What Else We've Been Up to: Euthanization, Coloring Books, and More

 In between our trip to Virginia, Trek, and our trip to Alabama (which is where I'm writing this post from), we also spent a little  time at home!   Here is a glimpse of the whirlwind...

I created an alphabet coloring book.  It's cute and perfect for any vehicle loving 3-8 year olds you might know, although 18-month-old Lucie's been enjoying it too.  Check it out here and if you buy one, please leave a review.   I have visions of designing more in the future.  

Lucie and Cami came for a quick weekend visit...in the couple days after we returned from Virginia and right before Trek started. 

Glen smoked steak (for the third time in a month), so Cami could give it a try.  

 Lucie was in love with this little Grogu toy!   

Also, I'll do a more detailed post about it soon, but it's worth mentioning here that in the 24-hours between when  Trek ended and Ellie and I catching a plane to Alabama (with me still feeling quite sick), Rocky developed a concerning symptom and we felt like it was time to euthanize him.   It's something we'd been thinking about for a while, since he's been struggling to walk for the last several weeks, but the new symptom  hastened our decision and made it feel more urgent.   It was heart-wrenching and difficult to do and even more so because it needed to be done  in the midst of leaving town.    Glen stayed by his side and held him.   Ellie and I cried the whole way to the airport.    

Stay tuned for a post all about Rocky coming soon...

TREK 2023

TREK is an immersive multi-day experience, where the participants not only dress in period clothing from the mid-1800's, but they also reenact the journey of the pioneers crossing the plains.  The experience is  meant to be as authentic as possible, without people actually dying, getting lost, giving birth, or starving along the trail.   In other words, it's basically a long walk while pulling/pushing a handcart.   Someone else cooks, our camping gear is "magically" delivered to the campsite each night, there are porta-potties along the way, and the only gear we tote in the handcarts is the gear we may need along the way (water, ponchos, sunblock, flashlights, snacks, etc.)   They have little "vignettes" along the way to remind us of some of the actual pioneers who crossed the plains and their inspiring stories. 

 Our stake in Virginia had Pioneer Trek reenactments scheduled for a youth conference activity every four years.   Spencer and Emma each attended once, Cami attended twice (#1, #2), Adam never got to go and Ellie missed her first opportunity (thanks to a scheduling snafu by the stake the year it was supposed to happen).  Then between COVID and all of our moving around the last few years,  I wasn't sure if Ellie would end up like Adam and never have the opportunity to participate or not.   As luck would have it though,  this year ended up being the year!  

 Here is a picture of the group from our ward that went.  Weirdly enough, we were the smallest ward, though with that size we likely would have been one of the biggest wards in our stakes out east.   

  Not only did Ellie get to go, but they asked Glen and I to be a Ma and Pa, so we got to be a part of the whole shebang  as well.  We'd helped {pretty significantly} at Treks a few times before, but this was our first time actually trekking along with the youth and having the full experience.      

I was a little nervous about the dynamics of it beforehand, but it ended up being a great experience and I'm glad we were able to go.   Here is a picture of us with our "family".   They were a great hard-working group, albeit  a little on the young side...especially the boys.    The kids called us "Mama G. and Papa G.".   😁

Ellie was a part of the B. family and barely ever had to pull or push the handcart, since her family had some older boys who liked to do it.  No worries though...our family needed all the help we could get, so she came and helped push/pull our handcart several times to have the experience.   

Our kids really worked hard, but they were young and needed some breaks too.   Glen and I were almost always either helping to pull or push as well.   

These were our boys...all of them 12 or 13 years old...except of course for Papa G!     

We had 5 girls, two of which were 12   .  

I had a minor meltdown on the very first day when we went to pick up our lunches and was informed that no food allergy accommodations were being made whatsoever.  They had the gall to ask me whether I got  the memo that anyone with food allergies was supposed to bring their own food?    Um, no.    Minor detail everyone forgot to mention to me and I was not happy.  There I was at the beginning of 3 days of physical exertion, many miles from a store,  being told that they had minimal food I could actually eat.   I tried really hard to be nice, but I won't lie, I may have copped a bit of an attitude about it.   I have spent my whole adult life as a sort of food allergy advocate--trying really hard to make sure that people with food allergies are well fed and feel like they're not an inconvenience, and it hurt, on the one hand, to be told that my food allergies were not important enough for them to accommodate, but even more so because NO ONE TOLD ME!   That was a HUGE oversight on the stake's part and I still feel like I need to have words with someone about it, so it doesn't happen again in the future.   In the end,  it ended up "okay" with the food people from our ward  pulling ingredients for me before combining them and them saving leftovers from one night's dinner to fill in for another night, but I did not like how this went down.   Here I am with a lunchmeat lettuce roll-up that I had every day for lunch.  

