Beautiful Northern Ireland!

  Everyone in my family has a bit of wanderlust in them, but my brother, Nate, is the absolute king of travel and he makes the rest of us look like homebodies by comparison!   He had a goal to make it to 100 countries by the time he turned 50, which he accomplished and now he is going back to visit his favorite places and occasionally adding new destinations when it fits into his plans. So when he found out that we were visiting Northern Ireland on our trip (a place he'd never been), he spontaneously  added it onto his itinerary for a trip he was taking at the same time.   Where were the other destinations on his  trip to?   Cape Verde and the Azores in Portugal...you know right on the way to Northern Ireland!   Haha!  

Our overlap with Nate was about a day-and-a-half, so we reserved a spot for him to come along  with us on our day-long tour, which included  stops at Carrickfergus Castle, some Game of Thrones filming sites, and Giant's Causeway. 

You all probably didn't know this about me, but I am a bit of a geology nerd.  I took several geology classes in college and I LOVE visiting places in the world with unique geologic features.   Basically that means that Giant's Causeway was on the very top of my list of all the things to do in Northern Ireland and it did not disappoint.   I was nervous as we approached as it did not look like much from a distance, but up close it was as AMAZING as I had expected!    

Can you believe this place is real?!    😁

I was seriously enamored with this view and in awe at a great God who set into motion the natural processes that created such a masterpiece...

 I think I took more pictures here than at any other single location on this trip...

In case you're wondering how these striking hexagonal basalt columns just naturally formed on the Northern Irish coast, here is an excerpt from the UNESCO Heritage page about Giant's Causeway that can explain it way better than I ever could: 

"The Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast is a spectacular area of global geological importance on the sea coast at the edge of the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland. The most characteristic and unique feature of the site is the exposure of some 40,000 large, regularly shaped polygonal columns of basalt in perfect horizontal sections, forming a pavement. This dramatic sight has inspired legends of giants striding over the sea to Scotland. Celebrated in the arts and in science, it has been a visitor attraction for at least 300 years and has come to be regarded as a symbol for Northern Ireland.

The property’s accessible array of curious geological exposures and polygonal columnar formations formed around 60 million years ago make it a ‘classic locality’ for the study of basaltic volcanism. The features of the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast site and in particular the strata exposed in the cliff faces, have been key to shaping the understanding of the sequences of activity in the Earth’s geological history."

I could have stayed all day, but eventually the tour moved on and we explored  a couple other interesting spots before heading back to Belfast! 

The next day we bid adieu to Nate, who was heading back to Dublin for his flight home and we explored Belfast.  We logged A LOT of steps that day and enjoyed seeing everything we could possibly squeeze in.  

We particularly enjoyed the Titanic Museum {shown below} and were fascinated to learn about the construction of the Titanic, which took place on the museum's site right there on the port in Belfast.   

We thought this street was super cute and we loved the quote arched across the way, "There's only seven types of rain in Belfast:  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday..."   Thankfully it only rained a little while we were there! 

Northern Ireland ended up being one of our favorite spots on the trip, so I will finish up with a few random facts about Northern Ireland that we learned while we were there:

1. Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, while Ireland is not.   They use the same currency and same postage as most of the UK (including England, Scotland, and Wales...but not including Ireland).  

2. Though Northern Ireland has its own culture, it does not have its own flag. 

3.  As mentioned above, the Titanic was constructed and launched from Belfast, though it did not pick up any passengers until reaching England/France. 

4. There is still a lot of conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics.  

5. Game of Thrones was filmed on location in Northern Ireland for almost a decade.  The Northern Irish are very proud of this connection and it ended up being a great boost to their economy.  We've never seen the show before, but didn't have a hard time imagining why it was chosen as the backdrop for a show. 

We stopped by several Game of Thrones filming sites--including Dark Hedges (shown below)--on our Giant's Causeway tour.  

And that's it for Northern Ireland!   Thanks for following along with our adventures...stay tuned for 2 more segments to come!  

