Elementary Fun Run

I went over to the fun run to support Daniel and Peter. I think this is my first time ever going to the fun run. I've been set photos in the past by other moms who have gone over and sent me the pic of my kid with their kids, but I can't find any on the blog, so maybe not... Yay for me for going over and supporting my kids and the school this year (though I didn't donate any $).

Katharine is sad cause they don't have enough cupcakes for her to have one. Only the students and teachers. She'll survive. Go Peter Go!

Katharine and I stood by the sideline to give Peter a high 5 each time he passed. Here he comes!

They did two grades at a time. 2nd and 3rd grade were at 10:15. 3rd grade ran first while 2nd grade had cupcakes, then 2nd grade ran. K and I went to play on the slide after they were done.

Then we went back over for the 11:00 fun run time slot for the 4th and 5th graders. Same thing - older grade ran first, so Daniel went to have a cupcake. His teacher was so nice, and said she wasn't going to eat one, but went and asked for her cupcake so she could give it to Katharine. So nice! Lucky girl.

Giving Daniel high fives on his run by laps. 

After it was done, Daniel let me know that it wasn't actually "fun"... it was more like the worst. 

Haha I agree, "I don't care how hard life gets, I'm not getting into running." (We love David De Pierro! Very funny, and he should have been cast at Flynn Ryder in the Rapunzel life action)

So after that 2 hours of my life, Kat and I loaded up for the bike ride back home. 

The trailer is handy, I'm glad we have it for when I need it, since I don't have a car during the days. After we got home, Katharine ran in to change her clothes, she is now dressed as "America Girl"  

Very cute Kat. Granite was opened in 1976, so they had a Bicentennial theme going on along the America 250 lines. I didn't know Granite as as old as I am! So she was America Girl for the rest of the day. Actually maybe it was also because of 9/11? The kids didn't mention that they talked about that at all at school, so maybe not. Peter recently read a book about 9/11 and another on about the Titanic. In his bedroom I saw that he had made some legos about it to help him process what he had read.

I thought it was cute, but also left me a bit uncomfortable. The Titanic was a tragedy, but it was an accident really, hence a movie about it and other stuff, and we can learn lessons from it without feeling guilty. But 9/11 was terror and murder brought about on purpose, an act of hatred and war, so it's a different kind of tragedy. We didn't talk with our kids about it, but maybe we will soon. I watched this video giving a summary of the events that day. This video was also good as it showed how it happened live, capturing how we all felt that day - confusion as we tried to understand what was happening. So yeah, sobering stuff. 

A few things from yesterday - Wes headed off to Idaho. I sent him with gifts of Kodiak Cakes, and 10 lbs of rice and beans. That will save him a little bit of $ and should give him some good fiber. I'll miss you Wes! We didn't finish the basement, but we got started and I'll try to pick up where we left off and get things done next week. Daniel stayed home sick yesterday with swollen lymph nodes. I called the doctor and was able to take him in at 11. His left jaw is swollen and he said the left side of his stomach also hurts. Swollen lymph nodes seems to happen to him quite a bit. Last I have recorded here is Aug 2022. Also I have Jan 2022 and May 2021. Not sure if it has only been three times? It seems like more than that, but maybe those were just the times I took him in or blogged about. I do remember once or twice I just had him take Children's Tylenol to help with the pain and I let his body fight it. Playing while we waited.

There was a little baby there that was the spittin' image of baby Owen, really really cute little toe head with big blue eyes. I showed his mom some photos of Owen and said they could have been twins. So the doctors called us in, checked Daniel out, gave us a prescription, and then we headed out. After trying to capture a sucker photo for a future matching game. 

Picked up his medicine at 3, cause it wasn't ready when we went by after the doctor. I dropped off a book "Glucose Revolution" at the library yesterday. It was renewed 3 times and I still didn't read it. Though I did read one chapter yesterday. Take away: eat your veggies first. I didn't get into the mountains yesterday, I made it for a ride today though. Corey was in Provo all day. I was watching him on Life360 and debating what to do. Usually when I'm pacing the floor over if I have time for a ride, that is a good time to blog, cause I'm in hustle mode. So I blogged for a bit while I debated if I should go. I did 3 August posts yesterday and finished off with one more today to officially finish August, yay. I'm in September! After that I got dressed and hurried out at 4:45, as it looked very likely that date night was going to be delayed. Lily dropped me off part way up the road. I was able to take some time sitting at the ruins by the creek. These shortened mornings and evenings are killing me, I'm trying to brace myself for winter. 7:44pm sunset today. Corey and I went to Bandits for date night around 8, I got the Farmers harvest salad with dressings on the side, skipped the shrimp this time. Corey got the cedar plank salmon. Bread pudding for dessert. 

