Our first hurricane came in soon after we moved in, it was terrifying! Our first couple of church meetings were hurricane prep and I’m not sure if that is the correct venue to be introduced to hurricanes. It was a dump of information that left me feeling more lost and scared. Kind of like when you are pregnant with your first child and every likes to tell you their birth horror stories. I also didn’t understand how the media hypes up hurricanes for CLICKS. But at the same time that hurricanes can hit and be catastrophic. Not only the storm but the flooding and power outages and lack of food and it being during high heat days and AND AND!!!!

So we ended up not evacuating and it ended up being fine, but you question your decisions either way the entire time. Lots of worry! When there were hurricanes (we lived ten minutes from the coast) the girls and I did “hurricane sleepovers” where everyone slept in our room. Candy, movies, games, etc. while crossing fingers that no trees came down on us. Who knew reading flooding/tide/power outage reports is something I would learn how to do. You feel relieved and at the same time awful that the hurricane DIDN’T hit you, because it just meant it hurt and damaged other people further or farther up the coast.

The ONE bright spot of hurricanes is conch shell collecting right after. If you go to the beach the water & wind has stirred up so many huge shells. The treasures we found we ended up mailing to everyone we missed in Utah.

In front of the garage with their favorite outfits:

And our annual first morning of school Belgian waffle breakfast!

p.s. words from women relatives

Linda

When I was a young girl none of my church friends went to the same school as I did.  That was sad for me but I looked forward to seeing them at church and at Mutual.  At about the age of 14 years, my friends chose not to attend Mutual anymore.  However their parents didn’t know that. All of our parents would drive us to the church, drop us off and then return later in the evening to pick us up.  When my girlfriends were dropped off they would walk through the building and go out the other side and some would walk over to the corner and hang out while a couple of the girls would go get in the cars of their older boyfriends who had driven over to see them.   This left me the only girl in the class with our teacher.  That was very awkward for me and very frustrating to sit there and get a lesson while I knew my friends were laughing and having fun.

 They would often try to coax me to skip out with them.  They would even tease me for being such a “goodie girl”. As much as I would have preferred to hang with them, I knew that my parents trusted that I was in Mutual.  Sometimes I felt pretty angry with the situation but I knew that what I was doing was the right thing.  There have been many times in my life that I have had to make hard and embarrassing decisions to do the right thing.  I am glad I learned that when I was a young girl.

Frances

When Great-grandma Brown had two young boys she decided she needed to divorce her husband for the benefit of her little family.  She had to work to be able to take care of them.  She got a job in a different state in Idaho working in the train station.  Since she had no money and no way to take care of her two young boys, she left them with her mother.  She missed them very, very much.  I don’t remember how long she had to do that but she met Great-grandpa Brown and they got married.  Just before they got married, when she was planning on bringing her boys to live in Idaho, her mother died.  I think that was very hard for her to leave her boys, go to another state and try to earn money to take care of her family and then lose her mother.  She was a very strong woman and did whatever it took to get the job done.  I loved her.

Helen

About 58 years ago grandpa Willden was diagnosed with Cancer.  It was just before your Moms aunt Susan was born.  When we would go into the hospital they would ask

who was the patient.  It was a hard time because the doctors didn’t think he  (Grandpa )would make it and if he did they didn’t think it would be for long.  We were told that we should never

have any  more children.  We followed our Heavenly Father and received so many marvelous blessing.  We had 5 more children and now Grandpa will soon be 85 and we

have been married almost 60 years.  Just moving forward, following the Spirit helps us be strong and miracles always happen daily.

Love Grandmother Willden

Jeanne

After all 4 of my children were out of the home, I went back to school.  Almost all of the students were younger than I; in fact I sat next to one of Paul’s good friends.  I took a number of classes just because they sounded like fun.  The one class I needed to get my AA degree was an English class.  I dreaded it because I didn’t like writing about myself, but I finally did. and got an A in the class.  I had graduated from high school as Valedictorian so it wasn’t because it was hard and I didn’t want to go the graduation or make a big deal out of it; I just wanted to do it.  I didn’t go on but took some Adult Education classes instead; I had other responsibilities that I wanted to do.    One of my biggest frustrations now in getting older is my memory loss.  Each age has it’s challenge.