Alright....enough complaining!   The three of us all wore thick socks and hiking shoes the whole way, so we managed to escape any blisters, though we were definitely  in the minority on that!   I felt bad for Emily, our ward nurse, who was tasked with keeping moleskin on anyone who felt like they were getting a blister.  She had a full-time {rather gross} job!   

   I changed into my water shoes at the end of each day and I laughed at how much easier the dirt was to see without any socks on.  We were FILTHY!  😂  

It was fun to be there with Ellie...even if she wasn't officially in our Trek family!  

We had 3 "families" in our ward and these were the buckets we toted around for the 3 days (divided up amongst the 3 handcarts).   

The weather was mostly sunny and the low 80's while we were there, but we did get a little rain and thunder every day.   I was VERY grateful we were trekking at the beginning of June, rather than the end!   

I started coming down with symptoms of a bad cold during Trek and I ended up totally EXHAUSTED!   I felt bad for exposing others, but felt like I didn't really have the option of going home in the middle, so I just had a more authentic experience....plus we were outside the whole time, so I'm hoping exposure was actually minimal.    

Here is Connor--one of our Trek sons.  He was in our Sunday School class last year and we were very excited to have him as one of our sons for the journey!  

I loved this picture he drew about Trek.  😍

We were sweaty, smelly, and covered head-to-toe with a layer of dirt at the end, but that didn't stop us from making a quick stop with our car-full of youth to get some Coldstone on the way home.  The cashier officially thought we were whack, but the ice cream was just what we needed after 3 days in the sun, so  whatevs.   And Trek probably is kind of  whack.  

Here's one last look at the awesome family of Mama and Papa G!  

All in all, other than the food debacle, we are calling Trek 2023 (our last, perhaps?) a success!   

Trip to the Mother Land!

 Once upon a time, when we young and freshly graduated from BYU, we decided to move to Baltimore for a cool job opportunity for Glen.  We had one toddler and were 32 weeks pregnant with our second  baby when we moved.    This picture was taken within a couple weeks of moving in. 

 We liked Baltimore okay and enjoyed living and exploring  there for a couple years, then ultimately decided that that was not the place we wanted to raise our family.   When an opportunity arose for a 2-year rotation at the DC office of the  company Glen was working for, we assumed that we'd live in DC for 2 years then be onto our "forever" home...wherever that might be....however, that plan didn't pan out, because we  liked DC way more than we expected and decided to stay.  We bought a house and ended up staying for nearly 20 years.  In the process we attracted every single one of my siblings (but one) to do a stint living in DC.   Three of my brothers and a sister still live there, not to mention countless friends.  
 

When we sold our house and moved away from Northern Virginia in 2019, we did it with sad, but hopeful hearts.  We knew we'd miss so many people that we'd grown to love over the years, but we also were excited to get a fresh start somewhere new and have the opportunity to make a difference in a new place.  

We enjoyed Pennsylvania, but it did not turn out like we expected.  We met many wonderful people there that hold a special place in our hearts, but Glen's job opportunity, though great for his career path, fizzled out more quickly than expected and we also got blindsided when COVID came and shut down the world.  I think we would have certainly struggled with COVID in Virginia as well, but being newbie homeschoolers in a place that shut down hardcore was not fun.   There were people we met that I never saw the unmasked faces of the entire time we lived there and awkward situations that never got to be resolved, because of how everything went down.  Overall we 100% know that we were supposed to live in PA for the two years we were there, but, with as shallow as our roots were,  it  honestly wasn't that hard to leave when a new opportunity arose.  Sadly, I don't believe anyone there misses us a bit.  

