Pirates Play

It's spring break for the elementary kids. It's great that there is nice weather outside. They have enjoyed playing in the backyard. 

They were lost in some pirate game. The kids keep breaking plastic hangers when they need a new hook for Captain hook. I told them no more - we have like 10 broken hooks, you go find one that's already broken - no more breaking new ones!

Natalie examining all the gold treasure!

We got a lot of loot!

And she read to Daniel. Then snuck some selfies on my phone. 

She was feeling well enough obviously that she came to violin. Another Monday, another day at lessons. 

Today I finally passed off Gavotte and so I'm officially done and graduated with Suzuki Book 1. My slurs are still struggling but she said they'll improve as we work through Book 2. So yay me. Sophi and Natalie are doing well too. Sophi is in Book 2 and passing off the Minuets, Natalie is working on Minuet 1. The kids do well at violin, they are usually very busy reading or playing with the toys and puzzles that Miss Amy has. 

It's a good chance for them to get their reading minutes in as they wait for their turn in the lesson.

In other news - our dryer is broken. It's blowing air, but has no heat, so it takes like 6 hours to dry a load of normal clothes. It would take all day to dry towels, so we haven't washed towels for a week and we're running low. I try to run it at night but that is hard because the darn thing SQUEAKS like there is no tomorrow and could keep us all awake all night with its racket. It's been squeaking since we got it. In December during Christmas vacation, Joseph taught his MTC classes in the laundry room and he would study in there, and he was like "Mom, that dryer is horrible..." and it was, I got it for $100 bucks on the classifieds last year  in June, to just get us by for a little while longer cause I still wasn't ready to make the financial commitment for a decent appliance. Another thing that sucks about it is that sometimes on some part of the drum inside, it will snag the clothes or whatever is being dried (it really liked the ear elastics on face masks!) and that would get pinched and ripped as it was stuck on the drum and the drum rubbed past it during the cycle. So yeah, this thing has been bad since we got it. So I am now ready. I've been looking at dryers online on Costco and at RC Willey and on the classifieds (NEW ones on the classifieds) and my #1 priority is one that is big and available now. Things that are out of stock or will take 3 weeks to deliver are out. We need it now. So I've been searching, will search more tomorrow, and plan to get something this week. New dryer is priority #1. 

Easter and Conference Weekend

This weekend was General Conference. That means we have a weekend where we sit around for 10+ hours and feast on the Word of God. Sometimes we take notes - here's Peter working on his Primary packet yesterday -

Or we sit around and snuggle on the couch and listen... Here's Hyrum and Peter watching conference this morning: 

We're going to miss Hyrum when he leaves for Philadelphia later this month! He and Joseph leave on April 26th. Corey and Peter listening this afternoon.

"Here dad... You'll hear better if you close your eyes... I'll stick this bouncy ball in your eye to help you."

There are always good memes after conference that Mel and Ethan share with us, or that Hyrum finds.  Hyrum seems to particularly like the Star Wars ones...

I remember this one  a few years ago really made me laugh:

That was something Elder Holland said in April 2016... and I remember when he said that, I was like "oops!" I took some notes, but mostly I seem to remember more when I'm cleaning or working, and with kids we just don't get to sit uninterrupted much, so I just stay on my feet. I don't know which kid captured me in action today, but this is how I usually listen, and this is definitely how I re-listen to the messages - 

My two biggest "I need to do that" moments were first: from President Nelson's opening remarks yesterday where he said for us to remove the debris from our lives. Just like they are removing old pipes and roots from around the Salt Lake Temple as they renovate it, we need to update and renovate and get rid of old traditions or habits or anything that is not serving us anymore. And that went along with my #2 take away - Elder Bednar's talk today about principles of the gospel. I want to make sure that as I get rid of old things that aren't serving me, that when I replace them with new things, I need to make sure that the new things are backed up by and founded upon gospel principles. Those were my two mental take away's. I have wonderful days when I spend them cleaning and listening to conference. And today is Easter. It is wonderful when they both fall on the same weekend. There were especially wonderful messages in the morning session today about the Savior, Resurrection, the Atonement. So it was great. I'm looking forward to reviewing them all and reading them too. I have a goal to really use and write notes in the paper copy of the messages that will come in the May Liahona magazine. A few more pictures - Peter eating dinner tonight - messy lasagna. He is such a cutie.

