A Snowy Day in April

Once upon a time there was a girl who spent most of her growing up years in Minnesota.  She took great pride in having an extensive collection of cozy sweaters and an excellent tolerance to cold.  

Later, when the time came, she headed to BYU for college.   She was immediately underwhelmed with Utah winters and loved to tell her friends how wimpy they were compared to "real" winters in Minnesota.   She laughed when others became alarmed when experiencing the sensation of their nose hairs freezing  for the first time when they took a roommate trek to Idaho.   Pshaw!   That happened all the time in Minnesota.

Yeah, she was no doubt quite an annoying person to be around sometimes.      

Then she moved to the DC area, where she spent the next 25ish years experiencing a true four season climate.   Yes, it would get cold in the winter, but generally only in the winter and everything would get canceled if it snowed at all, so they could stay warm and cozy at home.  Yes, it was hot and sometimes miserably humid in the summer, but only in the summer.   And Virginia falls and the springs were glorious and long!   She got spoiled.

Then they moved to Utah and she quickly realized that Utah winters, though not as cold as Minnesota's, were not as wimpy as they had been in her memories.  The Utah springs and falls have moments of intense glory, but they get overshadowed by winter a whole heck of a lot more often than she remembered.    And somewhere during those ensuing years, her aging body seemed to have lost all tolerance to temperatures below about 75°.  I think that, perhaps,  she just used up that tolerance in the first 18 years of her life. 

So what happens when that completely cold-intolerant, done-with-winter girl wakes up on April 18th to a sight like this?     

After grumping around the house for a bit, she pulls back out her winter clothes, pastes a fake smile on her face...

and turns her morning walk into a photographing-snow-on-flowers walk.  

Because, it was either that or crying...

And that didn't sound fun.    Hope you all had a beautiful Easter! 

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General Conference Weekend-April 2025

After raising a big family, it's still kind of weird being empty nesters.  I often get a little disconcerted when it's too quiet in the house,  and I'm glad our neighbors have kids who play outside a lot, because somehow that happy noise makes me feel a little more at home. And I do have to admit that I really enjoy living close enough to our college kids to get to see them on a regular basis.   Emma and Adam often come up for Sunday dinner and, unlike with our older two kids, we actually get to meet a lot of their college friends.   

 Adam started hosting friends here for General Conference weekend back when he was a freshman at BYU and I'm really happy that he's picked it back up after his mission. It was a lot of  work getting beds ready and bathrooms scrubbed for the big crowd to stay the weekend, but it's so fun once they get here, that we don't mind the work a bit! 

Over the course of the weekend, we had about 15 people who came and went, but there was a core group of about 6 that stayed the whole time.  I wish I'd thought to take pictures of everyone before they left, but there are several people not pictured here. 

During October General Conference, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen getting ready for meals with the group.  We wanted to try to  avoid that this year, so I did most of the kitchen prep in days leading up to their arrival.  That meant making several loaves of banana bread, making a few pans of honey-lime enchiladas, baking lots of cookies, and doing some chopping for another meal.   Everything ended up coming together very smoothly and we liked simplifying the work we did while everyone was here.  The food all got eaten up or sent home with people! 

I actually pulled myself together this year and created and printed a bunch of  General Conference activity packets for this conference.  I brought them around to several neighbors, but had a few left for the college kiddos to use if they so chose. 

A few of them were into them and several people tried my super hard word search...

I was really happy when my niece, McKenzie, and her roommate came up for one of the sessions.  She just got her mission call to Gilbert, Arizona, and we were really happy to see her again! 

Glen and I watched upstairs, so the youngsters could have their space in the theater room downstairs.  We didn't take many pics down there, but here's a glimpse...  It's a big room that can seat a lot of people and you can kind of see the side table full of snacks in the second picture.  Next time I'll get better pics!

After the last session, a few of them hiked up to Horsetail Falls and came back a bit muddy and wet.  

