#5.1 What happened in 2022
on Tue Jan 17 2023 14:52:59 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)
with Darren W Pulsipher, Paige Pulsipher,
On this episode, Darren and Paige recap the crazy year of 2022 with major surgery, COVID, three college graduations, two weddings, and constantly changing travel schedules.
Keywords
Podcast Transcript
1
Hello, this is.
Darren and this is. Page.
And this is.
Where Lemonade.
Where we talk aboutwhat happens when life through you lemons.
You make some lemonade.
Meaning some weeks it's lemons.
Yes, some weeks it's just lemons.
Yeah.
On today's episode.
We're going to unpack 2020. Two.
You're using that buzzword. I'm back.
I know how good a.
Job we're so trendy.
All right.
It's been a long time since we podcastand we really apologize for our listenersout there,but we are dedicated. It's a new year.
We're dedicated to do it every week.
This yearit's already missed the first week.
We're so sorry.
Like, yeah, people have just been,you know, I've had peoplein crisis mode because Page and Aaronhave been podcasting.
Well, you know,and you're going tofind out why we kind of stop for a while.
It's been it's been a really hectic year.
It has been a hectic year.
Should we just dive inand unpack all this stuff?
Well, yeah,
First thing to unpack is four of ourten children got engaged in 2022.
Is a busy year for engagements, right?
It was.
And two of those fouractually got married.
They did three weeks apart. Thank you.
Matthew, Indiana and Jake McNallyfor making our October as chaoticas it possibly could have been.
It was awesome, though.
It was a fabulous October.
It was fun. It was fun. Driven.
It was fun with So let's golet's just go through the year.
Is that the best way to do this?
Let's do it.
All right.
So let's say we kicked off the yearwith a little birthday celebration for me.
My birthday's in January, and pagetwo took me to Palm
Springs and I went, Huh? Yes.
I gave that trip to you for Christmas.
Right.
And I had planned you know,
I planned a little trip to Palm Springs.
I, you know, reserveda couple of shows and.
And you open it up on Christmasand you're like, what are we old?
And I knew you were going to say that.
I know these were old.
People go. To vacation. Oh.
But true. Is it true or not?
Is it true or not?
Well, actually, I think
I think a lot of old people live there.
But I don't know that a lot of old peoplego there for vacationlike we saw a lot of people our age. Yeah,
I guess we.
Saw a lot of. These were old.
You don't live there.
Oh, you know what, though?
It was a lot of fun.
We actually had a lot of fun.
It was actually a really fun place.
It was? Yeah.
There's lots to do in Palm
Springs, out in the desert.
We went on a Jeep tour in the desert.
That was really fun.
And up some slot canyons up there.
That was a lot of fun andwe went to a back door was a back door.
No VIP. Sounds really. All right.
It was a VIP. No, it was a VIP.
Behind the scenes.
Behind the scenes. There we go.
That's behind the scenes of the zooin Palm Springs,which was really kind of coolbecause we had a guide for usto take us around the zooand we got to go in other placesthat people didn't get to goand we got to feed a giraffe.
It was I got. To hang out with them.
What were those walls? Wallabies.
What are those?
The Wallabies. Yeah, Wallabies. Yeah.
They're like just jumping all aroundus. Yeah.
So it was a fun trip.
That was when COVID was still a thingbecause you know, it'snot a thing anymore.
And it doesn't exist anymorebecause we're ignoring.
It. Don't you remember?
We went to the first restaurantwe went to.
They said,
Do you have your vaccination cards?
And we were like,
No, no.
I think we found them on our.
They're on our phone. Yeah, yeah.
Because we were like,
I didn't know that was a thank you.
We still had to show.
Oh, and we took the gondola.
Yeah, yeah. We went to the top ofwhatever that Piqua San Simeon.
No, no, I don't know. I don't know.
But it was pretty coolbecause we were down in the desertwhere it was 80 degrees or so,and just take the gondola up out of palm
Springs and there was no other ground.
So we took our snowgear with us and had a snowball fight.
Was fun. It was fun.
All right. So that was January.
And then in February,you decided to head off to Sedona?
I did.
I did my girls trip with Jill and Eileen.
