Little Cottonwood Creek and Trail

I went on a morning walk this morning, and it was sooo lovely. 

Oh, this canyon makes me feel so happy!

My heart was full and singing with "I love life!" and "I love this world!!" I teared up looking at this rock with it's drill holes -

...as I thought of the work and sacrifice that went on in this canyon years ago to create the Salt Lake Temple. Working for their God, sacrificing for future generations, so we can be sealed to our families forever. The creek is so amazing ~

...the flowers are so cute and lovely ~

it's just heaven. Sigh, I love where we live, I love nature, I love the sound of the water, I love the shaded path ~

I just love everything today.

Me thinks I should go on a walk up here everyday.

After an hour of walking and telling myself "just a little bit more" I decided it was time to turn around and hurry home.

Walking back down the canyon -

I was feeling so happy that I thought even the dandelions should be represented and appreciated for their contribution to the world.

The symmetry is a redeeming quality. But know this, if you show up in my yard, you're dead.

Tiny tiny white flowers!

So after 2 hours of being on cloud 9, I headed home with plans to bring the kids up later today to show them the wonderland I discovered. Good news is - I found a short cut and a very close place to park - so we could park and then be on the the shaded trail. We headed up the canyon around 7pm  - Mel, Wesley, Natalie, Owen and Daniel. Bad news - it was evening time and the mountain bikers were heading home - many of them coming down the mountain VERY fast. So there was a risk that if I wasn't diligent and constantly on alert, one of my toddlers might get run over, which took away somewhat from the relaxing nature walk I envisioned for us. Still, it was great. Wesley discovered this granite rock with a ton of drill holes in it, I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it this morning, wow! I'm guessing this was the practice rock back in the quarry days?

Mel took one look and was ready to throw up.

(She's got trypophobia. I first learned about that from Stephanie Nielsen, funny post) Daniel wanted to poke his fingers in the holes.

So fun. Owen wanted to put little broken sticks in them. But he was mostly entertained by throwing rocks into the river, followed by giving a "Woo-hoo!" cheer to himself.  Natalie was proud of how big she was, she can hold a BIG stick! She had it over her head like Atlas, but my phone camera wasn't quick enough -

Owen's turn to put sticks in the big rock in the background there. It was such a huge rock. So cool.

I've decided next Saturday our summer tradition begins - "Morning hikes with Mom!" It's gonna be great. 

Wesley's SBO Video

Wesley made it past primaries in his bid for the governorship at his junior high. Getting past primaries means you get to do a video. Corey needed to get work done over the weekend, so I volunteered to help Wes do the video on Saturday. With Joseph and Wes helping me, we wrote out a script that was a long the lines of following the "Yes to the Dress" theme. I did the video recording, narrating, we called some friends to come over to help play the parts of the faculty, 6th and 7th grade. We had it all done I thought, so we just needed to have Joseph edit it, which he agreed to do. Corey checked in on the video status several times during the day and I reassured him that I had it under control "I got it, don't you worry!" but then, Sunday night.... Wesley had misplaced his copy of the rules. At a Mother's Day bbq on Sunday night, his cousin, who also goes to Churchill, told us about a few details that she knew about from helping another friend with their video. And that was when Wes learned that we had not followed the requirements by having a few people in the video that were not Churchill students. So, great, what do we do now? It was Sunday night, and his video was due Monday morning. Wes was in a panic, I threw up my hands, I'm not good at this stuff anyway (I admit the video we shot didn't live up to how clever it was in my mind) Anyone got a plan B? Joseph? Eth? Anybody able to help Wesley out? I took care of little kids and we all went to bed, Corey said that he would take Wes to school after helping him in the morning. (So much for Corey not having to worry about it!) I woke up Wes in the morning at the regular time and he and Corey worked away on it - they ended up spending most of of the day searching the blog for pics (I guess that is my positive contribution to this, yay) filming, and editing. They finished around 2 pm and Wes went and caught the last part of the last class period (sluffer!). Corey made a few small changes to the video yesterday, so this might not actually be the one they show the school, but it's pretty close - here is the new edited version:

Today is the dress rehearsal, so Wesley took a thumb drive with this newer edited version on it to school and is going to see if they'll let him switch it. They show it to the school on Friday in an assembly right before voting. Good luck Wes!

