South Lake Tahoe

Greetings from South Lake Tahoe, California. This is my first time here, it's quite nice! Corey came here once when he was younger, right before his mission I think. Let me tell you how we got here. So, two years ago when we were on a trip to Newport, Corey and I attended a presentation and started making payments to get a week at a resort, they showed us the list of resort options, and we chose Williamsburg Virginia, and we were going to take a US and Church History family trip across the country in July 2020 as our "last" big family trip before Melodie and Ethan left for their missions and, hopefully, after Joseph got home from Guatemala. He was planning on extending, but we hoped he'd change his mind and come home after Mel and Ethan had their calls so that he could see them before they left for a few years. Well, as we all know, Covid squashed that plan, so then Corey made arrangements for us to use our week at Lake Tahoe this year. So Corey's been planning this for a while. We didn't check into the Marriott until today, but we came yesterday because Corey had booked a fun rafting trip for today at noon (and it's an 8+ hour drive, and we didn't want to leave at 3 am Monday morning, so we left Sunday and were going to camp for one night. We had an ideal scenario of packing up and getting ready on Saturday, then leaving right after church, but that didn't happen but we were happy to be on our way around 2pm. We knew would be arriving late, but oh well. We were zipping along the salt flats at like 90 mph when Corey slowed down in front of me and pulled over. He said some warning came on that his transmission was overheating. He was carrying a lot of bikes, and it was almost in the 100s, so that contributed. We waited for like 10 minutes and I moved the kids from his car into mine to lighten the load. 

Then we continued at 60 mph for the rest of the day, which felt super slow, especially knowing we had several hours ahead of us. I was also kinda exhausted cause we had had a late night after having dinner with Father David and his friends in Payson. So sad for us that we wouldn't be getting a Sunday nap. :( I was really tired and had to call Corey, Nicole, Hyrum, and my mom to keep myself awake. Talking to Hyrum didn't help, cause I couldn't hear him and cause it was mostly just about his ingrown toenail, but talking to my mom and Nicole was good. Long drive, we were praying for Corey's car to be ok. He had the hot air blasting and his windows open, I said sorry. He said sorry to me that I was stuck with all the noisy kids, and that the heat was a fair price for the peace and quiet he was enjoying. Yeah, that's probably a fair trade. It was a long drive cause I didn't turn on movies to kill the time cause we didn't bring any Sunday worthy ones. Sorry kids. There was some rain that came in Wendover and Nevada which I felt was an answer to prayer and a blessing to help us get there safely.

We enjoyed a very pretty sunset too.

We were relieved to finally see city lights when we got to Reno. We got into camp around 10:30 California time and Corey quickly put up the tent and we went to bed. We woke up refreshed after our long drive. And hallelujah and thank you Corey for bringing extra ear plugs. The Granite Flats Campground was right next to a highway, and last night, before he gifted them to me, I was sure that I was not going to be able to sleep at all with the cars whizzing past every 4 seconds, but thanks to the plugs I slept soundly and I was warm and comfortable and it was a great camping experience. 

This was much better than our cold night of camping in Moab in April and better than my solo experience camping when Natalie was sick in 2017. It felt really chilly last night as we were getting ready, cause I had no jacket or long sleeved shirts, but once Peter and I were in the sleeping bag it was great. And I had him on the zipper edge of our bag, which was fine since he had a jacket on. I woke up once because my arm was cold, which I had over his head (he was tucked in my armpit) but then I pulled it in and he was fine. Wes left for this trip on Wednesday at 2pm and he spent a few days jeeping the Rubicon trail and camping with Uncle Mark and his cousins Seth and Isaac. Wes missed Peter and they shared some brother love this morning to celebrate their reunion.

Give me kisses Peter!

He'll tolerate a hug.

Morning coco.

We packed up camp and got ready to go rafting. Corey looking like a legit outdoorsy dad.

Kids under 6 couldn't go rafting, so Corey went with WALSN and Mark and his boys, and I was set to take the little boys with me wherever we decided to go. I didn't know what I was doing, but eventually found my way to Costco in Carson City where we had lunch at the food court. I bought one ice cream for the 3 boys to share, but Peter hogged it most of the time and freaked out if O or D tried to have a bite. Luckily their hot dogs kept them busy. 