Sunrise

It is labor day weekend so there are no soccer games. I'm also a single mom this weekend with Corey gone, so last night I told my babysitter, Wes, that I'd be back sneaking away in the morning before kids were up. I took an early 7am ride up to the ruins and spent an hour by the creek enjoying some quiet time. 

I loved watching the sun rise. Heaven on earth. Sigh, I want to stay up here all day. Maybe 40 days. I need to follow Jesus' example, right?? Yeah, let's do 40 days. I carry a toddler bed flat sheet in my fanny pack and use that to lay down on the ground. It's nice. I like looking up at the sky. Can you see the little moon there?

I got some good energy and wind in my sails that fueled my soul for the day. Ahh, I'm ready to take on life. Back at home, Wes and I worked a little more on the basement, until... 

The kids got found the cleared floor in the basement. Natalie discovered the freshly vacuumed carpet, which was like an empty canvas just begging for some color and creativity. She quickly covered it with her artful skills. She got Peter and Katharine all set up with an amazing environment for the Little People to live in. There was an ocean, an ice mountain, a green forest, a desert, they got different blankets and sheets to be their colored ground covering. It was cute, I'm glad they are playing. I'll clean it up later. My energy was still happy from my mountain time, and I like my kids happy with play time, and I'll do organizing and de cluttering in between. 

Wesley's first goal for today was to clear out our DI donation pile. He loaded up Corey's car with lots of stuff, I was impressed with how well he tetris'd everything in there. yaaayy. Then I had more space to move out more desks that I didn't want anymore and we put in this table instead, that's been waiting for me outside for several weeks. We donated the matching chairs cause they were falling apart.

Wes put it the legs on, we were about to flip it over when I looked at it and said "Wait! All of these are wrong..." haha, he put the legs on wrong, see the bottom one of the pic above. Then he said "I did think it was really weird that they would cut the wood so they'd attach like that..." haha. This will help him when he puts together his first table as a husband. He got the rookie mistake out of the way with his mom looking on instead of his wife, so that's good.

Hyrum came over this morning to visit. He didn't help with clearing out stuff, but that's ok, he's still recovering from his walk yesterday. His hamstrings are sore.

My mom came by to give Sophi a gift before her birthday tomorrow, part of which was a book of "Zits" cartoons. My mom really related to those back in the day when she only had Grant at home. Sitting down to visit and sharing a few of the strips with Sophi and Natalie. 

They have a few of those original cut out comic strips framed and on the wall at their house. They're fun and pretty relatable. I think my favorite comics are still the Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes. I think of Calvin and Hobbes exploring the woods often when I'm up exploring in the canyon. 

Guests

We had guests here this morning, so I didn't go on a ride, but I did make oatmeal. After everyone ate, I put in 20 min playing legos with Kat at the table, then Nicole's son Corey took a turn - I told Kat that he had a better prince voice than me. He did that with her while I did the dishes. I smiled listening to them. Hopefully God smiles when he hears me playing with Kat, even if I'm struggling as I try to silence my to-do list. 

With Corey and Lily gone this weekend, I got to take Natalie and Owen to school. They usually get a ride with Lily, so when she's gone I have to take them cause carpool doesn't have room for them anymore, the lady that drives now only has room for 3. So, I ran them to school, Sophi stayed home today (I let her sluff so I didn't have to make another trip after school to go pick her up) then I made oatmeal as I got Daniel and Peter out the door. I tried to be a good host to our guests. Wes was an amazing host last night - he let me go on a ride while he shopped for and made homemade pizzas for everyone. He said it could be an early date night. They has pizza and then watched "The Spectacular Spider-Man" per Wesley's recommendation. Owen was waiting for a neighbor outside, but then I told him we were taking. 

That's a mess of stuff that Wesley cleared out of the basement when he got it ready for Nicole's kids last night. He slept on the couch last night. Daniel went to a Leona's house after school and was there from 2 until 8. Cute friends. 

After Nicole's kids left, Wes and I went downstairs and worked one the basement. I should have taken a before with all the legos allllll over the floor. It never ends. This was after we already had made a lot of progress.

And after several hours - now we're ready for bed, very good progress made today. 

I've been checking Corey and Lily's location on life360, they made it to Sacramento and things are good. I also noticed Mel and Christian were here close by - they went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon at the Spruces, fun!