And another thing from yesterday - our back door has been stuck in the lock position for over a week. I just found out last Sunday, and when I learned it was stuck in locked, the kids were all "yeah, it's been like that for a few days..." And I could not figure out how to fix it. Corey's been busy and so have I, but today Joseph was here and so when I had a free moment, I asked him for his advice. We took off some of the lock pieces, and could turn the inside of the lock, but that did not make the bolt move. So it was stuck good and I didn't know what to do. But then I remembered once when some guys were here fixing stuff in the basement (either after the drain backed up or when we got a water heater replaced... I can't remember) but he had to take off the door, and he did it by closing it and then removing the peg from the door hinge. So we tried that with the back door... We closed it, and with a screw driver and hammer, we popped them up and out and then were able to slide the bolt out with the whole door. Yay! Thanks Joseph! 

So then I had to decide which of our 3 other bolted doors could do without a deadbolt, and I decided on the garage to house door. So that one is just a hole right now until we can go buy another door knob or maybe if we're lucky we can get a bolt that will fit. So that was a weird problem to have, and it's not entirely fixed, but I'm glad that we have use of the backdoor again. It was a nice weekend, it was nice to have Joseph here and have TEN of our kids at home, yay! We missed you Mel and Ethan, we look forward to talking to them tomorrow. I'm really glad that they get to call on p-days, it's great. Now it's time for bed and then to rise and shine tomorrow and make it a great week! 

Slickrock Bike Trail

Corey and I had a much better night of sleep last night than we did Wednesday night. The Bowen Hotel was good, we took Owen and Peter with us. Everyone else was plenty warm and comfortable in their tents (46 last night compared to the 23 on Wednesday night! Much better!) Corey worked for a little bit in the morning - they are having a hard deadline today. I went to camp and made sure everyone got breakfast, then back to get Corey so we could have some more fun today. Corey was really looking forward to taking the kids biking during this little trip to Moab, and we went to Slickrock today to fulfill that desire. He wanted all of us to go. Hyrum, Lily, and Natalie didn't want to. After a bit of bickering and back and forth, we decided to let them stay. Hyrum was going to start packing up and would have the girls help him. Daniel was going to stay with them, too, but then at the last second Daniel wanted to come. We didn't have a bike for him, but it's just a short ride away, we'll figure it out. Off we go. Unload all the bikes - Corey thought it was funny all the comments he got on his 7 bike VelociRax. "Next time I plan to get more comments on my biking than my bike rack..."

Corey with Peter riding Shotgun, Wes, Abi, Sophi and Owen... Off they go to try out the practice loop.

I was going to stay with Daniel in the car, but he wanted to go back, so I took him back to the campground and tried to trade him for Lily and Natalie. Natalie still refused, but Lily obediently followed me. I begged her to just humor me and let's try to bike this thing, Dad will be happy if we try. On our drive over, we could see all of them riding not very far from where they had started 10 minutes ago. I thought maybe we could catch up to them. We tried. And it was dang hard. I guess that is why they hadn't gotten very far - I don't think any of us are up for this level of difficulty. As we started up the hills, we saw that Corey and the kids had turned around and were coming back to the trailhead...

"The trail app I looked at said that the practice loop was a green. It's not... that's a black diamond..." Where are Wes and Sophi? Did they already die trying?!?! No, they had gone on ahead. Lily was already done, so she went back with COP, Abi followed me to try to catch up with Sophi and Wes. They hadn't gotten very far. Wes was ahead waiting for Sophi to try and catch up to him, but she was walking her bike. She looked a little overwhelmed. We decided for Abi and Sophi to go back, and I thought I'd try to explore this thing with Wes. Off we go.

 

It was thoroughly difficult, and we got off our bikes many times and we tried to navigate the hills and turns and slopes and sandpits. BUT WE DID IT!!! WE BIKED THE PRACTIE LOOP ON SLICKROCK!

There was a lady ahead of us walking. Wes said that he started before her but she passed them. I guess he did some small talk with her and she said she was walking it to see if she would be able to bike it. We probably shoulda done that. It was fun though. Wasn't too hot. I got a better workout than I've had in a long while. I even made it up like 3 of hills without getting off my bike. Two times I made it further up than Wesley. Go Moms! Near the end of the trail, we saw Corey and Peter coming to greet us.

No way I'd be brave enough to do any of this with Peter on my bike. Good job Corey, that's impressive. I took a pic of them, Corey took a pic of us.

After all that fun and hard work, we went back to the campground and packed up the cars. Peter explored his little sand hill. 

Cutie.

Then headed to Corey's parents hotel so the kids could take a swim. 

Ya gotta love Marriotts. Corey said he's realized once again, that he's not a camping person. He's a Marriott person.

The kids played there for 2 hours and then we headed home. We made a plan and followed our plan pretty well! 