By the time they had finished their dogs, Peter was a bit stuffed from his huge slice of pizza and then I was able to sneak some of the ice cream to share with them. Then we went shopping and I got enough food to get us through the week. Back to the car. We had a 40 min drive to the hotel. I had frozen stuff in a box and was able to check that in with the valet guys since our room wasn't ready yet. ODP and I drove around South Tahoe for a little bit until I got a text that the room was ready. 

Corey and the kids were all still out on the river. I put the kids in the room with the tv on and told them to STAY HERE as I ran down to get a cart full of luggage from the car. Our room was kinda annoyingly far from the elevator. It was a bit of a pain, but good for getting steps in I guess. Luckily when I turned the corner into the lobby, I saw Nancy and her girls. I asked if they would go babysit the boys, gave them my room key and said "2nd floor room 6254, or 6256? Maybe 6252... one of those!" as I ran outside to the car. I did a good job unloading by myself and took one cart up, then back for one more load, Rhyan came with me and we got it all out, yay. Dinner was ready for Corey and the kids by the time they got back. They had a blast, Corey said it was a 11 out of 10, worth the cost, great experience, very fun. They ate and then we all went swimming. Owen and Daniel wearing the yellow floaties. Jordyn playing with Natalie, everyone relaxing after a long and adventurous day.

Corey, Lily, and Wes relaxing poolside. 

There will be more fun tomorrow! I don't know what Corey has planned or know how much he needs to work, but this will be fun.

Pre-Vacation "Fourth" Celebreation

It's July 3rd, but today we celebrated the 4th of July. Covid caused us to all skip this tradition in 2020, so it was nice that we were able to get together for breakfast and a parade today with our community. There wasn't a fun run, but that's ok, cause that gave me more morning time to go on a bike ride at Corner Canyon and get in my workout 💪. I biked up from the cycle park along the main path up, then up a little more until I reached Clark's Trail, took that east until I got to Peak View, then took Rush down, it's so fun! I didn't fall this time, yay. Going uphill along Clarks Trail was a killer. I have more endurance to build up. I got ready for the day while Corey took the kids over to the breakfast. 

Lily brought paints to decorate people's faces. but then she lost her paintbrush, so she used a pine needle. 

Sophi and her friend Kelsy made plans to dress up and decorate their bikes and they rode in the parade. 

Lily continuing her work while we waiting for the parade fun to begin.

I brought chairs! We found a good spot to sit in the shade, sweet. Kelsy shared a sucker with Peter from the bag full of treats they had to throw to the audience during their parade ride. 

Abi, Peter and me above, below Natalie, Owen, and Daniel read to catch some candy loot!

All the kids that were biking went last in the parade. I think it might have been tricky for Sophi and Kelsy to bike slowly and throw suckers at the same time. 

The parade started at 10. Sophi and Kelsy might have been waiting in the parking lot. After riding all the way down the street they were pretty exhausted. Corey headed home with the kids and I waited for  Sophi. 

(Peter is soooo cute (last pic) riding that shotgun seat, I love it.) I texted Kelsy's mom and she found K&S at the end of the parade route and they were going to wait a while in the shade a bit longer. So I walked back home - Peter has a new way of slunking down the stairs that is funny, I'll try to get a video of it sometime.

The original plan for today was to pack for Lake Tahoe so that the cars were packed and ready to go so that we could walk out the door tomorrow right after church, but instead the day got away from us and we didn't pack like at all. It was just a busy day, kids wanted to play and wouldn't let Corey or I get work done, so instead of letting them watch a movie so we could be productive, Corey took them biking. It was way too hot to go biking, imho. Daniel or Peter were going to ride shotgun with Corey, but they both fell asleep on the ride up the canyon, so I just took them back home, dropped them off, then headed to Costco for a pre-vacation snacks run. I got Pringles, Almond Biscotti, Goldfish, fruit snacks, and 2 boxes of rruit leather, and with that I trust we'll survive the drive down.

I dropped off CN and O near the Lisa Falls trailhead and they biked all the way home!

This was Natalie's first time riding down the quarry trail.

When they got back home, I had ice cold water ready for them. Natalie's face gave evidence to the heat outside.

At 5:15 Corey and I headed out to Payson to have dinner with Father David and a friend of his who used to be LDS. His friend Chris was really interesting, and I can't remember his wife's name but she is from the Phillipines and Chris made dinner for us, and it was a delicious coconut curry, and they gave us lots of culinary secrets as to the best kind of curry pastes to buy and the best coconut milk and coconut cream brand (Aroy-D) and I might start shopping at the Asian market now cause I want to eat that everyday, it was delicious.

