Spruces Campground

We just got back from a night of camping at the Spruces Campground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Kids chilling last night ~

Lily made that campfire for us, good job Lil.

I am proud to say that I made this trip happen, and that I reserved the site and did a lot of it on my own, go me. So the ball for this got going last week when the girls went backpacking, and I decided to follow suite and took ODPK on a hike at Brighton around Silver Lake. On our way there, we passed by Spruces, and I turned in to ask if I could take a look around the grounds at campsites that the kids might like to go to. K fell asleep, so we took a few laps in the car while she rested, and I wrote down different sites that the boys liked. They made me pinky promise that we really would go camping. So yesterday morning, Owen knocked on our bedroom door first thing at like 7:30 am and asked "When are we going camping?" So, I was like I better make this happen. My first priority was to finish our ward RS July newsletter, cause if I had that done (needs to be scheduled to sent on July 1st at 8am), then we could go camping. I finished it around noon, yay good job. So then I told Corey, who was at work, and the girls at home, that I was going up to try and get a campsite for the night. It took me about an hour, cause the campground hosts were not at the booth, and cause I didn't know how to reserve the site and I didn't have anyone to ask. I drove around looking at sites that they had listed as available...

I saw one of the hosts passing by on their little golf cart, talked to her for a second. I thought the sites with papers were still available, but learned from her that the papers meant they were taken. So then I drove around the campground again to find ones that the kids had liked on Friday, I compared to the list they had at the front. I knew that the kids liked some sites on the lower loop, but they didn't show many of those available, BUT on my 3rd or so drive around I stopped at one the kids liked and saw that it was open for 6/30, #19. Peter liked that one cause it had stairs. Back at the booth, I was glad to see the hosts were there, I almost got #49 for two nights, but then Corey said just do one night, so then I asked about #19 which was open for one night, and I got that one. I'll get #49 another time. I think I have memories of staying at that one when I was a kid. I was able to pay with credit card and I went to put a paper slip on the site post, and then I was done. Took me an hour which is prob silly but yay I did it, I reserved a campsite! I went home, got the kids, we did some very simple packing (we're having leftovers from the baby blessing for dinner, aka veggie straws, chocolate nuggets and rice krispy treats). We headed up for the night. S&N didn't want to come. Abi stayed behind to do homework and cause she was hoping to hang out with friends later, Lily had a few friends coming over to help her prep for 4th of July face painting on Friday, Lily is in charge of that. I told S&N they could either come up with me now or come up with dad later, but everyone was coming, no hanging with friends tonight. They came without complaining, but weren't excited about it. I get it. After a short drive up the canyon, the kids took the sleeping bags and put them on the table. I got the tent and Owen was a trooper helping me set that up. Then bringing in the sleeping bags and pads. Kids blowing those up and claiming their area on the tent floor.

I was ready for a nap, but that was not going to happen. I tried to read around 5pm and said we'd go on a hike at 6. Another reason why I liked the lower loop was because of the trail I saw that led to Donut Falls. After I wasn't able to read, I said let's go on the hike. Kids, once again, weren't thrilled. I didn't really know the distance to it or how long it would take. But we weren't doing anything else, so let's go. Sophi and Natalie were a great help with Katharine. 

I carried K a good portion of the hike too. Owen was very vocally positive, which most of his siblings found irritating. Daniel struggled and murmured the most. Peter did good. K was good cause she was carried for almost all of it. It was very pretty!

They wanted to turn around and asked to turn back over and over again. I said "not yet" and "Let's just go a little bit further" and "almost..." and then I was saying "Soon" in Jesus style from The Chosen series, so then they knew we weren't going to turn back soon. They endured, and we conquered. We made it to the falls. 

They thought the cliffs there were cool.

Ok, one pic with the waterfall behind...

And me and K cause we're here too...

Ok, NOW we can go back. That took us an hour and 23 minutes to get there. Prob would have been faster without the moaning. The walk back was very beautiful. I loved the view! I wanted to get a pic of it - of the mountains in the sunlight behind the tall shaded trees, can you see it? 

Owen trying to steal the spotlight and still being super positive and overly cheerful. I love it Owen. You keep that up for the rest of your life if you can! K still getting a free ride. 

