Fireworks for the 24th

Happy Pioneer Day. 

From google: "July 24th in Utah is Pioneer Day, a state holiday celebrating the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, marked by large community events like parades, rodeos, fireworks, and cultural festivals honoring this history. Celebrations occur statewide, with major festivities in Salt Lake City and local events featuring patriotic themes, historical reenactments, food, and family activities." We usually don't do anything for pioneer day. For example here are our kids this afternoon. 

Last year we did cause our Stake made a float and Abi and Lily were in the parade. We have gone downtown for the parade once when the kids were little, but today was just a regular summer day for us (bike rides) except for we did go see some fireworks tonight. Jared and Jerusha had invited us to join them for fireworks. We took the boys climbing, and then went by a parking lot close to where they work, where the fire show was going to be. My brother Neil and his family drove down from Layton for it. 

Sitting and waiting for dusk. I was standing and taking photos. Hyrum I will say your mustache does look sick.

Almost dark enough. 

We were impressed/scared with the bravery that Jared's brother showed when he went to light the fireworks and/or adjust ones that were already lit. I don't think he burnt himself, but if it was me, I would have. There was one firework that tipped over and shot straight at us. It started a little grass bush on fire, but it was surrounded by rocks and some guy stomped it out pretty quickly. So that was memorable. Also seeing small bits of still burning particles falling down on top of us. Corey stayed to climb with Owen and Daniel a bit longer but then they joined us on their way back. 

This morning, I was going to go on a ride with Corey, but as we walked out of our room to go downstairs, Katharine walked out of Peter's room (she slept with her brothers last night), so I told Corey to go ahead and I stayed with her. She had cereal after 50 min fell back asleep and then Owen and Hyrum were up, so I went to Corner Canyon. Did the Corner Canyon Loop, 14.40 miles, Time 1:55:37, I got 4th place on the leaderboard! 

I was aiming to place, so yay. Go me. I did a little bit of stats stalking of the other people on there. The male record for Clarks is 6 min 45 seconds! That is CRAZY. The female record is 7:48, equally crazy. That was by this lady, wow. I can do it consistently in about 16 minutes, and that's me really huffing and puffing. That's nuts. They must super human strong and have very light bikes or something. 

Early Present

So we're back from bear lake. Kids have been enjoying their toys. I've been doing a bit of work on a new stretching program, and listening to podcasts (Diary of a CEO episode on sunlight and dementia, which was clickbait for my eye cause of spending time with Hibberts this weekend and our concerns of our parents. My mom's mom had dementia, and we're seeing a bit of short term memory loss in my mom. Remembering Neal Barnard's TED talk on that - 40 min walk 3x a week. Looks like sunlight is good too. Just keep trying to do all the things! Corey and I went to Momentum today and did toprope. It was fun. 

The girls are at Stake camp. I drove them up to Heber Valley Camp for that yesterday morning. I knew I was taking them at 7:30, so I did a ride to the ruins at 5:30 so I could be back in time to take them. They will get back tomorrow. We are going to Park City  next year, and Owen's birthday is Sunday. Since he probably shouldn't take his present up there cause he could lose the legos, I decided to give it to him today so he has a few days to play with it before his birthday on Sunday. I put it in a bag and we sang to him. 

He knew what it was going to be, and he was happy. 

A knock off lego brand ship for $45 bucks, yeah. And then they got to work. 

They've been busy all day. It's felt pretty easy to just have the little kiddos at home. Although it seems like the teenagers shouldn't add that much work, cause they should be good helpers (and they are...) but I think they do add a lot of work via their requests and desires. So yeah, it's felt easy and pretty chill yesterday and today. 

Checking Out

I slept last night on the basement couch. Pink light shining through the windows woke me up and let me know there was a pretty sunrise outside. I hurried out immediately but missed the pink and got orange. Still pretty.

Last night was our last night here at the Hibbert Reunion. The dance party was fun. Peter wanted to sleep with all his glow sticks on. 

I woke up ODP early so they could drive back with my mom and dad. Hyrum was going to go with them, but then Corey went instead. We needed to find seats for 4 people, cause Joseph and Eliza were taking Mel's car to Idaho. It all worked out. CODP left at 7:30

The rest of us cleaned up before checkout at 10. Well, Hyrum and I cleaned up. Mostly ALSN were sitting in the couch loving on Mary and Alvie.