Then we moved to Utah.  Once again, we know we are where we are supposed to be right now.   I believe that Ellie needed to attend American Heritage School and it's felt like a gift to be close to my Mom while my Dad's health was declining so quickly and even more so now that he's gone.  Having said that though....Utah is kind of a wild place!   We knew Utah culture would be different than what we were used to, but I was unprepared for the complete lack of interest from people around us.  They're the nicest people in the world (literally), but don't seem super interested in getting to know us on a deeper level than just "Hey, we're nice.  See you next Sunday."    Granted, I admit that Glen and I are both pretty introverted and a little on the awkward side, so we don't make for the easiest people to get to know, but it has been a bit discouraging how little effort anyone has put into it.   Even my own efforts to reach out have fallen pretty flat.  The book group I started as a deliberate act to find some friends has resulted in a great small group of women who meet at my house monthly, chat about the book, then go on their merry ways.   They don't want refreshments, they don't want conversations that drag on into the evening, and they don't want to hang out outside of book group.   It's okay.    As I mentioned previously, I am pretty introverted and have low social needs, so I stopped taking it personally pretty quickly after moving here and now just accept that my close friends live in faraway places.   It's all good.  

So, why all the pontificating and recapping about our moving adventures and sorry social lives?   

I guess it's to bring me to the heart of the  reason for this blogpost.   Ellie and I flew back to Virginia right after her graduation and spent a week visiting family and friends!!!!    The visit was good for our souls and it felt so good to be somewhere where we felt known, loved, and missed!     

Here's a little recap of our time there: 

Speaking of book groups....these are my book group besties right here! I was sooooooo excited (like over the moon excited) when I found out that I was going to be in town while book group was meeting.  I even hurried up and  read the book during our travel time, so I could be a part of the discussion.  As always, the discussion was in-depth and interesting and I relished in conversations and friendships like I haven't had in 4 years.    Every single one of these women are intelligent and faithful and being there that night was one of the highlights of my trip.   Truly when I think of "my people" (outside of my family), these are them.  

One of the first people I called when I knew I was coming to town was Kelly!   She's been the best kind of friend you could ask for and I was delighted that she had a little sliver of time before heading out of town for Memorial Day weekend.   

Kim was also on my short list of people to visit and it was fun to go on a morning walk one day with her and Kelly.  They are both down-to-earth and good listeners.  I treasure my friendship with both of them and I was glad they had time for me.  

We also spent some of the time visiting with my brother, Peter, and his family.  They lead very busy lives, but I loved having a day to hang out and catch up with them.   The girl cousins were verrrrrrry excited to spend time with Ellie and it was fun to attend one of Davin's baseball games.   I was also able to go on a walk with McKenzie and take her on an outing to see another of my brother's families up in Maryland.  

I love that I still have young children in my life through my siblings.   I don't see them often enough, but we also  loved visiting with Matt's family while we were there.   Sadly we didn't get to see Matt, as he was on a business trip, but his kiddos are as fun and adorable as ever and we love his wife, Karey!  Just in case you're wondering how cute my 5-year-old niece Anna is...she's 104 cute...as compared to her cat which is only 2 cute.   😂

We also spent some time with our beloved homeschooling friends, the S family, the P family,  and the V.D. family.  These are friends that have been a wonderful support through our 11ish years of homeschooling and I can honestly say that I couldn't have done homeschooling without them.    They not only were practical support, being an integral part of a co-op that covered challenging topics for the kids, but they were also dear and supportive friends that felt the same call to pull their kids out of school.    It's not an easy club to be a part of, but it sure helps when you've got great people on your team!    Ellie was also very happy to spend some time with Joseph, Hannah, and Miriam!   

My sister, AnnaLisa, was out of town for a Memorial Day beach weekend with friends for a good portion of the time we were in Virginia, but I was grateful that she was able to set aside some time to explore DC with us before she left.   We introduced her to Magnolia Dessert Bar, traipsed around downtown with her (see more pics below), and, in general, just enjoyed spending the day with her.  

We also hit up the Hirshhorn Museum, which was full of funky artwork--including a room filled with phallic symbols (the room with mirrors and red and white objects), a room filled with random stream of consciousness quotes from the artist, and a giant spotted pumpkin.   Definitely not your typical art museum, but  fun to see some off-the-wall stuff!  

AnnaLisa also brought us to the Hillwood Estate and Gardens--a place we'd never been before.  It was the home of Marjorie Meriweather Post (heir to the Post Cereal fortune) and it was quite grand.  I loved touring the gardens and seeing a glimpse at her myriad of collections and how organized she kept them.   You can have quite the array of interests when you're the heir to a giant fortune!  

