Together in Island Park

Adam returned from his mission on August 21st and  fall semester at BYU was starting  September 4th, which meant we had a whole lot of things to squeeze into a little less than two weeks' time.  In addition to needing to let Adam decompress for a minute and have some time to go through his stuff, he needed to write and give a homecoming talk and we hosted an open house, we needed to get Adam settled into his new apartment before the semester began, we needed to do a little shopping for him to update the shoes and clothes he'd been wearing for 2 years straight, and, most important of all, we wanted to be able to gather all together as a family for the first time in 2 years. 

Whew!  It makes me tired just looking back and thinking about all the things we squeezed into those couple of weeks!  

I touched a little on the first few days he was home in this post, and now this post will be dedicated to capturing our family gathering we held in Island Park, Idaho the following week.  We picked Island Park because we wanted to go somewhere within a reasonable driving distance of home and also because our family has made a lot of good memories there over the years.  

We had a loose schedule for things we wanted to do while we were there, but we tried to leave some flexibility built in, so we could allow the kids (who are actually all adults) the freedom to help plan as we went along and also to allow the actual kids (Lucie and Oliver) time to take naps most days.   One of the spontaneous activities the kids got excited  about was choosing t-shirts for each other and then wearing them all at the same time. We drew names and spent a few hours wandering around West Yellowstone shopping for each other, which is where these pictures were taken. 

 The results were hilarious and we laughed as we went to dinner at the Gusher in these, then onto see Anastasia at the Playmill.   Both the Gusher and the Playmill are traditions for whenever we visit Island Park/West Yellowstone! 

 

Don't ask me how or why this next part developed, but Emma, Cami, and Adam somehow decided they were going to run a 1/2 marathon together in Island Park.   Adam was fresh off his mission and clearly hadn't trained at all.  The girls had a little more running under their belts, but it was a stretch for them as well.   They wended through cow herds and through the beautiful scenery and all three accomplished their goal.  Glen, Denali, and I met them along the way to bring them water, and to cheer them on! 

We also had an ongoing quest to eat as many s'mores as possible, which meant we had a campfire going  most nights. 

We toasted and ate a lot of marshmallows and just enjoyed the opportunity to sit around the campfire together.

Then campfire time would usually morph into appreciating the night-sky time.  The stars were amazing! 

We did some exploring in the area, including this trek to Big Springs to see the ginormous fish and gorgeous scenery. 

We saw some wildlife...

We hung around the cabin (which we'd rented on VRBO) and sent some postcards (of course)...

We took Lucie on a little nature walk and she filled a bag with all sorts of interesting things she'd found while wandering around the cabin. 

We  wandered into Yellowstone on the  last day of our Island Park adventures, including visiting Artist Point and Old Faithful.  The kiddos were very tired this day and we'd checked out of the cabin, so we kept things as easy going as could this day before trekking to Idaho Falls for the night. 

All in all, it was a great five days together and we very much enjoyed lots of good food, gorgeous scenery, and time together.  The only downside was that Spencer didn't end up being able to come.   We hoped that by picking somewhere somewhat close to home (a 5 hour drive), that he'd be able to come for part of the week at least, but, in the end, it ended up being too hard finding care for Kiwi, so he stayed home.  😢

And, no,  I'm not done yet with the late August/early September updates.  Stay tuned....

Summer Happenings: Part 1

Well, what can I say?   All routine is out the window and I am having an incredibly difficult time keeping up here on the blog.  I known that there are approximately 2 people that may have even noticed that it's been while, but I feel like I need a little brain break, so here I am.

So here's a glimpse of the last few weeks...

Kristina and boys came to town for a couple weeks.  

It was loud and the house was a mess, but I very much enjoyed spending time with them...

I introduced them to Perler beads, which they'd never tried before, but Jesus dove in first, then when the other boys saw what  it was all about, got obsessed too. 

It was very cute how hard they worked (for hours a day) and how proud they were of their work...

Denali also very much enjoyed the extra attention!  

I taught them a couple of old-fashioned card games--Old Maid, Go Fish, and Slap Jack--and enjoyed watching them have fun playing those!

One day, we dropped by to wish Nana a happy birthday!   She's 95 now!  

I won't lie...it's a bit chaotic when they come to town, but it's mostly a good chaos that I enjoy.  

I always love my postcards, but this summer I've been a little extra obsessed with them. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't love sending and receiving mail as much as me, but it's literally a stress relief for me and I love that it's not a super time consuming thing I can do for myself.  I may have to do a whole post on this topic soon, because I've been having fun with it!

