Kristina's Crew Comes to Utah!

Shortly after Christmas, Emma went back to Rhode Island and my sister arrived with her entourage in tow—four of her kids, including Manuel, Isaiah, and Jesus who bring a bit of mayhem with them wherever they go. And right behind her came one of her friends, who brought her teenage triplets, increasing the number of people in our home by 200%.    Within an hour, my house had transformed from a peaceful post-holiday sanctuary into something resembling a combination of a Dave & Buster's and a convenience store after a tornado. Actually it wasn't that bad.  It really was loud...and messy...and a bit chaotic, but I have a good bond with all of Kristina's kids and genuinely enjoy having them around!   

LESSONS IN FOOD: 
  I raised five kids and know a lot about feeding them, however I can never seem to get it quite right with the boys.   I had stocked up on a bunch of their favorite foods before arriving, but I keep learning the hard way with them that there's a lot more to it than just picking the right kind of food for them.   Last time they were here I learned that chicken nuggets cooked in the air fryer were inedible and that soggy microwaved ones were the only way to go.  This time I learned  that different brands of mac & cheese can vary in taste and apparently I picked the wrong one.  I haven't eaten mac & cheese in approximately 40 years or so,  so I was unaware of these nuances, but apparently it's a thing.    Also, much to their happiness, I did manage to remember to get some of their favorite snack in the whole universe before they arrived--Blue Heat Takis.  However they thought I was quite mean for portioning them out into serving sizes for them, as they wanted the whole bag at once!  Ah, well!  I'll try again next time!  

 

THE SNOW THAT WASN'T 
Kristina and her family (and their friends) live in California and came to Utah very excited to see some snow.   Unfortunately for her and the record breaking low snowpack in the mountains this year, snow has been hard to come by this winter.  It's been unusually warm (something I appreciate) and very dry with only a couple little skiffs of snow here and there.  The boys were very disappointed by this and so Kristina went driving to higher altitudes in search of some.  She found the jackpot up at Suncrest and the boys happily played in it!   Sadly the triplets had never been to Utah or seen snow and it was all melted by the time they arrived.  They were quite disappointed.  

A TRIP TO LUMINARIA
One of my favorite parts about people coming to visit us, is that it gets us out of the house to see more of what Utah has to offer.  We went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point a  couple years ago and loved it, so Kristina and company coming to town was a perfect excuse to go again!  It was as amazing as we'd remembered and I think everyone enjoyed it!  

A TRIP TO ANTELOPE ISLAND

Another trek we took was to Antelope Island.   To my knowledge, I'd never been there before and I was completely enchanted by this wild and beautiful oasis so close to civilization.   

We saw this great horned owl...

and these beauties, an American kestrel and a starling...

Heather drove and my Mom also  came along for the adventure...

as did Adam and Isaiah.   Kristina and her crew came up an hour or two after us.  

We also saw bison (real ones) and this incredible bird, which was probably our highlight of the whole trip:  

It's a burrowing owl and they're pretty hard to spot, unless you know where to look.  My sister, Heather, has gotten quite into bird watching and bird photography lately and she had the inside scoop.  I totally want to go back  in the spring and see if we can find him again.  

VISITING OUR WARD
My niece, Madeline, and the triplets hope to come to BYU in the next year or two, so they all came to our YSA ward on Sunday to see what it was like.  They weren't very excited that we meet at 9am and had a half-hour drive to get there, but they made it with smiles on their faces.   I actually have no idea what they thought, but it was an excellent fast and testimony meeting and we were happy to share our wonderful ward with them for a week! 

Kristina was happy to see Alicia there too!  Alicia was Kristina's friend first and her husband is now serving as Glen's 1st counselor, so we are all friends now!   

HAPPY DENALI
Denali is 100% a diva.   She loves being the center of attention and there's nothing like more people being in the house to give it to her.  Happily, the boys adore her and she gets lots and lots of attention when they're around.  I daresay she goes into a bit of withdrawal when they leave...

 A FEW MORE RANDOM PICS
I'll finish off with a few more random pics from their stay here.  There's also a few more in this post about the Buttercup Neighborhood game.  

Madeline, Kristina, and me...

Jesus has grown up A LOT over the last several months, which meant a bit more sass, a lot more stubbornness, and a whole lot of silliness. He just got baptized this past weekend and I was super sad that I couldn't be there to join him.  

My sister, Kristina, is probably the only true extrovert of the family and she seriously has the best friends!    I've become friends with a few of her friends since moving here and we went to this gathering one night knowing no one but Kristina's crew, but came out with more friends!  We've even hung out with one of the couples again since then.  