Fourth Time Around

They say that the more you do something, the easier it gets, but I'm here to say that that is definitely not true when it comes to sending missionaries out into the world for 18-24 months!   We are on our fourth time around and perhaps the actual process of getting them physically ready is a bit easier, but certainly not emotionally.    And when I say, "emotionally," I'm not talking about her.  This girl was as ready as they come.  As with all of our other missionaries, she was very independent with the whole process of applying and submitting her papers.   With her epilepsy, she had a lot more hiccups and hurdles along the way than our other missionaries, but she navigated them with poise, patience, and independence.   By the time it was time to drop her off at the MTC (on New Year's Eve), she was excited and ready.  

Me, not so much.   With her being my baby AND having an ongoing health issue, it felt like an even bigger leap of faith to send her out into the world, than with her older siblings.   Having said that though, we couldn't be prouder of her decision to serve a mission.  We do not pressure our children to serve whatsoever.   They grew up knowing that Glen's mission meant the world to him and they certainly know they come from a legacy of missionary service (5 of my siblings, 1 of Glen's,  my parents, and many great-aunts, uncles, and great-grandparents), but we felt strongly that the decision to serve their own missions had to stem solely from them.   It's been a beautiful thing for us, as parents, to watch them as they've prayed, pondered, and ultimately made the decision to step away from their schooling and social lives to serve the Lord completely on their own.  

I'll be honest, it was a really hard goodbye for me, but I wouldn't have it any other way.     

I'm glad she is where she is and I know she's going to change lives!  💓

A {Mostly} Predictable Christmas

Happy New Year, my friends!    I just dropped Ellie off at the MTC earlier today (and I will post about that later), but first I need a little distraction from my complicated feelings and wanted to do a little recap of our Christmas.   If you've been following along with this blog for very long, you can likely predict that the excitement level of this post will be somewhat low and the content fairly predictable, but I figure if you're still following along with this blog 17 years after I started it, you know what you're getting!  Haha! 

I already posted about our Christmas cards this year, but here is a glimpse of the the other Christmas cards I designed AND had printed (yes, I'm that obsessed).   The top ones were for Cami, who had a pretty crazy Christmas season of Garrett working nights most of the month, combined with a lot of sickness that knocked them out for a while (and required a couple of scary ER visits for poor Oliver with a case of the croup).    She knew there was no way they were getting out before Christmas, so we just embraced the New Year theme! 

I also designed and printed my Mom's cards. I felt a little badly that there were no photos of her with any other grandkids to include, but, to be fair, I asked everyone before throwing in the pictures of my family.  No one else had any to offer, so it is what it is, and my sister, H, and I  are already on a quest to do better this year  taking pictures with the other families when they come to town.  

Christmastime at our house always includes making a lot of goodies, but this year we decided to jump into the whole "neighbor gift" tradition that is very much a thing here in Utah.   We brought goodies to friends in other places, but with our ward being so compact here in Utah, it's much more of a widespread tradition and it's fun to see the creative gifts and treats that people came up with.   We opted for white chocolate toffee popcorn--a recipe I got from my friend, Lona, in PA.  It was easy enough to make in large quantities and we packaged it up cute and made about 25 deliveries on Christmas Eve. 

It was fun to spend an evening with my nieces, Lauren (at BYU-ID) and McKenzie (at BYU), before bringing them to the airport to head home for Christmas break.  They knew it was their last chance to see Ellie for 18ish months, so they enjoyed their time together! 

We almost dispensed with the Christmas Eve pajama tradition this year, but after some persuasive arguments from a couple of the kids, we pulled it together very last minute.  

I think everyone really ended up liking their Snuggies and I will be hard-pressed to dispense with this tradition before Ellie is home, so we will be keeping the tradition alive for another couple years at least! 

We couldn't find baby-size Snuggies, so we sent Lucie and Oliver pajamas in matching colors at least.    Garrett is a big fan of his, while Cami finds hers a little too toasty to wear much. 

To be fair, I can't wear mine to bed for the same reason, but I do enjoy wearing mine in the evenings and especially when I first wake up in the morning when the house is colder.   

I do have to admit that Christmas pajama photos are pretty fun and we've had a lot of epic ones over the years.  This one ranks up there with some of the best!  