We had so much stuff. Hyrum and I were shaking out heads at it all. I contributed to it. Hyrum didn't, cause all he brought was his carry on cause he had to fly in. That might be a good strategy for Park City next week - you are allowed one carry on and one personal item! It was a real mess packing it all in Corey's car, cause he doesn't have much room in the trunk. We shoved ourselves into the car, which still has no AC, and I told everyone they had to have their personal bags on their legs cause we brought too much crap. Lily said "Now we can spend the next 2 1/2 hours contemplating what we brought that we didn't need to bring..." haha! I thought that hit it right on the head. I was lucky that I didn't have to have my bag on my legs since I was driving. As Abi got into her seat and then put her big honkin' bag on her lap, she said "This is going to be horrible..." knowing she was going to be crowded and hot for the next 150 minutes. 

Everything we need and more. Natalie, Sophi, and Katharine in the back, Abi Lily Hyrum in the middle, Mel in shotgun. The top of the car was full with my bag, towels, legos, my yoga mats, 3 blankets, a bunch of stuff I brought that I didn't use. I hardly used the clothes in my suitcase, I just kept washing my dirty clothes when I washed K's underwear accidents, which happened about every day. So yeah, keep this note to self fresh before Park City - LEAVE THE STUFF AT HOME. All those books you think you're going to read? Leave it. I'll have everyone pack, and then put half of it back. We brought 5 bikes, used 2. I brought 2 yoga mats and one yoga blog, used none of them. Brought 7 books, used 2. Brought coloring books and crayons, used zero. Yeah, just too much stuff. We took a bit of food back home. Didn't use most of the food we brought (liquid eggs, sausage, apples and sauerkraut). Anyway, it was a lot. I hope it does make Park City easier with it all fresh on our minds.

We got home, the drive wasn't too painful. We unpacked the car, I took a nap, the girls packed for YW camp, which I will be taking them to tomorrow morning (up at Heber Valley Camp). We didn't pick up the van yet from Burt Bros. Corey wants another day to figure out how to pay for it. I was going to go climbing but I didn't feel like I should leave, so I went on an evening walk. The reunion was good and it is good to be home again.

Thomas Hibbert 1837-1898

We went to church at the 10:30 session of the visitors branch at Bear Lake. Kinda cool - one big room with a lot of strangers all coming together to remember the savior.

Back at home I took a nap (and missed lunch). Around 2:30 my dad called people together to talk a little bit about Hibbert genealogy, sharing some info on Thomas & Ann and Ambrose & Mary.

Thomas and Ann on the screen.

Then we went to go visit their graves in Paris. 

This tombstone, we're pretty sure, wasn't the original one put here. We think Sarah Hibbert Stone got this one later.

All Kim and Linda Hibbert's grandkids there for a photo. For our family it goes through these generations: 1) Thomas > 2) Ambrose > 3) Julian > 4) Kim > 5) Tiffanie > 6) JMEHWALSNODP > 7) Mary and Alvie

Ethan wanted a pic of Alvie and my dad, because Kim to Alvie is the same distance as it is from Thomas to Kim. 

Bella took a photo of all the descendants. 

Then we went by the Paris Tabernacle, which was built 1884-1889. Thomas passed away in 1898. so he would have been there when it was built and probably helped build it.

There were some interesting signs to read, giving some history of the tabernacle and of Paris. 

So that was fun, then we headed back. Corey Natalie and Sophi stayed home from the trip to Paris. 

Getting a pic of Alive and Mary together.

Then we looked through scrapbooks of letters that my grandma Alice had put together. Letters, cards, and postcards. Kids played pickleball and basketball, and had an obstacle course through the playground. We siblings sat around the firepit and talked. We had a dance party on the pickleball court once it got dark.

Neil and Camilla took some surprise selfies on my phone. 

It was fun to dance and goof off. We danced pretty hard, esp to the electric slide. It was fun, and good last night bash. I'm heading to bed, Ethan is just getting a game of Secret Hitler going, but I'm gonna bow out of this one. Grant just sent me this pic of Peter asleep, haha, so cute.

Beach Day

Corey and I did a pretty good ride this morning. We told Hyrum and Abi they were in charge, and then left for wherever Stump Hollow was. I can't tell distances on trailforks, cause I thought it was a lot closer, but it was a 30 min drive up Logan canyon. We were on the trail at 8:23 am. It was a good little trail. There were lots of butterflies and bugs. We went 14.87 miles, 2298 ft elevation gain, 2 hours 31 minutes. 

It ended up being longer than we originally planned, cause we missed a turn off and ended up continuing along Peter Sinks road, which we didn't know we were on. We thought we were doing the loop, but missed the sign showing that to continue on the loop, you had to go right. We would have missed it the second time too, had I not looked at my phone every 30 seconds to see if we were there yet, and then when it showed me that we were at where we had to turn and so I looked to find it and then we saw it. It was not well marked. After that long ride, I was ready to cool off in the lake, so I went and joined people at the beach. Peter and I and Mikey started a new castle and I worked on that for a little bit 

We rented a trampoline on the lake today from 2-4, so that was fun. Neil paddled me out to it, then I did some swimming around there, and then decided to swim to shore. 