And then I went straight from that tripto Utah for Zoe's birthday.
Which I missed this year.
Yes. They were upset with you.
I was upset. Well,this is a little problem.
Here's a tip to all of youthat have grandchildren.
Don't go to every grandchild's birthdayfor the first five or six years,because if you miss one,you're in trouble.
You get called. Out.
And I got called out by Emma.
Emma, that I wasn't there for Zoe'sthird birthday because I've been therefor all of her birthdays.
Well,
I don't think this year we're going tobe therebecause we're, we're kind of a littlewe're going there, but not for birthdays,so we're going to anyway.
So we're going to I think we're breakingthe cycle this year.
Yeah, we're going to break half of Yeah,well, but we have to be therefor Emma's eighth birthdaybecause she's going to get back to that.
That's a big deal. Definitely. Definitely.
Well, not your first grandchild,
I guess you spoil them.
That's right.
And then in February, drumroll.
Paige had.
Surgery.
I had my big surgery,which we've we podcast did about this,but this is just a little rundown.
But yeah, so I had my part of my colontaken out that was super fun.
And I got some white hairduring the month of February and March.
But we You're welcome.
I hit our deductible.
Nice. Yes, you did. You get her medical.
So the rest of the year was just cake.
And I was. Like. Yeah.
So doing it was, you know, itwasn't, it wasn't as bad of a recoveryas we thought it was going to be.
It was actually pretty,pretty chill recovery.
And it's good now.
It was well,it was kind of a chill recovery.
It was it was tough.
It was tough for not just you.
It was tough for everyone around you, too.
Yeah. Because we were worried about you.
And then we went downto Southern Californiato go see Paige's momat the end of March. So.
And this was right at the very end ofwhen you could travel again.
So we kind ofhad your eight week recovery, and then wewe went down to Southern Californiaat the end of March to go see your momand your sister and Delon and Alex. Yep.
So that was a fun that was a fun.
I'm done with recovery time. Yes.
And just a little a quick little trip.
Yep. So and then April,
April, we saw Journey and Toto.
Oh man, that was awesome.
That was it was some friends.
That was super fun.
Oh, my gosh. That was so fun.
If you get a chanceto go see Journey in concert, do it.
Yeah, they're really good.
Oh. Awesome.
Yeah. Yeah, it's actually a lot of fun.
Toto, one of the lead guyscame out with his walker to get on stage.
He literally did.
That's just not even a joke.
And then they sat him at a piano, andhe played the piano and sang couple songs.
You know what?
They're getting oldbecause we're all good.
This goes back to Palm Springs.
We're all lonely.
Yeah, Not that old.
Oh, my gosh. Look,
I do need to get my hair.
Hair dyed.
I got a little gray coming up,but not that much.
But April was actually a busy monthfor us, too, because Andy and Jacobgraduated from BYU, Idaho.
So we drove.
We drove, didn't we?
We did.
We drove to Idaho for their.
Graduationand there was a big snowstorm, was it not?
It was a snowstorm.
It wasn't huge.
But yes, we were driving and we were.
Driving, you know, so it's a little bitof white knuckle driving for about.
Yeah, there was.
About probably 3 hours of the 12 hourdrive up there.
And then we had a bigwe had some big plans for Andyand Jacob right after their graduationfor graduation, President
Jacob and I both servedchurch missions in Brazil,
So we were pressing up our Portuguese.
We had to show off to our wives,the beautiful country of Brazil.
And so the idea was, was rightafter graduation, we would come home,we get packed.
Andy and Jacob would meet us in Houston.
I think we were flying through Houston.
So so we we left Thursday, drove to
I don't know if Wednesday, Wednesdaydrove to Idaho.
Thursday was their graduation.
We drove home.
We drove home Friday.
This is very quick trip.
You know, when we were driving home Fridayin the car.
I started.
Getting started feeling sickand we're like, oh, it's like, oh, we're.
Supposed to leave Monday.
We were supposed to leave
Monday. Saturday.
You woke up.
You were really sick.
We decided to test you for COVID.
Because Why? Because why do we do that?
We did that because at the time.
I couldn't get back into. The U.S.