Quote Blocks

I bought myself an early mother's day present - some cute stickers at Walmart. I paired them up with some wood blocks that I had on hand from the thrift store. Put them together, and I made myself some quick inspirational quote blocks!

 I'm putting them in little places all over the house where I'll see them when I need some good vibes.

At the kitchen sink by my water mug - It feels good to get stuff done! I can and I will!!! Let's make today great!!

Anything is possible! Let's do this! Dream Big! There was a pbs show on a while ago about people dreaming big - the part I remember was a man in Iraq who wanted to bring back the marshes that Saddam drained. People told him it was impossible, but he was committed. They were able to return the water, and soon, the reeds came back... Within 3 years the marsh lands had returned. He said with a confident smile: "Dream big. First of all, it's free! Second of all, it's possible."

So now I've got good quotes to keep me going through the day. I've been going on morning walks pretty consistently in this spring weather. It always helps the day get off to a good start when I go on a morning walk. Especially on days like today when I'm able to go down into sleepy hollow. A sego lily!

Hooray for the Utah state flower, so pretty!

It's four floral petals are perfect hearts. 

We have a very pretty state flower.

Say Yes

Well, it's near the end of another school year. Which means it's time for more campaigning. Wesley was inspired by his older brothers and their school spirit. He's decided to go for governor like Ethan did. This time it's Wesley's turn. Even though he had an unsuccessful "Wes We Can" run for 7th grade Mayor last fall, he's going for the lead role again, this time as student body governor.

The slogan this time around ~ Say Yes to the WES! Look at that, Wesley is a "the", like "The Donald" (ugh). Wesley is going to be "The Wes" for a week or so as he vies for votes. We had a hard time figuring out where to put the pieces on his t-shirt, and we put the words on first, thinking we wouldn't do his face at all, and then put his face near his rear end. If we were to do it again, we'd put the picture of him on top, but oh well, it'll have to do.

Good luck Wes! There are three people running for governor. Primaries are Friday, and so if he makes it past primaries, he has to do a video which is due Monday. They're cramming this in last minute, but I guess it's better than dragging it out.

One other cute moment from today - after Sophi got home from school, Natalie came running downstairs with Daniel - they both had binkies in their mouths and were saying "Goo-goo! Gaa-gaa!" Owen seemed to know they were imitating him, but he didn't take offense and goo-goo'd along with them. Silly kids. When Sophi got home from kindergarten, they opened the door (it's their chance to escape!) and she quickly joined the game by grabbing a binky too -

You guys realized that those have weeks and months of Owen's dried slobber on them, right? I guess it's good for your immune system? 

Lego Master Lily

The title of "Current Wride Kid Lego Master" was recently bestowed upon Lily.

She received this recognition for all of her work reconstructing the Lego Elves Dragons. This is something she's been working at almost everyday for weeks! Some of her siblings (and also her mother!) felt this was a nearly impossible task given that the pieces were all lost in our Lego area mess. To know the extent of that mess, refer to the link above. Last month, Lily had 2 of them done. And a few weeks later, she's finished three more!

Lily, that is pretty incredible. Lily, you're given all of us a great example of what determination and consistency will do! Her sisters were happy to have their Dragons back and they have been playing Elves for a few days, flying around the house.

Some pictures of their set up downstairs - each dragon lives in a house and with a person that matches their color.

I'm super impressed Lily, way to go. I think Lily is going to make sure they don't get broken again after working so hard to fix them.

She's still working on the one last dragon, and she's hoping to get more Elf legos soon - she's already requested the Goblin King lego set with his dragon for her birthday next month. Cause the bad guys need a dragon too, cause they have to fly pretty far to play in the lego game, as they are outcasts on the total opposite side of the basement, lol.