And the dates from Aziz Farms! Yum, those are also at the Asian market, I love dates.

I have my new meals planned out forever - coconut curries and rice for dinner. I brought ice cream for dessert and a flat of peaches, cause there is just one more months of Costco Summer peaches where they are usually perfect (aka before they turn into apple texture). Corey and I were hungry because we had been fasting. It seemed like a good opportunity, since it's Fast Sunday tomorrow anyway, to start a fast together after date night last night, which we did, and then end it in the car before we went in for dinner. So it was a good plan, and we were praying to be guided and inspired in comments we made during our dinner discussion. Payson is an hour away, and I thought if it went well we'd be home between 9-10. But we didn't leave until 10:45. And that was only cause at 10:30 Father David was like "Sorry guys... I have to preach tomorrow, I need to go to bed..." so then Chris was like "shoot! Sorry!" I had been watching the time, but we hadn't tried to make an exit. I'm sure we'll visit with them again. I think Father D is going to send Corey some stuff to study about how matter is not eternal, which was one thing that came up near the end of our conversation, and they were saying, I think, that believing that matter is eternal means that matter is "a god" to us as well as God? And you can't have two Gods? Something like that, I don't know, it's late, we have a long day tomorrow. I texted the kids that we wouldn't be home until 11:45 but if they could get ready for bed that would be great. When we got home Peter was still awake and playing cars and didn't want to go to sleep. Abi took a shower, and when she was done she texted me a picture of Peter, who eventually put himself to sleep. 

That is a hard mattress. I put him in his bed, it's well past midnight now, we have church at 9 tomorrow and then a long drive to Lake Tahoe area after we pack and load up. I think I'm going to be tired. Goodnight.

Roots of Knowledge!

Tonight for date night, Corey and I enjoyed a tour of the Roots of Knowledge exhibit at the Bingham Gallery at Utah Valley University. IT WAS SO COOL. 

I only just heard about this one month ago when a neighbor Bridget mentioned it at Joseph's friend's fiance's bridal shower. Last week I thought Joseph and Emily and Corey and I could go see it for our date night, but when we went to book a tour, they need 3 days notice, so Joseph booked it for him and Emily and they went on Tuesday before they headed to Bear Lake, and they said it was really cool, so then I went online and booked an appointment for us to go today. The only hiccup tonight was me not knowing my way around the campus and where to park, but once we got there I was amazed. I thought it was sooooo cool. A UVU student who is an art history major gave us our tour. It was super neat. You can go look at it online, but you should really go see it in person. I took a lot of pictures of parts I liked, and especially a lot of quotes in the stained glass mural, but I won't post many, since you can find better quality images online at the virtual tour. But here are a few....

"The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing" 

And Corey and I both laughed at this one: "Today's mighty oak is yesterdays nut that held it's ground" - ha!

I even caught some of the hidden Easter Eggs in the mural - like these two musical artists playing classical music! 

I recognized Steven Sharp Nelson first, then Jon Schmidt, so fun! There were little things like that all throughout the mural - including a Millenium Falcon flying through space. Corey sitting and reading a pamphlet about it after our tour was over - 

I loved it, and I can't believe I hadn't heard of this before. People should be raving about this, cause it is amazing. Our tour was at 7:30 so we were there when the evening sun was shining thorough the glass. Truly beautiful and amazing again. I love people who create such amazing things and share them with us. I want a mural in our home with our life stories and adventures. 

If we don't get it done in this life, then in the next life for sure I am hiring these artist to come create something for me, and maybe they'll let me make it with them. I'd love to work on something like this, so neat, I loved it. It was a great date night and way to end our day after a beautiful beginning this morning with this sunrise. The sky was on fire!

God is amazing, this world is amazing, people are amazing and I love seeing all of God's gifts to us and gifts that he's given to man. My heart is full today, I love it all.

