Katharine in Provo

Well, today was a very unique day for me. I took Katharine down to Utah County last night for a sleepover with Ethan and Bella. I miss her! But with Katharine gone all day, I had a whole like 7 hours to myself! Corey left when he took Churchill carpool, so after I got the boys out the door at 8:30, I was all alone. It was strange for me, as a mom, but really great. I loved it actually. I had a goal to blog. And I did. I caught up on a lot of March and did a little bit of July 2024, which I have been behind on since, let me see... since July 2024. I did not finish it yet but I'm close! Thanks Ethan and Bella for helping me with my goal of keeping a family history. Corey took Lily down to Provo for a concert, so Lily didn't come home after school. Abi popped in briefly at 3 and then left to go work for my parent's. Sophi and Natalie stayed after school for track. So they weren't home until after 4, and the boys got home at 4, but also left right away to go play with friends. I was by myself from 8:30 until 4 basically. It is a bit strange to think that that is what some people's lives are like. And that someday mine will be like this too? The plan is for Corey to pick up Katharine after Lily's concert/performance is over. It's 8pm and they are not on their way back yet, but I suspect they will be soon. From the videos and photos Ethan sent, it looks like they had a great day together. He sent a few videos to our messenger chat of him throwing her in the air onto a lovesack. They also watched the Bee Movie and walked around BYU in her Belle nightgown. 

It is one of her many dresses. I sent her with three nightgowns/dresses in her luggage: Belle, Snow White, and Moana. They found a fun playplace on campus for her to explore.

K didn't attend class with Ethan. But as they continued their tour of campus, K got a pic with Cosmo.

Katharine seemed concerned that he was frozen solid.

And where are his shoes?? He shouldn't have human feet, should he?

Ethan said it was super fun and that K is really cute. Bella also sent a pic of Ethan gagging as he changed her #2 diapers. Don't worry, E, they don't start off that potent. Your newborn will start off with more mild #2 and slowly work you up to it.

We are going out of town for Spring Break. We are leaving Friday for Las Vegas then will drive from Vegas to Newport on Saturday. Corey's worked hard at making plans for this trip. He does a good job. The kids are lucky to have him. If he ever dies, I'll need someone else to step up to make vacations happen, cause I don't think I could do it. It's all too much. He's found deals to go to Six Flag and whale watching and other stuff. We'll be there through Friday, leave Friday the 11th and spend that night in Vegas again, then try to make it back for Bella's baby shower on Saturday. 

FHE at Leatherby's

We didn't have FHE yesterday, cause we were going to have it today. We told the kids that today we were going to go see The Chosen for $5 Tuesday. Well, I drove to the Cinemark around 12:30 to buy our tickets, and it was then that I learned that the Chosen is not part of the $5 special. Thus, at $12.50  a ticket, it would cost over $120 for the 10 of us. Yeah, we don't want to do that. Which was a bummer cause we had talked it up. After not buying tickets to the movie, K and I headed out to Skyline to get Abi. We had an hour to kill though, and K wanted ice cream, so I took her into Macey's. She liked driving in the car. 

I bought some sushi for lunch for me. Walking out of Macey's.

She's cute. Still had 30 min to kill, so I took sushi to Corey. He didn't eat much, and so I saved the last two pieces for Abi. What else shall we do to make it up to the kids? It's really important to Corey that  we do stuff that the kids like for FHE so that they'll look forward to it and participate. I picked up Abi at school and took her to the bus so she could go to her flute lesson. I let her know the bad news and good news (actually 2 bad news and 2 good news). Bad news: We aren't going to a movie for FHE. More bad news: since we aren't going to the movie, Grandpa won't be picking you up, so you'll be riding the bus home. Good news though: I'll take into consideration your suggestions for something else to do for FHE. Good news also, I brought you two pieces of sushi. As Corey had predicted, she suggested Leatherby's. Also during this time, Ethan reached out asking if Katharine could sleep over. I was a little nervous, or am a little nervous, just not sure how she'll do when it's time to bed and she's not at home. I asked K if she wanted to go see Ethan and Bella, she said yes, and then she cried when we got home cause she wanted to go see Ethan Bella. I told her we had to get her blanket and pack pack. So we went inside and gathered things into an Ikea bag. Then she entertained herself playing with a bottle family: blue Listerine as the dad, large pink pepto as the mom, and smaller pepto as "Katharine" (not "the baby"). Who needs dolls when you have bottles of medicine and toiletries to play with. 

