Kristina's Crew Comes to Utah!

Shortly after Christmas, Emma went back to Rhode Island and my sister arrived with her entourage in tow—four of her kids, including Manuel, Isaiah, and Jesus who bring a bit of mayhem with them wherever they go. And right behind her came one of her friends, who brought her teenage triplets, increasing the number of people in our home by 200%.    Within an hour, my house had transformed from a peaceful post-holiday sanctuary into something resembling a combination of a Dave & Buster's and a convenience store after a tornado. Actually it wasn't that bad.  It really was loud...and messy...and a bit chaotic, but I have a good bond with all of Kristina's kids and genuinely enjoy having them around!   

LESSONS IN FOOD: 
  I raised five kids and know a lot about feeding them, however I can never seem to get it quite right with the boys.   I had stocked up on a bunch of their favorite foods before arriving, but I keep learning the hard way with them that there's a lot more to it than just picking the right kind of food for them.   Last time they were here I learned that chicken nuggets cooked in the air fryer were inedible and that soggy microwaved ones were the only way to go.  This time I learned  that different brands of mac & cheese can vary in taste and apparently I picked the wrong one.  I haven't eaten mac & cheese in approximately 40 years or so,  so I was unaware of these nuances, but apparently it's a thing.    Also, much to their happiness, I did manage to remember to get some of their favorite snack in the whole universe before they arrived--Blue Heat Takis.  However they thought I was quite mean for portioning them out into serving sizes for them, as they wanted the whole bag at once!  Ah, well!  I'll try again next time!  

 

THE SNOW THAT WASN'T 
Kristina and her family (and their friends) live in California and came to Utah very excited to see some snow.   Unfortunately for her and the record breaking low snowpack in the mountains this year, snow has been hard to come by this winter.  It's been unusually warm (something I appreciate) and very dry with only a couple little skiffs of snow here and there.  The boys were very disappointed by this and so Kristina went driving to higher altitudes in search of some.  She found the jackpot up at Suncrest and the boys happily played in it!   Sadly the triplets had never been to Utah or seen snow and it was all melted by the time they arrived.  They were quite disappointed.  

A TRIP TO LUMINARIA
One of my favorite parts about people coming to visit us, is that it gets us out of the house to see more of what Utah has to offer.  We went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point a  couple years ago and loved it, so Kristina and company coming to town was a perfect excuse to go again!  It was as amazing as we'd remembered and I think everyone enjoyed it!  

A TRIP TO ANTELOPE ISLAND

Another trek we took was to Antelope Island.   To my knowledge, I'd never been there before and I was completely enchanted by this wild and beautiful oasis so close to civilization.   

We saw this great horned owl...

and these beauties, an American kestrel and a starling...

Heather drove and my Mom also  came along for the adventure...

as did Adam and Isaiah.   Kristina and her crew came up an hour or two after us.  

We also saw bison (real ones) and this incredible bird, which was probably our highlight of the whole trip:  

It's a burrowing owl and they're pretty hard to spot, unless you know where to look.  My sister, Heather, has gotten quite into bird watching and bird photography lately and she had the inside scoop.  I totally want to go back  in the spring and see if we can find him again.  

VISITING OUR WARD
My niece, Madeline, and the triplets hope to come to BYU in the next year or two, so they all came to our YSA ward on Sunday to see what it was like.  They weren't very excited that we meet at 9am and had a half-hour drive to get there, but they made it with smiles on their faces.   I actually have no idea what they thought, but it was an excellent fast and testimony meeting and we were happy to share our wonderful ward with them for a week! 

Kristina was happy to see Alicia there too!  Alicia was Kristina's friend first and her husband is now serving as Glen's 1st counselor, so we are all friends now!   

HAPPY DENALI
Denali is 100% a diva.   She loves being the center of attention and there's nothing like more people being in the house to give it to her.  Happily, the boys adore her and she gets lots and lots of attention when they're around.  I daresay she goes into a bit of withdrawal when they leave...

 A FEW MORE RANDOM PICS
I'll finish off with a few more random pics from their stay here.  There's also a few more in this post about the Buttercup Neighborhood game.  

Madeline, Kristina, and me...

Jesus has grown up A LOT over the last several months, which meant a bit more sass, a lot more stubbornness, and a whole lot of silliness. He just got baptized this past weekend and I was super sad that I couldn't be there to join him.  

My sister, Kristina, is probably the only true extrovert of the family and she seriously has the best friends!    I've become friends with a few of her friends since moving here and we went to this gathering one night knowing no one but Kristina's crew, but came out with more friends!  We've even hung out with one of the couples again since then.  

I love when K's family comes to town and somehow even miss the noise and the mess when they leave.  

Happy February to you!  