It was a full weekend.  A full house.  Full hearts.  Full tummies.   Full spirits.     Can't wait for October!  
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Click here to see General Conferences of years' past.   

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Gardens and Temples and Other Fun Springy Things

Spring is finally here and I am loving it!    Never mind that it snowed last week...this week the weather is beautiful and that's what I'm embracing today!   What does Spring mean for me?   It means increasing my mileage on my morning walks (30+ miles a week)...

thinking about summer endeavors, and, this year, finally thinking ahead to our garden.   As I've mentioned before, we are pretty lazy gardeners, so consider the next thing I tell you as somewhat miraculous!  

I STARTED SEEDLINGS THIS YEAR!

This is literally my first time ever starting our garden from seeds, so forgive me if I sound like I'm bragging a bit.  Because I am.   Neither of us are yard and garden people and any garden we've ever had before has been planted and kept alive (or not) by fits of inconsistent efforts and a good dose of  luck.   So please pat me on the back and tell me how amazing I am to not have to BUY starters from the store this year. 

I'm so excited about it that I even bought another tray and am going to plant more.   Go me.  Now all I have to do is keep them alive until planting time (which is about mid-May here in Utah), then keep them alive in the garden all summer.  

Wish me luck.  I need it. 

On a completely different note,  here are a few other random tidbits from the last couple weeks.  

The hockey season is ending soon and it finally worked for me to attend a game with Glen.   And Utah Hockey Club even won, so that made it extra fun. 

Adam ran into my cousin's daughters one Sunday when he was attending a different ward.  They hadn't seen each other in several years, but somehow recognized each other nonetheless!

We immediately invited them over for Sunday dinner at our house, so we could reconnect as well. 

Oh, and I like that we still share a camera roll with Emma and Adam...

Here Adam is with friends the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork.

And a temple selfie...

And another temple selfie with Emma...

I know I mentioned it in my last blogpost, but Ellie recently attended the temple for the first time on her mission since the MTC, but since I already shared that picture of her,  here's another cute one of her from this past week.   She seems really happy.

 I know it was completely random, but that is all for my update today!  I hope you all have an amazing week and weekend!  

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Adjusting Back to Real Life and the Literal Worst Picture Ever Taken

 It's been nearly a month since we've been home from our grand European adventure, which means life kept  rolling forward while I kept blogging about our trip and I am a little behind here.  I know you all have missed the updates about our super exciting lives, but, never fear, I am here to get you all caught up again!   

We got back home right after the USA had switched to Daylight Savings Time, which effectively meant one fewer hours of jetlag to adjust to, but that little difference didn't seem that helpful in reality.  The day AFTER we'd gotten home (after sleeping in our bed for one night, but still feeling quite topsy turvy about what time it was compared to what time our bodies thought it was), I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror around 8pm (about 2am according to my body) and literally gasped in horror, then started cracking up.   I looked AMAZING!  😂😭😂😱😂 

 Haha!  I hope sharing this picture doesn't come back to haunt me, but this picture is a pretty accurate depiction of those first few days of being back!    It's okay to laugh...just remember the circumstances.  😆

So after a week mostly filled with laundry, shopping, getting back to cooking our own meals again, giving Denali extra cuddles, getting ready for book group at our house (2 days after returning), avoiding naps, and being completely exhausted every evening...we finally started to feel more "normal" again. 

What is normal?   

Well, we did a Belgium vs. Ireland chocolate taste test and unanimously agreed that Belgian chocolate wins.   We probably shouldn't have been surprised by that fact, but the Irish chocolate looked so tasty, we were a little surprised that Belgium won so handily.  

I spontaneously made a pie to celebrate Pi Day on 3/14, but it turned out about how you'd expect a pie made by a  jet-lagged /haggard / exhausted woman not following a recipe to look...

Luckily it tasted better than it looked and we had no trouble eating it.  