Rebecca

I am going to tell you about when Rex was sick. I bet you remember that he had a hard time growing when he was a baby. He had to go to the hospital a couple times, and there was even a scary ambulance ride. I know you know your parents love you sooooo much, so I know you can imagine how much I loved my little Rexy baby. It was very hard that he was so sick and didn’t get better for a long time. 

At first, I didn’t feel strong. Rex’s doctor yelled at me and spoke rudely to me when he saw how sick Rex was the first time. I cried, and then spent a few days trying to get Rex to eat. He didn’t eat enough and he got even sicker, so we had to take him to the hospital. When I saw the doctor again, he yelled at me again. But this time, I felt stronger because I had spent those days praying and getting encouragement from my mom and your mom and Ryan and my friends. 

So I put on my mama voice and said, “You cannot talk to me that way. I am trying to help my son.” He apologized for being rude and began to work WITH me, instead of bossing me. 

This happened in lots of situations. Lots of doctors wanted to boss me around, and I had to firmly tell them they were out of line. Do you know how I got the courage to stand up to them? I spent a lot of time praying for Rex and studying about the things he was experiencing. Little by little, Heavenly Father would give me help and information. Little by little, he would tell me I was on the right path or to try something new. This made me feel very strong so that when I went to doctors, I knew if the doctors were right or not, and I could change the conversation to one that would help Rex. 

Eventually, I even became strong enough to fire the mean doctor and find a new one. The new one listened to me and worked with me, and helped me to feel my strongest. Together, we figured out how to save Rex. It took many months and lots of doctors  until Rex was all the way better. But through it all, I learned to trust my instincts. I learned to stand up when someone was being unkind to me. I learned to tell a doctor I didn’t think she was right and to work with her to find something better. This was all very hard for me, but now when one of my children are sick or when things aren’t fair at school, I am very good at speaking up for them. Heavenly Father helped me learn to trust that I know what I’m talking about. 

We all have that thing inside that tells us when things aren’t right. It’s very hard to pull it out sometimes, but it’s always there. You will have lots of experiences to help you listen to it. Sometimes you won’t listen, like when the doctor first yelled at me and I cried. But if you learn from those times, you’ll know how to listen the next time. And each time you listen, you’ll get better and better at it. Listening to ourselves is part of what makes us stronger. I love you girls!

Sarah

I can do hard things

High school made me so nervous. For months everyday I would be so worried about who I would sit with at lunch, talk to in class, worry if I would get bumped off my seat on the bus. Daily I would let my worries make my body feel sick. I finally found a true friend that wouldn’t ditch me her name was Brooke. One night it was the homecoming football game I wanted a friend to go with badly. I called a few friends and asked if they were going. Sadly no one invited me to go with them. I got down on my knees and started crying and praying and then the phone rang! My neighbor Brooke called and invited me to go to the game with her. She helped me so much by being my friend! It was hard getting on my knees with a broken heart and pleading in with God for a friend. It made me see how He is with us. I can go hard things with God.

Sharon

When I was about eleven or twelve, my mother so wanted me to learn how to play the piano.  A very good friend of hers let us keep an extra piano at our house. So one day the piano arrived!  I was so excited to start learning how to play the piano.  My teacher was my mother’s good friend that let us borrow her piano – Joyce Elsberry.  She was a tough teacher!  But I learned so much.  

I would ride my bike to my teacher’s house each week.  I loved playing the piano and even liked practicing!  I eventually learned how to play all the Primary songs and Hymns.  As time passed, my life got busier and I decided to stop taking piano lessons.  I graduated from high school and then attended Brigham Young University.

At BYU I was asked to play the piano in sacrament meeting. I said okay, but I had never played the piano in public. I was scared to death!!  I was so nervous, my hands would shake, and my eyes would tear up and I could not read the music.  The first few months were pure torture for me and everyone attending sacrament meeting, as I stumbled through the music each time I played.  But, I got better over time.  But I did not enjoy playing for sacrament meeting. 

