Thanksgiving-near and far

 (I'm missing pictures from Thanksgiving at our house but I'll just have to update when I get some)

We had kind of an unusual Thanksgiving this year. 

All of our sons and their significant others were together in Michigan, staying at Branden's house.

We hosted my siblings, my dad and Lottie, as well and various nieces and nephews including Frank's 3 nephews who are in Utah and Idaho for school. We had 28 people total!

Before Carter and Harley left for Thanksgiving in Michigan, they were able to stop by and Dad and Lottie got to meet William for the first time.

William is wearing an outfit that belonged to Carter in this picture.

I had asked Lauren, the queen of all things classy and beautiful to help me decorate. She did an amazing job! Everyone brought side dishes. I was in charge of the turkey and also ham. Chelsie brought ham too so it turned out that we had more than enough meat!  Better than not enough that's for sure.

It was a really lovely day with great food and good company. Dion had arranged a nice activity where we shared what we were thankful for on pieces of paper and then read them aloud (along with some nice scriptures) and tried to guess whose it was. It was fun and really heartwarming to all be together and being thankful together.  During the activity, Heather and Jansen announced that they will be having twins in May!  With Kristal and Ryan also having a baby in May, it's going to be a fun spring!

Meanwhile, in Michigan, the kids all had a great time together!  They seemed to do activities every day including kayaking (on the icy lake)

 and going to an arcade together. They also played tons of games. William bonded with Branden and just loved being with him...so cute!

I had arranged for them to get pictures together while they were in Michigan and they turned out wonderful!

Halloween

 Whenever we work on Halloween, we dress up at work. Well, Lori and I do, but not the doctors or lame college kid CAs.  (depends on the CAs but currently they are party poopers)

I wish we had gotten a picture together! I totally meant to. Lori was a ghost and she looked awesome! White hair and face makeup and everything.

I dressed up as a Hogwarts student (again).  People always think I'm moaning Myrtle.

After work, I joined Carter and Harley as they went trick or treating with Harley's brother and his little boy.  We went around the her neighbors, many of which hadn't yet met William so that was fun! 

Carter and Harley had a Star Wars theme to their costumes and it was so cute!

The weather was pretty nice though it got chilly toward the end.

As usual, William was completely happy and fun even when he got chilly cheeks and was probably sleepy.

After trick or treating...time to drive home to Logan!

It was a fun time and I was so glad to spend some time with Carter and his cute family!

Visiting Michigan!

 My goal is always to visit the Michigan family at least 4 times a year. I have failed so far this year.  Work is hard to get away from and the price of tickets has been crazy too.  But I finally managed a trip in October and even though it was just a weekend, I was so glad I went!

I always have to take a 6 am flight so I am totally exhausted when I arrive. Luckily the girls are in school so it worked out for me to nap until they got out of school.  They made me a cute sign and hung it up in my bedroom. Isabelle also put her bean plant from school in my room to cheer me up.

Both girls were getting over colds and the weather was surprisingly chilly for the first day so we just kind of hung out together.  I honestly should keep a list of things we do or I forget.

I brought the girls and Amber some matching shirts and we all wore them on Friday which was fun

We went out to dinner and a movie together.

That night Kaylee started throwing up and she was sick as a dog for about 12 hours.  Then, she was suddenly better and wanted to go bowling.

So we went bowling.

We also carved pumpkins as a family

We used a drill with a mixer blade on it to take out the guts and it worked quite well!

But the girls didn't mind pulling out guts nearly as much as I remember my boys minding it.

They always wanted me to do it for them because they found it gross. 

I figured I would end up getting sick with all the germs I was around but it was worth it to visit this cute family!

I did end up with a cold the next week. Ha!

Austin's visit

 Austin has finally come for a visit! We hadn't see him since we went to visit him in Wales before Covid...so it's been way too long.

He wasn't able to get a lot of time off of work so he was just here Wednesday-Sunday morning.  We tried to pack a lot into those few days!

