Fall Break in Moab

I am in Moab with SNODPK. Corey and Lily are home. Corey had a demo today that he stayed for, and Lily stayed so she could be under Corey's thumb on Sunday evening with her college essays and to be under his watchful eye today to help her finish an online class to fix a bad grade (AP World History). They were going to come down today after the demo, but instead, after it was done, Corey had a lot more he needed to do asap before he and Sophi leave for Korea on Thursday, so I told him it made sense to me for him to just stay. Not worth the 7 hours of driving, especially cause the kids don't want to bike tomorrow, they just want to head home. 

But the kids have had fun today and we did do something, so even though things didn't totally go to plan, I say it was a success. First thing I did today was a presentation at 9am to get $100 bucks so yay, they said it would only be 30 minutes and they kept pretty good to their word. Then after that was done it was time for our group hike. It was the one hike I know about down here, cause I did it with the kids the other time that I was here in Moab (also without Corey!) - the Grandstaff Trail. Owen Daniel and Peter walking ahead of us. 

We did this almost exactly 9 years ago, cool. We read the blog post together before we headed out. I've endured a lot over these years and I'm proud that I've documented so much of it. I was impressed with all the detail I kept in that entry and wonder how I remembered it all, cause I'm sure I wasn't writing notes about Natalie's #2 accident while I was taking care of it at 3am. Anyway, all I could remember about this hike before reading this post, was that I did it with children and toddlers, so I felt confident that I could do it with kids again. One thing I was sad about was that I forgot to grab my exercise shoes before we left last night. All I had was two pairs of flip flops. But that turned out to be a good thing because it helped me still drag Sophi and Natalie out, who also only had flip flops. 

So that first pic is of the boys, and then a few of the girls, Sophi, Natalie, and Katharine. Unfortunately I didn't get one of all of them together. One of Katharine's quotes today after seeing a rock on the ground: "Ooh! ... I want to bury this..." 

She was super cute, humming and singing and talking to herself in her imaginary world. She did super great. 

About 30 minutes in, a light rain started. It continued for probably 20 minutes. After 10 min of getting very slightly wet, SND wanted to quit and head back. I told them lets keep going, they did for a minute, but then SN stopped and took shelter and wouldn't come any further. Daniel wanted to go back to join them and to go back to the car. I gave him the key to the van and said whatever, go back, but we might keep going and if we do we'll be another hour, so yeah. We also found an overhanging rock to hide from the rain. Owen offered a prayer for the rain to stop and for SND to be safe and for us to be safe. It was 11:40. I said let's wait for 5 min, and if it stays the same or stops, we'll keep going, if it gets worse we'll head back. O&P were game for that plan but they really wanted to keep going. Katharine didn't vote, she just stayed with me. Peter waiting.

Well, it stayed the same, so we decided to just go a little bit more. 

...and as we walked, it stopped! We crossed a creek like 8 times total, did 3 times with SND before they left. It was fun, and OPK did so great. Peter carried a backpack the whole time that had 2 and then 3 water bottles cause he wanted to carry mine after I gave him a drink. He wanted to carry it to get strong and would not accept my suggestion that Owen take it on the way back or anything. 

Peter wanted to keep going, and we passed the point that I remember us getting to last time, but after an hour and 2 miles, we decided to head back. Peter reluctant to stop...

Then resigned. "Oookaaaay...

Walking back. This stretch of trail going east and west was where I think we stopped in 2017.

So Owen and Peter did super great and I look forward to hiking with them again. Peter's only complaint was that his pants were too long, and so they got wet in the stream crossings, then got weighed down with sand sticking to the water. They were hanging down over his toes and under his heels. He tripped one time near the end and after that he was done hiking and done with sand and never wanted to come here again. He was also ready to throw the pants in the trash, but I was able to wash them tonight and they are good now. That was another good thing about me only having flip flops. I had forgotten about the stream crossings. My shoes would have gotten wet, sandy, and more worn out and ruined, so I was glad I was in flip flops. The hike was easy and the flip flops handled it great. I did most of the hike back barefoot. 