I attended church on Sunday, but knew I wouldn't get enough time to talk with people there, so I put it out on the ward email group to meet me at Nottoway Park on Sunday afternoon.   We kept it super casual and it was so fun to have some uninterrupted time to visit with some more friends.   I enjoyed the conversations I had, even if it did  make me really miss being somewhere where people know and love us.   

The first few days I was in town, I used Tim's apartment as a homebase.   He introduced me to Big Buns and the new Amazon Fresh Grocery Store and I brought him to Taco Bamba!   Tim's a pretty quiet guy, so it was fun to have a good excuse to hang out with him for  a few days!   

One of the activities we added into our schedule last minute was a trip to the Marine Corps Band Memorial Day concert at Wolf Trap!    We'd been several times over the years we'd lived there and it was a great place to see more long-lost friends.   The music was fantastic, the night beautiful (only a little rainy), and the company excellent.  

I had met with Mary early in our trip (another person on my short list of people to visit), but never got a picture, so I was grateful to see her at the concert again and at least get a quick snapshot together.   Adam and her son are good friends!  

When Ellie wasn't hanging out with me, she was having her own fun with her own friends {collage created by her}.  Most of her friends also had plans for Memorial Day weekend, but she spent as much  time as she could with Kelsey, Emilia, and others.  

 

Okay, so this next photo collage wasn't actually taken in  Virginia, but it did occur shortly after returning home from Virginia and involved more Virginia friends, so I'm including it here in this blogpost.  Cami's sister-in-law is expecting a baby next month, so she had a baby shower that included a lot of people we know and love from Virginia as well!     We are excited for Ashley and loved the opportunity to see more dear friends! 💖

On the same vein, here's another Virginia face we know and love and saw at Walmart last week....Elder Perkins!   Of course, he hasn't been known as "Elder" in several years, but he was one of our very favorite missionaries (and he had a special bond with Ellie back in the day) and it was a delight to see him again!   

So....there you have it.   I do have friends.   They're wonderful, thoughtful, caring, and amazing and mostly live across the country from me.    That's okay.   I can visit.  

**************************

Emma in Alabama!

Cami, Garrett, and Lucie have been living a crazy life since Cami started working as a full-time nurse in a local NICU a few months ago.  Her hours are all over the place, with a mix of day and night shifts, and Garrett's hours as a first year medical resident are also intense and variable.   It makes for an exhausting schedule and creates a bit of a juggling act trying to make sure Lucie's needs are met too.  Thankfully Lucie has a super easy-going personality that makes going with the flow a bit easier. 

Up to this point, they've mostly had their childcare needs met through a babysitting exchange they have with Garrett's brother and sister-in-law who live nearby and have a daughter close in age to Lucie.   It's been a huge blessing for both of their families, but, even with this nice arrangement, with their crazy all-over-the-place hours, it still often proves challenging for them...especially when both Cami and Garrett are on night shifts at the same time or when the sister-in-law is out of town.   

One of those extra crazy weeks popped up last month, so we flew Emma out to be their helper for the week (much like when Glen flew out there in April to help)!   I think Emma enjoyed being there, as much as Cami enjoyed having stress-free childcare for the week!   Here are a few pictures from her time there:   

Lucie really really enjoys the one-on-one bonus attention that comes from an extra undistracted adult in the house.   She knows she rules the roost and loves to plan her own days--bringing books when she wants to read books, bringing her shoes when she wants to go outside, and signing for food when she gets hungry.  

Emma thoroughly enjoyed being Lucie's indentured servant for the week, as well as the sister time she got with Cami. 

 I sure do love little Lucie (and her parents) and  am grateful to live in a day and time of electronic communication, because we definitely don't see her in person as often as we'd like.    I look forward to Facetiming with her whenever they have time and I love that she now recognizes us and calls us by name when she sees us on the phone.    She can say Gigi, Papa, Ellie, Emma, and Adam.  Spencer's name has some complicated consonant blending, but she's working on his name too!   :)

As sad as this picture is, I think it's sweet that she gets so sad when her special people leave.   She had been perfectly happy up to that point and got very upset when Emma started saying goodbye when dropping her off at the airport.  

I'm very much looking forward to my next visit...coming up very soon!  

And be sure to stay tuned for a crazy summer of many adventures also coming soon.