A Little More Utah

Between the family lunch and wedding reception, we snuck over to my cousin's house for a couple hours to catch up and see my aunt and uncle as well.

It had been way too long !

My dad's twin sister is one of only two of his siblings left. 

We had a great visit with all of them.

After the wedding, we still had two days to spend with family up in Utah. 

We went to a park to meet up with my brother and his kids.

Played a little pickleball. It was a first for Daddy-o and I, and unfortunately, didn't end well for Daddy-o. He was trying to take it easy since his ankle is still not 100%, but must have been favoring his left leg because he ended up pulling or snapping something in his right leg. He heard a loud sound and felt instant pain. He was gobbling pretty badly for a couple days, but can still walk, even if he can't drive.

We spent New Year's Eve at Uncle Jeff's place, 

playing card games, Jackbox games, 

watching fireworks in the backyard, and eating way too many treats and snacks. It was so fun.

And then, we went over to Cam's house for New Year's Day--had brunch, and played more games, and exchanged Christmas presents.

We love all the time with cousins.

We love seeing these kids!

And even got to talk to Bug while we were there, so he got to see everyone, too.

Even though there is a pretty big age span between all of these cousins, they have so much fun together.

And we got to do another Christmas!

This cute girl loves opening gift bags! And she has the best facial expressions when she sees what's in the bag.

We got the kids some fun gifts, but maybe the most fun thing was leaving behind almost 100 tiny plastic ducks, hidden all over their house. Just before we left, they started finding them, and then, when they realized what we had done, the kids went crazy looking for them. I think they will be finding those things for a very long time, haha.

Friday morning, it was time to drive home. We got lucky with the weather--mostly blue skies with only a little rain in the beginning and end, but no snow, despite the storms on both sides of us. It's a long drive, but Bean and I did it (so glad she was with us! I hate doing that drive alone.) 

Cousin Wedding #4

We made the drive to Utah for another wedding--our 4th one for Daddy-o's nieces and nephews in 16 months, 3rd one in Utah.

The roads were clear, but there was still a lot of snow from the last storms, which was beautiful through the Sierras.

It's a long drive, and we've done it a lot lately. We filled a chunk of the time playing a game with all of Bug's Spotify lists (just because he couldn't be with us didn't mean we didn't get to include him, haha.) I played songs from his different lists and Bean had to guess what the playlist was called. She's the only one familiar enough with his lists to have an idea of what he named them all, but she was pretty good at it. And she and Daddy-o are both excellent at knowing the song name and artist within the first few seconds. It helped the long drive across Nevada go by a little quicker.

And the next day, we got to celebrate the happy couple. They got married in the Provo City Center Temple in the morning, and it was COLD. We're not used to winter like this, but luckily the sun felt good and we didn't have to wait too long for them to come out.

And then we got to move indoors.

They had a family luncheon, and then the reception that night, in the ballroom in the Provo Library, which is a gorgeous building and such a great spot for a celebrations.

So happy for these two!

These two cousins have loved all these weddings. Peanut didn't remember ever going to a wedding until the first one last September, but he's a pro now! 

They get up to all sorts of shenanigans, playing hide and seek in the venues, dancing, eating way too many sweets. It's fun.

We love getting to interact with all of these kids.

They all have so much fun.

And this time, we had a new great-niece to meet! 

The first couple to get married last September now has a sweet little girl in their new family. She's precious and it's really fun to see our extended family expanding with new spouses and kids.

And she has a lot of dotting aunts!

Christmas 2025

It felt a little weird only setting up gifts for 2 kids (and 4 adults--real adults, haha) this year. It also felt easier than normal, maybe because we didn't have any crazy big gifts that we had to manage.

But the gifts they got went over big. Peanut got a starter D & D kit--with modules, dice, books, and I don't know what else. After several years of having at least one kid playing, I still don't quite understand D & D.

And Bean was really happy with all of her new rock climbing gear, including these new shoes. She now has a harness, carabineers, and rope, so she's ready to go climb outdoors! 

We took a break midmorning for cinnamon rolls and quiches. For some reason, our Christmas mornings seem to take longer and longer each year. Maybe breakfast is less rushed, or the kids want to really examine each gift.

This year we had added breaks for calls with Bug. He called us first in the morning for a few minutes before he was headed into his Christmas party for the missionaries. He tried to call us from the party a little later, but it was too loud and we couldn't hear, so we told him to go have fun and call us that evening.

