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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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....

 

Welcoming in 2017

Anyone who knows us in person will likely not be surprised to find out that Glen and I have very sedate social lives.  I could do a whole blogpost on some of the reasons why, mostly having to do with the strong introverted tendencies of my spouse, but we'll save that for another day.   Suffice it to say, that New Year's this year was no exception to New Years of past and was quite sedate.  

Spence went to hang out with friends.   Emma and Adam went off to the New Year's dance at church and Glen also went to chaperone.   

Emma and Adam  had a great time there hanging out with friends and dancing the night away! 

But that left only Ellie, me, and Ellie's friend Caroline as the keepers of the home front.  I was teaching the lesson in YW the next day, so I kept to myself most of the night to keep preparing, and the girls watched a cheesy movie, ate snacks, and I joined them for the ball drop.    I couldn't figure out how to open the sparkling cider without a bottle opener, which was missing, or find the "poppers", so we just cheered.   Then went to bed.   Yay for 2017! 

The next day we went to church, then had our traditional "Dinner in Bethlehem".    It tasted delicious and I thought it looked so lovely on my brand new dishes.  

Here is all of us gathered to eat it.  

Adam made the baklava all by himself.  

Then on Monday, since it was technically a federal holiday because New Years was on a Sunday, we all went laser tagging.   It was quite fun, especially having Glen there.  He's been working long hours lately and we like spending time with him whenever we can.  

After that, there was a whole lot of this going on....

Happy New Year 2017!!!

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!  

So proud...

Sleep is a precious commodity when you're a teenager, so you can imagine what a feat it is to wake up more than an hour earlier than most of your classmates to be at the church by 5:55am to study the scriptures!   This amazing group of teens has done just that each and every school day for FOUR WHOLE YEARS!

Other than the half-year he missed while he was in the hospital, Spence has rarely missed a day.  

He had to do a lot of make-up work to get credit for the days he missed while he was in the hospital, but I am proud to say that he did it!  He earned his  early morning seminary diploma!

↑‎↑‎Here he is with his fellow Vienna ward class of 2013 graduates!  (Brandon, Ryan, and Janessa)↑‎↑‎

We are so proud of Spence and the other seniors!  You guys are awesome!


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Contest Winner(s)

Anyone who carefully read the rules to  yesterday's contest  knows that the contest was scheduled to last for several more decades, but as is allowed by a loophole in  its well-written rules, I've decided to end the contest 99 years and 364 days early and reveal the winners tonight.  I knew the suspense would be too much for all of  you and frankly I was a little concerned that I might have spent the gazillion dollars by then anyway.  Without further ado, here are the 10 truths and a lie! 

1.  Helped one of the kids open their own bank account.   True--after taking Cami to the bank to cash several weeks' worth of  checks for babysitting and cupcakes, we decided it was definitely  time for Cami to stop keeping her money in a jar....especially since we didn't have any jars big enough for her stash of cash.  :)

2.  Just got our passports in the mail.  True!  The Make-a-Wish people said we should be hearing about Spencer's wish plans soon!  {Please ignore my 11pm hair}

3.  Made disgusting popsicles.  True!  I got brave and decided to come up with my own coconut popsicle recipe, thinking that there was no way I could mess up too badly where sugar is involved.  Unfortunately my optimism proved to be misplaced and these popsicles ended up sickeningly sweet  with a very odd texture.  {the kids never even finished theirs if that tells you something}

4.  Got a busy, new calling at church. True!  I am very humbled and excited to be the new young women's president in our ward.  We have awesome young women and I'm excited to be working with some wonderful ladies! 

5.  Bid farewell to my sister who's been staying with us ever since Spencer got sick.  True!  After being our right-hand woman for 8-months, Heather decided it was time to let Cami have her room back.  We miss her already! :( 

6.  Spence is at the beach with a friend this week. True!  Apparently they haven't been able to do a whole lot of beach going yet because of the rainy weather, but he's excited about his first ever vacation without parents. 

7.  In the process of making homemade fruit roll-ups (with 100% fruit).  True!  Although never a huge part of our diet anyway, I've been trying to cut down on preservatives and artificial dyes and flavorings even more lately.   I've tried blueberry roll ups and mango-apricot roll ups and the kids love them both!  

8. Haven't bought any bread for the entire summer. True!  Going along with #7,  I challenged myself to go for the entire summer without buying bread for our family.  I've been experimenting with grinding my own wheat  and discovering the perfect homemade recipe.  I'm almost there and the kids are begging me to keep up the bread baking during the school year as well.   We shall see...

9.  Cami got an order for 10 dozen cupcakes for an upcoming wedding.  True!  And she is super excited about it! 

10.  Finally finished organizing the kids' room.   False!  We've made significant strides forward and most of their room is done, but their closet remains quite the challenging foe.  Someday I hope to enjoy organizing and house projects as much as I love cooking and blogging, but in the meantime I continue to chip away at it each day for as long as my attention span will allow before getting grumpy about it.   {I'll post more pictures when I'm done, but for now here's a little teaser picture of their new art/homework station. }

11.  Want to go on vacation later this week and still haven't finalized our plans.  True!  All summer we've been hesitant making vacation plans not knowing when Spencer's Make-a-Wish trip might come through.  Since it's only a few more weeks until school starts and we still haven't heard anything about the trip's timing, we finally decided that we needed to do something before the summer totally got away from us.  We've been a little wishy washy about making our final plans and now we've had a minor wrench thrown in which is looking to complicate things even further.  (don't worry it's nothing serious)  In the meantime, we're still taking suggestions for vacation ideas that are not-too-far-from home (less than 8-hours away), not too expensive, and fun for the whole family.  Feel free to shower us with ideas. 

AND THE WINNERS ARE.....

My beautiful sister, Kristina

My Mom and Dad

JP

...who apparently knew only too well that me finishing a house project in less than 2-years would practically qualify as miracle status.  The gazillion dollars will be split evenly between the three of them and if they send me their bank account information, I will direct deposit it into their bank accounts as soon as I pay Glen the gazillion dollars I owe him first.