Shrek Party

I'm at home with the boys. I'm letting them watch Gravity Falls while Corey is late at work. ALSNK all went down to Lehi tonight to Mel's place. They left at 5:30 and are sleeping over tonight and they're going to watch Shrek. It's a "Shrek Party" thought Katharine says they are a "Shrek Family"

See how they all did their hair in little space buns to kinda look like Ogres? And everyone has a little accent of green. Lily has Shrek socks, so she's really official. Cute and fun. Lily put some green lips on herself and did a few embellishments on Katharine. 

They made a green pistachio cake with pistacio frosting. They thought the batter smelled gross and are worried it will taste gross, but then that just makes is go along with the theme even more, right?

They sent some pictures of their fun - They ate an onion and Mel provided green face masks for the ogre theme. 

Katharine is 100% princess, and looks to me like she wasn't too sure about how they all looked. She'll have to be Princess Fiona next time.

Ready to binge Shrek

So that's fun and our house is definitely more quiet with them all gone. 

Peter was a little sad to not be invited, but we had out own party, aka I bought them ice cream and they're watching tv. Peter also had his face painted. 

Natalie did that earlier today, and she did Katharine too. 

Katharine is a deer.

Getting a pic of them together. 

Then Peter went to go test if his superpowers had increased.

While they've been watching the movie, I was outside checking on the baby humming bird. So yesterday Daniel found this little one on the driveway on the east side of our front yard. We googled and decided he was probably a fledgling and he was able to perch well so we put him up in a tree there while we went on our hike, and he was still there when we got back. Then this morning we couldn't find him anywhere. Then Daniel and Katharine heard him and found him while they were walking to a friends house. He was totally on the other side of the yard by the tree farm. So that's where we left him all day.  

Before the girls left for their party, I ran to Home Depot to buy a hummingbird feeder for it and it's mom. He didn't take any but I put his beak in there a few times to try and show it what to do. 

Not sure if it worked, but I left him perched in a tree with that, checked on him every now and then this evening. It looks like a storm is rolling in, so before I came in I put him on the ground by a rock where I think he should be shielded ok from the wind and rain. We'll say a little prayer for him and check on him in the morning. I haven't seen the mom come and feed it, but I'm just trusting she has, my only evidence being that this little guy is still alive since finding him yesterday.

Kids to the Ruins

We just got back from a short FHE hike to the ruins with the 8 kiddos at home.

The inspiration for this evenings activity was my morning ride to ruins. I didn't know it when I set off, but it rained up in the mountains last night and thus it smelled oh so absolutely amazing all up the trail from the 1st bridge on. From the trailhead to the sandy track it isn't as green and forest-y, so that just smelled like wet weeds. But from the 1st bridge to the ruins, oh WOW it was incredible. After I got to the ruins, I just sat and spent 45 min smelling glorious nature and listening to the creek. I decided, as I sat there, that the kids needed to come up. I got home and tried to rally them to come with me early at 10, when I knew the smell would still be fresh and amazing, but NO ONE would come. I was ready to force them, but if I did, they wanted it to count as FHE. I didn't know if Corey wanted us to do FHE without him. He was working from home. I went to ask his counsel. Do I force them to go now and then let them play with friends this evening? Or do I make them work and then they can go play and we'll do it later for FHE? Corey said the latter. So they cleaned up the main floor then I let them leave. Off to play with friends. When we finally did FHE it was way later than I wanted (8:30 pm) so we only had 20 minutes until sunset. That's not much time. Off we went in a brisk walk from Lisa to the ruins with kids. The boys were leading the pack. 

K was holding my hand until she got tired, then Corey carried her on his shoulders as he talked with the girls. A few were reluctant for this activity (Abi) and called for a vote to make us turn around early. She wanted us to stop at Techy, but no, this is our chance! We have to make it to the ruins! And we did. Corey and I felt happy to share this part of our life with the kids. It was fun to have them up there! It was a 1.33 mile walk, took us 40 minutes. I showed them where I always fill my water bottle, and as I'm turn around to come back I see Lily climbing over the logs to the ruins!!

WHAT!?!? I've never dared do this, but my defense for that caution is that usually the creek is higher and the log is wet. But Lily just goes over there without even asking us. 

Listen Lil, this is OUR spot.

