Saturday Outings

School is out and summer weather is officially here. It was pretty hot today, so we thought we'd take a bike ride at noon. Corey just couldn't stand staying home with hyper active children, so they loaded up the bike rack. Owen's bike is pretty small on him, so Corey had him try to ride Natalie's bike and it was a success! That means Daniel could use Owen's bike. And he could ride it fine, but he can't stop. Corey took WSOP on a little trail that runs along the canyon road and they started to bike up to the Quarry Trail. Peter waiting for everyone to get the bikes down. 

Corey with Peter riding shotgun, Owen and Sophi ahead of him. Can you see their little heads?

After they were on their way I drove over to the Quarry Trail with Daniel to help him practice braking. It didn't go well. 

It was hot, so soon we were done and headed back home. The kids' heads were soaked with sweat, so I thought we should go swimming. So we did. But first I gave Owen and Daniel their summer haircuts. Then sunblock on Daniel's scar. Off we go! Peter fell asleep on the way there and through the transfer into the pool area and onto the grass. 

They had fun. We got there at 5 and stayed until 8. Every hour on the hour they have everyone get out for a pool check. My sister thinks they started doing that after a little 7 year old drowned in 2014. Very sad. 😢 My kids were a little concerned when, only like 2 minutes after they got in, the water got turned off and everyone was getting out. I think it's a good precaution, but yeah I have to be careful watching these kids. That boy was 7 years old, I was there with 4 kids under that age. It helps that ODP all wear their arm swimmers the whole time, and I did my best to keep an eye on Natalie and Sophi. At the 7:00 pool check, Daniel was hungry and had had enough fun and was ready to be done. 

I said we'd get pizza on the way home and we waited. Peter was cold and sat with me. His hands were all pruned up... he was a little concerned.

Cute little boy.

Around 7:30 I caved and decided to get two cinnamon pretzels for the kids to share. D and P waiting for me to go get them a snack.

I failed to let Daniel and Peter know that they had to share these with SN&O. 

They were a little ticked when, after their siblings noticed their bounty, they came and tore off some and gobbled it up. Ok, that's all, we're going to get pizza, go get in your last swim!

Owen in the floor fountains, Sophi and Natalie in the medium pool.

Then off to a drive through Little Caesars for pizza at the park. I drove further to use the drive through, since I didn't bring a change of clothes and was still in my swimsuit.

They grabbed a slice and ate it as they played. Not the French way of dining: Eat when you're eating. Play when it's time to play. Don't mix them together! Sorry, we'll try to do better. 

They ran up a little hill, I was like "You guys could be in Costa Rica right now with that forest around you!" (see pic 1)

It was fun. The missionaries came over at 8, so I missed that but Corey and Wes and Abi were able to visit with them. We need to be more prayerful about how and who we can share the gospel with. 

Our Home = Soccer Stadium

Hi there. Today is October 30, 2023. I am coming back here to June 4, 2021 to try and recreate a little bit, at least, of a post that I had here. I made this post in 2021 after Corey and I were talking at Hyrum's graduation (at Rio Tinto Stadium) about all the things we need to do and how we were kind of failing at a lot of them and how we felt sorry that our kids were not striving academically and it was our fault. It was a pretty good post of me trying to advise myself on what to do, but I found out several months ago (spring 2023 I think) that Wesley got DELETED it, cause he was embarrassed by it. And Wes I don't mean to throw you under the bus by recreating this post, but this was an important part in our story as a family and in your story too. AND it wasn't just about you - our family was dysfunctional on many levels. For example - on this same day, we were trying to figure out why the new lawn mower wasn't working... Abi had been mowing the lawn the week before, it started blowing smoke, we took it back in, the people at Home Depot/Lowe's said it was weird and that they had never had something like that happen before... They allowed Corey to exchange. We take another new lawn mower home, and it starts acting all weird again too! That was when we came to find out, it wasn't the lawn mover. Turns out Abi was putting gas in the gas take AND gas in the oil! Here we are dumping out the gas from the oil onto the driveway (prob not good for the gutter/environment) and teaching her what to do to help a lawnmower function properly, and hoping the lawnmower can be revived.