Speaking of postcards, here's a little postcard challenge I'm doing with my sisters (and Cam).  The challenge this week (chosen randomly by Heather) was blue-footed booby.  I had run out of my authentic Ecuadorean cards, so I adapted this one to fit the bill.  haha...

Also...Ellie submitted her mission papers a few weeks ago.  We knew her call would likely take longer because of her seizures, but we are hopeful it will come soon!  

She finished her second trimester at BYU-Idaho and she is happy.  She had good roommates and really enjoys the environment up in Idaho...

I picked her up from Idaho and we are enjoying the extra noise and action that comes along with having her at home.  

I have a bunch more to add, but blogger is not letting me upload photos today, so I'll do a Part 2 soon.  Stay tuned... 

Empty Nest

 We passed a HUGE milestone two weekends ago!  

No, I did not finally learn how to cook a good steak, nor did I  finally figure out what I'm doing with my life.  

But what we did do is bring Ellie to say goodbye to her Grandma and Great Grandma...

We packed up the car....

We stopped for lunch with friends in Idaho Falls...

And we got this girl checked into her "dorm"...

And we left a piece of our hearts there in Rexburg...

After 28-years of having kids at home {almost all of those years as a stay-at-home parent}, an era has ended and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with myself next. 😖 

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A Bit of a Mess

 As has become tradition when we have a child serving a mission, here's a little life update taken from a letter written to our missionary.  I figure it's a good way to cross two things off my list at once.  3/13/23 

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Hello to our favorite missionary in the whole wide world!  

So how's life in the land of Beavers and Dams?    So first things first, have you actually come across any beavers or dams yet?  Or are these still hypothetical dam beavers?  If you ever actually see one, I expect 4 gazillion pictures, a baptism date, and a personal introduction (so make sure to get its name).   

Most weeks I write to you life is really boring, but this week is not.  Here is a picture of me and our car from last week.  As you can see, we are both giant messes.   This was not a one time occurrence.   I have pretty much been a bit of a mess (brain wise, house wise, car wise, and other wise)  all week long.  

Why the mess?   Hmmmm, let me see.   It could be the RS activity last Tuesday, which was very time consuming and not as much of a rousing success as I would have hoped, which discouraged me a bit.   It could be that I was somewhat sick  with a cold most of the week. It could also do with the fact that I didn't sleep very well much of the week (a lot of that to blame on the cold).  It could be losing an hour of sleep on Sunday night.   It could be that Dad's been out of town (in Saint George and Denver) for several days.  It could be my hormones. It could be that Kiwi's in heat again...something that I was hoping would never happen again, but Spence has yet to get her spayed.  It could be that I'm so over the wintry weather I could throw snowballs at the moon.  

BUT....

GUESS WHAT?!    

Despite there being yet another winter storm warning on the horizon, the last couple of days, it has warmed up a tiny bit and the snow has been melting!   And when I say warming up, I mean temps NOT in the 30's!   I almost wore my bathing suit to church!  Haha.    Also, for as much as I dislike losing an hour of sleep, I really do like the extra daylight for going on after-dinner walks, of which I'm 2 for 2 now.   

Guess what else is making me happy?  

I'm going to California for a sisters/mom weekend.   It looks like Dad and I will barely cross paths (he comes home and I leave the next day), which is kind of sad, but I am excited to enjoy some California weather for a bit and spend time with my sisters.  

Here are a few other things that are making me happy.    

Spring break is coming up in a few weeks and there are no RS activities in April, so I'm hoping that will help my stress level a bit!   

Sweet pictures of Lucie.  I know I am a little obsessed, but I don't see her enough, so I have to obsess over the pics and phone calls!  

Also, I had book group at our house this past week. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was a good turnout and it made me very happy to discuss a good book.   I feel like the women who come to book group are the closest thing I have to friends here in Utah, so I very much look forward to it each month.

We {Ellie, me, my mom, and Heather} went to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and we loved the stark beauty there. It was still pretty frozen over, so there weren't as many birds as there will be in a few weeks, but the birds we did see were awesome.   {tundra swans, bald eagle, northern harrier, great blue herons, etc}  PS  The aforementioned messy car pictured above, became messy here at B.R.   