I think she didn't wear her hiking shoes on purpose!

She did walk a little bit near the end. 

That's when we saw Corey coming towards us on the trail. Abi was in the meadow having Natalie take pictures of her for the gram. Strava says we did a total of 3.68 miles, 1 hour 55 min. 

Lily was at the campsite and had started a fire. Kids started drinking water and eating rice krispy treats. We sat around and told stories - Corey started it and then passed it on to Lily and each kid had a turn and had to add something to the story. Started off being about a father who left his daughter alone at a campsite (which Corey had just done to Lily when he went to meet up with us, Lily said "wow, I have no idea where the inspiration for this came from...") and she was kidnapped, but the guy who kidnapped her was super hot and attractive (Sophi added that part for Lil), then she was forced into marriage, found $50 bucks and then went to 7-11 for some Feastables and a slurpee (that was Owen's contribution) and then she finds out she's an alien lizard princess and other random things like that. I was collecting firewood so I didn't catch most of the story but I heard them all laughing. We brushed teeth and took trips to the honey bucket as soon as the sun started to set. We went to bed with the night. The night wasn't too cold, but kids slid off their pads and woke up from rocks poking them in the back. I woke up a lot, kept thinking it should be getting light, but didn't see anything through the tent - we left the top off and fell asleep under the stars. I didn't really have anything for breakfast except apples, so we just woke up this morning, broke camp, and headed home. 

Now we're back home and I'm doing lots of laundry, the kids are taking turns waiting for the shower to become available, Lily is practicing some face painting for Friday. She let Katharine do a bit on her own face...

and then Lily finished it - 

K's potty training is going well, other than not having success yet with #2. She pooped her pants twice today. We took diapers up camping. K's gotten #1 mostly figured out, but I didn't want to deal with it up camping so I brought diapers. K has not gotten #2 figured out, and we'll see how longer I can cope with that before I go buy pull ups.

So again, shout out to myself and pat myself on the back for making this night of camping happen. It was my first time ever doing it. I went camping at Spruces a lot as a kid, but I've only gone there once as an adult, and that time my mom reserved it. All of our other camping experiences (many years at Pineview, several trips to Moab, one time on our way to Lake Tahoe, etc etc) have been us benefiting off someone else's work and expertise, usually Corey's brother Mark. So yeah, I'm proud of myself that I did this and made it happen. Site #19 was good, though Peter didn't like it as much as I thought. It had a whole hill behind it to explore but the kids didn't venture far at all. I guess it might take a few times for their creativity in nature to kick in. We'll try to go again this summer and will do a different spot. 

Lily is 16!

Happy Birthday to Lily! This young lady is sweet sixteen years old. She just finished Driver's Ed last week (yay) and has her permit. She's looking forward to getting her license in November (Nov 12 to be exact). School has been out, except not for us for the past three weeks - we've still had to get her to Skyline every day at 9, but not today. We stayed up a little too late last night, thus when Wesley called at 7am it felt waaay too early, but he wanted to be the first to wish Lily a happy birthday. His comp clapping, Wesley shouting over and over again "Happy Birthday Lily!!! HaPPY BiRTHDaY!!!!" 

I was actually awake downstairs attempting to read. Mel was in Abi and Lily's bedroom, so she put the phone up on Lily's bed so they could wake her up, which they did.

After that, Corey went on a ride, then I caught up to him and went on a hike/jog alongside him (sorry to slow you down sweetie). We came home to find that Owen made Lily and everyone a pancake and bacon breakfast. 

Then Lily opened her one present from us - a custom book embosser. 

It says "From the Library of Lilian Wride" and has her initials in the middle. Then Corey went to work, then Lily and I went climbing, and Mel came along too. Me belaying Mel. 

We did that from like 12:30 - 2:30. Kids were trying to be patient as they waited for grandma to come by. Natalie made a cake. When my mom came, the kids were ready!

A card from my mom, a book that Lily requested (The Grandest Game) and some lego roses. 

Natalie started to cut and serve up the cake as soon as my mom came, and without waiting for Lily's bday pic, so we had her put candles in her slice, then we sang to her. 