I went to pick up Sophi and Natalie at school (today was the first day of track), then back home again, then pick up Abi at the bus stop, and then it was 5:30, which was the time I told Ethan that I could brink K to them. They left around the same time, we met up in Pleasant Grove and Katharine is with them for the next 24 hours, sniff. She looked super cute in this pic Ethan sent of them going out to eat for dinner. Aww, my baby.

I miss her! But I'm really going to use my time wisely tomorrow to get stuff done! (Not cleaning, cause I can have kids do that. I shall be blogging). So I got back from taking K, I was tired after so much time in the car and had to lay down for quick power nap. Then we went to Leatherby's. Corey had a meeting at 7pm though, and then another meeting at 8. The kids were getting a little stir crazy. We decided to get in the car and go drive to where Corey was at the Stake Center, and wait in the parking lot for him to come out. Then we counted heads and realized Lily was not with us. She was still asleep on the couch. I go wake her up. It takes a moment for her to come too. As she got on her shoes, Corey pulled in. Ok, off we go. I did not partake of any of the food at Leatherby's. I even resisted the fries. And remembering the gluttony last time, I consulted with the blog and found said gluttonous post of our outing to Leatherby's last year for Corey's birthday. I announced: "You may each order 'the Gavin'." It was $5. That was how much we were going to spend on the movie tickets. Anything above $5 bucks you pay yourself. Sophi and Natalie asked if they could pool their $5 together and order something to share. Yes. 

Abi just ordered what she wanted, and so she owes us $2.29 extra. 

Owen is watching his figure apparently and didn't want ice cream. He decided the kid's menu burger and fries was a better option for him and his future athletic career. 

That was a dollar extra, but we'll cover that cause you are trying to be healthy. Peter with his mint and oreo ice cream, Daniel next to him with Cookie Monster flavor (it was blue). 

Lily got the Gavin - raspberry cheesecake flavor. 

We talked a little bit about things that happened today. Abi brought up: "Sushi isn't good for you if you're pregnant..." I said "Shoot..." She gave me such wide eyes and I could tell was freaking out for about 3 seconds, and I was laughing, then she realized it was an April Fools joke, that I did not plan on, it was just a spur of the moment tease since she made a comment about pregnancy. Funny. 

As we walked out of Leatherby's, Owen asked "Am I the healthiest kid?" (cause he didn't order ice cream.) Yes, you are very healthy! Peter piped up "Well atleast I am the only kid who enjoyed it!" 'cause he ate so slowly. He was the only kid who brought home leftovers. I always tell them when they are eating treats to eat it slowly and enjoy each bite. Peter was proud of himself for following that counsel. After we got home, we drew names again for "Secret Sibling" for this week. I didn't do much for Peter last week, the week went by too quickly! This week I'll try to do him again plus the person I got for this week (Daniel).

One other fun thing. This morning I went to the temple for 5 am initiatories with my mom, and then I left in time to meet my sister Beka at Momentum. She used our guest pass to try out the climbing gym. We did a few boulders and I belayed her on a 5.6, she did really good! I always like sharing climbing. I find it very fun.

K's Shoes

I found quite a few photos on my phone tonight. Most were of Katharine's shoes yesterday at church during Sacrament meeting.

These are her "slippers". Here you can see how amazing they are compared to the footwear of her sisters boring brown sandals and black shoes. These slippers have glitter and diamond and pink and gold and bows and just wow. 

She makes me smile.

Melodie said that she has a whole album titled "Katharine's feet". Today K took a few photos as well. One was of the scratch on her foot, which was a pretty big deal when it happened on Saturday. She's coping with it well. Next to the robot cat which Natalie got from her friend Lani May for K. It meow's at us in the dark and startles us sometimes.

Katharine's baby zebra in his bed...

And what was I, her mother, doing while K was taking photographs? She took a photo of that too. 

