Birthday Weekend with Birds and Trains

Glen and I have a deal that we don't really go big for birthdays.   We celebrate them, but neither of us has any expectations for anything elaborate.   Good food is required, while gifts are totally optional.   We try to do something fun to celebrate, but honestly what we do is driven more by the birthday person than anyone planning something for the other.   That may make us sound a bit lame, but it works for us.

  Between all of the stuff going on with my family (Heather's injury and my Mom's new diagnosis), the extended family drama (which happily crossed a good threshold in the last couple weeks), Glen winding up working at one toxic job and beginning to transition to a new one (in essence working part-time at TWO jobs currently),  some health stress for our missionary,  and our very busy schedule serving in Provo, I hadn't really been thinking much about my birthday at all.  But when I realized it was on a Saturday, I decided we needed to do something...anything...to celebrate and relax a bit.    

Thus our grand birdwatching and historical birthday adventure began!   

We started the day early by driving up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.    Heather let me borrow her fancy camera for the day, and though most of my pictures turned out a little blurry, I did get a few good ones in the mix.   And I thought that having a good telephoto lens camera along with our binoculars really added a fun element to birdwatching.     Here are a few of our favorite shots from the day.  

These American white pelicans were just chilling in the water and were one of our first "exciting" finds of the day...

This ring-necked pheasant was gorgeous...

We saw several raptors, including American kestrel, Swainson's hawk, a red tailed hawk, and others...

This pretty little meadowlark looked like it was posing for us...

We thought these long-billed curlews were fascinating...
 

We did the auto-tour twice and did a guided walking tour as well, and after all that soaking in the beauty and peace of being out in nature, we journeyed onward to the Golden Spike National Historical Park. 

  The park marks the place where the Eastern bound railroads met the Western bound railroads in 1869.  Apparently Promontory Point became a bustling hub for a while, but eventually the railroads built a new causeway across the Great Salt Lake, which was a much more direct route, leaving it a ghost town. 

We were surprised to learn that during WWII, they ceremoniously UNdrove the golden spike, ripped up the railroad for steel for the war, and officially decommissioned the railroad line completely.   Everything there at the historical site  now is a replica of the original, including the two trains that made the official original trek.  

It was an interesting place to visit, though it was out of the way enough, I don't think we'll be going back anytime soon.  Perhaps someday we'll take Oliver (and other interested grandchildren) to check out the trains, but for now I think the long drive would be too much.  

After all that adventuring in the middle of nowhere, we were ready for some real food!   So on the way home we stopped by Smoked Taco (my favorite)...

And then found Milk Barn Creamery in Ogden for some ice cream.  We love finding independently owned ice cream places when we travel and this one fit the bill perfectly.  We've been searching high and low for Zwahlen's equal (our favorite ice cream ever near our home in PA), and this one was better than average, but still not quite as good!  Definitely a great way to end a relaxing day of adventures.   

After that we went home.   I very much enjoyed these flowers from an apartment of guys in our YSA ward (the Dutch boys) and lots of nice texts from friends, family, and ward members.  

It was exactly the kind of laid-back day of adventuring that I was craving and it made getting older feel not so bad. 
 
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Free Therapy

I'll be honest...

I'm currently sick with a bad cold (and the worst sore throat I've had in many years) and I have a lot of things swirling around me that are keeping my head in a pretty negative space.   As such, I am using this blog as my free therapy for the evening and I am going to try  and use this post as an opportunity to embrace the positivity as much as I can.   Don't worry though...since I don't pay you to read my blog, I'll keep you out of the muck of my brain!  

I'll post more about this trip later, but last week I was in Rhode Island to celebrate Emma's Halloween birthday with her.  Yes, my third child is 25 now and I am kind of feeling extra old because of it.  Cami has a full-time job and two small children, but she still managed to make a beautiful cake for Ems, as well as put up some decor (neither skill which she learned from her mother).  It was fun to be there with two of my girls...

I also very much enjoyed the opportunity to spend Halloween with these two cutie pies, even if they sent me home with this terrible cold.   

I also very much enjoyed seeing photos of Adam and his roommates' Halloween costumes. 