Owen and Peter were playing a game they called "Galaxy Divided", it has zombies in it that they were trying to find and kill. So the hike was a success. We bought $20+ dollars worth of ice cream afterwards and, after they had some sourdough as their real food, they each has two very generous helpings of ice cream. I let Owen, Peter, and Katharine choose the ice cream cause they won the good attitude and stamina award. Owen chose Red Button cashew caramel, Peter Cravin' mint chocolate chip, and Katharine Red Button pink Animal Cookie ice cream. I also got Moose Tracks and I fear I ate most of that container. 

A little more details of this outing - we drove down last night, left home around 5, so we got an hour and a half of light, it got pretty dark when we were in Helper and Price. I don't like driving in the dark but we made it. One section of Highway 6/181 had construction and we were at a dead stop for 20 min. It was probably a mile long that we had to wait and take turn on, ugh. But the Texas Roadtrip Wrides did great. Just like ol' times. That first trip was me and SNODPK and since I had the same group and we were driving the same roads, I was thinking of that Eclipse in Texas in '24 trip again. The kids did good. We sang to Veggie Tales and they had The Chosen dvd playing in the back. We have had two rooms,  are in the Double O building, rooms 2109 for SNOD and TPK are in 2111. Peter and Katharine this morning. 

I laughed when I saw how Belle Bear slept. She is a toy after my own heart.

The internet is lousy here at the Worldmark so I'm using my hotspot. I also forgot my computer's power cord, so I only have a bit more left on my battery. I'm impressed it lasted this long! I sent Abi an email last night before going to bed. I joined in on the video call with her today while the kids swam.

Katharine made friends with two girls named Gabby and Lily, and she told them she was going to just call them Abi and Lily, cause that's easier. They were really sweet to Kat and other people in the hot tub were smiling and laughing as they heard Katharine talking to them and basically ordering the around to follow her and come paint with water and stuff like that. She's cute. 

After K was done swimming, I walked with her back to the room and saw some crazy people being weird in the gym, thinking some guy shouldn't let his kids in there, then I realized it was my kids. I tapped on the window and shook my head, then they left (NDP). Out for more respectable kid activities - like video games. 

Daniel and I played two games of Jenga. He won the first game, I won the second. They we were done, Daniel said it was too stressful. 

Natalie helped DPK play CandyLand.

Then we colored and named bats. 

Cute Katharine.

These were my bats. 

The kids watched a little tv and then we said a prayer with Abi and Corey over the phone. I'm going to bed early, yay. I told the kids I can leave as early as the 20 min before sunrise, which is 7:44 am, so we'll see when we leave tomorrow. 

Fashion Show

Natalie set up a fashion show tonight. 

I admit, I was not thrilled when I saw that she had brought up tables from the basement and gotten out my clean table clothes and several sheets and had this little fun project going on. Ugh.... such a mess... I was like "Ok fine BUT YOU HAVE TO CLEAN ALL THIS UP!!! I want the tables back downstairs where they were, not just added to the piles already down there, and table clothes washed and put away and sheets washed and put away and and and...." I started going off. She had used some of Corey's expensive jazz music books as steps between the uneven tables and I was like "NO, those are dads..." "I tried to get old books you wouldn't care about..." "Those are old because they are highly used and they ARE cared about, put those back" (She hasn't put them back yet, they're still on the desk... I'm trying to tolerate the mess and resist cleaning it up myself) But the fashion show was cute. Natalie came out to introduce the models who would be showing the pieces she created...

Then Katharine did her little cat walk - hers was cute. She did a little flip of her hair with her hand.

Followed by Peter and Daniel, who both did their walks way too fast...

Peter was practically running and Daniel stopped and turned only half way down the last table...

They didn't even go all the way to the end of the walk, or take a pause for the audience... they were walking like they were thinking "Get me outta here..." I think they had a feeling that this was not good for their manliness and they were being used by their older sister. Natalie said that messed up the show, cause they were done before Katharine was ready in her other designer piece. Sophi's friend was recording the show from on top of the closet. The audience was patient and cheered when the final model came. 