This is Lily this morning before I woke her up. See the toes there?

No one was in the bed with her this time, but I still don't know how she sleeps here in a toddler bed with so many stuffed toys! I guess it's possible, but you just gotta be real tuckered out from all your hard work building legos all day.

Big Wheel Racin'

Owen and Natalie were having so much fun today riding their hot wheels down the driveway this afternoon.

They rode their bikes down the driveway, then hauled them back up, over and over again. Owen would cheer to himself and me "Again! Again!" Is that fun?! "Yeah Fun!"

They were getting in a workout - Owen's face got pretty pink. Here's a video of their fun:

Other fun things from today - I took my camera on my morning walk and had fun taking pictures of this lovely world. 

Pretty little beauties from Lisa's garden~

My canyon <3 nbsp="" p="">

After my morning walk, I walked over to a meeting with some ladies in my neighborhood. The LDS church made announcements regarding visiting teaching at the last General Conference. I was the visiting teaching coordinator in our ward Relief Society, so I wasn't sure where the changes left me... or what my responsibilities now were if I was continuing in that calling. Sunday I was extended a new calling as a secretary over ministering in the Relief Society presidency. So that's fun, so we spent 2 hours over there trying to figure things out, and I've spent most of the day working on it. It's like a big puzzle, but we gave all the ladies in our ward a questionnaire to fill out and as I worked on it for a few hours and made a few phone calls, I feel like things are really falling into place nicely, I'm excited. And that's about what my day has looked like.

Kids are doing good, but they all need to do the Take Back Your Morning Challenge, cause their mornings are messy. Joseph left on time - he had seminary council this morning. The other kids were still all in bed at 8 when I got home from my walk. They need to leave at 8 on Mondays, and they were all still asleep. Better they suffer the consequences now when the really aren't that big of a deal. But ugh, it's not pretty.

One last thing - in the EJC we're starting an "Accountability Challenge". We are supposed to pick one thing that we want to work on for the next 30 days. I picked drinking 16 cups of water a day. And I'm telling myself that I have to drink 12 of those cups before I eat for the day. And I'm going to finish eating between 6-7. So drinking 16 cups of water is my doable action step to help me with what I really want to try for these 30 days, which is to do intermittent fasting. I actually started for myself on Saturday, so I'm 3 days into it and so far so good. It helps me be super productive and feeling good getting stuff done when I'm not having interruptions to prep food for myself or the long breaks to chew it all. I love my salads, but they do take a while to get down. It's been a good day and I'm loving May.

Bulk Clean Up Creativity

Well, it's that time of year again - Bulk Clean up! It's a time of year that fuels their creativity. They start scouring the neighborhood and haul all sorts of loot back to our home. No, kids, this is not what's supposed to happen right now - we're supposed to get rid of junk! Not gather more! But they can't help themselves. I am up here trying to catch up on the blog (April is way behind) and Melodie started laughing at told me to come to her bedroom window to see what her siblings were doing. They were riding down the street on a full size box spring that the neighbors put out. How did they manage that? Just put the box spring on a long skateboard, of course! Why didn't I think of that? Actually Mel and I thought "How in the world do you guys come up with these ideas?" Over the years, I've seen many box springs in the road on bulk clean up day. Not once did I think "I bet that thing will roll nicely on a skateboard." These kids got talent. They rode it down the street, but unfortunately, box springs don't have brakes. Amazingly, you just tilt it to one side and you don't even need to brake, cause the whole thing just slides right over the curb and onto the grass for a smooth landing.

The older kids had fun as they took Daniel and Natalie on a few rides. My live video wasn't the best, but I used this opportunity to do my first facebook live. Wouldn't you know, once I start a live video, they have a navigating error and had to stop cause or they would have ran into a parked car. They stop the trip down the street and move their makeshift contraption up again for another go at it. Success! They did that a few times, it was pretty hilarious. 