Well you can't go over there and I not do it too... so I guess I'm doing this today. I wasn't planning on it, I was a little scared and went slow, and I did it. And so did Natalie and Sophi. Lily and Natalie went twice, Owen and Daniel came too. Abi stayed with Katharine eating ice cream. While I was over peeking in the ruins Corey dished up ice cream in bowls that he brought up in a cooler which I did not notice at all. All of a sudden everyone was eating ice cream. 

I came back, had one bite of what was left over, glad I didn't have a chance to over eat it but got a taste. Then Corey was about to cross with Peter, but it was getting dark and so I called for an end to the fun. The kids were reluctant to end but admitted it was getting dark. I also think this will turn out to have been a good strategy to end before they are ready to stop, cause that left them wanting more. Maybe that means they'll come with me again soon, yay! The kids climbed back and started the walk back to the car. It was dark but we made it. So that was fun. I let them know, if I ever go missing, to look for me up there. I showed them a few of my secret spots where I try to hide and have some private quiet time. 

When we got home we checked on a hummingbird that Daniel found earlier today. 

He found it in the driveway when he was walking over to get Owen from a friends house. Oh that's one of the reasons we got started so late on the hike - cause Owen wasn't home cause we didn't go get him cause we were distracted by a hummingbird. We perched him in a tree before we left. Cute little guy, sitting there so proud and patient. 

He was still there, so yay. We'll check on him tomorrow and hope he is flying off soon. In other nature news, I also am very happy that I have a few roses right now! These have grown on https://thewridefamily.blogspot.com/2026/05/michael-with-kids-my-roses-are-gone.htmlmy shrub that Wesley aggressively pruned. I didn't think I'd have any this summer, so yay, a beautiful blessing, and they smell beautiful. As of This evening there are 10 of them that the deer haven't eaten yet, yay

They are smaller than my roses in the past and not quite as pink and vibrant (2023 was an amazing rose year), but better late than not at all, I'm just glad they are here. 

Personalized Coloring Pages

Corey and I took an early date night tonight to Olive Garden. When we got back he continued working and the kids knocked on his office door a lot, as they usually do when he works from home. He has been using AI a lot for work, and he's become quite a master at it. Tonight he accepted the interruptions from Peter and Katharine in stride. They'd come knock at his door asking him to print coloring pages and he was making amazing things. Coloring pages used to be just pictures of Princesses and Super Heroes, but it has now reached another level, cause look at this picture Katharine just colored...

Yes, that is a coloring page of KATHARINE and her unicorn friend. 

Here's another one Corey made of her riding the unicorn. Oh my goodness, these are too cute...

She came up here to have me help her change her dress, and then not long after, she showed me this drawing of herself in the dress she had just put on. It's important to get the look just right, so she changed, he took a photo, ran it through ChatGPT with a few instructions, and boom - Katharine has a very personalized coloring page of herself! But she told me I have to go buy her shoes like those. Anyway, so cute and Katharine loves it. Corey also did some photos from Newport last week - 

Corey also did the AI photos he made of them from a few weeks ago - Katharine as a princess in front of a castle - 

And as a little mermaid. 

I told Corey he has to send me an extra copy of all of these. I am going to need a copy of every coloring page he does so I can have my own stash to keep for their future children someday.

Katharine is always a princess and so are her friends (obviously!) Her friend came over today, and they  will be matching princesses if they can. Today they could, and so we had two Belle's running around the house. 

What else - my I made two beautiful loaves of sourdough. I was excited that they turned out so pretty.

Hyrum will be home next week after he's done with finals. He sent us some pics from a date he had tonight. This is an annual date he and his roommates do called "Panda Night" - where they get Panda Express and then watch Kung Fu Panda. 

Hyrum was especially excited to use his light saber chop sticks! Ha ha so fun!

Cardiff Pass

This morning I went on a hike to Cardiff Pass with my friend Jill. I have never been there before. The flowers were amazing and it was a good climb. I was grateful that it was overcast. 

It was 2.92 miles, took us an hour and 14 min. About 50 minutes to get to the pass - Big Cottonwood Canyon behind me -

Then we hustled down to try and be back at the car by 9:20 cause she needed to be home at 9:40. It was a steep climb so I knew it was not going to be very fun on the decent, and it wasn't. 