We didn't have to test to go to Brazil,but we had to test to get backinto the United States.
So we tested you hadwe did like what, three or four testsbecause we're like, are we.
Surely this test is. From. Yes.
So that was on Saturday.
We were supposed to leave Monday.
So that trip was.
Off and I called Jacoband the on Sunday they were goingto fly from Salt Lake tomeet usthrough San Francisco and then head down.
And the plans changed.
So they were homeless.
They didn't have a place to livefor that week after their graduationbecause we were going to be in Braziland then they were going to go back totheir new place that they had just gottena brand new job in Austin, Texas.
What a logistics nightmare for themand for us.
So, yeah, I tested positive for COVIDand that canceled the whole trip.
Yeah.
And then three days later,you tested positive for COVID one.
Yeah, You got it.
Yep. So we had the most boring.
It was it was a little challenging.
Yeah. That week, spring break,because Sam was off.
We had made arrangements for everything.
The other kids were with their mom,which Sam went to Disney Worldwith his sisterbecause we were supposed to be in Brazil.
So we were at home.
Yeah, it was kind of a bummer week,but and we were sick,so we were kind of likelooking at each other.
Are you going to go get water for us orcan you give make some soup for.
This type of thing?
You were a lot sicker than I was.
I didn't. I didn't get it that bad.
But we ended upwe ended up at the end of that.
We going out to Bodega Bay.
Bodega Bayand doing a small little hike out thereto get out of the houseand to get into some fresh air.
It was really nice. Don't worry.
We were inside.
We were outside.
Never came in close contact with anyone.
Right?
If anyone.
We don't want to get any emailsabout this.
We were not spreading COVID, don't worry.
No, we weren't.
And I felt really bad for Andyand Jacob because, I mean, we had boughtpackagesfor river cruises and jungle cruises.
I mean, the whole. Thing,it was all planned.
It was all it was.
We had just we had started packing. And.
We'd gonefor two years without getting COVID.
And that was a major.
LEMON Oh, it was a horrible and that.
Was a really bad. LEMON Yeah.
And then we were supposed to go straightfrom Brazil to back to Utah.
We were flying straight to youto for Julianne's graduation.
That's right. And so we ended up flying.
We flew, right?
We fly.
Yeah, we flew from here.
To Julianne's graduation,which was two weeks after Jacob's.
Yeah.
So once again, we were notwe didn't have COVID anymore.
You know, not contagious and. Contagious.
We were fine. So.
So we went back to Utah for Julianne'sgraduation, which was which was lovely.
It was lovely.
And I felt bad for Jacob and Andiebecause that was her graduation present.
So we we went with the tripon a trip with themlater on in the year in November,and then not to Brazil,because that was right after I looked at,
Hey, let's go to Brazil.
Then during Thanksgiving,right after a very contested election.
I'm glad we didn't go.
There was a little bit of rioting.
And now, I mean, nowit's pretty chaotic down there.
So we're glad thatwe got to go somewhere else with them.
Which well,but I feel bad because Julianne'sgraduation present was also a tripthat we were going to do at Thanksgiving.
Yeah, with. Julianne.
But because Andie is a teacherand she only has so many days off of work,she had the whole weekof Thanksgiving off.
So we had to bump Julianne's trip a weekbecause Joanne's jobis a little more flexible.
We did bump Julianne's tripfor Andie and Jacob's trip.
So sorry, Julianne.
You've been great and very understanding.
Yeah,we'll figure out that trip, Julianne.
Yes, we will.
All right.
So that leads us through April.
What a chaotic four months.
There was a lot.
I mean, you had major surgery.
We both got COVID and we were travelingand changing travel plans constantly.
It seemed like, Yeah, yeah.
But then weyou always have to have you always haveto have something in the works.
What are you talking about?
You have to have a plan.
You have to have a trip planned aheadso that you can say,
Oh, I'm looking forward to something.
I you know. What?
And it can be simple.
It could be a simple, Hey,we're going to go to Mendocino Coast or.
Yes, I don't have to.
I feel like that makes me soundlike some kind of likehousewife of Orange County or something.
I don't have too housewives.
I also housewife people.