That's me taking a quick nap on the floor. I think I gave her my phone in exchange for her giving me a few minutes to sleep. Not much to report. No violin today, cause their teacher is in Italy with a violin group. Sophi and Natalie have kinda been slacking with violin. They don't really have a goal with it, and unlike with jazz, there's no live in parent who knows a lot about it.  I haven't done much since K was born almost 3 years ago. Violin is so competitive too, I'm not sure what the plan is with it. Other than just to develop a skill that they can use the rest of their life to bless others? Even if they don't ever make it into Lyceum or tour Italy, it is a good thing and a good way to spend their time. Sophi's been distracted with Duolingo until recently. Last Wednesday I encouraged her to give it up, after talking to Wes last Monday where mentioned how he quit it and has been glad to have that time to put somewhere else. He warned that Duolingo doesn't let you leave peacefully. They'll send you some emails saying stuff like "so do you give up on all your goals??" or "I was going to send that to you in French, but then you wouldn't understand..." They really get you by trying to have you keep a streak and there are some other gimicks... It's so stupid though, cause Sophi was using it FOR ENGLISH just to keep her streak. So dumb. To quote Sophi from last Wednesday, when she deleted the app: 

"Duolingo is like kind of evil, yeah. I hate it. I just do it, because like they have the freaking scoreboard. I’m in the diamond league and I’m like 50,000 XP away from being first place. It’s so stupid, and it’s always so stressful. I have a 63 day streak and I’m like really stressing about this because, also, they do like after I finish one of the like quests like the daily quest they give me XP for tomorrow so then right when I open the app the next day like the XP starts going and I can’t pause it so I have to do it right then." 

I don't really understand what most of that means. Sounds like they got her trapped in a game that they made up. Sophi agreed to let it go and walk away from it all. She opened her phone to delete the app. 

Me: I bet you’re gonna feel freedom. 

Sophi: I’m already feeling it. Gasp - it's gone! Yay! 

Now with all her free time, she can focus on violin! or reading her scriptures in prep for receiving her patriarchal blessing. A little more on Sophi and Natalie. They both broke their phones a while ago, and then both worked to save money to get new Gabb phones. Sophi used her birthday money, and Natalie read all 4 of the Saints volumes to earn money (I said I'd pay $25 for each one). Natalie read and also sometimes played it on audio and followed along in her book. She did it pretty quickly, I was impressed with her focus. That's our little go getter. I have been trying to take away their phones on Sundays, to give their brains a rest and prevent brain rot. Lily doens't have a phone. She hasn't had one since fall. Hers broke and she hasn't cared enough to earn money to buy one. Sophi's broke when it was in her pocket and she was getting in the car and closed the door on her jacket pocket, and thus her phone. Natalie's screen was good, but something else broke on it when it fell from her top bunk bed after she changed beds to the top. I can't remember how Lily's broke. 

After I gave Sophi her phone back Sunday night, she saw that she had gotten a text from a boy, and they mutually like each other (gave each other Christmas presents) and Sunday night he texted her to ask her to be his girlfriend. She replied that she can't have a boyfriend, and she can't date until she's 16. Good girl Soph. It was funny cause Natalie has PE with the boy and she was being a mediator, telling him that Corey is strict so it's not Sophi's fault, and that Sophi likes him, and that it's nothing personal, but she can't be his girl right now. Corey and Mel talking to Sophi in her bed - laughing about stuff. Corey is sorry that she broke his heart. 

Mel also gave advice that she's glad that she didn't date or get serious with boys in jr high or high school. It's not the time for that. Save it for college. But Sophi didn't want to hurt his feelings. Natalie at Sophi's desk, prob texting the guy. That reminds me of a meme Corey shared last week: 

Our girls are often talking about trying to figure out boys, and Corey tells them that males aren't  very complicated. So that meme seemed to send the message. Lily said to him "these memes are getting personal!"

Also, speaking about boyfriends, Mel came up last night to hang out. She left this morning. Christian is in Chile visiting his mission with his little brother. So since she had time on her hands, Mel and brought some dough, and for some reason made a muscular kangaroo out of bread. Dough ready to go in the oven.

Fresh out of the oven. Kangaroo with a tiny head.

Primary Activity

Owen and Daniel had their first soccer games today! They were very excited. First games were supposed to be last week but they got cancelled cause of snow. Today was still pretty cold, but they layered up so it was good. Corey took them to their games while I went to Momentum to meet up with some neighbors who we invited to use our guest passes for March. Corey met up with us after dropping off the boys. We were glad they took us up on our invite to come. They did great and it will be fun if they join. If they don't, though, we still like sharing the experience with others and it makes us feel a bit like we're getting our money's worth if we use our two guest passes each month. We helped them climb for about an hour, then Corey went to pick up the boys and I headed home to take Peter to a stake activity. It was way cute! They had focused the activities on service and also had a "wizard of oz" theme, using that to symbolize the "covenant path". I was way impressed. Having done a thing like that once on my mission (we did a replica of Lehi's dream) I know the work that was put into this, and it turned out so cute. They had three other activities that the kids all rotated through. One of which was putting together gift bags for school children. Peter holding the little gift bag he put together. He chose lots of green things: green pad of paper, green playdoh, a green toothbrush.