So Wes, it's not just you, or just Abi, it's all of us together - learning but getting it wrong a lot on the way - It just felt like we were a mess! A pen that Wes got from his counselor summed up what we needed nicely: GET SOME HELP!

So my iphone didn't have the pictures back to 2021, but google photos did, so I was able to find these pictures from that day. So Wes deleted this post originally because was embarrassed (and all this is from rusty memory now...) but I THINK he was embarrassed cause I talked about taking him to school at the end of the year in a last ditch effort to help his very poor grades. His pottery teacher was not sympathetic and didn't let him turn in his assignment late and gave him a lecture. But his history teacher was miraculously there and said Wesley's grade was bad for several reasons, but allowed him to take/retake a test that could help his score. 

And for another quiz or something, she offered to let him do it orally with her right then and there, cause anything would get him up to passing. Doing the oral quiz -

You can tell by his posture that he was not feeling like a champ. Wes was embarrassed and crying, but she helped him and he got enough to pass the class. Then we went to see if his math teacher was there and his counsellor. He was just dying inside at his situation in school and how it got to this point. I had been super frustrated before, but found myself feeling compassion for him and trying to comfort him.

Ok, so back to Hyrum's graduation. We went out to eat on Friday night with Hyrum for date night, with Corey's parents, before Hyrum headed back out to Philadelphia. 

While we had been at the stadium the night before, talking about our kids and the reasons we seemed to currently be struggling on several levels, and Corey was like "We just need to do it!" Which made me want to scream, cause that was not advice that was going to help me. I wanted to get into some of the specifics and talk about the obstacles and why it was hard and complicated, and Corey was like "just do it" and I was like "HOW?!?! I honestly don't know how..." I recognize there is a lot that we need to do, but I need a PLAN in place, and a system of ORGANIZATION to help me function as I try to do all the things!!!  And then I looked around at the stadium that Hyrum's graduation was in. And sure, a manager or owner could say "Just do it - make and run a sports stadium" but there are a million things that go into that! Building it first of all would be huge, and then the maintenance too - you've got lights, painting the field, mowing the field (or is it turf? grass? water?) you've got people to clean the stadium, sweep up, trash to empty, bathrooms, power, security, parking, welcoming teams, banners, the jumbo tron, like there are a hundred big things, and a million little things behind all of those. I felt like it helped me gain evidence for myself that it wasn't just a matter of doing it or not, there really were a lot of things we needed to figure out. And this seems to be a recurring theme for life - just trying to figure out how to do all the things. So just fyi, here I am in October 2023, and still wondering the same thing. We need to hire an experienced stadium manager, or with some help, hopefully I can still become one. 

2021 Grad

Hyrum graduated tonight. 

He flew in from Philadelphia yesterday, arriving here around noon. Today he took his AP Psychology test from 2-5. I bet he was the only graduating senior today that was still doing work up to hours before walking. What a committed student, no? He took that over at Corey's parents house and then got a ride with a friend to graduation. He had to be there 45 minutes early. Corey and I left late but got there in time and didn't miss anything important. We were there to see when he walked in front of the camera... he is the grad right in the middle of this pic - right after the guy with the white V-back thingy.

So once I saw him I was able to follow him and see where he was sitting, and then we were able to wave to each other during the program. 

There are three guys under the "U" and Hyrum is one of the, he's the one on the right. Do you see him?

I got a few pics of him on the jumbotron. It didn't occur to me until now that instead of taking a picture of that picture, it would be better to take screen shots of the livestreamed video recording on youtube. We were easy to spot because we were in the front row with Corey's parents. It was a nice program, you can watch it here. 