They made campfire Greek kebabs and want to make them again sometime with us, yay let's do it!

Oh, one last thing - Hyrum attempted a 12 hour walk today. This young man was inspired to take on the 12 hour walk by simply reading the title on the cover of my book at Park City. That was all it took, and he was like "I want to do that." So he left around 7:30 this morning and walked to Temple Square from Wayne's house! He said the first 6 hours were awesome. He felt great, made good time, got in over 10 miles. His plan next was to walk to our house, then back to Wayne's. Around 5pm he called me from Wheeler Farm, and said he made the mistake of sitting down and he couldn't get up. He said he underestimated the task before him. He was making me laugh so hard, it was really funny. When I picked him up, I couldn't see him, but he said he could see me and said over the phone "I'll be there in a sec. ...or a few minutes" haha! Then I saw the shadow of a figure slowly get up and slowly shuffle my direction. I was recording a video as he walked to the car. He said "I don't want to see a blog post about this..." I laughed and said "How about just a paragraph?" He didn't say "no", hence this little summary of his adventure. I drove him from Wheeler Farm back to Wayne's house, and he had me laughing the whole time. "I didn't expect to feel so homeless." He did it in the city so that he would have access to bathrooms and food if needed. I think walking in the city would be no fun. I'm doing it in the mountains. He tried to take a break by sitting on a rock at a car dealership on state street, and stretched his legs for a minute, then a guy came up and said "Hey, if you're not here to buy a car, we can't have your sitting here..." "Sorry..." so he left. There were no places to sit! And the sun was hot! That's why I'm saying mountains. Plenty of rocks and logs to sit on. He also said when he was deciding to be done, he thought to himself "well, I'm not finishing this... so either Mom's coming to get me, or someone's gonna find me on the side of the road and call an ambulance... Mom is less embarrassing, so..." and with that I was on my way. He also hadn't shaved for a few days, so he admitted he did look like a kid who was lost/homeless and trying to figure out life. Really funny, and 10 hours ain't nothing to be ashamed of! He got 50,000 steps! Hyrum, you are the goat! (a reel he shared with me recently) 

:)

Happy Birthday Abi!

Happy Birthday to Hermana Wride!! Aww, I remember this little baby... Abi at 2 days old ~

Now that baby is starting her last year as a teenager, how did that happen?? I didn't send her a package or anything, sorry Abi! Living international makes it a little trickier for a mom like me that is not on top of it. I told her I'll put some $ in her account though, and she can buy herself something. I'm not sure there are a lot of places to shop there on the Missionary Training campus, so maybe she'll save it for Panama. She leaves for Panama next Wednesday, Sept 9. Exciting!

Katharine slept in Peter's bed with him last night. Here they were before I woke him up. His feet were at her stomach. I helped turn him out of the bed so he wouldn't kick her. 

I told Daniel and Peter to both whisper. Peter got dressed then said he had a tummy ache, so I told him to go back to bed. I was down getting Daniel's reading minutes logged and initalling his planner, and I could hear P&K talking. I guess when he went to lay back down, it woke her up. They came down for breakfast. I asked how he was feeling, he said it still didn't feel very good. I baked a loaf of bread and enjoyed my beans and banana peppers for breakfast, while Corey went to the rec center to bike and swim. I'm hoping to go on a ride later. I haven't been riding this week cause our bikes have been in the shop since Saturday. I have trumpet this afternoon, so I can't do my 3pm ride, but I'm hoping to go after that. I'm at Burt Bros right now getting Corey's oil changed before I drive to American Fork to get my bike. Corey's bike was making noises so he wanted to take it in. He asked if I needed mine to go in for anything. I didn't have any complains, other than that my dropper post doesn't stick. Corey said they couldn't fix it, so I maybe they didn't do anything with mine? I don't know if they did other stuff, but my bike is done so I'm going to go get that as soon as the oil change is done. 

Peter and I worked in a scholastic 2nd grade book today. I'd love to homeschool him. He said it was fun to homeschool today, and he's thinking about it if he wants to, cause he knows he'd miss a lot of fun things at school. Maybe I could sweeten the deal with a Thanksgiving Point membership. Although I usually don't have a car, so maybe that wouldn't work. He and Katharine working on coloring pages. 