Speaking of food...while the adjustment back to making every single meal, every single day was a little rough, my body very much appreciated getting back to eating tasty, minimally processed foods again.  I especially missed my breakfasts while traveling, which are generally  hearty, wholesome,  and nutritionally dense.  This veggie filled omelet Glen made one Saturday morning was as pretty as it was delicious, so I had to take a picture!  😋😋😋😋😋😋

Glen worked some while we were on our trip, but definitely got a little behind and has been playing catch-up  since being home.  One night, Glen challenged me to a game of Scrabble, then got lost putting out a figurative fire at work, so Spence played with me instead.   Our kids do not enjoy  Scrabble the competitive way Glen and I play, so we played fast and loose with the rules.   

We didn't keep score and threw in a few proper nouns for good measure...but it was fun!   We'll have to play that way more often to get the kids to join in!

Since being home, Glen has been on not one, but TWO additional  trips--one for work and one to help with his Mom, who is in poor health.     And last week his "right hand man" at work just unexpectedly quit.    In other words...his stress level is high and I am hoping he is able to find his balance soon.  It's hard watching him feel so much stress and feeling helpless to do much, other than loving and supporting him.  

On a brighter note, Ellie recently started the second transfer of her mission and got a new roommate and a new companion in the process--a missionary roommate is a missionary who lives in the same apartment, but is in a different companionship. 

from left to right:  Hermana C. (Ellie's companion), Hermana P., Ellie, and Hermana W.

Anyway, she learned that Hermana W.'s family lives within sight of our house!   They're in another ward and relatively new to the area, but I immediately reached out and had her Mom over for lunch one day.  

It was delightful to meet a fellow missionary Mom and  we bonded over the fact that both of our daughters have had significant health challenges in their lives.  Her daughter has a prosthetic foot, which is much different than Ellie's epilepsy, but both indicative of strong young women overcoming challenges to serve the Lord! 💗 

Speaking of Ellie, she seems very happy on her mission.   

 

 It sounds like the Spanish is coming along decently well and it's made my Mom heart happy to watch her grow and stretch in this way!    She doesn't have a temple in her mission boundaries, but was recently able to attend the Los Angeles Temple, which was a highlight for her. 

Okay, okay.  I said I was catching everything up here, but I need to be done for today.   I am trying hard to keep things like blogging in balance in my life, so consider this catch-up post #1.  I anticipate an additional 1-2 more, before I'm back to blogging about more recent happenings.  

HAVE AN AMAZING DAY!   THANKS FOR TUNING IN TODAY!  💗

A Quick Pit-stop on the Mainland: Belgium and Luxembourg

I'm aware that this blogpost will expose me as the travel nerds we are, but you probably already knew that to a certain extent, so I'm going for it.  So far I've blogged about  Scotland (the first leg of our trip),  Northern Ireland (the third leg of our trip), and  Ireland (the fourth and final leg),  but we had a pitstop in Belgium/Luxembourg between Scotland and Northern Ireland.  Why?  Because  Glen had never been to either one of them and we thought we'd take advantage while we were in the "vicinity".  Of course, the term vicinity is being used lightly here since they were a plane ride away, but relatively speaking we were much closer to Belgium/Luxembourg than we normally are and inter-Europe flights on RyanAir can be found for  cheap.  

So we went for it.  

It was a pretty quick trip, because we didn't want to short-change the British Isles, but we ended up really enjoying this fun little foray into mainland Europe for a few days.  In fact, if you ask Glen what his favorite part of the trip was, he'll likely tell you that he loved all the places we visited, but Belgium was his favorite.  And we both agree that it definitely had the best food and that's not even close!

We arrived into the Brussels Charleroi Airport (the small airport RyanAir flies into) and immediately jumped on a bus to Ghent.   We chose Ghent, because we had time for one city and it had been one of our favorite stops when I took the kids to Belgium in 2019. 

We figured since we were only spending 2 nights in Belgium, that we should get a hotel as centrally located as possible.   The Ghent Marriott (right where my finger is pointing ) is located right on the canal and was ideal for exploring the city! 