And her bday ended with hanging out with a neighbor and then being kidnapped by some friends. We let her stay out late, Abi is going to go pick her up so that Corey and I can go to bed. I told Lily that Abi would leave here at 11:30. The girls have been waiting by watching more of "Business Proposal" - some 2022 Korean romance netflix series that they got into over the weekend when the girls went to Park City with Corey, which they found after they looked up more stuff with Ahn Hyo-seop, who is Jinu in KPop Demon Hunters, who DIES at the end of that show which made Lily Sophi Natalie and Daniel all cry as they watched that with Lily's friends who were here Friday night as a little bday party for her. So now they are all into Korean shows. So they are downstairs watching another episode of Business Proposal, then they'll go get Lily. I hope it's been a good birthday for her. 

Training K or Bust!

It is time. Corey has wanted Katharine potty trained for a while. I haven't really cared. I know she's smart enough, she's just lazy, and I have been lazy too. Before our weekend trip to St. George, I told Corey that I will train her, but only if we get the carpets cleaned this year. He agreed. I haven't scheduled it yet, but I plan to have them cleaned during Park City when everyone is gone. That used to be an annual tradition, but sadly has not happened the past 3 years. Let me see... they were done in 2018, 2019, 2020, and ugh that's all I can find! Have we not done it since 2020!?!? Not sure why I've been thinking it's only 3 years that we've missed, maybe it's been 4... so not in 2021, 22, 23, 24, but it will be done in 2025. Maybe I stopped washing carpet during the Park City week in 2021 cause that was the first year I fully embraced biking in Park City? Haha and I didn't want to miss out. Our First experiment with bike rides was in 2020, then we've been getting more hardcore each year since then. But I will take a day off this year if it means getting clean carpets while the kids are all gone. It will be good. I'm impressed the carpets look decent at all considering all they've been put through these past few years. Ok. So we are in agreement: time to train K and get the carpets clean.

So we were gone in St. George over Sunday and Monday night. I told Mel I would not leave K in underwear for her, cause that just wouldn't be nice when she was doing us a favor to babysit. K, you get diapers for a few more days, but we're starting when I get back! True to my word, we got back Tuesday afternoon and so yesterday morning, I sat her on the potty after she woke up. She was dry, and she's dry most every morning, so let's get this first one out of the way to know how it's supposed to happen. Kathairne sat for an hour, but nothing. I let her get off from sitting and put her in a thick training pants and some pink Bluey underwear. Katharine was not thrilled about it. She wanted a diaper. She went and got a diaper and followed me around wanting me to put it on. Nope, I'm sorry sweetie! It's time for you to face your first great trial of growing up. No more peeing wherever you want whenever you want. She was sad. We sat on the stairs and cried about it for a bit. 

I sent a video to her siblings, asking for their prayers for K as she faces this first great step in overcoming the natural man. You can do this K! (and I can do it too!) She wouldn't wear the underwear at first but eventually relented and put it on, since I wouldn't do the diaper. Yesterday I ended up cleaning up four #1 messes and one #2, none of it was very bad. Did three loads of laundry. I did it willingly and with a cheerful attitude. She'll figure this out. 

I was just looking back at the blog - potty training for this girl started when I first introduced the idea in August 2024, gosh has it been a year?? That was when we got the potty cleaned up and set out in our bathroom and I had her try sitting in September. She welcomed it as an excuse to get free candy and an hour of screen time. But now it's getting real. Accidents all day yesterday and no success, but guess what happened this morning!! Katharine, show us what happened!

And there she is pointing at a very full toddler toilet! If you zoom in you'll see a very high water line. I think she probably didn't fully release all her #1 yesterday (prob a little stressed and unable to fully relax) but this morning she sat and sat and I made oatmeal and lunch for Corey and right after they left (Corey taking Lily to Drivers ed, her last day of class, yay) I heard Katharine call from upstairs that she did it! And SHE DID!!! I think she relaxed enough that she peed all the pee from yesterday. I am SO glad that that wasn't all let go on the carpet somewhere, cause that would have been a lot. We are so proud of you Katharine! Let's keep it up! Go team. 