I was hoping today would be a day of rest for my knees, which are still recovering from my 7 mile hike/trail run yesterday, but they had to work and it's my right knee that is particularly sore and tender. I guess this is why Corey and I bike instead of trail run. But still gorgeous. We passed a few people on our hike down, two of which were guys with big backpacks. Jill asked them "Are you jumpers?" One of them replied "We're flyers!" Corey and I saw a guy paragliding down to the street at the mouth of Little Cottonwood earlier this year, I think in the spring time, and I was amazed thinking "THAT... THAT is the way to hike! Hike up and fly down!!" They told me to follow my heart and my dreams, said that the Point of the mountain is a good place to learn, so I'm manifesting it here and now, I'm going to become a paraglider pilot. Thanks for the inspo Ben and can't remember the other guys name.

I told Corey my master plan and he's down to do it with me. I need to find pics of paragliders for my visualization wall, haha. I want us to be certified with a tandem pass so we can take the boys and Katharine flying, maybe the grandkids too if their parents are ok with it. Wouldn't that be awesome! This will be so fun. It will ruin our life (as Clancy testified) but it will be so amazing.

Corey worked late last night, and then after he got home, for scriptures, he shared a bit about his work and about trust and patience, which once again turned into a discussion on endurance. The siege of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's reign, which we are studying this week, is a good example of that. 2 Kings 18 & 19, good stuff - "I can stay true to the Lord when my faith is challenged." I texted Amy last night to apologize that we hadn't paid rent yet, and she replied this morning, I read it on the hike, that us being late was prob on their side and that she'd talk to Brent, so that was really nice and gave me hope. I wasn't even sure if she was even aware. We're still in trying to keep out flag flying though it seems like we're sinking. We didn't talk about rent to the kids, but that's been on my mind all month. I handled it well, no tears this month. We also didn't mentioned Shackleton as we talked with LSN (Abi was with friends) cause I've got another book of a guy doing crazy stuff in Antarctica - The 12 Hour Walk by Colin O'Brady. I ordered the book last night, cause this is a keeper and I need to have my own copy to write in. The two parts I read to the kids last night were pages 101 - 104 and 113 - 115 about his crossing of Antarctica, racing Captain Rudd, then back to pages 23 - 25 when he broke his limiting belief about only being able to walk 10 hours a day and pushing it to 12 hours on that crossing. (Putting that here so I can mark it when I get my copy of the book. I've read that to Corey and now to the kids, that story is good and important, good lessons on endurance!) So Corey talked about work, I read those pages, and then it was midnight, darn it. The kids kept us up too late again. Owen and Daniel went to bed cause they knew I would be waking them up early. They had to be at the church at 7:30 today to go to Camp Tracey with some neighborhood kids. I woke them up at 7, took them to the church...

And then Jill met me there and we left for Alta after that. The boys got back at 2 from Camp Tracey. They had fun - here are some photos the leaders sent - 

Daniel ready to take on the climbing wall -

Having a good time on the water -

Shooting guns - 

Owen's turn.

Searching for dinosaur bones?...

Lunch time ~

After they got back home they cleaned themselves up, then Daniel was jumping on the trampoline and accidentally made the hole bigger. Corey got this picture from his office window

Katharine helped Lily get dressed in beautiful pink clothes.

Oh! And Abi's mission tags came in the mail today! Exciting! Less than two weeks!!!

And I spent too much time scrolling today. I got on Instagram to look at some things that Jill told me about on our hike, stuff that is all new to me: Limewash, Roman Clay, and Venetian Plaster. She's excited about it and asked if I might be interested in helping her with a business around it. "Paint isn't just a color anymore... Finish changes how a room feels - depth, movement, texture" @Dmstudiohouse There is a "Plaster Portal" class by a studio in Wyoming, by New Age Artisans, so going to look into that. Then I spent time watching reels that Hyrum and Wes sent me, kids were over my shoulder, I was sending reels to the kids - pretty funny stuff - I liked these:

touching grass isn't enough any more
sad kid's mean face
which kind of hiker are you? 
Introverts
scrolling, look at theses slugs
There's food at home

BUT I did finally get productive. At 9:15 and I just finished blogging June at 9:15 and then I wanted to finish out that week so I had to do those first few days of July and now it's 10:50 and I just finished July! The kids stayed up late watching Cruella while I blogged. Yay yay, now I Just need to catch up on last week's vacation.