Last night I was feeling a little sad for Ethan that he didn't come out for his graduation walk. He had already moved on, and it was almost all virtual anyway, but still I was happy that the 2021 gradation seemed to be pretty normal and I felt a little bad for the 2020 grads. I hope they have an awesome 5 year reunion (that's your job, Eth, as Senior Class President. The 5 year, 10, and 20 year reunions are all on you (I warned him when he ran for that office!) 

So we watched the presentation of the graduates for a while. Hyrum's name was read 22 minutes into the presentation of the graduates, exactly an hour and a half into the graduation ceremony.

(You're welcome for my finding that exact spot for you.) He's a cute kid. He seemed genuinely to enjoy the fist bumps!

I walked over to try and get a closer picture of him. I don't think he saw me.

After he got his diploma he was in a new seat on the front row of the middle section.

Before Hyrum left for graduation, Corey took him to Skyline to get a few cap and gown shots. 

Corey had a picture taken at this same spot 27 years ago with the same... metal "thing". 

I don't know what it is, but it was a gift from some graduating class. And it was there by where we have picked up and dropped off for carpool for the past 4 years. 

Hyrum's class is the first class to graduate that spent their freshman year at Skyline. So they are the longest time attending graduates ever in Skyline's history, so far (unitl next year) ...but they were the FIRST!

This is Hyrum's "I can't pretend to smile anymore... are we done yet" expression.

Ok, yes, you're done.

All the kids were so speedy at turning in their cap and gown that we didn't get a picture of that after the ceremony was over. Maybe cause it was almost 9:30 and all the kids were ready to go party.

So that's good that we got the pictures of him before. 

We gave Hyrum a ride home, he changed clothes, and then his friend Aidan game to pick him up and they headed over to a friends house where they are probably playing video games. 

But his body is 2 hours ahead, so he was pretty tired on the drive home. We'll see how long he lasts. We left the door unlocked. 

Last Day of School

Sophi, Natalie and Owen finished school last week. Abi and Lily are done today. Hopefully Wes and Hyrum will be done tomorrow. 

I helped host a bridal shower for one of Joseph's BFF's fiance. (Talmage's bride Cami). It was fun, and my first time helping do something like that. I suspect there will be more opportunities like this in the future! I mostly helped with sending out invites, counting the RSVPs, and collecting money for the group gift. It was fun. I bet we'll be there with Joseph soon. Joseph's other BFF Scotty and his wife Xani (who ran for SBO with Joseph) are expecting! I'm excited for them. 

Abi and Lily got their yearbooks yesterday. Lily still went today, cause she had made a poster to give to Ms Reeves (?) who might be leaving. Abi sluffed and spent the day with her friends. 

Here are a few pictures of their fun. They went to Holladay Center and had their scooters stolen by some boys, but they chased them down and got the scooters back. Something like that.

At home, I was talking with Hyrum about how sometimes you feel like a failure and like you don't know what the heck you're doing or how to do it... (I feel like that a lot) and I was sharing this so that we could try to help him do better at sales when he goes back out to Philly. But he might just change from sales and be come a technician. But you have to be 21 to be a technician, so he'd be an assistant technician. But anyway, as we were talking, and I shared how sometimes I feel like I'm failing as a parents, well Sophi heard that, and ever the sensitive one, she wanted to let me know that it was NOT TRUE and that I am a great parent, Corey and I are AMAZING parents! And so they made this poster for the front door. Super cute. 

Thank you Sophi. I probably do an ok job, but it's also ok to be honest when you are struggling. I hope I can demonstrate that. Be positive - be grateful and humble about your blessings and face trials with courage. 