I do not have to. But you're right.
Even if it's justeven if it's just an overnight trip, onenight someplace for you and I to go to.
I mean, I do like to have somethingto look forward to.
That something doesn't have to be a big.
Trip.
It does not. But big trips are nice.
Yeah, I'm not sure why so.
And we and we just.
We'd already spent the money on a tripto Brazil, so we had travel credits.
Well, we'd also we also had travel creditsfrom other trips that we canceled.
Yeah.
With Iceland and. Yeah.
So I had to,
I had to use some, some travel.
That's right.
We had to use, we had to use thiswas for the from the Iceland cancellation.
Yes it was.
And we had to use this seven nightstay anywhere.
At a Category five hotel.
Anywhere in the world.
Anywhere in the world.
We had to use it by the end of Juneor we lost it.
Yeah, well, we're not dumb.
We're not going to lose a sevennight stay.
Oh, hello.
So. So we looked all over the world.
We did for a for a really good categoryfive Marriott Hotel.
Those are hard to find. Yes.
Because sometimes a categoryfive is like a courtyard.
Yeah. Depending on the place.
And sometimes a categoryfive is really nice.
So we found a really nice one in Portugaland that's how we ended up in Portugal.
And what a lovely trip.
And Portugal's,
I mean, that was the resort we stayedat was off the beaten path,which was kind of nice.
We had our own beach to ourselves.
The weather was absolutely wonderful.
Yeah. And the food was incredible.
You check out our check out our podcaston Portugal.
In fact, we even podcast it from Portugal.
We did. That's right.
So you can see me.
I was all burntbecause we went to the beach. Mm.
Because your skin's like, transparent.
I put sunscreen like a vampire.
A sun hits themand it's like burn immediately.
But now. So yes, Portugal was lovely.
And then another tripto Utah for Mitchell's first birthday.
You can't miss the first birthday,even though the child'snever going to remembertheir first birthday that we were there.
Oh, but the other kids remember. Yes.
So I got back in the good graces of Emmabecause I showed up for Mitchell'sbirthday. Yes.
Yes, you did. So, yes,
Another trip to Utah.
And then July we stay home. Finally, we.
Stayed home and we had a lot of visitorscome to us, which was great.
So the joy was fun.
People came and visited family.
We needed a breakfrom running around and visiting kids.
And so and then right before schoolstarts in August,we decided to take the threeyoungest kids,which are now not little kids anymore.
My goodness, they're huge.
All grown up.
Now to 116 year oldand to 17 year olds now.
Yeah,we took them to Alcatraz to drop them off.
They wouldn't keep them.
They wouldn't keep them.
No, no.
So, yeah,that was a fun trip to San Francisco.
We went to Alcatraz and Chinatown,and that was fun.
We were there during oneof the one of the moon festivals,
I think, which was kind of fun.
It was fun.
So. So hanging out in our local areawas always, always good.
And it doesn't cost that muchto head over toeither. Oldtown SAC or San Francisco.
It's kind of fun. It's very cool.
And then let's see, September
I had a girls trip withsome of our daughters,so a couple of our daughter in law didn'tweren't there for the trip,but we got to go.
We were It all came aboutbecause of Josephand his amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
My kids growing up.
We watched that with Donny Osmond.
If you haven't seen it,go watch it, Donny.
You didn'twatch it. You're obsessed about it.
Just tell the truth. Yes.
And my kids, my daughters especially,have goodmemories and have it all memorized.
And so we saw that it was going in to thewhat'sto a con to account theater in St George.
So we decided with our kidsthat live there in Utah,we the girls, we had a little weekendin Saint George hiking and.
Well, this was this was right beforethe two weddings that we had in October.
Yeah.
So it was kind of nicebecause you got to spend some timewith your futuredaughter in law a little bit more.
Makayla was there, so that was super fun.
We had a great time. That was awesome.
So in October.
October, boy, you kids,it was funny because they said, Well,dad, we're we're almost having onein September and one in October.
So it's really two months.
It was three, three weeks apart.
They were three weeks apart.
But yeah,so a wonderful trip out to Georgia.
My gosh, Matthew and Anna's wedding.
Gorgeous. Oh.
