Daniel's Baptism

Today was a special day! Daniel was baptized this morning. 

He was very excited to make this promise to follow Christ. He was just beaming, cute Daniel.

Baptism was put on by the stake, even though it was just Daniel/just our family. 

Our Provo college kids were running late, but we didn't wait for them. We probably could have waited?  But felt a little of self imposed pressure to get it started and so as to not take too much of the bishop or the stake people's time, so we started as soon as Wayne arrived cause close, compared to Mel, Ethan and Bella who were 30 minutes away, coming around the point of the mountain. So they missed the baptism, but were there for the confirmation. And Bella gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Wesley said he forgot but he gave a call tonight to congratulate Daniel.

Before his younger siblings hijacked the video call...

Hyrum tuned in via fb messenger... H listening to LSN musical number (could have practiced a bit more...)

Joseph and Eliza weren't there but they said hi tonight too. It's all good. After the baptism, people who wanted to were invited to come over for some ice cream, berries and bananas, and vanilla wafers. Daniel had invited a friend from across the street and we were so happy he and his mom came. After the baptism, Ethan and Bella had to head back to Provo, but Mel was able to stay for the day (took the frontrunner train later). Corey decided to do something with the boys and Mel. I went along too, we went up Millcreek Canyon close to the Porter Fork trail, and took a little ride on Pipeline. We listened to the BYU game on the radio on our drive. BYU vs. Arizona. Abi was at a Lyceum recording all day (10-5) Lily and Sophi wanted to stay home, and said they'd clean the whole house, Daniel was over at his friend's house, so it was Corey, Me, Mel, Natalie, Owen, Peter, and Katharine for the ride. Kids were a bit mopey (well, just Natalie and Owen - they wanted to go to grandpas to watch the BYU game). After I was tired of their sulking we turned around. 

Peter was having a great attitude. 

Natalie and Owen led the way as we went west on the trail. I was behind them, but would pause to check on Peter who was behind me with Mel watching him, followed by Corey and Katharine.

To help N&O stop being "bored", Corey told us to not wait for them, so we took off and didn't get very far - there are so many places where the trail has a total cliff off of one side that I had a hard time enjoying it, as I was concerned for my kids, and they were a little scared, and still wanted to stop, so I gave in and after just a few minutes of going ahead, we turned around and headed back. Them Mel, Natalie and Owen took off back to the car, and I stayed with Peter. He and I we walked along the steep scary parts. Corey and K left us to go catch up to MNO and load up the bikes, then he came back to help us. We were coming slowly but surely. Soon we were back at the car and went to Waynes. Mel did her taxes and we watched the BYU game.

I'm not sure they knew what was going on, but they knew to cheer for a touchdown. BYU won 41-19 over Arizona

I wasn't interested in staying, so I snuck away to Park City for a ride while they watched the game. Went up Armstrong and HAM, then down Seldom Seen.

Most of the leaves had fallen, but there were still yellows. It was still lovely and beautiful. I listened to the 1st session of Conference, I was beaming when the 3rd speaker Karl Hirst spoke about the mountains!

"When we don’t feel the warmth of divine love, it hasn’t gone away. God’s own words are that “the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but [His] kindness shall not depart from [us].” So, just to be clear, the idea that God has stopped loving should be so far down the list of possible explanations in life that we don’t get to it until after the mountains have left and the hills are gone! I really enjoy this symbolism of mountains being evidence of the certainty of God’s love. That powerful symbolism weaves into accounts of those who go to the mountains to receive revelation and Isaiah’s description of “the mountain of the Lord’s house” being “established in the top of the mountains.” The house of the Lord is the home of our most precious covenants and a place for us all to retreat and sink deeply into the evidence of our Father’s love for us."

So I was loving it up there. I saw a few hikers but there were no other bikers on the trail I was on. I enjoyed myself for that hour and 13 min. Turned on tunes for the descent. Had to take a photo of my favorite part of HAM! You turn the corner and get to go rolling through the pines twice, this is the second corner. 

Corey and the kids finished watching the game, and Abi picked them up on her way back after the Lyceum recording, so the I just headed home. I had all the bikes on Corey's car, but only had a lock on his. Thankfully none of them were stolen, yay. Wes called on the ride home, got home and helped with dinner, Corey finally got to leave to get some work done as I tagged him for being the parent on duty. Giving kids baths and ready for church tomorrow. 

Now it's 11pm - I've been blogging, Corey's cleaning his office. We're still up cause we get to sleep in on Sundays, and cause we're waiting for Abi to get home after asking to Monster Mash. I just did 3 chin ups, starting from a dead hang, and doing all of them from a total hang! I did 3! I didn't know I still had that in me! I still have callouses and I've kept my upper body strength from climbing better this time than I did last year after our summer break. Excited to start climbing again, hopefully in a few weeks!