I think Daniel and Peter would be correct to feel that their sister might have used them, cause it happened earlier this morning. Natalie was babysitting for a neighbor from 6:30 am until 4. (She knocked on our bedroom door at 6am asking to take Katharine with her. I said NO, the poor child is sleeping, but I'd bring her after she woke up on her own. I ended up taking her over around 8:30.

WELL, then Peter was sad after he woke up cause K was gone and he wanted to play with her. I text Natalie asking if Peter could come over. She said no, they were doing girl stuff. I said I wanted to get K cause Peter needs his friend, so then she said ok, Peter could come, but he had to dress up cause they were playing princesses. Daniel didn't want to be left out and asked if he could come too. I didn't ask Natalie but said yes, but dress up. I take them over dressed in white shirts and Daniel in his suit coat. I told her there were two princes on their way in a carriage. She said the guards would be ready to grant them entrance at the royal gates. I told her to send me pics. 

There was dance music playing. 

The princes danced with the fair maids of the kingdom.  

Not 20 minutes later Natalie texted for me to come get them. "mommm - i want to be with gurls - not my little bros" I didn't see her text, but soon Peter and Daniel walked in the door. They both protested "Natalie made us walk home!" Then I replied to Natalie "Poor guys, being treated like accessories" She said "Tell them I'm sorry - and I love them - and they can have more cake pops" They accepted the cake pops, but I think were still wounded at being dismissed. Thus, in a twisted way they wanted to be part of the fashion show tonight, but don't let her trick you again boys! It will be more of the same! Though they were both sweet to participate.

So, yeah, Natalie being creative and making fun games for the little people in her life, those she babysits and her younger siblings, but it comes with a cost of dignity for the boys and it comes with a mess for me. I just can't compete with so many kids making messes. Lily and Natalie switched rooms earlier this month (last month?) and there is still a pile of junk outside Lily's door that she's waiting to go through, after she finishes her room, which looks even worst. So, you might wonder, how do I cope with the mess in my house? I'll tell you: I escape it. I go up the canyon. Thus the reason that I went on a walk up the canyon today, as I will do most everyday (ride or walk) if I can. 

Pretty pictures from my walk today.

You, too, can go on a walk today and just ignore the messes in your life. 

Don't worry, they'll be waiting for you, but that's ok, cause you can just escape again tomorrow.

End of Term

The kids have their first day of fall break today. No school today or tomorrow, and LSNO don't have school on Monday or Tuesday next week either, for teacher work days. The first term is over, the girls did pretty good, but I'm going to try and do better and following up on them to make sure they are checking gradebook everyday. But they are doing good with school stuff in general from what I can tell. Sophi and Natalie do a very good job getting up by themselves in the morning. I'll go check that they are up at 6am, and I usually see something like this pic from yesterday:

They are already up and doing their hair and make up. Then I go wake up Owen. He wakes up after one shake of his shoulder or one rub on his back. He get up right away, gets dressed, and comes down and eats breakfast. I'll usually open Lily's door and tell her what time it is, and then she'll say "Um hmmm" and will keep laying there. "You're awake? Or do you need me to come back?" "I got it." And she will get up on her own after that. From my observations, she'll sleep until 6:30, and then I don't know how she does it but she will be the first of the girls down stairs and she looks wide awake and is ready and will call to Sophi and Natalie to hurry up and get in the car. I'm glad they each now how much time they need to get ready. Lily has completed her 6 months of driving with only family, she is now legally allowed to drive other people. So she takes Owen and a neighbor to jazz band, and they head to the car at 6:40 am, wheels moving by 6:45. Lily is also now picking up Churchill carpool, cause there's room in the van. The past two months she's been going there to pick up Natalie and Owen anyway, cause Natalie wants to be with her sisters, and cause Skyline traffic is crazy, so they just chill in the building until it dies down and then they go get Natalie and Owen. So I've offered for her to just start picking up everyone now. The girls don't love it, but it's not their car, so yeah, that's what I've decided. Lily picks up MTWTh, and the other moms do it on Fridays when Churchill gets out early. Corey also isn't taking at all in the mornings now. Since we're getting all the pm pick ups, I asked the other moms to do the mornings, cause none of my kids are in morning carpool anyway. So this is good. Now Corey can go to the gym and eat his veggie breakfast and doesn't have to worry about anything else. 