Many years later, I was asked to be the pianist for Primary.  By this time I was a mom of three little girls!  Well, I thought I guess they must be desperate, so I agreed to play the piano for Primary.  I was so out of practice and could only play the easiest Primary songs out of the songbook.  But the chorister was so nice and patient with me. Thankfully, by this time we had our own piano and I could practice the Primary songs at home.  Well, a new chorister was called to Primary, and she was tough!! She pushed me to play better.  And this time I was determined to do well. I think part of it was, I loved being in Primary – hearing the children sing brought such happiness to my soul!

I wanted to improve my piano skills, so I started taking piano lessons again as an adult.  I would bring Bryan to my piano lessons and he would play with fun toys during my lesson.  This worked quite well, but then along came Jonathan and then it just got too complicated.  But I kept playing the piano a lot!  As I was asked to play the piano in our little branch in Edgewood, Maryland.  I was finally comfortable playing in public.  And I also was the ward pianist in our ward in Texas.  

And I even started teaching other children how to play the piano in our neighborhood. And taught Vanessa, Sarah and Laura how to play the piano.  Playing the piano has brought a lot of joy to me in my life.  I think I have forgotten how much!  And I need to start playing again – I am so out of practice!  I think it will be like starting all over again.  

But I learned, that through consistent practice and determination I could overcome my fear of playing for others.  Some things just take time and hard work!

Carolyn

My mother was the first in her family to graduate from college.  She worked so hard to accomplish this goal.  Her mother, Genevieve and her Aunt Phyllis, encouraged her and helped her in any way they could.  She graduated from Brigham Young University as an elementary teacher.

This accomplishment meant a lot to Carolyn and she mentioned it often.  And she encouraged others to get their educational degree.  

She went on to teach school for two years, while her husband Paul Richard Rencher finished school.

Mount Pleasant, South Carolina!

It is weird to be writing about our first few weeks there because after being there two years we actually moved again. So I am sitting and writing down our memories from two years ago 2808 miles away!

If I am being honest and stern with myself, South Carolina never had our full selves and go at it. Other than our wonderful dance studio and our fun next door neighbors. We struggled. A lot. We moved to South Carolina for Tyler’s health and it did the trick. He healed his body in many ways during our time there. But the girls and I did not want to move and leaving Utah they would all say is still the hardest thing they’ve done. So some of our memories there have a lot of sadness and stress. If you read about our time in South Carolina it will be very mixed.

Lets see if I can think back on our first impressions in our first few weeks.

*The forests and swamps! The forests felt familiar and at home to me, I grew up in the East in the middle of forests. The swamps were a new thing! Signs warning you of alligators everywhere AND insects the size of rats! Shae got a bad insect bite just a couple days after moving and it took awhile to clear up.

**Hopping in the car & the beach being 15 minutes away! Beach trips are the farthest thing from a pain when you can grab just a towel or pack the car full of things and be there so fast. We made it a weekly tradition to have a Sunday walk every Sunday.

***Our home; when Tyler and I first saw pictures of it we knew it was the one. Not because it has the most square footage of all the options or because it was in the nicer neighborhood or had a layout we wanted. We just both saw it and felt it held happiness, kind of hard to describe. When we arrived we found out that next door was a family of all girls and they ended up being one of the brightest spots of our move. There was a lot of loneliness and having them next door ended up being the reason that was the home for us I believe. Our backyard was the county park and we walked it’s trails constantly. Here are a few pictures of us on our front porch. The colors of the home were really fun and one day when I custom build a home I will have a light blue porch roof!

(Girls on their way to their first day of dance, the best part of living there, at Creative Edge Dance Center)

After being there…less than six weeks we got our first taste of a hurricane scare, no not a first taste, a huge bit. Will post about that soon.

PS Also the neighborhood pools were pretty awesome too!

SLC was home to us. We knew the best bakeries at the best time of day. Museums knew our names and we didn’t miss a special exhibit. We knew the rows in the local bookstores that had our favorite items. The little boutiques where we knew right away when they had new items. I’ve certainly lived in more “interesting” cities than SLC but this is the one we knew and were in love with.

So Kim did our pictures up on top of the Wells Fargo building smack in the middle of that city that feels like home.

After getting back from Europe we had a little time left in Utah. We were staying at a furnished home near the canyons and just drove each day to see friends and family in our old neighborhood. Shae had a playdate with her favorite friend Carter. Reagan’s primary class gave her a goodbye party with sweet Trisha Linford who was such a great teacher to Reagan for quite a few years. 