Speaking of photos of my "babies", I just got this one of Ellie texted to me yesterday by a girl that used to be in Vienna Ward like 20 years ago!   I think she recognized her by her nametag, not her face.  In any case, it totally made my day (which isn't hard when you feel like I do)! 

 If you happen to know me in real life, you may or may not know that I  have two core love languages...one is food, the other is postcards.    I love sending and receiving both.   I send  A LOT  of postcards in a month (probably 50+ most months), but don't get too many in return.  That's okay, because I love sending them so much, I don't really care.   Recently, though,  I got a homemade one from my sister-in-law...

And another one from a friend I met in Portugal...

 Both made me very happy.  

Also, every Monday we get to do this...

The calls with Ellie are always a bit chaotic and we are usually missing one family member or another (this week Adam), but being able to gather virtually with the fam is something that brings me incredible joy...the next best thing to being all together in person.  

So, yes, life is hard right now, but it's also good.     Hope you're having a beautiful week.  

 

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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Old Friends and a Few In-Between Things

 Have you noticed that it's been pretty nonstop around here for the last couple months?  Yeah, me too.  With kids at home, my life used to be pretty nonstop all the time, but as the kids have left the house one by one, the pace has slowed down a bit.  There have even been times in the last few years when I worry that I'm missing something, because life is so NOT busy.   I've thought long and hard about finding a job, but just haven't felt like that was the right thing yet, so I am sometimes floundering a little as I search for the most effective/meaningful way to spend my time.   But then I have periods of time like the last couple months have been and I am grateful a million times over that I have the incredible privilege of choosing to stay unemployed at this stage of my life, because I can't imagine one more thing to do on my already long list.  Plus I really, really love being flexible enough to be available for the grandkids' calls and visits and I think our new BYU callings would be very challenging if I worked full-time too.  

So, I finally have a few minutes and, here I am, blogging about a couple of the in-between things that I missed mentioning here on the blog, because they happened amongst the myriad of other "bigger" things (like  our busy new callings, Emma's graduation, the work conference in Saint George,  our trip to Alabama, and Emma's injury/surgery).  

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I am not convinced that Utah will ever truly feel like home  to me, but I'm coming around to the idea that it's certainly not a bad place to live.  Besides the epic scenery, I love that old friends actually come to visit (or move here too).    If we moved away from our community here in Utah tomorrow, I am 99.99% convinced that not a single person we've met here in Utah would ever come visit us, no matter where we lived (even if it were a mile away), so the fact that I have friends that  call when they come to visit sometimes, makes me incredibly happy!   

  Heather and Kelly are two of those good friends.  Heather recently moved nearby and is now a part of my book group, which I love.  Kelly is so good at keeping in touch, something I'm not the greatest at, so I extra appreciate her efforts and I loved seeing her, along with Heather, when she came to town for her daughter's recent graduation from BYU.  

Speaking of graduation, when we were out celebrating Emma's, I  randomly ran into this cousin of my sister-in-law, Karey,  who recognized me from my blog.  Haha!  I am fully aware that she was a regular blog reader from way back when I actually attempted humor and had a lot more funny stories to share, but it did make me feel cool to be recognized all these years later!   If you ever meet / see me in the real world, please come talk to me and make my day!   

The day after all the excitement from Emma's graduation, we celebrated my 52nd birthday!   Emma made an AMAZING cake (gluten free of course)...

which was as delicious as it was cool looking!  

I'll do a catch-up post for every member of the family soon, since there's a lot happening in most of their lives, but I think I'll finish this blogpost up with a few more pictures of some Virginia friends that recently came to town.  Kim's son was performing in a BYU production of High School Musical, which provided the perfect, last minute excuse for a trek to Provo to gather with old friends!  

All of these women are dear friends, but, besides running RAGNAR together nearly 14 years ago (see photo below), I feel like I have a special connection with each of them.    Amy is a fellow grandma to Lucie and Oliver, Kim is the mom of one of Adam's best friends growing up, and Heather is a fellow Minnesotan with whom I have a lot of shared experiences.    Finding  this old picture of us was a blast from the past and brought back a lot of carefree memories from the couple of months right before Spencer was diagnosed with leukemia and our world was forever rocked!   These women were right by my side during that challenging time!  