Cookie Party with a Commitment Problem

The older I get, the more I realize that I tend to think about things for a long time before I take action.   It's not simply indecisiveness, though that's a piece of it.  It's more like not wanting to tie myself down to an action before I know that it's what I really, really want to do. 

 Actually, writing that out makes me realize that what I just described is probably the very definition of indecisiveness.   Oh well.   I don't know...let me think about it and I'll get back to you when I decide whether I'm indecisive, or merely just a bit of a commitment-phobe.   Or whatever.  This blogpost is going nowhere fast.   

Back to the story at hand.  

Sometime early in Christmas break I got the great idea that I wanted to throw a New Year's Eve cookie party, reminiscent of my birthday cookie party of 2023.     Why a cookie party and not a regular party with normal party food and fun activities?   That's a really valid question and I can't really answer that without reminding you all of the fact that throwing parties is really, really, really not my strong point.  Remember this one from back in the day?    Yeah, well let's just say that I may have an empty nest and a house much more suitable for entertaining, but I really haven't changed much in 18 years.   

Oh yeah, and I really like cookies. 

Emma, Adam, and I made a plan and started baking and freezing cookies several days before the intended party.   

Did I start inviting people then?  

No, though that would have made perfect sense.   

I  thought through the details of timing and such and created this cute invite. 

Did I start inviting people then?   

Nope, not yet.    

I went full-blown Lara 2008 mode and waited until December 30th (the day before) and with hundreds of cookies sitting in my freezer, a whole hot chocolate bar set-up, and all the paper goods purchased, I decided it was time to start officially inviting people.   

So, I finally did.   

I'm happy to say it was not near as chaotic as the birthday parties of years' past.   

We had hot chocolate...

and cookies galore (all gluten free)...

that were enjoyed by all who came.   

Though I consider the party to be a success, I know more people would have come with more notice. But, upon reflection, I think that very concept is a big  part of my chronic indecisiveness.   I'm the kind of person who likes to invite everyone, so no one feels left out, and when you invite everyone, that means it could get overwhelming fast.   So sending invites last minute, I think became my own subconscious  defense mechanism to keep the crowds manageable.  

So, once again this blog becomes Lara's therapist.   Now let's see if processing all this helps me to plan a party with more notice next time.  Or helps me to make a decision and stick with it.    We shall see, but I recommend not getting your hopes up!   HAHA!  

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The Buttercup Neighborhood Game

 We played a lot of board games over the holidays--including Wingspan, Telestrations, Codenames, Coup, Nertz, Trash, Magic the Gathering, 10 Days in Europe, and Dixit.  We enjoyed the more laid-back time to play together and only had a few grumpy moments when the competition got a little fierce.  Haha!  

But there was another game we played over the holidays that I haven't mentioned yet.   It involved the whole neighborhood and some equally tense competitive moments, and also some very silly moments.  

It was all about this cute little Christmas inflatable named Buttercup. 

Basically Buttercup was purchased by the H family in our neighborhood and was introduced as a sort of reverse hot potato.  But instead of trying to get rid of it, the goal was to steal it from a neighbor's porch and see how long you could keep it inflated on your own porch. 

 

   In order to be an official participant in the game, you had to join the Buttercup GroupMe and follow along with the updates and rules.  That GroupMe was one of the funniest things I'd been a part of in a long time and it was quite humorous to see the silly {and competitive} side of our neighbors.  

We didn't even try to attempt any heists until Adam arrived home, but once he was home, the game was on!    He had a few unsuccessful steal attempts where he was caught before escaping, but I thought it was quite funny that the first time we actually managed to steal her was just after attending the temple together...

We took a little drive around the neighborhood on the way home and Adam snagged her in his church clothes.  Haha.  

We were quite proud of our conquest and guarded her pretty fiercely until we went to bed. 

  Guarding it meant playing games while sitting on our stairs just inside the door, then opening the door and yelling "we caught you!" to the would-be thieves.  

We caught a few and met a new neighbor in the process.  Much to our surprise, Buttercup actually stayed put overnight and was stolen while on our morning walk the next day.    Once we'd experienced the "thrill" of capturing and guarding her for ourselves, we didn't try too hard for a few days.  But then Kristina's family came to town and all that changed.   The second the boys heard about the Buttercup game, they were excitedly all in!  

Honestly it was a fun excuse to get out on neighborhood walks with the boys...

and the boys were far more diligent Buttercup guardians than we had been.   They literally sat outside waiting to yell at anyone who dared attempt a heist.   At one point in the final couple days of the game, the games keeper had  to change the rules to only allow an hour of "puppy guarding", because there were a whole lot of eager young boys out of school and willing to even sleep outside for the cause.  

It was a sad moment when Buttercup got stolen on New Year's Eve night and the boys'  final attempts in the last hours of the game (New Year's morning) proved unsuccessful, despite their coordinated efforts with fellow-would-be thieves to outsmart the conquering family.  

