Peanut Butter On My Pancakes | Whitney Beth Photography | Utah Family + Senior Photographer
 

In light of November and Dia de los Muertos I’ve been doing some pondering about my family and ancestors and what I’m thankful for. As self appointed family historian, I realized it had been awhile since I wrote down and recorded a family story. In the past I’ve recorded my parents and in-laws’ proposal stories. This time, I thought I’d write something down from my memory about my Bapa Larsen. 

My grandpa Larsen is my Mom’s dad. I am the oldest grandkid on my mom’s side and I spent a lot of time with my grandpa growing up. My Mom and Dad worked for my grandpa during the early part of their marriage. My grandma and grandpa ran Kathlen Enterprises out of their home, which meant that I spent a lot of time there as girl. In fact, that reason alone is why my siblings and I all call my grandma, Hunny (spelled like Pooh Bear’s hunny.) With just me around my grandparents, I only ever heard my grandpa call my grandma, “Honey” - so I thought that’s what her name was. 29 years later and I’m still calling her that. 

© Whitney Beth Photography

As a girl I thought my grandpa had wild tastebuds. I was always amazed at what he would eat, and find good! (Keep in mind this is coming from a very picky eater lol) I loved sleeping over at my grandparents house. In the mornings my grandma would make us pancakes and eggs or whatever else we wanted for breakfast. My grandpa would always put peanut butter on his pancakes with maple syrup. Somewhere along the way my grandpa had me try it and lo and behold, I loved it. Which was a feat in and of itself. From then on, I always had peanut butter on my pancakes. Which I didn’t think anything of until my cousin pointed something out to me at my grandpa’s celebration of life. In February of 2020 we had a birthday party with all my family to celebrate my grandpa who had passed away a few months prior. My cousin, Jeanette asked me if I remember telling her that she needed to eat her pancake with peanut butter? She proceeded to tell me that, when we were kids, I told her she needed to eat them with peanut butter because Bapa did. It was a nice, friendly reminder of my grandpa. Especially since I had inadvertently been doing it for as long as I can remember and was such a perfect reminder of my grandpa.