Sorry you have to hear me laughing, but we were all in the present moment and not paying attention to the recording other than trying to document it, all of us out in the front yard having a good time.

I love Sunday nights like this!

Tulip Festival Assassin

Joseph and Melodie had a concert tonight at Thanksgiving Point. Yay! I got to go to the Tulip Festival!

We had such a late winter and it's been such a cool spring that all the tulips were still in full bloom and looking gorgeous

Totally filled my cup.

They performed with Lexi Walker, who is such an amazing and passionate singer, wow. And to walk around the gardens before the show was just heaven.

The "Light of the World" garden was still under construction last time we had memberships, so I hadn't seen the finished product. Again, just amazing.

Thanksgiving Point is a gift to Utah, it fills me with thankgiving!! So Corey and I listened to the first half of the program, and then we got a picture (on Corey's phone, will upload later) then Corey headed home - we didn't quite trust to leave our sitters or babies alone for as long as the concert was going to last.

I walked Corey to the car so I could get Joseph's water gun, which had been misplaced by me earlier in the day. I walked around the garden more and took more pictures.

The sun was starting to go down.

 And it was getting cooler.

 And I took a few more pictures and said "you are so pretty" to a few more flowers.

None of these were with my good camera this time, just with my phone.

But I figured since I haven't done anything with my pictures from years past (2016 before and then after the hailstorm), there isn't a need for me to take a hundred pictures again. Just a few...

...cause it's just beautiful. I told Corey that we might need to retire close to Thanksgiving Point someday so that I can come and go on my morning walks around the gardens. Heaven on Earth!!

Soon it was getting too dark for photos...

So I went to the bathroom and then back to the concert.

The songs Pure Imagination and Tiny Voice touched me the most. I want to imagine and dream and follow my heart. I want to make a difference in the world, even if my voice is small.

Beautiful concert, beautiful music, beautiful smells, beautiful flowers. Heaven. After it was over, I had a funny plan to scare the bejeezus outta Joseph. He was so paranoid about his assassin being at the concert to get him it was funny. It was even more funny cause earlier in the day he had been so depressed and disheartened that there had been no attempts on him and no one chasing and it was so boring!

He was all ready to fight and to have to defend himself and... nothing.

Funny video of him being depressed~

So, to give him a good scare, after the concert, as musicians were packing up their instruments... I just walked up onto the stage and got right behind him. Locked on target....

My first shot got his jacket, then I shot again and got his neck. He looked to the side and a little behind him and I could see that he had a look of "you gotta be freakin' kidding me..." on his face, until he saw it was me, and then I was laughing so hard.

It was so funny. I got him good. He kept that gun close to him the rest of the night... we had to walk like half a mile to the car!! Will he make it!?!?

He felt like James Bond wearing his tux, lol. Bass clarinet in one hand, $3 Shopko watergun in the other... He's armed and ready!

I kept quoting the Ten Commandments scene in my head where Seti is giving advice to Ramses after Moses was presented in chains for treason: "Harden yourself against subordinates. Have no friend. Trust no woman..." lol. Joseph said his heart was still racing from my attempt on him, he's on major defense now!

Another funny thing - on the way home, Joseph texted the person that is his next target... cause he knew that his target hadn't assassinated their person and that they were going to be eliminated at midnight anyway, and Joseph thought it would be fun to have three kills, so his text went like this:

"You don't want like a cool death?" So funny.

So great date night tonight. We didn't go out last night because Corey was at youth conference up at Aspen Grove with the young men from our ward. And I was at Joseph and Ethan's Madrigals and Jazz Band Concert at Skyline ~ "Mads in the Moonlight". A few pictures from that -

Joseph was doing double duty going back and forth between the jazz band and the Madrigals

It was a 40's theme. Some of the Madrigal's songs - Chatanooga Choo Choo, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, I Gotta Gal in Kalamazoo. I thought the funnest Jazz song was Sing Sing Sing, really fun. Ethan, Joseph, you're talented kids, just like your father.