Abby said goodbye to her sweet friend Ivy who was such a great neighbor and only girl Abby’s age at church. Perfect pair those two! We met Abby’s bestie Chelsea for ice cream on one of our last nights. Park playdates were in full force to say goodbye—and goodbye—and then goodbye one last time to groups of friends.

I got to have one last book club with my sweet group of friends and give them a book I chose for each of them. Little lunches, walks with old YW, and hugs at night with friends. Saying goodbye to my grandpa and grandma.

Water parks and goodbye to Alex and her family!

Late nights with select friends we were going to miss so much…

We threw a “Glow in the Dark” party for Abby & her friends. She said something to me afterwards that I will never forget, “Mom, I didn’t realize how many people loved me.”

Thankfully we got to attend by the skin of our teeth schedule wise the marriage of my cousin Nathan.

My nephew and nieces came over for one last sleepover. We had this tiny hot tub in the back and I was making fun of my sister for requiring her son to wear a life jacket when I was right there with him. Then literally a few minutes after she left he went to walk out of the hot tub and fell down the stairs. The lifejacket acted almost like a hot dog bun and he wasn’t scratched at all! Haha, it made us laugh!

Abby had to say goodbye to them early because she was off to girls camp and while she was gone they were off to a trip. Abby went to girls camp with our ward we were about to leave.

Tyler left around that time to get himself and all our things out to South Carolina while we wrapped up a few things in Utah.

Our goodbye with the Brown side broke my heart. Cameron and Lydia were the best of friends and so important to each other, so that was a hard goodbye. The other kids didn’t even really realize they were saying goodbye!

I had taken Lydia and Cameron on a special outing just the two of them before we moved. They are both huge Harry Potter fans so I took them to a local bookstore who was celebrating Harry’s birthday to the max!

I got to take my nephews out for Bruges waffles! One of our last nights together we just watched bunnies while sitting on the grass. Isn’t that wonderful how some of your favorite memories with family are such little things?

In the last week while staying at my parents the girls got to finish up quilts they had been working on with my mom.

And in our very last night we played at the lake with my family to say goodbye. It was a beautiful night!

The morning we left the grandparents gave the girls huge hugs and we were off. Boy did we cry for the first day just straight. Leaving Utah broke our hearts.

p.s. random video shots

p.p.s. we also somehow snuck in a couple days at our family’s spot, Grand America, but now I can’t remember when! but it really is the only fancy thing our family enjoys.

While staying in Liege Belgium I asked Tyler how we could NOT head on over to Luxembourg for the day. When else would we be so close to this little country?! So we did and it was such a fun experience to be there.

Walking through this country is a bit like walking around Princess Jasmine’s palace. Everything was clean, shiny, gorgeous AND EXPENSIVE! Money money money everywhere! If you are lucky enough as I am with four girls to have watched Monte Carol over and over and over, THAT is what it feels like in Luxembourg.

We went to a cute cake and chocolate chop that had many different kinds of hot chocolate that the girls chose from. We toured their visitors center which has to be the most beautiful and expensive museum or visitors center I have ever set foot in.

The views on the rolling streets were gorgeous, I am so glad we took the time to spend a day there.

For the last section of Belgium I wanted to stay on the shore; European beach towns have always looks so whimsical to me and are the setting in many of the books I love. On the way to the shore we made a stop in Gent. Then headed to Knokke & Oostende to explore that part of the country. Last stop back to the airport to head home was Bruge. It was a TON of cities we went to and we stayed in three different spots overnight. I really enjoyed seeing the country that way. That is how I would chose to travel in a new country. Ty is the exact opposite though so we have to make sure we find a good balance between the two of us.

Gent

Gent is a city that got short changed by us. My family was tired of the go go go by the time we got there and just wanted a day to relax by the beach. Gent was pristine! It felt like a fairy tale could be filmed there and I was walking around in it. We walked around a castle again, had our 7th waffle of the trip, and enjoyed looking over the canals. More beautiful street music and delicious fresh Italian food. We also walked through the creepiest church with a whale carcass hanging from the ceiling, that place had the creepiest vibe.