After pajama opening, we did our traditional Christmas Eve devotional with songs and scriptures. My Mom, Heather, and Nate joined us for this part of the night.   You can find a printable version of the devotional books we use here.  We usually read all the scriptures and sing just the first verses  of the songs, then Glen finishes off the night with showing us this video and him testifying about how we can let Christ into our lives better. 

On Christmas morning, we made and enjoyed this delicious breakfast....

Emma made a gluten free version of our favorite Orange Breakfast Bread, I made bacon, and Adam and Glen made eggs and got the berries ready.  It was all delicious and I daresay we looked pretty cute eating our Christmas breakfast in our Snuggies!  

Later we opened presents, during which I took almost no photos.  But I did capture the beautiful Scandinavian heart baskets Emma made for us and we smiled seeing this sweet picture of Lucie, so happy that she got the only thing she wanted from Santa...some pink sparkly shoes!  

What else did we do?  

Ellie and I did some shoveling, since Glen is still recovering from his recent appendectomy.   Adam hit up some Christmas parties wearing this epic outfit. 

Speaking of epic outfits....Adam's BYU friend group were all looking pretty snazzy at this party!  

Oh, and this part of the post is all out of order, but I had to throw in something slightly unexpected for you.  This was a glimpse of our Christmas Eve dinner, ordered to-go from Cheesecake Factory.   It may look like alcoholic beverages on our table for the occasion, but, rest assured....

It was just a non-alcoholic butterscotch beer taste testing we decided to try!   It was our first time having butterscotch beer (besides the butterbeer from Universal Studios Harry Potter World).  I think it was pretty unanimous that it was all a bit too sweet for us to buy on any regular occasion, but #1 (the one we'd gotten from Costco) was the one we liked the best. 

 So there you have it...our very boring, but wonderful Christmas festivities.   These days I don't even want non-boring.   Having our college kids home, a missionary in the house, and my Mom, brother, and sister here was perfect.  The only thing that would have made it more perfect, was if Cami, Garrett, Lucie, and Oliver could have been here too, but we had {most of} them for Thanksgiving, so we will be grateful for that!  

Happy New Year!  

A Gathering Place

One of the best parts about living in Utah is that it seems like we are living at a crossroads for lots of our friends and family.   People are always coming and going from here to attend weddings, drop kids off at college, and visit family.  Most of the time, people are busy when they come here and have a million other people to visit, but on those times when people do have time for a visit, we LOVE it!   We also love that we have the accommodations to host people  more comfortably now, so when they do visit, we can set them up well!  

Having said all that though....this post is not about any long-lost friends coming to visit...it's about living 5 minutes away from my Mom and the family we get to see more frequently as a result of that proximity!  

In early October,  Nate came to stay with Mom for a couple weeks while Heather was out of town.  Nate is only 13-months younger than me, so we have a lot of shared history in the family and it was fun to be able to spend some time with him.   He lives in Tennessee and we do not see him as often as we'd like and I loved the conversations we were able to have!   Note:  You can also see that my darn eye issue (still ongoing) was in full swing back then!

Then Kristina and family came to visit from California during that same time.  

We always love having K's family around and I extra loved that this trip Jesus seemed like he was craving some one-on-one time, so he'd stay here with us while everyone else left for Mom's house.  We read lots of books together and he doted on Denali as much as possible.  It was absolutely delightful and  it felt a little sad when they left for home. 

My niece, Madeline, had some friends over one night and, as per usual, lots and lots of Legos and cars were played with while the K boys were here! 

One night while everyone was still here, Emma, Adam, McKenzie (my niece who is a BYU freshman), and Eva (McKenzie's roommate and one of my Thailand peeps) came over for dinner and a rousing game of Super Edited Family Version of Cards Against Humanity.   I might need to do a whole post on that game sometime.  lol

It was quite fun and I think it's so fun that Eva and McKenzie are now friends!  Eva is from Kentucky and this was the first time Ellie and I had seen her since Thailand.  

So, in summary, and to remind myself about why living in Utah is good: 

1.  We live close to our college kids (and my college age nieces) and get to see them regularly
2.  We get to spend lots of  time with my Mom and sister 
3.  We get to enjoy the relatives who come to visit my Mom
4.  We get to (sometimes) see long-lost friends that make their way through here
5.   We have this view out our back window. 

