The Current Happenings

 So what's been happening lately?  

You know besides having a houseful of people for Thanksgiving...

having a miserable stomach bug on either side of  Thanksgiving  that raged through everyone but Ellie and Glen...

sending off a missionary in two weeks....

and you know the minor task of  getting ready for Christmas...

oh yeah...just an emergency appendectomy for Glen CAUSED by the colonoscopy he'd had the day before.    Apparently it's a very rare side effect, but one that his doctor acknowledged as the likely cause of his appendicitis.   So to sum up, that was him fasting/purging on Monday, his colonoscopy on Tuesday, sending Cami and crew back home and appendicitis symptoms on Wednesday, and emergency surgery on Thursday.  

In other words, he is exhausted and in pain, but thankfully recovering well.  

Now back to our regularly scheduled Christmas chaos and ugly festive sweaters.

Adventure in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

Glen had a few days off of work as he transitioned from one job to another and we decided to go on an adventure.   We found some great last-minute deals and ended up in Ecuador--our very first time in South America!  It's hard to capture in a blogpost how amazing our trip was, but here are a few highlights.

1. The epic birdwatching in the Galapagos and outside of Quito!   We visited the nesting grounds of waved albatrosses and the blue and red footed boobies,  fed hummingbirds from our hands, and saw an incredibly diverse array of tropical bird species (including flamingos).
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   The blue and red footed boobies were among our favorites! 
   
   
   We also really enjoyed watching the waved albatrosses. 
   

   

   
   We found this hawk feather and wish we could have taken it home for Adam, but we weren't allowed to take ANYTHING natural from the Galapagos, so I had to leave it behind.
   
   
2. Seeing so much native wildlife in the Galapagos.  For how dry and scrubby the Galápagos Islands mostly are, it’s crazy that they have the variety of wildlife they do and how different the variety is from island to island.   We explored by hiking, snorkeling, and kayaking.    I look forward to reading a book more about Charles Darwin's travels there. 
   
    
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
   
3. Meeting Elder Rasband (a modern day apostle) in the lobby of our hotel in Quito.  He was in the middle of a 4 country South American tour and was on his way to play pickleball when we ran into him!  He was kind and easy to talk to.
   
   
4. Visiting the equator and getting to stand in the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time.   I get surprisingly geeky about this type of thing!   We also enjoyed the science experiments they demonstrated at the equator.
   
   
   
   
5. Ecuadorean chocolate!  I had no idea Ecuador (one of the smallest countries in South America) supplies 50% of the world’s chocolate!  We enjoyed sampling different varieties!
   
   
   

   
   

   
6. The Ecuadorean food in general.  I was able to find good authentic Ecuadorean food that was also gluten free.  Yay!
   
   
   
7. The people we met!  We loved our native tour guides, the people we interacted with around town, and the interesting array of  people on our cruise. 
   
   
   
8. The whole city of Quito is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and we loved learning about the culture.  The architecture is a cool mix of European and indigenous style and visiting a museum featuring pre-columbian art was one of our favorites!   The following were scenes we found wandering around Quito.
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
    
    
9. Sending postcards from a country with no postal service!  I literally dropped them in a barrel on a deserted island in the Galapagos and future visitors will pick up postcards addressed to people who live close to them and hand deliver them.  It’s a tradition going back to the 1700’s and I am totally geeking out about it!  I took the only two addressed to people in Utah and I’m excited to deliver them in the next few weeks!
   
   
   
10. We love how open people are about religion here.  We had some great conversations with a few different Ecuadorean natives who clearly love Jesus too!   This photo is of the Virgin Mary at the top of El Panecillo Hill right in the middle of Quito.
    
    
11. Doing a session at  the Quito temple!  We had hoped to get to the temple while we were here, but the weekday hours were too limited and we gave up on being able to go.  Then….our flight home was canceled and we got a bonus day.  It was too perfect!    The temple has been open since November 2022 and it's clear that non-Spanish speaking tourists doing sessions is a rarity.  We wore the headphones and loved seeing that temple filled with locals! 
    
    
12. The stargazing on the cruise was epic.   I took this picture with my i-phone from a moving boat! 
    

13.  The views!   Quito is situated at 9300 feet above sea level and the surrounding mountains tower to 15,000+ feet.   We took a gondola up to Telerifico (about 13,500 feet).  We took a hike around there and ended up at this epic swing overlooking the city of Quito!    The alpacas (I think) were also hanging around up there at Telerifico. 

14.  The hiking in general!   One of the days, we went into the Cloud Forest near Mindo and did some hiking there.   Nambillo Waterfall certainly wasn't the most exciting waterfall we'd ever seen, but it was a pretty beautiful hike, so we enjoyed it anyway! 

Pretty much the whole trip was a HUGE bucket list item crossed off our list and we loved every second of it.     Here are a few more random photos to finish up....

Now, we're back home to reality, struggling with jetlag after spending a night on an airplane,  trying to get the house put back together, and daydreaming about our next adventure!    

Easter Bunnying

The older our kids have gotten, the more laid back our holidays have become.   What fun is the Easter Bunny when your kids don't even like candy (much) anymore?   Or when you wouldn't dare buy an item of clothing for any one of your five children, because chances are, they wouldn't wear it in a million years.   Combine that with Glen being in Colorado for the weekend helping his mom with a few things, so I decided I needed to liven things up a little. 

Instead of playing Easter Bunny for my kids, I decided I'd be Easter Bunny for a whole lot of other people.   First off, I made a bunch of little goodie bags...

and printed this note for about 10 missionaries (some of Adam's friends, some of my Thailand peeps, a young man from our ward, and Adam of course), and enclosed a pack of small pictures of Jesus!   Then I traipsed to the post office and sent them off all over the country!

Sadly, I doubt that a single person received them before Easter, but, hopefully they'll smile anyway.  

Then, I realized that I bought waaaaaaaaaay too much candy and I decided to make a bunch more goodie bags...

This time the goodie bags were for kids at church who brought me pictures of Christ at the end of church on Easter Sunday.   Yes, I bribe children for pictures of Jesus.  No, I am not embarrassed by this fact whatsoever.   In fact, I rather enjoy being the candy / picture of Jesus lady at church and I was quite happy with my picture haul!   They'll take care of the artwork for the cover of the program for weeks!    

 

So don't mind how completely exhausted I look in this picture...or all pictures, for that matter...

But it was very fun to have Ellie (freshly home from Vietnam), and Emma up from BYU for the day.   Spence was also there, but, for whatever odd reason, he didn't voluntarily join me for any pictures.  If you could see the live version of this one taken a few days before, you'll see he was still for about 1.7 seconds and was ducking out by the end.   😂

It was very fun to have Emma and Ellie together for the first time in a few months.  The G Girls vibes were strong and there was a lot of loud singing along to Disney songs, laughter, and much cooking going on.   Sadly, we were off our game in the kitchen that fine day and most of the food was lackluster and bland.    The best part of the meal was this cake Emma made and the ham and rolls my Mom and Heather brought with them!   

Speaking of Easter dinners, I was happy to hear that Adam and his companion were invited to several!  They only ended up eating one, but it sounds like it was a good day.   Four of the people they are teaching opted to sing with the ward choir for Easter, so that ended up being a special experience for them.  

Last but not least, what would a holiday recap be without pictures from my favorite Alabamans?!   Lucie and her matching friends were as adorable as can be...

And check out this over the top preciousness!   I adore these peeps and can't wait for them to come visit in a couple weeks. 

Also, let's take a closer look at that last cheesy grin!   I'm dying at the cuteness!    😁

Hope you all had a very happy Easter!   💗