Hurt Knees

Wesley finished his driver's ed class yesterday, yay! So that means that I have my morning back yay! I went on a long bike ride this morning to celebrate my new found summer freedom. So, a little bit of my biking history: The first time I went biking was May 6th. On that first ride, I wanted to see how long it might take me to bike to the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center. I remember that there were two parts that were uphill and I had to get off and walk my bike on those two parts. I was out of breath! I've been biking a bit more and two weeks ago I did those hills no problem without getting off my bike. Today I took it up another level, a pretty big level, by attempting to bike up the Draper Temple hill! And I biked up the Traverse Ridge to Potato Hill! Now that Wes is done with Driver's Ed, I have more time in my mornings, so I went on a ride in Corner Canyon by myself. I decided to park at the bottom and do the work to get up to the top, and then be able to enjoy my ride down. Well it went pretty according to plan. It was a lot of work, I was out of breath, and had to get off my bike, but that might be because there is something wrong with my 1st gear and I wasn't able to gear down. It was a good workout and took me about 40 minutes to get to Potato Hill. I was going to take the Red Potato trail down, but I missed the turn and had to turn around, and then decided to just follow another biker who was going on Ann's Trail East. I had no idea where I going and it seemed like I was going further into the canyon rather than down and back to the car, which was true, but eventually I found myself at what seemed like an official place - the Peak View Trailhead, and I was able to turn around and head back west from there. I decided to take the Rush trail. It had a sign saying it was Intermediate level, but I felt brave enough to try it and started to take it down, and it was fun! At 7:40 I was where I met up with Corey, Wes, and Joseph last weekend and I was glad that it was familiar and that I knew what to do now and when I'd be done. I headed down the Limelight Rush Trail and I fell on some gravel, and that's when I learned that the hard packed dirt paths are better than the gravel and sandy trails. My pants protected me from scratches, but I think I'm going to have a bruise on my left leg. I fell again at the gate on my way out, they are tight corners and I'm not good at corners. So it was almost 2 hours of biking and it was fun to get more familiar with Corner Canyon. I was in car and on my way back home at 8:05, Back home at 8:24. That was a good workout and it was fun!

Tonight when Corey got home, he wanted to go on a ride. Most of the kids didn't want to go, and I told Corey "Psst! Just bring Abi and I'll take you to a really fun trail!!" Owen and Natalie still came long with us and I told them that we'd go to a park while we waited for Corey and Abi to finish. I had looked up how to drive to Peak View Trailhead, so I dropped them off and told them to take the Intermediate Rush Trail, and they did. Natalie and Owen and I drove around a bit but never found a park. So we just parked at the Cycle Park and watched Odds1Out. Soon Corey and Abi showed up. "How was it!?!?!" I asked - and they both gave me affirmative nodding of their heads with wide eyes as they said "Yes!! That was A LOT of fun!" And then Corey pointed out Abi's knees to me. 

Oh my gosh! ABI! What did you do?!?

She let me know that he hands were scratched and bleeding too.

Well that's not good! I reminded her that before we left I told her she should probably wear pants. I bike in leggings, I don't want my knees torn up! Wes fell on a ride with Wes on a gravelly part and he got pretty scratched up his leg. I don't want to rip my pants, but I don't want to bleed even more. Abi's knees looked pretty bad, like mine would get back in my street hockey days, which would then crack and bleed and re-rip off of my legs during the soccer season. I'd rip them playing hockey in the summer, and they wouldn't heal until after the fall soccer season was over. Hopefully Abi will be able to keep these protected and they'll heal up quickly for her. 

Natalie was sad that she wasted her time and didn't get to go to a park, so I dropped her and Corey off by the Grit Mill Trailhead and they biked home. She had wanted to bike home since our last ride on June 7th, so I'm glad she was able to tonight. 

It is a little scary to think of such a little girl biking in the road, but she did great. It's fun being a biking family!

Dishes Away

I've been thinking of getting rid of stuff and living a more "minimalist" life. Yesterday I started by cleaning out Corey's nightstand. I did that one first, cause it's always easier to see plainly what other people should clear out than looking at myself and all the stuff that I need to get rid of, huh! Well, doing Corey's night stand got me started and after that I was able to dejunk some of my stuff in our bathroom - I cleared out makeup that I don't or haven't used and some of my essential oils. So I didn't do much, but I made a dent in it. I still have a ton to do, but since I made a few steps in the right direction, I'll pat myself on the back for a job well done and will cheer myself on - "go me!"