Wednesday I had to work so Ryan picked him up from the airport and they spent the day together: went to Top Golf, ate food and played some games at Ryan's house.  

Austin basically had no sleep the night before his early flight so he was ready for a nap when I picked him up after work.  We had a nice dinner  and just relaxed with a tv show he recommended before heading to bed.

Thursday, Frank and Austin played pickleball while I went to a doctor appointment. Despite his boots and jeans, he was a natural and played quite well. We went out to brunch when I got home at a nice biscuit/breakfast place nearby.  Then we went on a drive through the canyon to see the fall leaves. 

I thought I took more pictures than this of our drive...

Since Austin is coming from back east where the fall foliage is truly spectacular, we knew it wouldn't be that impressive but we all enjoyed the bright yellow Aspen trees and the nice drive. We did a small hike before returning home.  We played more pickleball in the evening (my first time playing since my surgery) and had a good time. Austin had forgotten his language lesson that he was supposed to do online so we went home and he did that for an hour or so.

Friday, we drove up first to Logan to visit Carter, Harley and William. We hung out at their house for a bit and then got lunch. 

Logan Canyon looked so pretty. Colors were more vibrant IRL.

From there we drove to Bear Lake where Doneen's family was staying for the weekend. Her kids are the cousins that Austin knows best so we wanted to make sure they could see each other. They had a really lovely cabin right on the lake. We did some paddle boarding first thing. Austin had several mishaps with leaky kayaks before I finally gave him my paddle board to try. He was completely soaked by then! The water was pretty chilly but it was very nice and we all enjoyed it. Chelsie and Chris joined us on the water. Frank and Alan went for some mountain biking. 

After everyone was home and Kari and Josh had arrived, we had vegetarian lasagna (thanks Doneen!) and played games. Carter, Harley and William also came up for games.  It was so loud and so much fun!  We went to a little local shop (walking distance) for ice cream and little bit of corn hole. It was a bit chilly out so I didn't get any but several people enjoyed it despite the cold. Afterwards, we watched Hocus Pocus II in the spirit of the Halloween season, but I fell asleep on the floor in the middle of it so I went to bed. Austin did not give it a good review overall. ha!  But it was a super fun day and I was so glad we went.

At the ice cream shop

Saturday, we slept in a bit and just had a nice breakfast with the Larsen clan including Mark and Marissa who arrived later on Friday night. We then drove the 3 hours home to get ready for a family party Saturday night.

Austin and Ryan hung out for the afternoon and did a hike in the canyon. Frank and I made soup and rolls and even fit in a little bit of pickleball.

The evening party included us, Diane's family, Carter's family, Ryan and Krista, Jenna, Lauren Davidson, Corey and Randy and Heather and Jansen. We had soup, rolls, salad, homemade breadsticks from Kristal and lots of desserts. It was really fun and it was the first time for Austin to even meet some of those cousins! I didn't think to take a single picture. Luckily Austin took a few!

Larson Cup 2022

As per usual, the Larson Cup snuck up on me and I had forgotten to exercise all year...again!  I hate that and vow to do better next year. I make that vow every year, FYI.

I mean, I did exercise some but I was not in any way, shape or form ready for a triathlon of any length.  I roped Ryan and Heather into doing a team with me because I have sworn to participate in some way even when I am not prepared.  I did the swim, Ryan the bike and Heather was our runner.  She was the only one who was semi-prepared.

It was super fun as expected!

We weren't very fast but we didn't die, so we're calling it a win!

And we did all vow to be prepared to do the entire thing next year!

Here is our amazing team before the event.

I'm grateful for Ryan and Heather being willing...I'm always happy when I participate in some way.

After! We're standing on a hill so it's a little weird 

but we had to show off our Larson Cup Shirts

Dion did the entire triathlon which nearly brought me to tears!

Just a year after having a heart attack, Dion, a good 40 lbs lighter and much healthier

completed the whole thing!

He is an inspiration!

