Summer Update on Glen!

I recently did a whole series on what my family is up to this summer and never got to Glen, so here is his update... (Other updates can be found here...   Ellie,   Adam, Emma,  Cami , Spencer)

Glen had a birthday in June and Emma made him this beautiful cake!   

White chocolate raspberry is one of his favorite flavor combinations and it was quite tasty!   

Most of my family are big Brandon Sanderson fans and Glen is no exception.  He doesn't have a lot of spare time for reading currently, so it took him a good 6 months to get through his latest, "Wind and Truth."  Glen was very proud and happy to finish up that 1500 page tome!  

Back in mid-June, Glen's family had an impromptu family reunion in Colorado!  His parents are both in failing health and when his family realized that a couple of the out of town siblings were going to be there at the same time, they decided to make it an official gathering and see if they could get the whole crew at once.   Most of his five siblings don't love to travel, so it had been 7 years since the last time they were all together and there was no way Glen was going to miss that!  He flew straight from a business trip in San Diego to Colorado for approximately 36 hours.  

They spent time at both their Mom's and Dad's homes...

And even recreated this iconic G family pyramid picture...old person style!   

Here's a grandkid version of it from the early 2000's.   

It sounded like the trip was a great experience and a joy for them to be all together again.  

In addition to the work and church stuff that keeps him busy on a day -to -day basis, he also still loves to fish, play Magic the Gathering with Spence and Adam (and Garrett when he's in town), go golfing when he's got a buddy to play with, play disc golf with Spence, and play Pokemon Go.  He's been playing Pokemon Go long enough that he's reached the top level and is basically an expert.   He also walks with me most mornings, which is a habit/tradition that I love...time to connect and exercise together at the same time!  

Glen's a good one and I'm glad he's mine!  

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Hockey: The Next Generation

Glen and I came from fairly different family backgrounds, but one thing that was similar in both of our families was our Dads' extreme love of sports.   I grew up with the tv on a good portion of the day, mostly  tuned either to the news or to sports.  You knew how my Dad's teams were doing from across the house, based on the type of utterances being yelled out.   My brothers are also big sports' fans who can quote stats, tell you how all their teams are doing, and tell you all about the collectible baseball/basketball cards that they have or once had and how much they might be worth, etc.   Us sisters in the family can hold our own in conversations about sports, generally knowing the rules and how they work, but none of us are quite as avidly interested as my brothers.  

Glen, however, is one of five boys, with just one sister, so the sports' obsession in their house was next-level.  One of his brothers is a PE teacher and HS football & lacrosse coach, another played college lacrosse and coached lacrosse for his boys, Glen played college lacrosse, another brother is a sportswriter for a local newspaper, and his sister was a collegiate gymnast and is now married to a PE teacher and coach.   All are avid sports' fans.  And if you want to talk to his Dad, be prepared for the conversation to turn to sports within a couple minutes, no matter the starting topic.   It was definitely  an important part of both of our upbringings.  
 
The next generation (our kids at least) have a somewhat low interest in sports compared to the families we both grew up in.  They all played sports as kids/teens, but none of them really took them super seriously.   Cami did play a year of lacrosse at BYU and Adam likely would have tried for the BYU rugby team if his junior and senior high school seasons hadn't been decimated by COVID cancellations, but mostly our kids'  involvement in sports was just a fun way to interact with friends, be part of a team, and push themselves physically.  Neither Glen or I are the type to push and they didn't push it on their own, so it was what it was.   Our boys do have their sports' teams they follow and cheer for, and all of us (including the girls) can appreciate a good BYU game here and there, but it's not a huge part of any of our  lives.  

The one professional sport that is the exception, however, is hockey and Glen was as excited as can be when Utah announced that a professional hockey team was coming to Salt Lake City!      Glen had 1/2 season tickets to the Caps back when we lived in Northern Virginia, so was enthusiastic when his brother, Alex, offered to go in halfsies with him on 1/2 season tickets for the inaugural season of the Utah Hockey Club! For only having tickets for 1/4 of the home games, it's shocking how frequently the games pop up and it's become quite a fun way to have some one-on-one time with each of the kids. 

He took Ellie before she left on her mission:

He took Emma one time...

 

He's taken Adam and Spence separately a few times,

and bought an extra ticket for the game against the Caps, so they could all cheer on their Caps together! 

He's bonded with a family in the ward over their shared love of hockey.  Connor (one of the boys we taught in Sunday School a couple years ago) even brought him a Utah Hockey Club sweatshirt his Mom had made for him! 

 
This picture was taken in Colorado, but I thought it was awesome that Glen took his brother to an Avalanche vs. Caps game for his birthday! 

I smile that they always end up stopping for somewhere fun for dinner on the way to the game and always end up coming home with some new Utah Hockey Club gear....which will be dated as soon as they decide on a real name for the team!  😂

 

 

Next game it's my turn!   