Surprising Nate

Well, it's been a few weeks and I guess it's time for a little catching up here on the blog.   I know you have all been waiting on pins and needles to see what excitement has been going on to keep me away. This time it was a little trek to Tennessee to surprise my brother for this 50th birthday.   His birthday was actually back at the end of May, but he was off trekking the world on his birthday (visiting his 100th country!!!), so we opted for the end of June to surprise him instead.   

All seven of us siblings gathered in from 4 different states (Utah, California, Virginia, Maryland) to surprise him at his home in rural Tennessee (about an hour and a half from Nashville).  

My mom and I arrived several hours earlier than anyone else, so we did a little exploring in Nashville, while staying close to the airport, so we could do runs to pick people up. 

Opry Mills Mall fit the bill perfectly.  It was only 10 minutes to the airport and had air conditioning, comfy places to sit, and whatever kind of entertainment we could think of.   Here we are in the Bass Pro Shop.

We found a good place to get some food...

And found some yummy cupcakes to try, one of which, was even gluten free! 

AT one point, we even sat in some massage chairs and took naps, since we'd been up since 3:00am!   😂

The Grand Ole Opry is right next door, so we also walked across the parking lot to check that out as well. 

Eventually we picked up Kristina and Matt.  Pete and Tim arrived later that night.   We all stayed in a hotel near Nashville that night, since we had to wait until Nate was done with work for the day before surprising him.  

On Friday, Tim, Matt, Kristina, Mom, and I visited the Hermitage--the home of Andrew Jackson.

  It was a beautiful home on gorgeous grounds, but we found the tour a little simplistic, focusing more on the home decor than anything to do with Andrew Jackson.  

After that we made our way up to Nate's house where Pete and Heather met us separately (but not AnnaLisa, since she couldn't take any time off of work and her flight was later that night).  I think he was quite surprised to see us all!

That night we just got his house set up for all of us to stay (we brought air mattresses, pillows, and blankets) and mostly just talked, ate, and watched funny youtube videos.   The next day, Nate took us to one of his favorite hikes. 

Later we did a little picture shoot at Fort Donelson National Battlefield...

The number of selfies I took on this trip was a bit obnoxious. 

Perhaps really obnoxious...

Later we actually dressed up in semi-coordinating clothes and did a real photo shoot with Nate's camera and a tripod  at a park in Clarksville. 

We didn't do too badly, if I do say so myself.  Definitely better than getting a closeup of my gray hairs and wrinkles! 

Of course we had to do a silly one too!  

After that, we went to a restaurant in Clarksville called the Mailroom.   I may or may not have partially chosen it because of the name, but it did have very good reviews as well.  

The food and service was good...and they gave us a free postcard!   My type of restaurant for sure! 

After that, we found a cute ice cream shop in town...

This cool fountain was nearby and was perfect for some photos! 

All in all, it was a great trip and I am grateful for a family that gets along  and enjoys spending time together.

Plus they tolerate my incessant selfie taking.  😂

Our time all together was less than 24-hours before some of the siblings had to start heading home, but it was a great long weekend celebrating Nate and I'm glad we were able to make it happen.   Here are a few more random pictures: 

Tim and Mom

Nate with his "hot potato" birthday gift that he is supposed to regift as soon as humanly possible.  It's been floating around the family for over a decade now!   The animals live on a cute farm right across the street from Nate.   He really does live in the boonies. 

Speaking of the boonies, check out his church building!    That's it right over next to the Subway...

It's essentially a refurbished warehouse that just his little branch meets in... (everyone else had left by the time church rolled around)

The inside was small, but quite nice...

Apparently we were all a bit tired! 

Here are the birthday goodies we got for Nate at a cute little bakery in Clarksville.

This Piggly Wiggly was the most backwoods grocery store I'd ever been in!  

Yet another selfie...

This was right before heading out...

The view from Nate's backyard...

We may have been a little obsessed with the view (and all the fireflies)!  

All in all...a great time together with family!   💗