Still Gone

So Abi is back home, yay, but now she's still gone all the time like she used to be. Yesterday we arrived home around 1, she hung with us while she unpacked and did laundry and stuff, then she took her sisters to the store, and then went to her friends house to hang with them before her bff twin leaves for a trip. Last night, Ethan asked for her to come down to Provo to help him with something, so she was gone all day again. I took her to frontrunner cause I needed the van to pick up Lily from Driver's Ed (this is the last week, yay). I took her to the train at 10 and picked her up around 4:30. She said that she got a picture with Kalani Sitake! Fun!

She said they were directing traffic or something. It was for some entreprenuer thing that Ethan is involved with. The thing she was helping with was from 11 - 3. 

I guess I should ask her or Ethan for more details, rather than just calling it "the thing". 

Lily had drivers ed this morning, then two drives with her instructor, from 11:30-12:30, then again from 1-2. It's crunch time for her, to try and get everything in. Tonight we were going to go on a bike ride and hike with a neighbor family that is new in the neighborhood and Owen is friends with the son in school. We just found out they live close by. Owen's been going over there almost everyday to play. So it was going to be the guys biking and us moms and the little kids exploring the rocks and stuff, but then a slight change of plans made it so it was just Corey and their dad, and Owen and his friend. They are new in the neighborhood, so we took them up to show them the Quarry trail so they could ride down it and see where to park, and yea just get familiar with a few local areas. They are a really nice family. I dropped them off at the top and they rode down, they parked their car at the trailhead, and Corey and Owen biked home. I dropped them off at Lisa, and usually they just go down from there, but today they went up a bit to the ruins! Owen said it was beautiful, and that was one of his first times doing a climb at all, and he did great! Good job Owen. We have hopes that he will join us in our love for biking. 

The girls had YW but since I was late getting back from taking the guys biking, the girls didn't end up going. Lily was making dinner (using recipes that she gathered over the weekend to make dinner every night). Corey gave them his bday money from my mom to buy the groceries. We're in a real pinch still, or "at the moment". Taking a day at a time with that. I hope we survive.

Crop Garden

Today we went to the crop garden like we did in April last year. Corey is the Elder's Quorum president, and when they didn't get people from the ward to volunteer, we were an easy choice to fill in for the job. Cause we have a lot of helping hands. They put Sophi and Lily to work punching holes in a drip line...

The little kids were told to each grab gloves and a hand shovel, and we (NODPK and I) worked in a bed planting green bell peppers first - taking the cups with the starters  in them and putting one plant at each emitter...

Katharine did great at that! Natalie Owen and Daniel did a good job digging, and Peter collected the cups after. 

After we did the green bell peppers, we moved on to planting a bed of cantaloupe starters, and then Anaheim peppers. Lily was working hard punching holes in the drip line. It was her nemesis...

Sophi waiting patiently for Lil to finish the hole so she can put in the emitter. 

Lily was working hard and her hands were getting sore from punching the line. She had to yell to finish the last 10 or so holes on the line. "This is SO HARD!!! BUT I WILL WIN!! I WILL NOT GIVE UP!!!"

I took the kids down alone while Corey finished work, and then he joined us and we picked weeds for a while in the tomatillo beds. 

It was fun working in a garden. I'd like a garden someday if our home ever allows for it. I tried here at this house, but it just didn't work with the deer that pass through our yard. They ate all my plants, so I tried one year and then didn't try again. Maybe I could plant stuff in my dad's garden if I really want to do it again, but I'm ok with Costco for now. After working tonight, Sophi said as she talked about her instagram cottage life in the future: "I wanted a garden at my house so I could cook with fresh natural ingredients, but after tonight, I don't think I want to work this hard..." haha, that kinda made me laugh. Corey said "You don't like the law of the harvest!?!?" I'm glad she sees that there's a lot of hard work and prep that goes into organic meals or cute flower and vegetable gardens. 