Have a lovely week and may all your teams win big! 

Between Alaska and Camp

 Letter to Cami:   June 25, 2017

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Hi, Cami!

How has your week been? Are you back up and running with a new ipad yet? Hopefully you've been able to see the photos and videos we've shared over the last couple of weeks. If not, let me know what the last thing you got was and we will try to re-upload whatever you didn't receive.

So, we can't wait to hear about this upcoming transfer. We assume that you'll likely stay there since Soeur Wadsworth is going home and you're a STL, but who knows? Let me know if you think I should send all of your letters to the mission home this week just to be safe. I already mentioned this in my previous email, but please also let me know where you'd like me to send your next package to and if there's anything specific you'd like me to include in it. I can wait to send it until you hear officially where you'll be.

Dad's at the cabin in Idaho this weekend. It's been a little sad not to have him home on his birthday, but I think he's really enjoying the time he's been able to spend with his siblings. He comes home tomorrow.

 

Adam heads to scout camp bright and early tomorrow morning. Emma goes up to YW camp tomorrow afternoon and Ellie and I head up on Tuesday! It should be a fun week full of camping. I'm happy at least that the weather forecast doesn't look too horrible for my 5th YW camp in a row!

It was fun to officially meet Madeleine M. on Thursday.

 

 I felt bad because the only day she was available was the day our AC was getting replaced, which meant we were stuck at home in a stiflingly hot house, but she was a good sport and came anyway. She is beautiful and very prim and proper and we loved her British/French accent. She is doing much better health-wise and actually attended Julliard part-time this past semester. Apparently she still has to undergo regular treatment for her AML and travels back-and-forth quite a bit for that, but it was great to see her healthy enough for a visit! Spencer seemed to really enjoy meeting her too, and I enjoyed seeing Spence act "grown up" in her presence.

Here's your weekly update on everyone:


Dad--got home from Alaska, got sick with a bad cold (which made it hard for him to breathe), worked his tail off for two days, then took off for Idaho. We've seen very little of him this past week and will see even less of him this upcoming week. :( Hopefully it'll be a bit quieter after camps are over.

Me--I got all excited to start cooking again when we got home from vacation, but unfortunately the only thing cooking was us! Our AC broke while we were on vacation and it was 85° in here when we got home. It was a loooooooong couple of roasty toasty days, in which I forbade anyone from turning on the oven or stove. We've had a few homecooked meals since it was fixed on Thursday night, but I daresay our kitchen is feeling somewhat neglected currently.

Spence--I think he really enjoyed Alaska. He's been playing a lot of video games since he's been home and seemed to really enjoy Madeleine's visit on Thursday. He needs a purpose.

Emma--She loved Alaska and missed cooking even more than I did. When I finally gave the green light for using the stove/oven again, she went on a cooking super spree. She not only planned the menu for the next few days, but she also went to the grocery store and did all the shopping herself, and she's been making every item of food herself (until tonight, when I finally got to make something).

Adam--He's always been pretty mature for his age, but recently he's been extra mature. He still loves to make sure everyone is following the rules, including being the main enforcer of Ellie's medicine intake, but he also is calm and likes to make sure things are running smoothly. He doesn't complain when we ask him to help out and I've gotten several compliments lately on how mature/helpful he is. He's also quite the calm social presence as well. He's not girl-crazy, but loves to go to every dance and ask girls to dance for every slow song. He's also good at recruiting his friends to come and ask girls too.

Ellie--As usual, she's growing up fast. You will be surprised at how grown up she is when you get home. She talks about fashion and boys and music, and all other sorts of teen-agey type of things to talk about. She's also still a little obsessed with her dystopian novel du jour, which means we hear all about Divergent too! She wears high heels to church (now that her feet are SIZE 9!!!!!!) and loves to curl her hair.  

We love you and hope you're having a wonderful week! I was happy to hear that G. was happy with his MCAT score! Hope they're having a great trip to Italy!

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love,
Mom


Here are another couple of random photos:

This one was taken on a Saturday morning hike with AnnaLisa from Carderock to Great Falls and back (about 7 miles).    

 

 

This was at a little swimming hole we went to with friends....

 

Leaving Home....

Once upon a time there was a sweet little baby girl...

who grew up way too fast...   

and decided to go to college far away from home!

One day (August 7th to be precise), it was time leave home.

She said her goodbyes to the dog and the house and we all piled into our very full van.

Over the course of a couple of days, we trekked about 1500 miles and arrived to the land of her father's hometown...Denver, Colorado!  

We spent a day with Glen's long lost brothers, including Ryan....

his dad and brother Kurt, whom he hadn't seen in over ten years.  

We spent time with Glen's mom...

and just enjoyed spending time with this branch of the family we don't see anywhere near as often as we'd like.

It was only the beginning of our adventures of dropping our Cami Rose off to BYU...

but it was a great way to get started.   

Stay tuned for lots more adventures in the West!