RAGNAR, September 2011 {l-r:  Cat, Me, Amy, Kim, Paige, Heather}

 We had to get a photo with just us and the B family, since we're practically related now that our kids have been married to each other for 7 years!    

It made my whole week to see them all again...💗

And now I need to get back to my long list of things to do again.  Thanks for tuning in today and stay tuned for more updates coming soon!   

A Sweet Little Birthday Boy!

This past week marks  ONE YEAR since our little grandson, Oliver Glen, was born and I couldn't be more thrilled to be here in Alabama celebrating with him and his family in person!  

I know I may be biased, but I kid you not when I say that this babe is as sweet as sweet comes!    Not only is he a little mister smarty pants, but he's also got a sociable and easy-going personality.  

When he was a newborn I thought he looked like our side of the family, but the older he gets, the more I realize how much he  looks like his Dad!   That's Garrett on the left and Oliver on the right.   I swear they look like twins born 30-years apart...

Oliver says, "uh oh,” waves, claps, stacks blocks,  and roars like a dinosaur on command.   He loves playing ball and pushing around his little walker toy.   He's an efficient crawler who seems right on the verge of walking and I'm constantly surprised at his attention span, especially for things like playing catch and playing jumpy jump (me helping him jump up and down on my lap).   He certainly enjoyed his little "smash cake" for his birthday, but did not devour it like Lucie had...

I am so grateful for our little Ollie boy and only wish they lived closer...

So I could get more of his squishy snuggles {and time with his family}!

Have a great week! 
 

Two Birthdays!

 Birthdays in our family mostly come in pairs.   Emma and Adam were both born in October.   Cami and Glen have birthdays a couple weeks apart from each other in mid-summer and mine and Spencer's birthdays are the closest of all--just 5 days apart at the end of April.  Ellie is the only one with a birthday all by her lonesome in March!   

  This year my birthday came right after all the craziness I've mentioned in the last couple posts, including houseguests x2, a quick trip to Texas, an injured dog, and a whole lot of other random things on the calendar.    My birthday arrived just after Cami and crew (and Emma) had returned to Alabama, Ellie was back at school, and  Glen was at a work retreat in Saint George. That meant with Spence at work, that  I was mostly by myself for the day.   We'd celebrated with everyone before they left town, so it's not like I was forgotten in any sense, but it was a bit of a let-down to spend the day on my own.   All in all, though, I can't complain....I frankly needed a minute to breathe after the craziness of the previous weeks...

Here's a glimpse at my birthday...

I got flowers from Glen and Cam...

And Pete Doordashed me some Via313 gluten free cinnamon sticks...

Then, at the end of the work day, Heather, Grandma, Spence, and I went for fish tacos at Taqueria27.  Then Heather made cake.     I definitely ate way too much food! 

I spent my quiet day/week doing things like cleaning out the laundry room/back pantry, which had become a dumping ground of sorts...

I also kept eagerly checking my phone for pictures from Alabama to pop up in our camera roll from Emma...

Cami just started back to work after her maternity leave, so I think she was grateful to have Emma there.   

Random pictures from Ellie have also been entertaining...

This picture popped up in my memories today and cracked me up...It's from 2009 and it was when Glen was participating in a triathlon!   Look how little my peeps were!   😆

A few days after my birthday, we started celebrating Spencer's birthday in shifts.  I made him Philly Cheesesteak for dinner, as well as homemade PB bars on his actual birthday, then we went out and did a few more things once Emma and Glen got home.  

Oh, and did I mention that Spence just turned 29?    That means I've been doing this Mom gig for almost 30 years now and I won't lie....between my birthday, my inability to get a good night's rest lately, and Spence's birthday, I've been feeling a little extra old lately.   

Thank goodness for Facetimes with Lucie to keep me young!   I now know more about Facetime filters and stickers than I ever thought possible and I have to admit that I get very excited every time she calls and asks me to read a book to her.   If I can't be with them in person, I'm grateful to live in a day and a time that Facetime keeps us connected.