Sun Mon Tues

I'm catching up on the blog. On Sunday, I did like 7 entries, trying to get through May, which has gotten away from me. Corey took the kids downtown and they went by the Salt Lake Cemetery. Any other day of the week, they'd think that was a really lame outing, but on a Sunday, they are happy to take what they can get. Corey said they were all very interested in the cemetery and who was there and they were asking all sorts of cute questions. I stayed home and blogged away. After they got back, I went down to help and be a mom. Corey had put on The King's Speech, then he took Peter up to change his diaper, which must have been bad cause they took a bath, and then they went to bed. When I went in our room to check on them, Corey was asleep but Peter was still awake. It's all right, Corey had put in his time. So I took Peter away and the kids dilly-dallied and stayed awake too late for a school night. But it's the last week of school, so they'll catch up on sleep after it's over. I just kept blogging and one by one they fell asleep. I left the lights on so I could see the keyboard better. Peter gave up a little after midnight. 

On Monday we talked to our missionaries and Hyrum. We sure love these kids, out there getting life lessons.

Yesterday I was still in the blog zone so I finished up another 7 entries, yay. Abi apparently took this picture of me blogging while the kids took a bath...

Natalie was helping me supervise them. I have a lot of good helpers around here. 

Abi had a life lesson Monday night - she heard back that she did not win SBO. She took it very well.

They had the election assembly today. She texted the winner and was a very graceful second place winner. Sophi to a soccer tryout tonight. 

She really enjoyed soccer and she is pretty good, so when I saw that there were tryouts for her age group, so I figured we'd give it a go. I don't know what it entails, but I dropped her off and waited until Corey came to be there with her, and then I went back home so I could leave again and take Wes and his friends to the yearbook stomp. Wes took a break from his studies to attend, we carpooled out there - I took and his friends mom is bringing them back. He promised he'd be back in time to finish a 3D design sculpture that is due tomorrow morning. After I got back, I took the little kids to the school park. Natalie showed me a trick. 

Owen playing some tetherball, Daniel on the spider web course.

Peter was concerned for the ball. "Ball stuck!"

So here we are. It's past midnight and Wes is keeping his word... I just took some pictures of his head for a self portrait he needs to do out of clay. I'm about to head to bed but I guess he's staying up again. 

He promised he'll finish it in time. We're crossing our fingers for him and his grades. 

Pineview and Dinner Guests

Corey took ASNODP to Pineview Reservoir last night. I stayed home with Lily and Wes, who both have homework to do. Lily has a .4 right now in her science class, which is a very solid F. She blames it on the teacher, but we insist you can still get good grades with not engaging teachers, as we have both done it in our jr. high days. Wesley has a B- in math which is a huge improvement! ...But he also currently had 3 Fs, in World History, 3D Design, and English (17% in there, like what is going on?!!) He had a C in architecture and a B in Chemistry, so we'll see where this ends up after this last weekend of school. He's working all the time and has been working pretty much consistently this weekend from what I can tell, so we'll see.

Anyway, with Corey taking the little ones away, I was looking forward to getting an uninterrupted night of sleep, thanks sweetheart ! I also thought that I would get work done - either reading, blogging, practicing violin, exercising, something, but part of the tragedy of staying behind with just one or two kids, is that YOU become the playmate and companion. This is also a reason why large families are really great. But as for this weekend, Lily didn't have any siblings to keep her busy, thus that role fell to me. I texted Corey that I should have kept Peter so that Lily would have someone to play with/babysit. Instead she talked my ear off. After the first few hours and as we got closer to bedtime, I realized I was not going to get anything done at home with her, so I gave up on trying that and I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk. She and I went on a brief hike in the canyon, where she proceeded to chatter about all her school and friend thoughts. It was cute, but also tragic to not be able to get anything done when the toddlers were all gone. Lily didn't work on homework last night because she had turned in her chromebook and couldn't remember her password. I told her that I wished she hadn't avoided me and my "do your homework" reminders all day, cause we could have probably called the school and gotten it, but now it's the weekend and grr. I texted Corey the bad news that she wasn't able to get any homework done, and thankfully with his parent control monitoring tools he was able to find it, yay! So I presented that to her this morning and said "get to work!" while I ran errands. I first went to Rancho Market to get some coarse sea salt so that Corey could cook up a nice churrascaria tonight, and then I went by Costco for the meat. At Costco I bought him a good birthday/Father's day gift - a set of two Lion Energy Power banks - the guy said that they hold enough power to charge a cell phone eight times! So that will be good! Because his phone died on their outing, as he predicted it would last night, and he was saying we should get something like that. Thanks Costco! So Lily worked on science and Wes did his school work, I went to the gym and then ran errands and then came home and cleaned the kitchen while I listened to podcasts with only a few interruptions from her or Wes. I was sad that I still didn't get any reading or much violin practicing done, but I was able to do a little bit. But I knew today was going to mostly be busy cleaning, which I did for several hours, and getting dinner ready. the house and dinner all looked great when they got here, go me. Corey was able to shower and get ready for guests. Eric and Sarah Jane got her first at 4:30, and Corey took them up to the Quarry Trail to try and lure them into moving into our neighborhood, haha, and then Father David arrived at 5:30. Corey brought ODP home with him, and ASN stayed a bit longer and Corey's parents brought are on their way home with them right now. 