 Then we headed up to Rexburg for the day. Rexburg is a nice town (everything seems a bit newer than Provo) and I think Ellie's going to like it there.   It made for a long day, but the bird watching was good for my soul and Ellie enjoyed the opportunity to see her future home town.  

 

They asked me to make programs for church...each week now.  You can guess how I feel about that!  :)

Also, I drank water, ate food, and  drove places.  haha

Well, I know I said it was not a boring week, but writing it out, it doesn't sound that exciting.   I hope I didn't put you to sleep at least.   I'll close off with a spiritual thought before signing off for the night... 

 

ON Sunday, we discussed this talk:  

It was an interesting discussion about the parable of the wedding feast.  Ultimately we decided that God is there welcoming us with open arms, even when we are choosing to not follow the path.   

"Each of us should evaluate our temporal and spiritual priorities sincerely and prayerfully to identify the things in our lives that may impede the bounteous blessings that Heavenly Father and the Savior are willing to bestow upon us. And surely the Holy Ghost will help us to see ourselves as we really are.

As we appropriately seek for the spiritual gift of eyes to see and ears to hear, I promise that we will be blessed with the capacity and judgment to strengthen our covenant connection with the living Lord. We also will receive the power of godliness in our lives—and ultimately be both called to and chosen for the Lord’s feast."

Well, I LOVE YOU LIKE CRAZY and hope you've had an amazing week! 

Love, 
Mom 

One More Thing -- A Trip to Yellowstone

You've probably noticed that we've had a bit of a crazy few months around here.  Between our travels, my Dad's death, my kids going a million different directions, and Adam starting his mission...it's felt pretty nonstop.   In the weeks leading up to Adam starting his mission, we kept talking about how we realllllllly wanted to do "one more thing" with him before he left.  We went back and forth on what that one thing should be, but ultimately decided that a trip to Island Park, Idaho would be just the fun and nostalgic thing we were looking for. 

 Glen's grandparents owned a cabin in Island Park for many years and we would bring our family there every few years for Yellowstone adventures while they were growing up.   Sadly they sold the cabin a few years ago, so we didn't have an easy place to stay this time.  At first we shopped around for another cabin to stay in, but after lamenting over the high prices and less than ideal locations,  I had the bright idea that we should make it a camping trip.       

Camping, you ask?  Yes.  Never mind we haven't been camping in several years and a lot of our gear was still in boxes in the garage.   We like spending several hours tracking down items we haven't used in years, setting up our tent in the dark, cooking over a fire, getting bitten my mosquitos, and sleeping on hard surfaces.   Yeah, we're crazy like that. 

Seriously though...despite the rough/slow start and the weird amounts of wind and rain we encountered, it ended up being exactly the kind of fun memory making experience we were trying to create.   

  

We spent lots of  time in Yellowstone and went on as many hikes as we could...

Glen was excited to put his canoe to good use and to get in some world-class fishing!  

We saw "Singin' in the Rain," and "Tarzan" at the Playmill (a long-standing family tradition)! 

We cooked breakfast and lunch over the fire most days.  We took this picture after  Emma and I started a fire in the wind and drizzle, while Glen and Adam were out fishing. 

 It was one of our first times starting a fire completely by ourselves  and we were quite proud to start it in less than ideal conditions!  

We ate dinners and treats out on the town--in West Yellowstone before the shows.  

We weirdly didn't see much in the way of wildlife in Yellowstone, but we did enjoy the opportunity to snuggle together in the car during our drives, because it was cold and windy for part of the time!    What wildlife did we see?  A handful of buffalo, maybe 2-3 elk, and a bunch of chipmunks.   

We had forgotten the stark beauty of Island Park and Yellowstone and we enjoyed soaking in the gorgeous scenery there.    

I couldn't get enough of the wildflowers and took way too many pictures of them...

Actually...what am I saying?  

Is it possible to have too many pictures like these?   

I don't think so...  😍

This really may be one of the prettiest places on earth..

Of course we  made sure Adam got lots of love....

We finished off the adventure (after having to get our car jumped before we could leave the campground) with a stop at the Rexburg Temple to do baptisms together.  It was an awesome experience.  

After three nights of living the tent life, we were pretty exhausted by the end.

 But it was a good kind of exhausted.  The kind where you sack out in your smoke and unshowered body scented clothes while you bask in not having a rock underneath your left hip.  Yes, it was a great laid back trip filled with a lot of memory making experiences, but it was also pretty heavenly taking that first shower and sacking out in our own beds. 

Maybe we'll even go camping again...someday.  😄