All in all, it turned out to be a fun distraction over the holidays and I 10/10 would recommend, as long as you get everyone on board with understanding the rules and the idea that it's all in good fun!   

This Christmas

 Happy New Year, friends!   It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks.  Heck, it's been a whirlwind of a few months and I am hopeful that I can start getting back to some sense of  normalcy soon...whatever that looks like.  Haha!   I will divide up blogging about our holiday break with a post about Christmas and another post about New Years, hopefully with a couple bonus ones thrown in too.    

I don't feel like I took as many pics as I normally do, but here are a few that show a glimpse of what our G family Christmas  looked like this year!    

One day during finals, my friend and fellow BYU ward leader, Christy and I bought a bunch of snacks from Trader Joes and set up at a table in the Wilkinson Center.  Then we sent a note out on our ward GroupMe and invited everyone to come get some fun brain food... 

We got about 40 members who came and filled up baggies with fun snacks (several of whom had never been into a Trader Joes before)...

It was a super fun way to connect with the members and wish them the best as they took their finals and headed home for the holidays...

I was delighted to receive these adorable pictures from Cami after Santa visited their preschool.  Oliver was very nervous and a high-five was the closest his comfort level would allow him to get, but Lucie was giddy about the visit!  

A day or two  after we had the Trader Joes final "party", Emma arrived home!  It was pure joy to have her home again, along with Adam, but sadly she spent the first few days she was here with low energy, no appetite, and some respiratory symptoms.  She'd had a fever previously and we're pretty sure she may have had the flu, which is going around right now.   After not being able to eat for several days, we took her to the doctor, where she was prescribed an anti-nausea medication.  Thankfully just a couple doses of that took the edge off and she slowly regained her appetite and energy over the next few days...but not before passing along the bug to Spencer as well, who has gone through pretty much the exact same set of miserable symptoms.  Thankfully, so far, Glen, Adam, and I have remained healthy (currently knocking on wood)! 

After Emma felt better, the fun really started with some craft projects (her own), way too much treat baking and eating, and  a ton  of board game playing... including 10 Days in Europe, Magic the Gathering (for the boys), Wingspan, a new game called "Coup", Nertz,  and....

Telestrations!   Here's one round in particular that made us laugh...   

I thought Glen's interpretation of "triplex" was hilarious.  

It was supposed to be three houses in a row (a TRIplex instead of a DUplex), but he read it as "triple-x", which is why he started drawing XXXL clothing! 

I was obviously very confused by Glen's drawing, but I guessed somewhat well considering what I had to work with.  Hahaha.  Adam drew the #7 picture.  

So..."Transplant" to "the blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

It was fun to play a game that even my Mom even attempted to play with us, since she does not enjoy playing games normally.  

This was us on Christmas Sunday.  BYU is a bit of a ghost town during Christmas break, so our ward was combined with three other wards.  Even with four wards combined we only had about 50 people there and with only one hour of church and no other meetings, we decided to jump on over to our home ward for their Christmas program.  It was the first time in about 8 months that we'd attended our home ward and it was a beautiful day to be there.   The music was amazing and it was great to see our neighbors and friends.  

 On Christmas Eve night, we went to a place called Nacho Daddy, which {surprise!} was a nacho place.  It wasn't fancy food by any stretch, but they were open and had availability, so that's where we went.   

I thought mine were quite tasty....

Afterward, we went to Temple Square and walked around for a bit.   The weather has been (not anymore) unseasonably warm and it was kind of wild walking around in just light jackets/sweatshirts and no hats on Christmas Eve night!  

It was a nice way to spend the evening before heading home for our traditional Christmas Eve devotional.  

I took zero pics of our devotional and will post the Christmas pajama photos in a separate post, but here's a sweet picture of Denali from that night...

And one of Emma and Adam from another day...

Christmas Day was pretty low-key.  We ate a good breakfast, mostly prepared by Ems, opened presents, and just chilled together.  I sent a Christmas text individually to all of our members and sent this photo of the Bishopric out on our ward GroupMe on Christmas morning...  (it's us, the S's, Brandon, and the G's)

Here's our Christmas Day charcuterie board {something that has become a tradition the last several years}...

made by Adam and Emma...

We got to talk to Ellie on Christmas Day, which pretty much marked the one year mark of her mission (technically it was December 23rd when she started, but close enough)!  She seemed super happy!  

It was a good Christmas, though we definitely missed having Ellie and Cam and her fam here.  I love being a missionary Mom and have been really trying to embrace this missionary season our family has been in for several years, but I won't lie, I'm happy to have our final missionary "blackout year" behind us now.   Only five and a half more months until we can all be under the same roof again!  

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas too!   Thank you for following along here.   

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