So we got to talk to him a third time later in the day. It sounded like he had a good Christmas, even if it didn't feel quite normal. He and his companion had gotten a basket of food and treats from their ward at a party a couple of days earlier, and so he stuffed a few of the goodies in his companion's stocking for that morning, which is not a tradition in Brazil, but he thought it would be fun to share one of his Christmas traditions with him. He's enjoyed seeing what the holidays are like down there.

All in all, it was a good Christmas, if a little weird not having Bug with us in person.

 

Quick Birthday Trip

After I finished teaching on Wednesday, I caught a flight to Utah to celebrate my mom's birthday with her. We mostly just relaxed and talked all day, and then went to dinner with both of my brothers. We realized that it may be the first time as adults, or at least since I got married, that it's been just us--the OG McClellan group. We always have kids or spouses with us, and as much as we love all of them and want them around, it was kind of neat, too, to be together like that.

And Cam's family came to the house afterwards so we could sing happy birthday and have pumpkin cheesecake (or ice cream for the crazy people who don't like cheesecake, which is half of Cam's family.)

And then I got a bonus birthday celebration with my sweet niece because her birthday is the next day!

I love my nieces and nephews and don't get enough time with them, so it was really fun to be there for this.

These two crazy girls had a lot of fun with the balloons,

sometimes a little dangerously.

But mostly just fun.

R. was hilarious with the gift opening. She was so expressive with her disbelief at each amazing gift she got--especially her favorite treats, like mint lifesavers, chick-fil-a sauce, and pirate booty. She'd look in the bag, and then throw her head back in shock, and then start to smile. It was so cute.

And. . . more cheesecake! Although R only ate ice cream, but she REALLY likes her ice cream. We finished up with a rousing game of Yahtzee and then I flew home the next day. And despite the flight cancellations to work with the (still going) government shut down, I got lucky and made it to Oakland a few minutes early. 

It was a fast trip, but so worth it to have the time with family!

 

Saying Goodbye

The last couple of weeks have been a slow goodbye to Bug as he made final preparations for his mission. Bean flew home for the weekend and we went to the pool for one final dinner and swim,

and Bean decided that she needed to illustrate all the adventures that Bug is going to have on his mission--sad Bug as he watches someone surfing,

celebrating Carnivale (haha--guess this is why they pretty much lock them up for two weeks during that time.)

Being chased by a flock of birds,

hanging over the Amazon (which isn't actually in his mission area),

being attacked by a monster,

and saving his companion who forgot his parachute.

She was cracking me up with all of these, which will hopefully not be true.

Bug's farewell talk at church was great and we appreciated having family join us for the day.

Always love a chance to get the cousins together.

Bug had all his grandparents there, plus a couple of uncles.

Bean had to say goodbye this weekend, too.

She stayed to see him set apart that night, and then headed back to school Monday morning.

I wish we'd gotten a family picture--I don't know why we didn't, but we're so bad at getting pictures when we're all together.

And then, Bug had a week of home Missionary Training Center--lots of online classes all day long where he started learning Portuguese and how to be a missionary, and we got to see him for meals and short breaks (and getting in a final back cracking--hope he has companions who can do this for him!)

He played the piano for us a few more times (and practiced playing with the kazoo, too, haha. I don't think he'll be taking that with him.)

Saturday was his preparation day, which was mostly spent watching General Conference, 

but we did sneak in a walk at Sycamore Grove between sessions. 

Conference means all types of good food--and we've been making all Bug's favorites, too. Cinnamon rolls, German pancakes, french toast, tacu bowls, gnocchi, and salmon with grilled peaches and onions. We've been eating way too much good food!

And then, it was time to say goodbye for real. We had to be at SFO by 6 a.m., but even Bean woke up early enough to do a video chat with us at the airport.

I'm so grateful for technology that lets us be together even when we're not. It's going to help these next 2 years not be any harder than they already will be.

Had to get a photo of these two because I'm pretty sure that Peanut is going to change quite a bit before Bug sees him again.

Brothers

I love that these pictures all just show Bug's face and how excited he was.

I promise that the rest of us were not smiling quite as big. May have been a few tears shed.

But this kid is ready for this. And we're so glad that he gets to have this experience.

And so glad that he was willing to indulge us with a few waves as he walked away. I think we're going to miss him a lot more than he misses us.

And again, with the technology--he had a long day of travel, but called us the next afternoon/evening to let us know that he made it and was getting settled into the training center where he'll be living for the next 6 weeks. He will be able to call home one day a week and keep us up to date on everything he's doing which will be really nice, for us, and for him to be able to share the adventure with us as it's happening. 

And now, we're back to having our family spread across 2 different continents! If Bean ends up in Switzerland for grad school in the next year or two, we're going to be really far flung!