Oh, that was.
That was almost a lemonadeor illuminate moment.
Oh, yeah. We were worried about the rain.
Because there was a hurricanethat came up the Gulfand the remnants of that hurricanewere hovering over Georgia.
And we were literally looking at the rainevery day.
It was an outside wedding.
It was a great venue.
Just this cute, oh, plantationhome, just wonderful.
But it wasn't big enough for everyoneto come inside for the wedding.
So we were trying to find other venues.
I was calling all over the placeto church buildingsand Marriotts and and convention centers.
Everything was booked solid, so.
We just prayed. A lot of praying went on.
And it ended up being a beautiful dayand absolute.
Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous day.
And then three weeks later,we had Jacob McKinley's wedding herein the Sacramento area.
And two days before their wedding,it once again an outsidewedding at our friend's propertyin Lincoln and.
Down.
Rain was expected for their wedding.
We're like, seriously?
But that's Mother Natureteasing us here in California.
Yeah. And we didn't at once again,we didn't have a backup.
You think we would have learnedour lesson? But there was no backup.
We were just praying once againand beautiful day like that.
So, yeah, we could have fretted about itand but we didn't.
We, we said, Hey, it's going to be.
We said, if all else fails, we can bringeverybody here to our house and.
Eat. Food, eat food.
But yeah, it all worked out great.
It was bothweddings were absolutely lovely.
And we got to New Daughter in law's.
It was.
Oh, they're great.
They're great women.
Yep, they are.
I love calling them daughter. Yeah.
And they each bring their own uniquenessto the family, which is wonderful.
It's exciting.
They are fabulous.
Oh, and then November.
I love November.
I rarely saw you in November.
Y footloose, baby.
I got to cut loose.
Footloose. All right, so, Sam, ourninth child, right?
And the one that's with us
He was Willard in the play.
Footlooseat the musical, Footloose at school, at.
His high. School, at his high school.
And there is one personthat made every singleevery singleperformance except for onepage. I went to every single performance.
What do you. I thought you missed one. Oh.
No, I did not.
I went I went late to when I was like,
Oh, you want to play?
I went to every scene.
Everyone who didn't make it to everyone.
You didn't make it to everyone.
I went to three. Yeah.
What do you mean?
Who didn't make a difference?
No, someone made it.
Except for one was a marilyn.
No, David. David got.
Sick. No, He missed the last.
He missed the last twobecause he was sick. Yeah, He's.
Trying to make it to everyone.
And Sam stole the show.
Oh, he did. He was so. Good. Awesome.
It was sohe was the comic relief in the play. He.
He had such great stage presence.
It was. He was so good.
Check out our YouTube channel.
Will put up some clips of the showup there.
He was fine.
I was shocked.
I was like, That's my little Sam up there.
He was stealing the crowd.
Oh, man.
He foundhe found his his calling with that.
He loved being on stage.
You know,he knew how to work the audience.
It was it was wonderful.
It was great.
So, yeah, that was thethat was the middle of Thanksgiving lot.
And heof course, we hadn't seen Sam for a monthbecause he'd been practicingand rehearsing the play.
And then and then we headed on a wonderfultrip, the graduation trip for
Andy and Jacob to no other than
Amsterdam.
Now, I said, Guys, really,
You want to go to Amsterdam in November,
Amsterdam and Germany and Brussels?
And I said, It's going to be cold and wet.
And Paige said,
And there's Christmas markets there. Yes.
Which was a tripthat we had planned to Christmases agothat we had to cancel because of.
COVID. Hit COVID.
So I didn't even know when theywhen they firstsaid they wonbecause we said, pick your second trip.
If we're not going to Brazil,where is your second place you want to go?
And Andy really wanted to go to Amsterdamand Germany, and I was like, okay, great.
And then I start like, you know, Googling,what should we do?
And I'm like,
Oh my. Gosh, Christmas market.
So and then once Andy found out there were
Christmas markets, there was nothing
I could do to convince him to go to Hawaiior Puerto Rico or some warm place.
Nope.
Instead, we got on our rain gear and our.
It wasn't too bad.
The weather wasn't too bad.
