill a general education requirement.  He had taken an AP psych class back in our homeschool co-op, so  he didn't find the course material very hard, but he was dismayed to find out upon opening the syllabus for the first time, that this class would require 13 written papers during the course of the 6-week condensed spring schedule.  Paper writing is not his favorite thing, but he has officially completed his coursework now and should be completely done with it all  in the next few days.   Hallelujah for him! 

2-He's currently working full-time at the FSY office on campus.

FSY is a HUGE employer of BYU students in the summertime and they recruit pretty hard in the Provo area.  I would say close to a quarter of our YSA ward has some kind of employment through FSY this summer.  Adam had worked as an FSY counselor before his mission and was applying to be a session coordinator for this summer.  He ended up getting hired as an assistant coordinator, before being offered his current job, which is logistics specialist for the Provo sessions.  It was exactly what he was looking for...part-time and flexible during the school year and full-time during the summer.   It's definitely stretched him in good ways (like becoming proficient at spreadsheets) and is giving him a good boost on paying his own rent this upcoming school year!    He gets to work with some great people and he likes knowing he is a part of something that is making a difference! 

3-He has two side gigs, in addition to his full-time job

He didn't get his FSY job until winter semester, so to  earn money for groceries and other incidentals, he started donating plasma during fall semester.  There's a donation center not far from his apartment and he found that donating didn't affect how he felt, so he's been a very regular donor for several months now.  I personally find the whole process fascinating.  I've been a regular blood donor for 35ish years now, but have never been paid a cent for it.  It's wild that there's enough of a market for plasma that they can pay that generously.   

His second side gig is one that he's just recently taken up.   He's always appreciated a good pair of Nike shoes in his wardrobe and was definitely hoping to someday serve near the Nike headquarters while he was on his mission in Portland, but that never happened.   But, he has since discovered that if you can buy a pair of just-dropped limited edition Nike shoes, you can turn around and sell them at a good profit.   He's just figuring out all the ins and the outs of it right now, but he recently sold his first pair at nearly double what he paid for them!   

On his way to the post office to ship his first sold pair

   Nike doesn't release very many pairs of the limited edition shoes, so it's a bit of a crapshoot on whether you can get your hands  on a pair (and one pair of a design is all they allow), but he has since procured two more pairs that he anticipates will also sell for a hefty profit.  I think he's enjoying this new side gig a little more than the plasma donating one.  

4-He's been really into hiking lately.  

Between his full-time work and his fast-paced spring class, his summer schedule has not left a lot of free time on his hands, but  something that he is prioritizing this spring is hiking in the mountains on Saturdays.   I say I like to hike too, but not like his hiking.   His type of hiking is 10-12 mile hikes up  in the mountains with a few thousand feet in elevation gain!   He usually hikes alone, because he doesn't know anyone who wants to hike that intensely, plus, as I previously mentioned, many of his friends are off on FSY adventures in other cities.   Glen did join him on one recent voyage though...

When he's alone, we have a system, where he tells us where he's hiking and he checks in  along the way, so we know he's safe.  Surprisingly, he has found that he has reasonably good coverage on most of the trails...even high up in the mountains.    He did injure himself one time, which caught him unprepared...

But he now carries a first-aid kit with him, along with a boatload of water!  

So far he's hiked Big Baldy Loop, Provo Peak, Khyv Peak, Battle Creek Loop, Lake Hardy, and some other smaller ones... 

We love finding all these amazing pics in the camera roll... 

And we love that it exhilarates him!  It clearly is something he very much enjoys and we live in a great area to explore the outdoors.   

Okay, these are the main things keeping him busy right now, but I thought I'd throw in a bonus item for your enjoyment!  

BONUS ITEM:   He recently allowed his head to be shaved as part of his calling!  

He's the Institute rep for his YSA ward.   You've probably have never heard of that calling before, but in a BYU ward, it's actually a pretty big deal.   I didn't really know how big of a deal until we started serving in our own YSA ward a couple months ago, but let's just say that it's quite the weekly social event, they get amazing teachers for it, and the biggest chunk of the stake budget goes to providing food at Institute each week.  President Nelson (our modern day prophet) has given some amazing promises at how participating in Institute will bless lives and Adam's calling requires participating in ward council,  attending and helping at institute each week, and HYPING it up, so people actually come.   

Right at the end of winter semester, somehow the promise was made (with the help of a friend) that if his ward's attendance reached a certain threshold at Institute that week, that he'd allowed his head to be shaved.   They exceeded that threshold (by a good deal more than they'd had there all school year) and his head was shaved!   

I don't think he actually likes his hair being that short, but he took it all in good stride, and decided it was worth it for the cause!    His hair is growing back nicely now...

******************

Stay tuned for more updates in the series coming soon...

******************

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!  

**************************

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.   😁
**************************