We were on the road by 5:15 and were able to drive in the daylight, which was a priority for me. I do not like driving on dark roads when there are no lights to show the way, only the lights of the traffic coming straight at you... It gets me a little dizzy. So we made it to Provo before dark, and decided to stop for dinner at Chuck A Rama. 

We like Chuck a Rama cause everyone is happy to be able to find plenty of foods they like. 

Joseph met up with us there. He was coming back from Beaver with the Fiesta. He had a friend (Emily) that was going down to St. George and she was able to drop him off there to get the car. The Fiesta broke down while J and Hyrum were on their way to a Moxie thing two weeks ago. Hyrum is glad to have it back. Although it worked out nicely having it gone during spring break (we didn't have to take them to school)

All the kids were teasing Joseph about his girl friend Emily and putting pressure on him to give details about his intentions and the deadlines of those intentions. It was a good trip, I'm glad we're home, it was fun, we'll probably do it again sometime!

Delicate Arch

In September 2020, most of our family had our first time visiting the Salt Flats and our first time visiting the Great Salt Lake. Today we had another "I'm a Utah native but never been there yet" first today - we went to Delicate Arch! We have gone to Arches National Park before, but I've never hiked to Delicate Arch. Corey and I did the hike today with Lily, Sophi, Natalie, Owen, Daniel and Peter. It was a first for all of us!

We left for Arches National Park this morning around 10, after a horrible and freezing night's sleep - it was 23 degrees! But it warmed up quickly in the morning, and that's when I decided to face the day. 

I was in a sleeping bag with Peter, and I wanted to keep Peter warm, but I couldn't zip the sleeping back with him next to me, so my back was cold, my toes were cold, but the cold made me not mind other parts being uncomfortable. Corey was so cold and uncomfortable, Natalie woke up saying she was cold and she got in Corey's bag with him. No one else woke up or had to go to the bathroom so that is good. But it was really so so cold and I woke up many times, I didn't think I was going to be able to fall asleep but I guess I eventually did somehow. It was a bad night. We were glad when it was over. Hyrum, Wes, and Abi left early at like 7am to go jeeping with Uncle Mark. We left at 10 to go to Arches. We drove straight to the Delicate Arch Hike. The parking lot was full, but luckily we got a spot. The kids jumped out of the car and ran up a hill and slid down the turquoise dirt

As we started the walk, little Peter wanted to play "stand up" on every rock that was on the sides marking the trail, and I was like "...Uh, this is going to take 4 hours at this pace...." So I walked ahead with the older kids and Corey let Peter explore. 

It was a fun hike and not too difficult. Lily was able to do it in flip flops. The kids liked exploring a big crack in the rock.

They found a good spot to take a nap.

Climbing over and under...

Natalie going too close to the edge. It looked scarier that it was.

Owen playing "Gollum"

Daniel was a "Captain America Ninja" as he jumped around. I let them be free and get a little ahead until we were near the end of the hike where it was a little scary as we went around a small cliff edge. The kids wanted to go touch the arch, but we didn't dare do it with Owen and Daniel with us. We can do that next time we come back (if we are toddler free.)

Group picture - 

I should have taken off the big back pack carried I had on for Peter. So I cropped it to try and squeeze it out - 

Then we did individual shots by the arch - Lily

Natalie -

Sophi -

Owen -

Hiking back down, Peter stayed in the back pack, which was helpful and faster, and he fell asleep. Cute baby.

This cute little girl, Aurora, went jogging past us on the hike up and caught Daniel's attention. He tried to keep up with her. We hiked back down at the same pace with them, and they got to know each other better. They eventually were holding hands...

And Daniel told her he loves her and kissed her hand. At the bottom, we met their family - the Mitchell family from Indiana. Corey told Daniel that he has to get the parents' permission before he starts dating their daughter, ha. It was cute and Daniel was sad to go our separate ways. Maybe someday you two will meet up again -

Then we drove up to the Devil's Garden. There was a fun tall narrow sand hill behind a narrow rock.

The kids had fun playing there, then we walked to the Tunnel Arch and the Pine Tree Arch - 

The sand was amazing!!! So cool and soft, and almost hypnotic as we played in it - 

On our way out, Sophi and Peter sitting in sand again.

We were back at the campsite around 4. The kids had a late lunch. After our horrid night last night, Corey decided to rent a room, so he left to go to the hotel for a bit and get some work done, while I stayed with the kids as they ate and explored around the campground.

We camped at the Datura Campground, very close to the Slickrock trailhead. We are going to go try that tomorrow. Should be fun!