At a different station they got to decorate a heart cookie - 

This one was for him to eat, then they gave him some pre-packaged cookies to share with someone. After he got home he shared it with Lily and Katharine, and one for himself. Anyway, super impressed. Very cute. Last night Corey and I went out to eat at Bandits, then changed clothes to go climbing at Momentum. We are trying to go Friday nights rather than sneak away again Saturday morning. Cause Friday nights the kids don't want us there anyway. It was a bit late, cause of Lily's band in American Fork. so we didn't leave to eat until 8 (Corey was finishing up some work) and then we climbed 9-11. Joseph called while Corey was about to climb, and he thought "sweet, I can do two things at once..." but it was hard for him to climb and talk at the same time. So we can't do that again. Climbing takes a little bit of focus. Corey also got a pic of me doing the red V2 boulder. I got it for the first time this week. I was able to get it again tonight, yay. It's a tough one.

We don't do great staying up that late though, so maybe we'll have to adjust things a bit more so we can get to bed on time. 

Natalie had a friend b-day party tonight. She doesn't have any money, but I took her out to get something for her friend last night, but I was not willing to buy a $20 water bottle or a $16 necklace and several other things she thought she might like to get. We are giving the girls money for reading books, but maybe we should find other ways for them to earn some cash. They feel a bit trapped by their lack of finances, but we do too, so yeah, that's just the reality of things right now. Natalie couldn't decide, so I gave her 5 more minutes to finalize her sale, which she couldn't do, so then I settled it and headed to the check out with some Wet n wild mascara and lip gloss and candy and teddy bear. That was all yesterday before our date. Then Corey took K to McDonald's today and Natalie went with them and I think she sweet talked Corey into taking her to get a few more things for her friend. Then he took them with him to his dad's house to do some work. Abi slept over at a friends house and when she got home, the boys were all gone playing at friends' houses so it was just Abi Lily and Sophi and I here and we were all a bit surprised with how quiet it was. ALS went over to Wayne's house too, to support him on JeNeal's birthday, so I've been here in a quiet house most of the evening and am actually blogging, yay.

Corey's Car Back for Real

Good news, we got Corey's car back today! Thank you Freeway Transmissions for fixing it, and for only taking two weeks to get the job done! Corey said it runs like it used to before we took it to Tanner, so that's good. When we took in into Tanner back in November, we actually didn't notice anything wrong with how it drove at all. The only problem was that the car told us there was a problem. Kinda sad to think it could have been nothing serious, but we'll never know. Well, in the next life maybe we can ask God what were the other options that could have played out. But this has been good for us somehow, I'm sure. Corey joked recently "It's a good thing we didn't get ski passes this year, cause we couldn't have gone anyway!" (without his 4 wheel drive) Followed by a thought of "Instead of paying for ski passes, we paid for a transmission." Yaaay.... (This year we should get the ski passes!) After taking Corey to pick up his car at 9, he went to Liberty park for a jog with a friend, and K and I went to Burt Brothers to get an oil change for the van. Instead of waiting in the car shop, K and I walked across the street to go to a park that was close by. 

It was at the Sandy Splash pad, minus the water. Unfortunately the little playground next to it didn't have a slide or swing. So we just sat on the step of some pretty lame climbing and step hopping area, then wandered around while she ate her apple. 

We looked at ants, played with our shadows, made a pile of pinecones, and picked a daffodil.

Then we went into the Senior Center where they were having a thrift sale. I found something for K, but when we went to the checkout, they didn't take venmo. Only cash or checks, which I didn't have either of. But the free fruit snacks that they had were enough for her to walk away from the pretty tea cup and saucer I was going to buy, and then we went on our way back to the car shop, where we had hot chocolate while they finished up the car. 

Then to Costco, then home for lunch and a nap, then i went to pick up Abi and Lily from school, then I came home and made potato salad, then I went on a ride and was gone for 3 hours. Left around 5, went from home to Hidden Valley, along BST, climb to Ghost Falls, then took Ghost falls down! Yay, it wasn't gated off, woo!