After the older kids go to school, I am trying to use that time to read my scriptures but sometimes I don't. If Corey's left for the gym, sometimes I go lay down again. It's these dark mornings, I tell ya, I am not an early bird anymore. My alarm will go off again at 7:55 and that's when I wake up Daniel and Peter. I have to stay by them and work for 10 min or so to get them out of bed, especially Daniel. He's a bit like Ethan and he likes his sleep. I stay with them and watch until they are dressed and I make sure they get socks, then downstairs for breakfast, backpacks, shoes on, jackets, sign folders and planners, and give them a chocolate chip granola bar for their snack. That's usually the only snack I offer, other than clementines or bananas which they refuse. I did also get the Welch's ones recently, but they are so small that's like a nothing snack so then I still give them a granola bar. If Katharine is awake, I give her a granola bar too. And here is what Katharine does if I tell her she can't have another granola bar. 

It's very hard being told "no." She sat under my desk and ate her yogurt and fruit. I'm proud that she took some quite time to try and feel her feelings. I keep my feelings happy by going out to the mountains. I went on a walk yesterday - enjoying fall colors still. Pretty.

And did a ride at 2pm today. The trail is muddy now, but I'm glad there are some trees still holding onto their leaves after all this rain! Corey went to work at his dad's, and I told him I was doing a ride at 2. He didn't exercise yet so he said he'd come with me, but I had told him I needed to leave between 1:30-2, 2 at the latest, cause Owen had trumpet today, and I had to leave at 4:30 for that, and I wanted time to take my time on my ride and also get cleaned up before the lesson. So when he was still at his dad's at 1:45, I got ready to go. I was leaving at 2. He still had a 15 min drive home plus the time it would take him to get ready. So I left at 2, like I had told him. I was a little worried the kids would get him and he'd feel like he couldn't leave, but I gave Natalie a heads up to keep Peter and Katharine out of his hair, and he drove to the trailhead to catch up to me quickly. It was nice to be on a ride together. We're enjoying rides together while we still can. 

Chilly

The weather has turned cold on us. Yesterday and today have been so gray and wet and dark and dreary, I even turned on the heat last night. It was 49 degrees this morning and I saw that some snow fell in the mountains! No bike rides for a few days, though I guess I could still do a hike if I had the car. But, since it is wet and cold, it's been a good opportunity to get some things done at the computer. If the cold last long enough, perhaps I'll get to house cleaning. But if I don't, there's time. The mess in our house isn't goin anywhere. 

Yesterday Katharine went to a birthday party at Uptown Jungle around 9am. That was perfect for a cold day.

 

It was with her little playgroup of 5 kids. My neighbor offered to take her and bring her back home, so I had the morning to myself which was weird and new, but I guess that will be the norm starting next year when K goes to kindergarten. And after the party was done, the girls still wanted to play, so then Kat was at their house for another two hours. Wow what do I do with myself?!? I should probably start to figure that out. Maybe I'll really be able to stay on top of the house, that would be amazing. I have had the thought recently that after Lily's gone (she moved into the small bedroom upstairs) I'm going to turn that room into the place for exercise stuff. That stuff is currently scattered in little pockets all over the house, much like my art stuff was before we centralized it. I've got the treadmill and some weights in the finished side of the basement, a pull up bar and a few things over under the stairs in the basement, another pull up bar in Lily's closet, yoga mats and weights in my room, yoga mats and yoga blocks in my closet, yeah it's everywhere. And then the boys like to take our exercise balls and throw them around inside and outside. So that will be great I think, I'll get that set up next summer. And with "only" six kids at home, we'll have one room for boys and one for girls. So Lily and Natalie switched a few weeks ago (without permission, as Lily has been told to not do anything until she FINISHES HER ONLINE CLASS) so there's just a big pile of mess outside her door as she waits to get to organizing her junk. K sorry, I lost track of my thought - oh so that will be an exercise room, and I hope to reclaim my art area downstairs asap. As for yesterday, I mostly enjoyed the silence of the house. I ALSO practiced piano! Brushing up on the simplified hymns I kinda learned in Brazil. I did that yesterday and today, I'm refreshing "No Holly For Miss Quinn" by Enya which is another song I learned back in 1995. I practiced violin yesterday too! Katharine sat on the couch and watched me in a bit of a confused daze. I was wondering if she was having flashbacks of violin lessons or some déjà vu feelings that she couldn't quite place. So when Kat goes to kindergarten next year, I'll start to re-develop some talents. I think I'd prefer to paint, but the basement got trashed and I haven't had the motivation to fix it yet. Though a cold fall day should be a good chance to do that... but there will be more fall and winter days. I gotta be in the right mood. So yesterday and today was reading, practicing music, and yoga corpse pose. 