Knokke & Oostende

Knokke & Oostende are different towns but since I am writing this two years late I am having a hard time remembering the difference between the two. It was nice to slow down and spend some time on the beach. I love all of the colored changing rooms they have on these beaches. Also the little sheds you can rent so you can store beach things and sit under there and have a drink. We didn’t do that but a lot of the locals were. Other than the daily waffle we mainly ate at home so in each new location I did a grocery store trip. I went into a place and it took me forever to shop, when I tried to check out I realized it was a “Costco” type place where you had to be a member. Oh man that was a doosy and everyone was so exhausted.

Bruge

Bruge, Bruge, Bruge. I don’t lose it in public, ever. I am an easy going person but Bruge made me angry and now I cannot even remember if it was a beautiful city or not. It started off fine, having our last waffle, #8!

Then it was time for me to spend my money I had saved for shopping on the trip. All of these beautiful cities and I didn’t spend a cent on shopping. I had chosen a Christmas store with beautiful hand carved wood ornaments and Christmas decor. I was going to get one for parents, grandparents, our children, etc. As soon as I entered the shop I had three women following me around with the nastiest looks on their faces. I looked around to see if anyone else in the shop was receiving this treatment. Nope just me! I reminded the girls, stand very still and don’t touch anything. They are kids that are very well behaved and know how to act in shops with fragile things. I reminded them to just point and not touch anything so they could pick out their items. These three women anytime my kids pointed at something would snap; DO NOT TOUCH! To the point that I screamed at all three of them, didn’t buy one thing, and yelled the whole way out of the store at them. Hahahahahahaha. They deserved it and thats the only time in public I have acted like that. So did we like Bruge, I don’t remember. All I remember is this awful shop Kaethe Wohlfahrt in Bruges. Their things were so beautiful I almost wanted to put on a scarf, ditch the kids, forgive them and just go buy my things.

Sadly the airport was an awful experience as well. Ty went off for work to Paris and I went on my way home with the girls. They were very nit picky over the girls backpacks and tried to force us to check them. They only had one each as a carry on and were not oversized. I refused and they told me that they were going to not allow us to get on the plane. So they forced us to check them making it so we had nothing on the airplane. And when I told the guy he’d better not hold back the bags to be a prick, he totally did while we were looking through the airport windows while giving me the finger. SO YES, OKAY BELGIUM WAS WONDERFUL BUT IT FELL APART AT THE END.

Here is a video to make up for it:

After Mechelen, Brussels & Antwerp we headed east towards Liege and Spa. On the drive there we stopped by the Hallerbos Forrest and Château de Modave. This was the side of the country we preferred, the “French” side. I am not sure why, perhaps because the drive was gorgeous. Little towns, farmlands, more of what I am sure it is like to LIVE in Belgium not just visit Belgium. To hear the French language and look into people’s day to day lives was very special.

Hallerbos Forrest

Hallerbos Forrest is a place where blue bells grow and you can walk through a gorgeous blue forrest. When we arrived and walked around for quite a long time I couldn’t find any blue bells. However it was a very mystically interesting forrest, not sure why, I want to go back one day. BUT the girls started taking a million pictures of each other and then we left. I found out a day later that we had just needed to drive a bit more up the forrest and would have found all the blue bells.

Château de Modave

Château de Modave was a great pick of an old manor/castle/CHATEAU to tour in Belgium. Some places like that can be hit or miss but this one was great and we had it almost all to ourselves. We danced around in a dungeon, saw how this generation of families lived, and enjoyed the views. Reagan now wants to be a princess and I checked off another bucket list item of touring a real life castle.

Liege

Liege was my favorite city overall in Belgium with Ghent close behind. Liege is on the French side and has a mix of a big city atmosphere with more of a young crowd and at the same time old world as well. It is hard to put in exact words why I enjoyed Liege but Tyler had the same opinion.

Actually one thing for certain that made is a favorite is the best waffles in our entire trip and one of the best meals of my life. A dark chocolate and pear waffle Liege style. The bakery Une Gaufrette Saperlipopette is a dream, I still follow them on Instagram and hope to make it back there. If you do not buy something at this bakery when in this city you should be fined.