So that was good. Thankfully it wasn't too hot. I think I got a mosquito bite low on the back of my neck, between my shoulders. Boo to mosquitos. I blogged today, got a few posts done from May, yay. I went on a morning ride at 5:45am. We have our bikes in the garage right now (not in the basement) so I have to open the garage anyway (which I don't like to do cause I feel like it's noisy and wakes up kids) but since I had to do to get my bike out, I decided I'd just take Corey's car to the trailhead, cause there's nothing special about the ride on the road. So I started at the trailhead and rode up to the ruins, techy on the way down. Biking is fun. As for the kids, the summer books aren't going as well as I'd like. I won't throw in the towel yet. I haven't been paying them, so I guess it works out fair - they don't clean, I don't pay. They don't write stuff down, I don't pay. Sophi earned some money by helping Corey's brother last weekend. They worked for 7 hours helping him in his yard. She blew like $45 of it via an online store called Comfrt, which had things so low priced that it didn't look legit... but she was super anxious about doing it TODAY, but she didn't have money in her account to pay via her debit card. I couldn't take her cash and transfer money in cause we only had $5 bucks. Lily volunteered to help her and let her use her debit card, but to do that she needed me to take her to the ATM, which I reluctantly did - I let them deal with that while I returned books to the library. I got back and she was still working on trying to deposit it - the ATM wasn't working, I guess it's cause Lily's card is for a minor so it doesn't work at the ATM, so then since we were there I deposited her cash in our account and then Corey moved it to Lily's account. I was being kinda in a bad mood about it. I'm blaming pms. Getting outside into the garden helped my mood improve. Maybe I should garden. Hopefully monarchs will be here soon. That usually helps me get outside and into the plants. 

Nik & Emma

We celebrated with the Hibbert family today another wedding. This time it was Jerusha's daughter Emma. Jerusha's family after the ceremony - 

First Hibbert wedding was Kelsey & Jared, then Xela & Trevor, then our two boys Ethan & Bella and Joseph & Eliza. Nik and Emma are high school sweethearts and have been together for 10+ years, so their families were excited that this day finally came, as evidenced by this sign as we came into the parking lot, haha. 

Our kids were excited because this was the first wedding where they would actually see the ceremony. Waiting at the Heritage Garden's grounds - 

Ethan, Bella and Alvin came. Mel and Lily sitting by them - 

As we waited, Beka and Matt joined with the other attendants giving Alvin the royal treatment he deserves. Haha, I loved this pic! That's just how it should be.

He's a cutie!! I got a chance to hold him after we were inside and Corey got this pic of me showing him off to Ashton, who is the cousin closest in age to Ethan. "This is Ethan's baby!" 

They were good cousin buddies when they were growing up. The Heritage Gardens were lovely! The girls were all excited thinking about this being a place where they could have their reception...

The greenery and lights made for very aesthetic photos. And cause no family outing is complete without kids taking my phone for selfies. 

The ceremony was at 2, and the wedding celebration was from 4-9. After the ceremony, we hung out and had a grab and go lunch, and tried to keep the kids kind of away from the candy bar. Didn't have too much luck with that. They got their fill of sour patch candies, swedish fish, air heads, nerds gummy clusters, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, hershey's kisses, and Utah truffles (toffee, mint, and dark chocolate, mmm). We played some cornhole with Neil, who we found out was the ship corn hole champ on a cruise they went on recently! Wow, go Neil!

Katharine was sad when we told her not to touch the bean bags. This photo doesn't capture it, but from my angle across the grass from her, the little frown she was making looked just like Beaker. 

We chuckled a bit at her, which she didn't like. We finished that round and then let her have the bean bags. A taco truck came to serve everyone dinner. There was a bit of a line waiting for tacos, so Lily took a dessert plate and served herself up rice and beans, which you didn't have to wait for in the line outside. Corey followed her lead, and learned that the red sauce was VERY hot. 

Corey gave Christian the Monkey and coconut problem to try and solve as they waited for tacos. Writing out the numbers on a white paper fan.

Corey let Mel know that he's struggling to find any faults in Christian. I avoided going out until Peter was feeling left out, so when we went to place our order. We stood by Natalie, who was #42. We were #60. There was a table of desserts that kept people fed, no one starved. Chocolate chip cookies, grapefruit mint cake, chocolate cakes and dutch apple pies. Tasty. Then dancing started. Most of the songs were ones we don't know, but we did request Dynamite and That's What Makes You Beautiful, so we got those two in. Other than that, we were just goofing off. Mel and I danced with Katharine by trying to follow her actions. That was fun. Outside people were playing spikeball 

and visiting.

We stayed until the 9pm send off of Nik and Emma. I think Corey found out that they are taking a honeymoon off in the mountains of Montana. Fun. They make a handsome couple and we wish them the best on this new beginning of married life!