I had a moment of meditation and happiness at the Ghost falls waterfall. It was quite full and flowing with water. It was pretty, I took a sip from the stream and enjoyed being outside. Then down the hill for a bit of fun. There were quite a few bike teams and solo bikers out in the canyon. I was able to also connect to lower rush! It was fun and good to be back on the hill. When I came out of Rush, I took limelight in a moment of weakness. There was a group of people blocking the way I would have gone (to BST) so I just kept going straight on limelight. As soon as I got on I was like "drat! I didn't want to do this!" but I was stuck, and knew I'd have to climb back up to get on BST, or take the road home instead of the trail. I decided to go back up the trail. I was tired, legs were burning, but made it back up to BST, then climbed BST until I was on my way north back to Hidden Valley. I went 16.59 miles, not bad. Was gone too long. Corey was on his way home when I was done, so he came and picked me up in the car. Nice that he has his bike rack back with his car, yay. We just finished scriptures. Corey wanted us to watch something before scriptures, it was called the Blue Vase. "It shall be done." Here's the first part of it. Not sure what was the link to the whole film Corey showed. Anyway, kinda silly, but it's old, so it gets a pass. good message to be an optimist and to be determined, to be a Do-er! Now going to bed. 

Exploring Bell & Lily in Payson

I went on a hike tonight. The weather was really really nice, and it's getting colder later this week, so I took advantage of it. After dropping the boys (Owen and Daniel) off for activity days at the church, I walked to the Bell Canyon trailhead and I explored the south part of the trail, south of the Bells Canyon Creek. And I'm looking on a map right now - it says "Bell"Canyon, "Bell" Canyon waterfall, Bell Canyon Trailhead, but then it says "Bells" Canyon creek. So I don't know if it's Bell or Bells, and apparently neither does Google. I guess I'll lean toward the singular usage. Ok, so on the south side of "Bell canyon creek I was able to explore a trail and it was really nice and lovely and fed my soul. 

I sat by a tree for 20 minutes and just closed my eyes and listened to the creek... Then I took a selfie, just in case I got killed by a cougar, to leave some record of my last moments...

Then I prayed again that there weren't any mountain lions around who were about to pounce on me. There were no other hikers. After an hour by myself, there was one couple that came by me. They were bush whacking more than I had been. There were plenty of people on the north side of the trail. I took the north trail on my way out. I explored a few new parts, and I have plans to blaze a few new small paths to get to the top of the two ridges. I made a list of things to put in my future hiking backpack: branch clippers/pruners, small picket knife, water bottle, sun visor or a hat, sunglasses, head lamp, hair tie, change of socks in case I get my current pair wet or dirty as I go barefoot. I took a few pics of spots so I can remember where I want to go. This is at the top of the north ridge. 

And at this non-readable mile marker, I take 80 paces east and then there will be a small trail on the right. That is where we are all going to go explore! 

I told Corey that I think we should all get a few books and pack a lunch and go spend the day in Bell Canyon. It would be fun! We're going to do it this summer.

I also told the girls that I want them to come with me and help me create a path to the top of the ridges. They are game. I think I'd just need each of them to help me once or twice. The girls had a fun Young Women activity tonight. It was a clothing swap! Lily didn't have school yesterday because it was the ACT test for the juniors, so we took her to the frontrunner train on Monday night and she spent Mon night and last night with Ethan and Bella. She came back today with Abi from Lyceum. Lily missed today too so she could hang out a little longer with Ethan and Bella. Tuesday is the day that E&B don't have much school wise, so that is their "date" night, and they took Lily with them to Payson to go explore some Wride family history site. First stop was the theater where JeNeal and Wayne used to work. JeNeal in the ticket booth many decades ago...

...and Lily and Ethan in the booth! If you look for patters in the rock wall, you can see that the rocks are still the same, very cool! 

Then they went to some movie theater place that was closed or not thriving, business wise... there was no one there...

but they walked around.

And took pictures...

of random things.

Then they went by Corey's mom's parent's house, which is still there. This is where Reid and Trelma raised their family, and where JeNeal grew up.

And Helen and Wayne's house. There used to be a lot of apples trees on that grass. 

Then they went by the Payson cemetery and looked for headstones.

This is a great thing Ethan and Bella are doing for our family. 

(...while still being a big brother, ha.)

They found the Wrides and Curtis'

and they also looked for a long time to find Daniel Stark's grave. Ethan was on the phone with Corey and Wayne asking for help to locate the plot. 

He came over on the Ship Brooklyn. So pretty cool that they all got to hang out together and do fun things. Ethan said Lily was great, and a lot easier than the boys. Abi, Sophi, and Katharine are the three left waiting their turn to hang out with E&B. Fun.