I love when K's family comes to town and somehow even miss the noise and the mess when they leave.  

Happy February to you!  

The Buttercup Neighborhood Game

 We played a lot of board games over the holidays--including Wingspan, Telestrations, Codenames, Coup, Nertz, Trash, Magic the Gathering, 10 Days in Europe, and Dixit.  We enjoyed the more laid-back time to play together and only had a few grumpy moments when the competition got a little fierce.  Haha!  

But there was another game we played over the holidays that I haven't mentioned yet.   It involved the whole neighborhood and some equally tense competitive moments, and also some very silly moments.  

It was all about this cute little Christmas inflatable named Buttercup. 

Basically Buttercup was purchased by the H family in our neighborhood and was introduced as a sort of reverse hot potato.  But instead of trying to get rid of it, the goal was to steal it from a neighbor's porch and see how long you could keep it inflated on your own porch. 

 

   In order to be an official participant in the game, you had to join the Buttercup GroupMe and follow along with the updates and rules.  That GroupMe was one of the funniest things I'd been a part of in a long time and it was quite humorous to see the silly {and competitive} side of our neighbors.  

We didn't even try to attempt any heists until Adam arrived home, but once he was home, the game was on!    He had a few unsuccessful steal attempts where he was caught before escaping, but I thought it was quite funny that the first time we actually managed to steal her was just after attending the temple together...

We took a little drive around the neighborhood on the way home and Adam snagged her in his church clothes.  Haha.  

We were quite proud of our conquest and guarded her pretty fiercely until we went to bed. 

  Guarding it meant playing games while sitting on our stairs just inside the door, then opening the door and yelling "we caught you!" to the would-be thieves.  

We caught a few and met a new neighbor in the process.  Much to our surprise, Buttercup actually stayed put overnight and was stolen while on our morning walk the next day.    Once we'd experienced the "thrill" of capturing and guarding her for ourselves, we didn't try too hard for a few days.  But then Kristina's family came to town and all that changed.   The second the boys heard about the Buttercup game, they were excitedly all in!  

Honestly it was a fun excuse to get out on neighborhood walks with the boys...

and the boys were far more diligent Buttercup guardians than we had been.   They literally sat outside waiting to yell at anyone who dared attempt a heist.   At one point in the final couple days of the game, the games keeper had  to change the rules to only allow an hour of "puppy guarding", because there were a whole lot of eager young boys out of school and willing to even sleep outside for the cause.  

It was a sad moment when Buttercup got stolen on New Year's Eve night and the boys'  final attempts in the last hours of the game (New Year's morning) proved unsuccessful, despite their coordinated efforts with fellow-would-be thieves to outsmart the conquering family.  

All in all, it turned out to be a fun distraction over the holidays and I 10/10 would recommend, as long as you get everyone on board with understanding the rules and the idea that it's all in good fun!   

Mid-Summer Visit from Some of Our Favorites

A few weeks ago, my sister and her kiddos came to visit!  Then my brother joined the fun.    

As always with their visits, it meant life got a little extra chaotic for a bit, but it was a {mostly} happy chaos, so we loved it!  

Highlights of the visit included: 

* lots of time with J, Manuel, and Isaiah!

* Denali LOVED all the extra attention with them there

* With three of the four C. girls (and Mom) there, it meant we got to do a lot of talking time

*  My Legos got well-loved again 

*  We took a trip to the aquarium

*  Silliness and potty humor was abundant

* I got to expand my repertoire of music to way more "exciting" genres (according to I, M, and J anyway)

*   Lots of combined family dinners and culinary offerings not normally found at our house...

*  Pete came to town and we  had a big family dinner down in Provo to include the college kids

* 7 of the 10 boy cousins were all together...just missing Ben, Jack, and Lincoln

* Had 2 of the 8 girl cousins together...just missing Cam, Ellie, McKenzie, Lauren, Bridgette, and Anna

*  4 of the 8 siblings together!   

*  We don't see Pete often enough, so it was fun to have him there! 

* Pete's son, Davin, is a superstar baseball player who had come to participate in a BYU sports camp.

Lowlights included: 

*  I had a  major meltdown that I can only assume was fueled by hormones,  lack of sleep, and lack of routine.  It was of the epic sort I have only once every few years, so that was stupid.  I got to practice all the skills I had recently learned in my emotional resilience class at church (FSITL).  