I had a nice visit with Abi today. Her p-day is usually Mondays, but they had transfers this week, so it was moved to today. We were able talk twice today and then again for an hour tonight. She called to say hi to the boys before they left for school, then called again around 4 after everyone was home. Tonight she called while she was getting ready for bed. It was past her bedtime, but she said tomorrow is messed up anyway, cause she has to get up at 3 to get on a bus to go get her new companion. If that were me, I'd want to go to bed asap, but she wanted to visit, so we did. I sent her this pic that I made of a countdown for myself on my mission. If you turn a year and a half into 18 squares, it doesn't look like that much. 

She said she made one but she thought mine was cute and she's going to make hers look a bit more like mine. So blogging and computer stuff today, visiting with Abi, and Katharine's friend Scarlett came over. They played under the desk I was working at.

Earlier this morning when Corey and I visited with Abi (this call was just on the "Abi + parents" line), Katharine was so content and quiet as we visited, it was curious to me that she was so focused on her work. 

She was tying up her Ariel doll. I've found her tied up in sevearl places today, like dresser handles and door stops. Funny. Playing with Candy eyeballs that a neighbor gave us. 

I went to workout at Rec center last night, and for exercise today I did a 6:30pm quick trail run (before the sunsets at 6:49) up techy and then back down to Lisa. Rain was lightly sprinkling but I was ok in a hoodie. The forest felt deserted. 1.47 miles up and down, just 34 minutes. The creek is really high after all this rain! There is no chance of crossing the creek today. My little stepping stone piles are covered in rushing water. Then 7:20pm to rec center to warm up in the sauna for 20 min and then 40 min swim, mostly backstroke, done at 8:306pm. Corey went to the temple today. Maybe I'll try to go tomorrow morning? I still need to figure out a time that I can have a car. 

Fancy

Katharine was feeling fancy at church today. She took a hair elastic off of my wrist and stretched it out and put it around her head. She felt pretty. I took a pic of her so she could re-evaluate and change her mind if she wanted. 

She saw, she approved. Well, she was good to leave it, so then I took it cause it's my hair elastic and you're gonna stretch it out! And I didn't want her to get a deep imprint on her head before class. Silly girl. Hyrum looking pretty rugged in the pic there. He leaves for Iceland tomorrow, and he's doing great with the Sean Penn look he's goin' for (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). 

Yesterday I did soccer games for Daniel and Owen. Their coach, Meghan, won't be at the last game in two weeks, so they got a group photo today. 

Daniel's team got a pic on Thursday. After games were done yesterday I did some blogging, a bit of this and that. I checked in with Wes, who I haven't talked to for a while. He sent some pics of a color run that he did with friends.

Fun! Wes you look a bit cold!

I need to remember that I can check his social media to see what he's doing.

But it's good to reach out directly too. I'm glad he's doing well up at BYUI.

Around 3pm I drove L to work, then took Natalie babysitting at 5, and with that I saw my window of opportunity - I drove up the canyon at 5:10 for a quick hike at ruins after dropping off N and before I had to pick up Lily at work at 6pm. 1.5 miles on south side of creek (I've named it "Tiff's Trail"), 40 minutes. Fall colors are still here. 

And I love the red leaves!

Then pick up L, take L over to babysit and I pick up N as drop off L. So lots of soccer and running around today. The cool fall temps will be here this week and there's going to be a lot of rain over the next few days, so I'm glad I was able to get in a few more moments of fall joy. Gotta grab it while you can.