Walking is Therapeutic

Been a pretty chill past few days. I've been thinking a lot about walking after listening to this recent Laura Dixon podcast "Why Walk", and found another one by Dr Berg that I also liked: Amazing Benefits of Walking, and I'm convinced! Since I heard the podcast last week, I've been walking a lot more. I made 3 priorities for myself this week: fasting (not eating after 2pm), stretching (15 min), and walking (any distance or length of time, just trying to get out for a walk). It's going really well! I am still sore from the hike to the Y on Tuesday night.  I was sore the day after and still am. For Wednesday, since my thighs were toast, I went on a nice evening walk from Grit Mill to the end of techy and back. I started too late so I was in the dark on most of my walk back, I'll remember a flashlight for next time. By the 3rd bridge, the water was all gone in the creek, like it was being diverted somewhere else, so I was hiking up the river, over the rocks, and went under the bridge, it was fun. After passing under the 3rd bridge~

A few pics of that meander in the mountains ~

I walked up the Techgnar trail. Had to move once for a biker. 

Out of the woods and on the main trail again, at the end of Techy -

On the Quarry trail again, walking back down. 

It was pitch black when I was back at the car. Yesterday and today, ALSN had fall break, hence no school, so yesterday we left K with them and went on a ride in Corner Canyon at 9am. My thighs were still sore, but a chill ride felt doable. I let myself just take it easy, and so Corey had to too, since he's nice and sticks with me. No achievement emoji's yesterday. THEN I took an evening walk when Corey took the boys on a ride (I was their shuttle driver). I dropped them off at Carolina Hills, went to Cycle park to park, then walked up to see where I'd meet them. I jogged a little bit of the way, cause I heard Peter crying. That was a 25 min walk, I helped coach and encourage, and showed them the way to keep going along Porter Rockwell trail.

I walked back to car, drove to and parked at Draper City Park, then walked along the Porter Rockwell trail until I met them again. That was another .47 miles that time. K gave up again on the ride. We were joking that it must just be too much stimulation for her little brain to process.

So we need to work on her cognitive endurance. After we got back from that, I did another 8:15 pm walk around the block 3x. I was told years ago by a neighbor that 3 laps equaled a mile, but I'd never measured it for myself, and I didn't know if it was from the middle of the road, or if the sidewalk counted, or if I needed to be on the outer sidewalk... I'm please to report that the inner sidewalk is 1.07! So including the bit from my house to the corner is 1.17. Notes there for the statistician in me. And then today, still surprised that after so much biking I could still be sore from Tuesday night... I'm saying it was because I was carrying K in the backpack, so that extra 30+ pounds did that to me. Corey and I went on a ride this morning from the trailhead to Ruins. We left early at 7am and had Abi get the boys out the door, so that was nice. We were the first and only car in the parking lot when we started, so that counts as our achievement for the day. The boys had folders come home selling school pictures.

I have enough pictures of them, so I'm not buying anything.

...but I did take pics of the tiny pics they gave me as options.

Hopefully that's not illegal.

We are back after a late date night. It's been late the past two weeks because Lily is possibly joining a new blue's band. 

We went to the Draper Aubergine at 7pm, felt very late. But it was very good. I really love Aubergine. The Better Earth Bowl was gone, so that was sad, but they had something new - They serve "plates" now, Corey got the salmon plate, it looked so good! He shared a bite. I think I'll get that next time. I ordered the Peanut Tofu, so good. Every entree and salad there is delicioso. Plus we always get Brownie Layers which is also a favorite. So yeah, that's been the past few days. Walking, enjoying fall, taking care of kids, and having a good time. I do think walking is therapeutic. I'm going to keep it up next week too and see if I'll have a good week next week too! And I've been up blogging while I wait for Sophi to get home from Lagoon - she had a good time, and now she's home. Goodnight.

Hike the Y

We just got back from hiking the Y. I got kids in the tub even though it's late. We had to do a quick wash up before bed cause we are all very dusty and dirty. I got kids ready to go to Provo to hike the Y for homecoming as soon as the elementary boys got home. We were all going to go, but Abi had a flute lesson until 5, and I didn't want to wait that long, and she had homework to do anyway. Lily opted to stay home too, so I headed to Provo with SNODPK, we picked up Ethan and Bella and I saw their apartment (they got a sweet deal!) and we headed over to the trailhead. We were there at 6:15, which was early enough for us to be able to park at the 3rd lower lot, and we walked up to the trailhead. At the gate and ready to go!

Pretty mountain behind us. I'd like to go all the way to the top someday. 