* Nate came into town a few hours after Pete and Davin left, so we barely missed having 5/8 of the siblings together

In other news:  

* Some big changes are happening and life has taken a turn for busyness in the extreme and the next few months/years are going to be crazy {and good...we hope!}  I'll probably share more details eventually...

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All In A Few Days

You may have noticed that between our new callings, Emma's graduation, the work conference in Saint George, and our trip to Alabama, it's been pretty go go go around here the last several weeks.    I had hopeful visions that things would calm down a bit once we returned from Alabama, but that has not been the case yet.    

I arrived back home on a Wednesday night to an empty refrigerator, boatloads of laundry to do, and a somewhat messy house after being gone for 2 weeks (4 days in Saint George, then 10 days in Alabama).    I also had a funeral program to design (see below) and print by Thursday and book group to get ready for hosting on Thursday night, plus a busy weekend ahead, which pretty much meant there was not a moment of downtime before I had to go go go again. 

BOOK GROUP
 I LOVE my book group!   They are fantastic people that I am lucky to call my friends, so I totally don't mind hosting every month, even if sometimes it feels like a lot.    Luckily I was able to talk Emma into coming up for a couple hours to help me clean and make refreshments, which took the edge off of this crazy day. 

BACK ROW L-R:  Julie D, Nancy G, Kelly D, Emily G, Mary J, Heather P, Andrea C
FRONT ROW L-R:  Susan T, Me, Carrie W, K'Lynn W

A FUNERAL
My Aunt Valerie passed away while we were in Alabama.  She never married, so it was her sisters (including my Mom) helping to plan the funeral.   I was asked to make the funeral programs...something I was happy to do!  

The funeral was on Friday, so I needed to finish designing and printing them by Thursday, so they'd be ready for Friday.   Luckily I have found a good local printer that was able to do them same-day.  I ran to the grocery store to do a quick restock of the fridge while I was out picking up the programs.

  The funeral went great, except that I forgot to tell Glen that he was giving the family prayer.  I had been asked about it while I was still in Alabama and just plain didn't thoroughly read the text they sent  and then couldn't communicate to Glen something I skipped over.  It was a bit embarrassing as everyone was waiting for him and it was 100% my fault.   😳 Oops.  Besides giving the family prayer, Glen also led the music.  Emma gave the life sketch.   This was us at the funeral. 

  My Mom and 3 of her remaining sisters (one was too sick to come) immediately went to Star Valley after the funeral for the burial.  

 

MY SISTER AND NEPHEW

Speaking of sisters...my sister, Kristina, town for the funeral too. 

She also brought Jesus, who decided he wants to be called J  now. Denali was LOVING all the extra attention J  was giving her...

And J was LOVING all the one on one attention he was getting here without any of his siblings to compete with.   We read lots of books and let him pick the movies  (Frozen and Pete the Cat), which his brothers would never let him watch. 

I'll be honest...I was also quite LOVING the bonus time with this sweet little guy, since I was in serious Lucie and Oliver withdrawals  at that point! 

WEDDING RECEPTION
On Saturday night, after a busy day of doing all of our Saturday things,  we went to the wedding reception of a friend of Emma's from PA. Emma didn't live in PA for very long, but Katie left on her mission within a few weeks of  Ems and both got reassigned to SLC missions during COVID, so they connected that way.  I grew to really love Katie's Mom, Elizabeth, who was one of our bright spots from PA, after the very awkward social experience we had in the first ward we lived in while we were there.   We didn't take any pics at the reception and we actually didn't get a chance to talk to the L family for very long, since they were a bit distracted with lots of wedding stuff, but it was great to see their happy faces and celebrate with them. 

A VERY LONG SUNDAY
One Sunday a month, we wake up extra early and head to stake meetings that start at 7:30am.   But since it's about 35 minutes to get there and we have to find parking on campus, we have to leave around 6:50am and we don't get home until about 3:00pm.   The Sunday after we got home from Alabama was one of those long days, but luckily  Kristina was leaving from the Provo airport, so she dropped by right after our ward ended to say goodbye!   It was fun for Kristina to see a glimpse of what we're doing in the YSA ward now and it was fun that Emma could run over and greet Kristina as well.  I laughed when I offered to pick J up for the picture and he immediately flopped over in my arms like a baby!  Silly boy!     

A BUSY WEEK
By the time you'll read this post, we'll have prepared talks for this Sunday, had a kid break a bone in two places (a post for another day),  and been down to BYU FOUR  separate times  for various ward activities (it actually ended up 6/7 days).  

 

And, yet, here I am blogging, because, you know, priorities...

💗