This evening Owen has a trumpet lesson. Nicole's kids are crashing here tonight before they head up to Idaho for school. They've been driving across the country from Maine, a trip Nicole has done many times. Corey, Lily and Wes are going to Sacrament tonight. Well, to Elko tonight, Sacramento tomorrow. Lily's going out there for a ACT class that will be tomorrow, Saturday, and Monday. Corey said it felt like the right thing to do, to take her out there. It won't be too crazy of a weekend to be a single parent, cause there are no soccer games cause of the Labor Day Weekend. Though I had hoped Corey and Wes could help us help out my sister J this weekend, but maybe I can still do it with the littles somehow. 

K, I'm going to catch up on the blog while I wait for the car, since I haven't recorded much the past two weeks yet. I'll maybe check back in later. 

Later - Corey and Lily left around 4:30 for Elko, the same time I left for trumpet. Owen is doing awesome at trumpet. He is doing jazz band, concert band, and he practiced for like 40 minutes before his lesson, and I was so impressed at his lesson, she was asking him about different songs, and I write down what to do in his lesson book but I have not been following up with him at all, but he is doing it on his own and was very prepared. His teacher was impressed with how well he's doing and so was I cause it is all him!

Wesley was a good host to Nicole's kids. He got the basement ready for them to stay in and moved his stuff out. He made pizza for everyone too, doing "date night" tonight, and then they watched some Spiderman TV series episodes. I got back and since everyone was in such capable hands, I left for a ride at 6:30 and enjoyed my time in the mountains. Wesley got a major sun burn one week ago when he was up in Bear Lake with Ethan and Bella and friends. He decided to not put on sunblock, cause he saw a meme that it causes cancer, and then he spent a full day out boating. He is still in pain on his shoulders. His whole back is peeling, and I've been coating him with aloe for the past 4 days, today we did lotion. He's going to wear sunblock next time. 

A few pics from yesterday. I took a morning walk - 

And came back to find Katharine in my bed. 

Peter asleep on our floor. 

Lately he goes to bed in his room but will often come into my room during the night. Before he goes to bed each night, he asks me if I can leave my room unlocked, and I say yes.

Just for fun, this is my quote wall in my bathroom. 

I like having quotes up that touch me, but I don't like the visual cluttery look of it on the fridge or anywhere else in the house, but I'm ok with it in by bathroom behind the door, so we all get to stare at it while we take care of business on the toilet.

Scarlett came over to play with Katharine. Playing in Katharine and Natalie's messy bedroom. 

They are so cute together. And Peter got home soon after Scarlett left, and she and Peter were able to resume their games. 

Natalie went rapeling tonight with the young women. 

Natalie going down the wall. Not sure where this is. I wish I could have gone!

Outing

I shared this photo with the college kids today - "Katharine is exploring fashion norms"

Abi said that Katharine's clothes have been on backwards the past few times she's seen pictures of her. Haha yes, but today is was backwards and inside out! Katharine has her own sense of style just like 4 year old Abi, who was wearing several layers in this old photo. 

Today was P-day for Abi, so lucky us, we got to talk to our favorite missionary. Hermana Wride is doing great! She said this week was really good. She's excited to leave for Panama next Wednesday! 

I took Katharine with me to walk around the temple quarry this afternoon. She brought along Little People Princess Belle and pulled her behind her riding in a tricycle. 

I texted my dad a few days ago with a list of a few things we could do together (I'm not sure my mom likes me coming over to clean?) On my list of options were a few museums (BYU MOA, UVU Roots of Knowledge, and the new Utah History Museum) and simple hikes, like Temple Quarry or Silver Lake. This morning my dad said we'd start with this one, and he said they would meet us there. I pressed him on it saying I could totally get them, but he insisted. So 1:15 rolls around, I got Kat ready and into the car. I checked life 360 when I left and they were still at home. I took K on a walk around and texted my dad to let me know when they got here. Katharine recognized this bench! 

"This is the bench were I was crying!" Yep that's right! Such a smart girl. Then my dad called and said he forgot that they were meeting me here, they were waiting for me to come, lol. "Ok! I'll be right there!" "Well..." then he said we'd just move our outing to next week rather than take anymore of my time. Soooo, that was a bit of a bummer, but K and I got back in the car and went to Costco for our Tuesday errands. We'll try again next week! So help me, I'm going to spend time with my parents!