(and he won a special prize at the lunch for his amazingness)

My team at the lunch:

The whole clan!  Love this activity

The Donna Larson Davidson group that participated:

Spontaneous fun

 It's unusual for Frank and I to have two fun things in one day but this happened for us today.

We had tickets to see our neighbor in the local production of Shrek, the Musical.  Then at work, one of our patients gave me free tickets to an outdoor concert of an A Capella group out of New York.

I LOVE A capella. We'll start with that.

It was a tough decision but when I couldn't find someone to take the concert tickets and Frank was leaning towards doing the outdoor activity (covid), we decided to go to the concert and see the play another day.

We got some dinner and the sky started looking a bit sketchy. I could see that south of us it was definitely raining...even saw some lightning here and there.  Not good. Nothing on the website talked about postponing the concert so we went.

We each brough a small chair, an umbrella and, at the last minute, I grabbed a small  blanket.

I also made the mistake of changing into shorts. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea.

By the time we arrived to the concert, it was raining and 63 degrees!  (It had been a hot day!)

All the regular attenders were prepared with big umbrellas, blankets, rain ponchos, jackets etc.  We felt a bit dumb with our little umbrellas and shorts on.

Nevertheless we found ourselves a spot and hunkered down under the umbrellas.

The concert was really good but even the entertainers were getting rained on...the only one far enough back on the outdoor stage to be out of the rain was the "drummer".  

I mean, they were soaked!

The stage had large puddles and you could tell they were doing some of their dance moves in a much more careful way to avoid slipping.

It really came down for awhile and people's umbrellas were turning inside out from the wind. It was crazy!  Some people gave up and left, especially  people with little kids and some older folks too. We were determined to stick it out. 

We were so hunkered down that we couldn't see the stage at all most of the time. Occasionally I would get a peak of their shoes. ha! I did stand up for awhile just to be able to see them but realized my seat was getting wet in my absence so I sat back down.

Amazingly, the rain did eventually stop! We had a stunning rainbow as well.

After the rain stopped and we all put away our umbrellas, the concert was super fun. We could see the band, people were clapping and dancing and it was a really fun time.

My little blanket saved the day and kept both Frank and I pretty warm under the umbrellas.

We had a really good time and were both glad we had been spontaneous!

Reminiscing

I have spent the last couple of nights reading the blogs from the last year in Massachusetts and the first year in Utah.

I find it unbelievable that I have lived in Utah for nearly 8 years!  That is the same amount of time that I lived in Pennsylvania and that felt like a long time...but of course at that time I was raising young children and my time here in Utah has been a decent percentage of empty nesting.  I'm sure that's the difference in how I perceive the time.  Still. 8 years.

I'm still not quite ready to call myself a Utahn though I do like it here for the most part.

Good things: 
being near family. I missed them for so long.
no (or almost no) mosquitoes.  Dang I love being able to go outside after dusk.
the mountains. I never tire of looking at them.
my house. It really is just the right size. I love my covered porch and my lovely back yard. I still want to change almost everything about the inside and decor but the house itself...so good.
A job I enjoy and nice coworkers. 
A couple of my kids are living here locally which is super-dee-duper good!  I try to make an effort to stay connected though they are grown up and have lives and stuff now.

I still miss the East so much and I feel like I've struggled a bit to really fit in here or make new friends.  I haven't totally lost my Eastern attitude and, dare I say, crankiness?  Maybe I shouldn't blame the East though. It's probably just me. 

Back East I was kind of "conservative". Here, I feel like I'm a raging liberal. 

It's different and some of it is good and some of it isn't.  Of course, I'm now at a point where I am remembering all my time back East so fondly and forgetting all the hard stuff...that how we humans work I suppose.

Lots of things have changed:

My parents moved to AZ and our weekly get togethers were over.

Mom died after the horrible fight with Alzheimers.

My dad remarried and is living in AZ.

My oldest son and his wife and kids (who lived here when we first came here) moved away: first to Alaska and then Michigan.