This morning, upon seeing my kitchen sink, I was thinking again of how I need to implement more minimalism in my life. I was specifically thinking of the Minimal Mom. I was thinking of her advice on how to declutter the kitchen, cause we need to big time. I just rewatched it and laughed at her "dirty dishes" example cause it was one freaking pan!! I was inspired by seeing her kids washing their own dishes (at 1:40 and 2:38). If our family can do this, the dishes will not stock up, which would be great, because the kids don't have any dishes as their fall back plan! Seriously, they use so many dishes. Even when it's just for a drink of water, they'll come up and if the little plastic Ikea cups are gone, they'll grab an Ikea bowl, or a plate, or use the big dinner cups, or they'll break out the fancy dishes. We have enough dishes to last several days, which is why today is WEDNESDAY and I just barely washed dishes from SUNDAY and we've still all had plenty of dishes to use and get dirty and pile up during the ensuing 3 day lapse. And I also HAVE run the dishwasher several times these past few days. Sigh. Abi was commenting recently how the dishwasher isn't getting the cups clean. And I thought well, we're going to fix that! Cause we're going to start HANDWASHING! Yippie! OK - so her was my sink this morning: 

It is rather obscene, don't you think? So I've been working in the kitchen all day fixing this problem, hopefully for the last time. I obviously started a load, I did a lot of handwashing too. I got some boxes - two to fill up with things to donate, and others to store while we experiment with this. I am donating almost all of our storage containers, I'm just keeping two sizes with their lids, plus some ZipTops that Joseph got me for Christmas. I put away extra dishes that I like in some avocado boxes I grabbed at Costco yesterday.

I'm not donating these dishes yet but they are now boxed up and in the basement. And this is our new dish arrangement:

We've tried something like this two years ago, but now with "only eight" kids at home, and with other drawers freed up from donating their cluttering contents, I think we have a chance at making this work better than last time. And if it doesn't work and I want to go back to having a ton of dishes piled up, well hey, I can just go and bring all the dished back out of the avocado boxes in the basement. Here are the kids personal silverware on the right side there below -

The silverware was moved over from where they used to be on the kitchen island and I switched them with some family utensils (cooking, cutting, and serving things) which are now at the island along with the utensils for Corey and me.

We also have a pot of spatulas and whisks in a container next to the stovetop. I cleared out about half of those. Also, we had 5 can openers and I never knew which ones were good, but today I tried them all, and only one of them works and it works well, so that is in the drawer next to the measuring cups, yay! I am very pleased and am going to take a break to practice violin for a bit and then might go work some more. No wait! The next episode of The Chosen is on right now I think!! I'm going to go turn that on! Yay! Next on the dock for tomorrow: Laundry room, my bedroom desks, and I'll do a little bit in the basement too.

Longer Birthdays

My mom came over today with birthday wishes for Wes and Lily. There was a delicious small cake for Lily and an ice cream cake for Wes. We sang to Lily first. 

Lily had been at Isa's house and so Isa came over with her when I told her my mom had come. My mom had brought re-lighting candles, so after Lily blew them out they lit up again!

It took a few finger pinches of water to get them out for good. It was funny. Then it was Wesley's turn. 

We had a few more kids come home with neighbor friends and we were glad, because we had plenty of cake to share. Wesley is ready to take on the relighting candles. Let's show them who's boss!

There was a lot of smoke but Wes finally got them out.

You ready for cake, Peter?

Most of the kids went out side to enjoy their cake. Wes and Lily stayed inside to open presents

I hope it was fun for them to have their birthdays last longer! I hope these two don't mind sharing their birthday celebrations sometimes, cause it tends to happen when your birthdays are just a day apart. 

Tomorrow is Wesley's last day of driver's ed, yay, so then I will have my mornings back. Abi had a flute lesson, and I ran to Costco while I waited for her. Her lessons are 45 minutes now instead of 30, but she only had a 30 one last time, so we added that 15 minutes on to today, so she had an hour. That is a more reasonable time to run errands instead of 30 minutes, so that was good. I went to Target quickly and then Costco for drinks for bbq tonight, and peaches to get us through the week. Sophi's soccer team had a bbq at her coaches house at 6. We were a little bit late. 

The kids were interested in his chickens! Everyone went in to help feed them in the chicken run. Hi Peter.

A quick rainstorm blew through and moved everyone inside. Daniel enjoying his hotdog and using very good table manners, ha.

The girls on Sophi's team and all of their parents seem super great and nice. It was good to get to know them a little bit and to try to put names to faces.

Two last items - Hyrum has been texting from Philly - he has an ingrown toe nail. I gave what advice I could and we are praying for his quick recovery. And today I joined Laura Dixon's program, check my exercise blog for updates on that. I read the contract very carefully - I'm going to do it right this time, and am feeling hopeful. I feel like my weight is like my house - I can get off the weight or get my house really clean sometimes, but it hasn't been permanent yet, and I'm ready to learn why and end the battle with my weight for good. I'm trusting as I learn my thoughts I'll be able to end the wrestle with clutter too.