It was chilly a few days and it rained.
It didn't rain as much as we thought.
We had to bundle up. Yeah,we had to bundle up.
But Christmas markets. Oh, my goodness.
They know how to do it in Germany.
In Korea, incredible Christmas markets.
So much fun.
So we we went to several several places
Amsterdam, Cologne, Germany,
Brussels, Belgiumand and a couple other small towns Bruggeand get into a wonderful trip with themand we got to spend some time with Andy,our daughter in law, who we're continuingto get to know and love even more now.
It was great.
And if you are planningon going to Christmas markets in Europe,give us a shoutbecause they are not all created equal.
No, they are not.
In fact, check out our YouTube channelwhere you're going to see somesome travel logson on the Christmas markets.
So and the highlight ofit was Felice Navidad in German.
You got to check out that podcast.
That was pretty funny.
All right, December,how could we keep traveling?
We had to go watch the grandkidsin December and to meetmy future son in law.
Yes. Yes.
So our sweet little Julianne fell in loveand got engaged.
Well, he was he wanted to talk to me.
And I said, okay,where we go up and watch the grandkids forwhat was that, three days or so?
Yeah, four days.
I got to spend some time talking to Boyd,who is Julianne's fiancee, wherehe asked me if he could marry my daughterafter I talked to him for a while.
It was wonderful. He's a great guy.
And and then we left it at that.
And then he calls us up afterwardsand says,
I want to propose to her on Christmas Day.
Because that was her childhood dreamto get proposed to on Christmas Day.
So he wanted to surprise herbecause he had toldshe was coming home for Christmasand he had said, I can't go with youand I can't go to my parents housefor Christmas because I have to work.
And so he wanted to surprise herso that was that was kind of a nightmare.
Poor guy.
He was flying in on Christmas Eve nightand then he was going to be hereonly for Christmas Day, surprise her,and then fly back the next day.
He was in the middle of that southwestnightmare.
It wasn't just Southwest the first day,but it turned into a nightmare.
So, yeah, his first card, his first flightwas canceled on Christmas Eve.
And then he called me up and said,
Well, I'm not going to make ituntil Christmas Daybecause we had it all arrangedwhere he was going to do it,and we were going to,you know, get Julianne therefor some lame excuse that we made up.
And then he called me and said,
I got to push the time.
I got another flight for Christmas Dayand I'm not going to get inuntil like 11 or 12.
And so we arranged all thatand I hung up the phoneand tried to make some arrangements.
He called me back.my Christmas flight was canceled, too.
He said, I'm getting on a trainfrom Salt Lake Cityto Folsom, California, to Sacramento.
Yeah.
He hopped on the train at like midnightand got here at 3 p.m.the next dayand came here, showered, changed and and.
At 4 p.m.proposed to Julianneat Temple Hill in Sacramento.
It was wonderful.
I hid in the bushes.
I got some great pictures which I willpost the couple on our Facebook site.
You can see those.
I also I was I was hiding inthe bushes, taking pictures.
Not creepy at all.
Not creepy at all.
And then I hopped out of the bushesand scared Julian a little bitand then tooksome real good pictures of them.
And then you leftbecause they want to be alone.
I sat on the bench with them fora little bit to talk to him a little bit.
Now, I left. He did. Not. I ran away.
So as you can see, it was a crazy 2022.
It was.
And there were a lot of there werea lot of lemons thrown at us, frankly.
Yes. The surgery was probably the biggest.
LEMON The COVID.
Cold. The biggest.
LEMON Yeah. We got a little kind of down.
Yeah, we did.
We did. Buttwo weddings, four engagements.
Next year, we got two weddings down,and Alex are getting marriedand Julianna Boyd are getting married.
So we've got andthey're not a month apart, which is great.
Yes, they're several months apart,
But, um,so we're very excited to get more in-lawsin our family, too.
Son in laws.
We're very, very excited.
We love both of them very much.
And we plan on making a lot of lemonadethis year,hopefully not as many lemons this year.
Hopefullythis will be a a little bit easier year.
But we must have we makea lot of lemonade.
If you like today's episode.
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And but most of all.
Go out, make some lemonade.
You bet your baby.