Some kids left and then came back. Some left and stayed gone. 

My family is kind of broken. I can't fix it.

I'm an empty nester. 

I have a job. Ok, I've had jobs before but now having a job is like...my thing. My main thing. What is up with that?

I don't get together with my family enough. Everyone has lives you know?! And it totally gets in my way of hanging out with my family all the time!  Plus for some reason Frank wants to do other stuff besides hang out with my siblings. Who can even understand this?

Anyway, regarding the blog, I'm so glad I have it.  There are so many things I would have forgotten but there they are, all written down!

My cousin Emily has been my number one commenter and I thank her for it. I honestly feel like we are close though we haven't seen each other in years! It's probably because she posts comments on my blog and also from Facebook posts. Thanks Emily! Let's get together sometime!

I've been meaning to get back to blogging for some time now. I cut way back when I started working full time (I think that's when it started. Or stopped. Whichever) and I just never have any idea what to write about anymore.  But I think the reason I used to blog a lot and had stuff to say was because I was blogging a lot. haha 

Does that make sense?  The more I wrote, the more I had to say.  And  I probably have stuff to say now, I just can't think of it yet because I'm not writing enough.  I used to really enjoy the act of writing.  I know I've mentioned this before, probably the last time I blogged!  I do tend to repeat myself.

But I'm going to try to get back to it. Again.

Dreams and Sleep

 I don't know what dreams mean and I usually don't put a lot of meaning to my dreams. I do think my dreams often have to do with what I'm stressing/thinking about.  Here are some dream topics lately:

I've removed Facebook from my phone as I really have a problem over checking the phone during the day only to look at NOTHING.  Anywho, lately I've been dreaming dreams where I am scrolling through my phone in my dream. I wake up to my hand in the correct position for scrolling. That seems bad.

I dream about work a lot. So annoying. I already spend lots of time there, can't I be away from there during sleep??

Last night I dreamed about a combination of Ryan moving (helping him do that today), family craziness, and pickelball.  All in one dream. Woke up feeling stressed out.  My least favorite way to start the day.

I've been working to improve my sleep and I *mostly* am doing pretty good. I try hard to get to sleep by 10 and I wake up between 6 and 6:30. Don't need to wake til 6:30 for work but often wake before my alarm. I also nap almost every day during my lunch break. It used to be 25 minutes almost exactly but lately I've been napping as long as 45 minutes! It is during these naps that I often have the scrolling through my phone dreams... I LOVE my naps and according to what I've read, they are good for me. But I'm so used to them now that my body gets sleepy at noon even on my days off. No idea if that's normal or bad or what.  But as long as I have the time, I'll keep napping. 

Actually, that sounds pretty good right now. Off to snooze...

Pickleball

 I don't think I've talked about pickleball and yet it has become a big part of our lives.

Theres a pickleball court at a park very close to our house. I don't remember how we found out about it or exactly why Frank became interested but one day he decided we should play.

I have NO training in any sort of racket sport: terrible at tennis and have only played a few times, always chasing the ball in ping pong, never played racquetball etc.  So I assumed I would be terrible.  And, well, I am not good.  But, even with my lack of skills, pickleball is pretty fun!

We've been playing for about a year now!

We play once or twice a week on average and almost always have lots of fun.

Theres a big family group that comes to the same courts we do. They bring food and music and chairs and just have a grand ol' time. They laugh so much!  It really seems like they are having the time of their lives.  They are also very good at pickleball and super fun to watch.  Frank can be pretty competitive so he sometimes gets worked up about how bad we are or how we lose too much or whatever and I have to point out the family and say "we need to be more like them!  Remember we are here to have fun!"  haha

I have definitely improved over the last year but I'm still sort of the "weak link" in the team.  We play with a couple of neighbors and sometimes we switch up the teams so Frank can win. ha!  Lately I have been feeling more frustrated at all the mistakes I make. So we decided, for fun, to take a pickleball lesson when we went to St. George to celebrate our anniversary. 