I brought my long mulberry bush hiking sticks, which I think came in handy (helped me to visually be able to see the kids amongst the crowd on our way down in the dark.) I also brought 3 head lamps and lots of flashlights this time, and 4 water bottles, so we were very prepared. Plus we had the back pack for Katharine. She didn't want to be in it at first, so Natalie carried it with the backpack of waterbottles as her "baby" and then when K did want to be carried, Ethan put it on and carried her. She was a bit mad about that - didn't want E to carry her for whatever reason, but we didn't care and just let her moan.

After going up a bit, I was feeling good, maybe cause I'd warmed up my legs and was mentally ready, so I tagged Ethan and took K at the 4th turn. He was kinda dying and afterwards told me he thought he was about to faint, so it was good I took her. The kids all did SO great, no complaints at all! I was really impressed and proud of them. Peter, especially, did not want any help. He hiked the whole thing up and back without a complaint (well, there were were like 3 tired "UGH!"'s on the way up) but he kept going and said Wes is going to help him when he gets back. Until then, Peter will carry on. They were pretty speedy, we could barely keep up!

We made it to the top right at sunset and found a good place to sit and wait for the light to come on. 

Katharine got out of the backpack and happily sat with her siblings. It was a pretty sunset and relaxing to watch the lights come on.

Selfie with Ethan and Bella. "Turn on your flash, mom!"

Ok, take two.

I was really happy that Ethan and Bella were able to come with us. Nice to visit a bit and plus obviously they were awesome at helping keeping track of the kids. The kids all did awesome on the hike down too. We were not waiting for the shuttle, and I wasn't having a donut, and I had a lot of kids, so I didn't feel bad cutting in line as I walked past all the people waiting in line for the shuttle. ...But then we did jump in by the refreshment line and the kids got a treat -  between a glazed donut or a maple bar, and water or hot chocolate. I got water. Then walked to the car. It was a success! Mel had wanted to come, but she has a job now, boo, so she was there until 7 so she missed it. This morning I did a little warm up for our hike today, by taking K on a walk to the park in the backpack, which I don't think I'll ever do by choice again. I thought I'd like it better than pushing a stroller, for posture's sake, but it was worse. I had to go a few passes on the monkey bars to help my shoulder's recover. She didn't want to go home either, so a stroller would have been better had I wanted to forcer her to leave. But instead we stayed longer than I would have liked, but it's fine, it's good to be outside. She insisted I go down the slides with her, but I'm too big for them, so it wasn't fun. But K is cute.

Here's a pic of her this morning. She's always wakes up in such a good smiley mood, it's really cute.

Singing while she gets her Bluey toys out of her backpack and reviews their names. 

She has a small pink scripture case, that I think was Sophi's, that she uses as her "bag" and she puts her toys in it and a calculator, aka her phone. She carries her baby and her bag with her whenever we go somewhere. She's "figuring it out" haha.

Belated Birthday

Daniel had a belated birthday today. My mom has been pretty busy - with an audit at work, traveling to Indiana for a mission farewell, to Texas for a baby blessing, etc etc, so she wasn't able to bring over gifts for Daniel or Sophi's birthday's until recently. She came by this past Friday to take Sophi out to do some shopping at Uptown Cheapskate so that was fun for her. And today, while kids were at school, she brought over an ice cream cake and some gifts for Daniel. We knew she wasn't going to be able to come on Daniel's b-day (that was the day of the audit) so we had made a cake for Daniel but Sophi needed one still (she only got ice cream, cause we didn't know what was going on with my mom's plans yet, and then found out two days later that she had forgotten about S's bday, it wasn't on her calendar (2nd paragraph)), but since D got gifts today, we let him have the cake too, so Daniel's had two cakes, and that's ok, cause he's a little kid. So here's another b-day cake pic for Daniel!

Katharine was excited to have some cake!

But then she was sad when Daniel blew out the candles. She was upset with him, so we lit them up again and let K blow them out.

Opening gifts. Katharine was trying to intervene here too - she didn't want him to open them, cause they were for her!

I told her that no, these actually are for Daniel! Everyone was ok once I served up the ice cream cake. 

Another few pics for today - this morning at 8:15, Daniel remembered his math homework. I told him to do it, and he'd probably miss the bus, but I could drive him over. Peter waited for him, and they were cute walking into school together holding hands.

Warmed my heart.