This morning started off as Tuesdays usually do, with the temple, then getting kids up and out the door.  I went to the temple at 5, and passed Corey somewhere along the way cause when I got home, he was there, arrived there at 6:15. I took a wee nap from 6:45-8 and then woke up the boys. Ate a GBOM (Greens Beans Onion Mushroom) salad, BS (Berry and Seeds) snack. I was struggling to play little people with her, but I have to play, cause she doesn't want to be the boys. Then she started weeping cause she doesn't have enough toys. (She and Peter have been looking at all the different kinds of little people and they want them alllll). She wants me to get her toys now, NOT just on birthdays and Christmas. So she was moaning, then Corey took her with him to go buy something off fb marketplace that he needs for his time machine (a big cooking pot that he can set to specific temperatures). He is melting ballistic gel for his experiments. With K gone with Corey, I was able to focus for a few and blogged a little bit before K and I went to the quarry and Costco. I went on a hike around Techy this evening. I found a good private spot when I layed down and looked at the sky. 

And I left some walnuts for the squirrels.  

Katharine enjoyed playing with her basement buddy after he got home from school. But they weren't in the basement today. 

They had a big game of Little People going in the front room. Sophi and Natalie reverently listening at scriptures tonight.

Wesley and Daniel also paying attention. 

Wesley put up his hand to cover up his cold sore that showed up this morning, another gift from his body as it copes with the sunburn he gave it last weekend. 

Basement Buddies

I took Katharine to a friend's house today, Briggs, where a few of the neighborhood kiddos were gathered for a playdate. She was there from 9-11, and I took the opportunity to go to the gym (I was able to borrow Wesley's car). I was able to swim in the outdoor pool while Corey was still there after taking carpool. He only takes it on Monday's now, which is better for him, and makes sense since none of our kids have been in carpool. Owen started jazz band last week so he's not in morning carpool anymore, and Natalie goes with Lily and Sophi cause she'd rather go earlier than be in the car with neighborhood boys, kinda funny. Anyway, I was able to exercise and then went back to pick up Kat and then we went to Macey's for the last punch card on Daniel's free ice cream cone card. Thanks Daniel for letting us use that so often. I probably owe him $50 bucks worth of ice cream for all the cones that I gave to Katharine. Sophi, Natalie, and Owen all owe him $ too. On our way home with K and Elephant safely buckled.

I went for a hike this afternoon. I had fun exploring the other side of the creek. It wasn't as scary this time. I had to run back to car cause of storm rolling in, which was kinda fun. The clouds looked ominous so I got back to the north side of the creek, and then thunder was warning me that it was coming as I hurried down the trail. When I got back to the car I was a little wet but not soaked. It was fun. 

We had leftovers for dinner tonight, and I let Natalie made pumpkin cookies for FHE, which was Flip 7, and cookies. It was funny as we were playing, Katharine excused herself and then tried to discretely get Peter to come with her by saying "Peter! Sneak! Sneak!!" Peter was smiling at the invitation, and I told him it was ok, he could go, then he scampered off to play with her. 

This pic above is from yesterday. When it was time to come up for dinner at 5:30, Daniel said "You guys were in the basement all day!" Peter replied "Yeah, it's our hobby." And then Katharine added "Yeah, we're basement buddies, duh!" We all smiled at that and thought it was so cute. Two other photos from yesterday - kids playing on the trampoline overlooking the ridge.

And more kids swinging in the hammocks. 

We went over to visit with the Morgans, who welcomed home Anna this past week, and also we went to visit with the Kofoeds after their son's farewell before his mission to Texas. Those visits went from after church until 2, then home for my ministering sisters to come visit me, and then Corey and I went with Natalie for her to receive her patriarchal blessing. Hearts feeling full for many blessings today. We are so grateful for our children and to be able to raise them in such a wonderful neighborhood. I'd say this place is as good as the 80s were! It's just a beautiful area to live in and our neighbors are the salt of the earth. So great to be able to raise our family with all our wonderful friends in this village! I've been thinking of the word "village" after reading some of the comments in this video that Mel shared with us yesterday, a documentary called "Birthgap". Corey watched some of it last night, and shared some tonight at scriptures. It's interesting to see prophesy fulfilled and see the warnings in the proclamation on the family coming to pass around us. Members of the church need to be careful that we don't follow the trends of the world (see this BYU devotional by Elder Cook from Feb 2017 "A Banquet of Consequences: The Cumulative Result of All Choices"). Corey also shared this clip that his dad sent to him - Tough love by Sister Holland, Sister Nelson, and Sister Clark. Then kids kept sharing reels and things they've seen (this is about how "scriptures" go every night!) we watched the Harry Potter HBO trailer, Hyrum shared this comedian talking about black Snape, then the kids shared Harry potter with guns and the fun just keeps going. But now it's 10:30 and we're going to bed. I'll head to the temple in the morning at 4:30 and will be back around 6:30 for girls to have the van. Buenas Noches.