Lily played legos with their little girl Hannah, who is like 2, and Lily got down a stack of paper bowls for some reason and they played with those until Owen and Daniel found them and took them outside onto the trampoline, where they kept Eric and Sarah's little boy Peter and our three boys well entertained. 

They all thought that was fun that there were two Peters! They came up with a game of "bounce the stack of paper bowls" and they had a great time making a mess with that. 

 

Corey, Eric, and Father David stayed inside and talked while Sarah Jane and I watched the kids outside. She and I had little totally non-competitive game of badminton with kids under our feet while we hit the badminton birdie back and forth and talked about stuff and tried to avoid hitting them on the heads with our rackets. On one hit it was really funny cause the birdie happened to fall close to Daniel, who had a racket and two birdies and was playing his own game, but he hit our birdie up as if he was secretly watching us play the whole time and was just waiting for it to come to him. Sarah and I both laughed and she said "His hand eye coordination is so amazing for a four year old! Wow!" So it was a nice evening, another successful visit with Father David. We talked about The Chosen with him and I learned more what Catholics believe about the virgin Mary, that she was a virgin before her conception, during her pregnancy, and after the birth of Christ. They believe that Mary was sinless and free from the curse of Adam's transgression, so the punishment in Genesis 3:16 didn't apply to her, saying that "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children..." The footnote for multiply there says that in Hebrew it means "increase thy discomfort and thy size (i.e., in the condition and process of pregnancy)" and therefore when she gave birth to Jesus, it was without the sin of sorrow in bringing forth children, so her delivery of Christ was pain-free and blood-less, unlike how it is described by Mary in The Chosen Season 2 Episode 3. So I thought that was interesting. Father David said he's ok with the incorrect portrayal because the director isn't Catholic. 

One quick story that the "pain in childbirth" topic makes me think of - we have a friend Eduardo, who once when I was probably pregnant and he and Corey were talking about the upcoming delivery, I can't remember, but Corey mentioned how I was going to get an epidural and had had the epidural before, and he was concerned that I shouldn't do that because women are supposed to have pain in childbirth, haha. Corey was like "Well I'M not going to tell her she can't have it!!" my thoughts were "Don't worry, pregnancy is plenty painful the whole long nine months, so I'm good - I've felt the pain!" 

I'm really loving The Chosen. I recently listened to the "Cultivate a Good Life" podcast's interview with Dallas Jenkins and how they talk about how it is really bringing all different religions of Christianity together, it's great. I loved how he said that the title of "The Chosen" refers to three groups: the Jews, the disciples, and Christ! Such good stuff. I'm glad that we have a friendship with Father David. As he left today, he asked Corey if he'd be interested in meeting a friend of his who converted from the Church of Jesus Christ to Catholcism, and Corey said sure, so that will be interesting. I don't know if his friend would come over to eat with Father David or if Corey and he would meet up for lunch, so we'll see, but it's all good. Jesus is real and I love him and his Gospel and all of his good followers.