Clean the Church, Games, Butterflies

We got up early for our turn to clean the church. Our family has a turn every August. Every Saturday of August. We forgot on Aug 5th when we were in Park City, so we've been sure to be there on time the rest of the month. Good job Peter.

I left the church with Natalie, Owen and Katharine and took them with me to Natalie's soccer game. I texted Mel to put Owen's soccer uniform in the dryer. K was horrible at the game. 

I do not like taking her to games. 

And I'm not going to do it anymore. It's no fun. Natalie made a cute little goalie. 

Then I hurried home, as fast as one can move with toddlers....

and left K with Mel, then off to take O and D to their game. Daniel makes a cute goalie too. 

And Owen playing defender. 

As predicted, we had four lovely butterflies eclose today. Three of them hanging out to dry, one more almost ready.

Mel texted me this photo of her taking the butterflies outside and sharing them with Katharine. So cute!

Katharine is happier at home. So is Peter. Him in Mel's BeReal playing legos in the basement when I was gone at games. 

They don't want to come to soccer games. So Corey was working until 5, and then came home to take the kids to Classic Skating. I had been taking care of kids and caterpillars, and I put my bit cats out on milkweed to let them have some "real nature" time, and guess what I learned? Well, today I learned that wasps kill caterpillars (gross video, be warned). I would leave them out there and come back after a bit to check on them and make sure I still had all of them, and then some were missing, and I was looking and looking for them, and I couldn't find 4 of them (eventually found 2) but I did see some wasps busy at work on the ground. Wasps are yellow and black striped just like caterpillars, so it was hard to tell what was caterpillar and what was wasp, but I think they killed my caterpillars and were chopping them up. I have since learned via that youtube video that wasps killing caterpillars is a thing. So that was mean and I feel bad for putting my cats in harms way. I thought once they are big enough to take on the spiders then I don't need to be as worried, but nope! Well, I'm 12 years into fostering monarchs and I'm still learning new things. So that was disturbing and I was thinking about that video for the rest of the evening. Poor caterpillar there eating lunch, minding his own business, and boom, some guy comes and just starts cutting you up and eating you alive. It's a bug eat bug world out there.

To get my mind off that a little bit, after Corey took kids to Classis Fun Center, and Wes was also hoping to borrow the car and leave somewhere, and so I took the opportunity to have Wes drop me off at Tanners so I could explore a trail that supposedly leads from there to Lisa Falls? The Tanner campground, however, was destroyed by avalanches over the winter... I struggled under and over avalanche debris for a bit before I found it. It started raining though, and I didn't know where I was going, which is obvious by this pic I sent Corey.

This pic is where I was still struggling. I sent it to Corey to shore him that o didn’t know what I was doing, and that I would text him if I needed to be rescued. I eventually made it through to the ruins. None of the Trail was that great, would be a nice hike but I have no desire to bike it again. True, it could have just been the combination of a new trail with the rain that discouraged me, I still am fine to never do it again and to stick with well used trails. I got home in time to put on a dress and we left for a wedding reception for the Jensens. They got married a few weeks ago but had the reception today, which I think was a great idea to have them separate. I shall perhaps encourage my kids to do that when they are planning a wedding. Speaking of that... Ethan is currently under the spell of a beautiful woman. 

We haven't met her in person yet, but they both teach at the MTC and they are super cute in all their pics (she's like in every pic he posts on Instagram or BeReal). Some of our college kids have been losing hope, but I trust that we will have a kid get married someday!

Three other pics from today - Katharine waking from a nap on the bottom bunk in Abi's room. 

This bed is the most hidden bed to hide from people in the house, and also the darkest during the day for the most relaxing sleep. It's a favorite of mine and Wesley's! And Abi made a dinosaur diorama tonight for herself to eat. Mashed potato island and broccoli trees. Funny