The first day our lesson was at 5 pm and it was 102 degrees. It was not fun.  Turns out, that's too hot.  So we signed up for a second lesson a couple of days later and the weather was lovely, thank heaven.

Ever since then, I have played worse than ever!  Gah!  I assume I'm thinking too much now.

Oh well!  I will still play pickleball (until I jack up my knee too bad) and have a fun time doing it.

I really love that we have something that is both active and that Frank and I both enjoy doing!

Fun facts and stories related to pickleball:

After our discovery of the nearby courts, Frank went to buy some paddles. He had played pickleball back in the day in Portland when he worked at the bread plant. It's a wooden paddle and a wiffle ball.  Well, pickleball has evolved and he discovered all these high tech paddles that were like $50 a piece.  He didn't know which one was best, so in typical Frank style, he bought 4.  He figured we'd need extra so we could invite others to play. 

I hate singles and love doubles.  WAY too much running around with singles especially when playing someone who can aim the ball at the opposite side of the court you are on (i.e. everyone but me).  When I hit the ball, it's a surprise to even me where it may land. LOL

We bought balls and rackets at a local sporting goods store, knowing nothing about the game. One day, pretty early on, we asked this random couple of guys if they wanted to play doubles with us.  They were way better than us.  They scoffed at our balls and called them beginner balls (yellow) and showed us the balls that are used in tournaments (green).  They creamed us in one game and then declined to play again (we were that bad).  Frank, not to be deterred, sat on the bench right there and ordered the green pickleball balls from Amazon. He wanted to learn with the right equipment!  He can't be convinced to play with the yellow balls now. ha!

We usually play in the evenings after work. So we'll start at like 7 and we often play til 9:30 or later. We have played in the wind and rain and played until the court lights go out at 10:30 PM! On a work night! We played all winter long on the milder days. We played in coats and gloves.  We once went to play on the pretty nice winter day only to discover that we weren't the only ones with that idea.  Only two of the 6 courts were usable due to snow/ice on the surface. Someone brought a couple of snow shovels and when it was our turn to be waiting, we would work on the 3rd court, shoveling and chipping away at the ice.  Everyone helped. I was so proud of us for working together like that though we were strangers to each other. We did eventually get the 3rd court to be usable. It was awesome.

A moment

 Like most people, (are women special in this way or is it all people?) I have a lot of negative self talk that goes through my head at any one time. 

I’m fat

Bad hair day

Ugly shirt

I’m so lazy

Why am I so dumb

No one likes me

I mean you could list any number of rude things and I’ve likely said them to myself. 

Today I am traveling. At the airport I see all kinds of people.  Business  people in their suits and heals, girls in their short skirts or perfect outfits, people who seem awfully dressed up for sitting on a plane. I’m sure they have their reasons.

When I travel, I wear whatever is closest to pajamas without actually being pajamas. (I do have my limits). Today it is some joggers and a T-shirt I got from giving blood with my comfiest sneakers. 

As I walked into the bathroom, past the mirror, a thought flitted through my head:

I like being me!

It stopped me in my tracks. When was the last time such a positive thing went through my head about myself? I don’t even know.

But it was true! I like being me. I’m comfy and comfortable with it that fact. I’m walking easily. I’m healthy. I don’t care how I look in my pony tail and joggers!

Pretty sweet moment. I should work on having more of those.

Happy Pi Day!

 I always "celebrate" pi day. 

Usually I like do so by actually eating pie, obviously.  

But the least I do is to wear a pi day shirt.

This year I bought a new one, just for variety.  

I know, nobody NEEDS two shirts that can only be worn once a year, but now I am one of those people.

No the best picture of me in the world, but I'm trying to just be less worried about that stuff.  

No pie was eaten because 1-I'm off surgar 2-Frank didn't make one 

(you know I would have given up on the no sugar rule for a homemade pie from Frank)