Little brothers walking together, they'll be walking together through life. I've been listening to some stuff about walking, and remembering after Daniel was born and I went walking a lot with two neighbor friends, Kathy and Lisa. At the time, I liked walking with them but also felt like it was too slow and that I needed a faster workout to get the weight off, but now I'm thinking it is really the right thing! So Corey's also been working from home, and I think I need to get away from him during the day (sorry sweetie... but he admits it's better for him to not be home either, so the feeling is mutual) so I went on a walk at 10 am with K in the stroller. I didn't want to go to the park, so I strategically went down the streets where she wouldn't see the park, and she didn't, but she also had the sun on her face, so I was worried for her scar on her lip... I tried to stand in front of her to give her shade, or hold a paper up to shade her while we were heading south, but then she was in the shade when we turned around headed north back towards home. With less than a mile left, she said "I wanna go home..." and I said ok, and that we were, but she was sad and started to cry. I didn't mean to bring her to tears by taking her on a 4 mile walk, but that was what I did. She was sad, and I carried her down the street. She was relieved to come home. I didn't mean for her to be scared that we were lost or anything! We had a relaxing rest of the afternoon until we went to get Sophi and Natalie for violin. Then we didn't do FHE tonight, cause we're going to do it tomorrow - going to go hike the Y! yay. So Corey worked late, and I've been handling things here. Corey and I were going to go on a ride as soon as I was home, so I was giving him the play by play until I got back, but as I was driving down the street, he was on his way out and said he had to go get work done... he's been working on our taxes (got an extension, so has another week to get them done) and said "I have more problems that I thought" or "Our problems are bigger than I realized..." something along those lines. Yay? So I could have still gone on a ride, but after listening to General Conference yesterday, and wanting to be a better disciple of Christ and to do what HE wants me to do, I asked Him what he wanted me to do right now, and so I didn't go on a ride, stayed home with kids, read to Peter, played toys with Katharine, and cleaned. And blogged a little bit. I felt good to catch up on things. I'm happy that I asked God for instruction and that I got it! I'll be praying for Corey, as he didn't tell me what the "bigger than we thought" problems are, but I have an idea, so yeah, praying for him and for us. Sometimes I'm tired of our financial situation, feels like we've been here forever (2008 anniversary, 2017) but if it wasn't that, it would be something else - death of a child, cancer... choose your trial. I'll take this one over either of those. I've also had the thought recently that we are not here on this earth to lay up treasures here.... We are laying up treasure in heaven! and I think we are doing really good at that. God has helped us by giving us these 13 kids. We're grateful to be able to give our lives to them and to God.

Listening to General Conference

Happy 2nd day of General Conference! Corey and I got texted a few photos from some members in Texas who had Wesley over at their house. 

I enjoy receiving surprise texts like these!

They also sent this one, haha ~

I replied to them joking that Wes was "listening" like most of us did here! As much as we strive to resist slumber, I confess I did doze off a few times. Today I did better at standing up to go clean the kitchen now and then when I felt it coming on. It's not that any of us think Conference isn't important or that I don't want to learn.  For me (to change a quote I heard once) it's because "When I work, I work hard. When I think, I think hard. When I sit, I fall asleep." If I sit still, sleep takes over. I struggle whenever I start reading to the kids too. I would have probably done better staying awake for all of Conference if I'd been outside raking while I listen, or cleaning in the basement. Cleaning up in the kitchen helped, but yeah, that pic of Wes above happened to me in a few of the messages. I'm glad that most of the talks are easily available online so I can review them right away. 

Exciting news: Santiago in the Dominica Republic is getting a temple! Ethan was there for the last session of conference today, and I teased asking him if he was one of the people who whooped and hollered at the announcement (when Pres Nelson once again specifically said to be reverent!) Well, I can't blame anyone for being excited. 17 new temples announced: 

Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico

Santa Ana, El Salvador

Medellín, Colombia

Santiago, Dominican Republic

Puerto Montt, Chile

Dublin, Ireland

Milan, Italy

Abuja, Nigeria   

Kampala, Uganda

Maputo, Mozambique

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Queen Creek, Arizona

El Paso, Texas

Huntsville, Alabama

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Summit, New Jersey

Price, Utah

Are you excited Natalie? 

Natalie had a VERY fun time during this second session today - she got to babysit cute Luca, the adorable baby of one of Corey's friends. They are from Brazil and living in Logan, but had never been to conference before, so we were excited to help. Ethan and Bella got some tickets last minute with a friend of theirs from the DR, and had two extra, so Abi and Sophi went down with them too. After the session was over, we went over to Wayne's house for dinner with extended family. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and I contributed one Greek Salad, and then birthday cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Corey stayed back to wait for his friends to come pick up their kids, and then after they came, he stayed to watch the Jeremiah movie (Corey is studying about the Josiah Reforms). After dinner, kids gathered around their screens, as usual. 

I think Mel was showing photos of some of her recent dates, to see if her sisters and cousins approve. 

Peter playing with toys - 

And legos in the front room. 

I'm excited to review the messages. There's so much to take in, it's like drinking from a firehose, but my main take away (based on my main question "What does God want me to do") was "BE A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST!" Yeah, looking forward to going over the talks to find the nuggets that all contributed to that feeling. 

Update 10/11: Joseph shared this "word cloud" today from Conference! Wow! 

It really was an especially CHRIST Centered conference! "Christ" 360 times, Jesus 326 times, then God, Lord, Church, One, life, father, love, Savior... etc etc, so cool. <3