We were very excited to locate a Belgian waffle place nearby THAT HAD GLUTEN FREE WAFFLES TOO!   I  might have been a bit giddy about that and we definitely stopped there a couple times!  They even had gluten free speculoos topping for it that made me extra happy.

I was excited to introduce Glen to the Ghent "noses" that we discovered on our last trip here.   They're a locally made gummy candy that resemble a nose shape, hence the name.   

They're decently good (especially when fresh), but, frankly, I was more excited by other Belgian foodie finds.  We ate well on this leg of our trip!   

Since we only had a short time in Belgium, we debated about the most effective way to see the sites.  Ghent is a fairly compact city, but we'd walk by things, and think, "Wow, that's beautiful," then not really know anything else about it.  

What we ended up doing is buying a Scavenger Hunt off of Trip Adviser, which was a perfect way to see the city.  It took us to all the big sites (and some smaller ones), would give us information about them when we arrived, and even had games/challenges we could try.

I liked that we could go at our own speed, taking time to go inside those places that interested us.  We definitely saw a lot more of the city than we would have just by wandering. 

I was flooded with nostalgia when the scavenger hunt brought us to this alley filled with graffiti.   I had totally forgotten that this was in Ghent and we have several pictures of Ellie and Adam here from 2019.   I actually love when cities provide graffiti zones where local artists can showcase their talents. 

Between the food, the gorgeous architecture, and the walkability of Ghent, we were pretty enamored.   

We were a little reluctant to leave here after just two days, but it was time for one last adventure on the mainland before heading back to the Isles.  

Early the next morning, we packed up our luggage and hopped on a train for Luxembourg.  

It was about a 4-hour train ride, but the scenery between Ghent and Luxembourg City was stunning...especially the closer to Luxembourg we got.  It was hard to take pictures on a moving train, but here was one that actually turned out okay. 

  

We only had about 24 hours in Luxembourg City, so we logged A LOT of miles trying to see as much as humanly possible in that 24 hours.  

Luxembourg City was definitely the least touristy of the cities we visited, which meant finding postcards was harder than even usual.    It's like sending snail mail is a dying art or something. 😆 I never did find very pretty postcards there, but I laughed A LOT when we came across this one...

I've shopped for postcards in a lot of different places before and had never seen that kind of humor expressed on a postcard before.  The only thing I could figure was that at some point maybe some postcard manufacturer got Luxembourg mixed up with Luxor, Egypt and they just decided to go with it and make into a joke postcard.   My kids were VERY confused when they got theirs and originally thought they were delayed postcards from our trip to Egypt in 2023 (which I still haven't blogged about)!  

Food was also a bit of a disappointment in Luxembourg, but luckily we had been well-fed in Belgium, so it was all good. 
 
Luxembourg City is built into deep gorges formed by two rivers, which means that it's really a multi-level city.

We found a glass elevator that would take us between the upper and lower parts of the city without exhausting ourselves!   

This was taken at one of the biggest attractions in the city...Bock Casemates and the view from there was pretty spectacular. 

In fact, we found ourselves in awe of the amazing view quite a lot while walking around the city. 

And I'd say that at least 50% of the photos we took in Luxembourg were of gorgeous overlooks like this one...

We were also  excited to run into missionaries in the short time we were there.  They were out with friends doing a running club and asked us to take a few photos for them.   We hadn't even noticed there missionaries among them when they first approached us to take their photo, but they were so cute when we all realized.   I think their friends were as excited to meet Mormons "in the wild" as the missionaries were!  It certainly made our day, especially since the last time I'd been in Luxembourg was when I was 14 and we stopped to visit my cousin, Scott, who was serving his mission there in 1987, so it seemed only fitting to see missionaries here again, nearly 40 years later! 

We very much enjoyed our time in both Belgium and Luxembourg...

But before we knew it, it was time to head back to the British Isles....Luxembourg to Belfast, then Dublin, then home...

And now, the trip blogposts are done, and I'm back to real life!

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