Bear Lake is nice in that the water is so pretty and blue, and that the shore is a nice gradual slope, so you can touch the ground pretty far out. 

Then to trampoline and back again. Swimming felt good. Katharine was busy with making a castle again.

Peter got really into it too, and he was building for like 4 hours. Seriously the whole time we were there, and he didn't stop for food or anything.

Cousin Mikey helped too. 

Mikey was at the trampoline for a bit but when he came back he worked on it again with Peter. Corey came to the beach after spending some time working, and he came to watch P&K continue to build in the sand. Neil and Grant working on their new tying technique that Joseph introduced them to, ha! It was funny to see all the guys working at it with such focus!

Time to pack up and leave. Another family that was near us had lots of great sand castle supplies and built and amazing castle. They left before we did, and left behind a bunch of colored sea shells on their castle, so Peter and I collected those up and took them back to the house!

Back at the house - my dad with cute baby Daisy!

Coreys got babies too.... his two grandbabies!

Then time to enjoy some dinner.

Followed by desserts - Amy made cookies, and Katharine got to eat some of the mini MnM's leftover!

I don't know what Joseph is talking to my parent's about here, but I thought it was a cute photo.

Playing cards - 

And kids watching movies when they're taking a break from pickleball and the video game consoles. 

Overall it was a great day. Kids are staring Secret Hitler now... I'm going to go to bed though. 

...just in case it's anything like last night, when Abi and Hyrum stayed awake until past 1:49 am!

Hibbert Family Pictures

We took some family pictures this evening, after the sun had set. 

The people renting the cabin next to us were all outside eating, so we asked one of them to come take our group pic. We're going to return the favor for their reunion tomorrow. :)

We were counting heads before the pic and realized that Lily wasn't there! She was upstairs doing homework with headphones in, so didn't hear the many calls to come that had been ringing through the house. Ethan ran in to get her, and when she came out we all were sitting there watching her and cheered as she came down the stairs. We were glad she made it. Before the big group photo, my siblings and I took a few with our parents:

This is our "silly" one ~ so silly!

And then some of just the "kids" - everyone line up in order, oldest to youngest...

We don't do tallest to shortest, cause we're all tied second place for short, and Grant gets 1ast place for not short. Yeah, who's that tall kid at the end? Whose genes did he get?!?! And why didn't he share with the rest of us?

Then finally, the traditional jazz hand pic. 

Neil was like "Ugh no! I hate jazz hands! Just cause we did it once when we were kids doesn't mean we are doomed to do it for the rest of our lives!" Then a reluctant "FINE!!!" with a big enthusiastic smile. And this one was actually my favorite. 

The big kids kept the little kids entertained while we did our sibling photo shoot, doing an obstacle course.

It was pretty tricky, but even Peter and Katharine wanted a turn to give it a go, with a little help from older siblings.

After pictures were done, we let the kids watch KPop Demon Hunters, which is all the rage this month. Little ones have gone to bed now. Older kids stayed up and played games. Joseph represented our family for this one. 

Ok, so most of us are in bed now. A little bit more of what we did today - Hyrum got to sleep in the kiddie room. He talked Peter into sleeping on the trundle so H could have a big bed. 

Lazy morning though... Sophi and Mel napping, Lily doing homework, and looks like Abi is on Corey's phone, so probably checking Instagram.

The weather was very nice today. Cool temperature and also cloudy, so I liked that and was ok to go to the beach. 

I still put on sunblock but I was less concerned about totally coating everywhere. There were fun games going on - spikeball ~

Katharine and I made a castle. I did the cobblestone bridge, pretty good if I do say so myself. 

Kids were out on kayaks. 

I buried K in the sand.

Cute picture of my parents. 

Mel made skipping stones from clay and we had a contest for distance. 

Katharine with a dirty face. 

But she still feels pretty!

People relaxing. 

I played Kubb against Joseph. Then Joseph and I were a team against Neil and Mikey. Then we did kids vs. adults, so Mikey and Joseph against me and Neil. That one went on forever, it was kinda funny. When Neil and I finally did have a chance to win and it was obvious we would win, Neil did went for the king without looking... and missed! Then it went on forever again. Funny. 

The new mothers Bella and Eliza with their beautiful angel babies. 

At the beach, Joseph was showing the men a faster way to tie a bow, and it was so funny how intersted they all were. 

Spend a couple of hours mastering this and then maybe it will save you 1 second when you tie your pants for the rest of your life, then you can slowly earn back those hours you spent learning. 

A special shout out should be given to Amy, Jerusha, and Jared, who did all the meal planning, prepping, and cooking for everyone during this reunion. We've been having a feast at every meal.