We also had another food adventure that might be the weirdest thing that has ever been said to me at a restaurant. The owner was awesome and really wanted us to have a nice time. The tables had grills in them where you grilled your meat. He recommended the kangaroo and said it was the very last he had and would have in a very long time. He proceeded to tell us that all the other kangaroo meat had been recalled because of a virus in the meat but he still had some!! Haha we did not order the Kangaroo.

Spa

Spa didn’t get a ton of our time because we decided to spend a day in Luxembourg. However we did visit Lake Warfaaz and have a simple and perfect family day. Lunch by the lake, paddling around, and a nice long walk. Another moment that embarrassed my kids happened here. Everything was in French and I had to go in the back of the kitchen and just show them what I wanted. My girls almost killed me.

If, no when I go back to Belgium one day, I will head over to this side and explore it more.

Our trip to Belgium was sectioned off into three different parts. We stayed in three different regions of Belgium in different lodging. The trip was extremely go go go but I left feeling like I had really seen a lot of the country. My sweet friend who grew up in the country helped me plan the trip which was so helpful because without it I would have been very lost in where to start. In this Part 1 I will share what we did in; Mechelen, Brussels & Antwerp.

Mechelen

 When we arrived in Mechelen we were exhausted. It was my first time really experiencing extreme jet lag and it was ROUGH! Their Saturday market was in full swing when we pulled up and we walked around for a bit. Wow; the chocolates, cheeses, olives bread, produce, crafts, and art. Farmer’s Markets are one of my favorite things and I have been to many around the country. But European ones are a whole new ball game and I hope I get to go to many more. It was wonderful to walk around a city that my friend had told me so many stories of, that was what I will remember always of Mechelen, just walking around for hours. One night at dusk we went on a walk along a canal and I saw some couples dancing in the distance. Couples from all over the city came to the town square to dance the tango together. We grabbed some gelato and just watched them. I love moments where you feel like you will never forget the magic of them. This was one of them, even more so because of delicious gelato.

Another thing I tried to do in this city was find the church that my friend was baptized in and her mother’s funeral was held in. Unfortunately it was under construction but I sent her pictures of what I could find.

Brussels 

Mechlen is very close to Brussels so we headed over for a day where I put together a chocolate tour for us to go on. At each chocolate chop the girls were allowed to buy one chocolate from the case and we did this at 8-9 spots. The Mary and then Elisabeth chocolate shops won unanimously. Waffles and Frites were eaten for a second day in a row. We embarrassingly looked for the Carpet of Flowers for much too long until someone told us we were a full month early and they weren’t even set up yet. Took a long tour in air conditioning through the Palace of Brussels. During the tour there was such a huge sister fight in the bathroom over doors that I hid in a corner of the palace and cried loudly. TRAVELING ALWAYS GO SO WELL AS A FAMILY!! Wandered through parks and found motherhood statues, which I always like to sit and look at. Even if I want my kids to not be on vacation with me anymore, haha.

Smurf, Elephant, and Manneken Pis was found as well.

I could just tour cathedrals, churches, and graveyards during trips abroad. However my family cannot do that so I felt lucky to choose one that ended up being the most beautiful of the whole trip. I feel very calm in old church buildings, you can feel the reverence for what Christ did for us very strong. The beautiful art and stained glass windows honoring him, God, Mary, and Joseph means a lot to me.

Antwerp

Antwerp to me was the most visually stunning of these three cities; we took the train in and found the Antwerp train station to be really incredible. I’ve always wanted to ride a train in Europe so I knocked off a big bucket list item. Antwerp was a wonderful place to window shop and also listen to street performers. So many talented string instruments to sit and listen to. We did a few more chocolate chops and at once I got my head ripped off for touching and trying to buy a chocolate that was not to be touched! Gah, I hate when I embarrass myself when I am traveling. I embarrassed myself four times badly on this trip. This was one of them, I will have to make sure I put the others into this post. We also walked around Het Steen castle and ate of course….more waffles and frites.

The living arrangements and car arrangements were so tiny! Everything is tiny, I felt like an annoying American for sure the entire time. So far Brussels is in the lead for their chocolate, Antwerp for it’s train station & Mechelen for it’s atmosphere. However they didn’t end up being our favorites in the very end.