Anniversary Ski Trip

Corey and I took the day off and went skiing in Park City today for a little anniversary trip. Here we are walking out of the Marriott Mountainside by the hot tubs. So fun to walk out and be right on the slope!

Another pic by the pool - the lift behind us. 

We were on the lift at 9:15 - started my Strava! My phone wasn't fully charged, I think I started at 80%. I kept it on low power mode and crossed my fingers that it would last the whole day. My favorite photo of the day was taken on our first ride up the Payday lift. Wow!!!

There had been a light snow falling all night and small diamond flakes were coming down as we rode up the lift. All the trees were frosted with snow. It was so pretty. We went up Payday then went to Bonanza and decided we'd work out way over to the Canyon's side of the resort, just to check it out. Ok, I'm looking at my Strava map that was recorded... let's see if I can track where we went, so...

• Up Payday Lift
• Over to Bonanza Lift
• Down Parley's Park
• Quicksilver Gondola
• White Pine (ooh! that crossed the Midmountain trail!)
• Dreamcatcher Lift
• Across and down McDonald's Meadow
• Down Panorama
• Up Day Break Lift
• Down Lazy Day > Elk Dance > Harmony
• Up Tombstone Express
• Down Red Pine
• Up Saddleback Express
• Down Painted Horse > Echo/Eclipse
• Up Sun Peak Express - 

and that was as far north west as we got. We did Sun Peak 2 times, down Echo again, and down Transitions one time. 3rd time we went past Sun Peak down Flume > Willow Draw to the...

Orange Bubble Express lift! Now this one was a highlight. 

We thought ski lift life in a bubble was GREAT! It shielded us from the cold and the wind! The lift experience was better in a bubble! Why wouldn't you want to be in a bubble! We want to lift in a bubble. We highly recommend bubble lift-ing. And we'll carry that over to our real life too. Why not live in a bubble if you can? It was great. And we also tried to say all these words in the accent of the language over and over again, sounding angry for the German language, fancy for the french, regular for English, and like a chef for Italian. 

After the Orange Bubble Express, we started to work our way back over to the Mountainside. 

• Orange Bubble Express
• Down Upper Mainline

Got a hot chocolate at this point I think at whatever lodge is near the Saddleback Express. We think the High Meadows area would be fun for the kids! They still have one more ski day, maybe we'll come up to the Canyons side of the resort when we do that last day skiing this year.

• Up Saddleback Express 
• Down Snow Dancer
• Surprised to find ourselves at SaddleBack Express again - so went right to go down Chicane
• Chicane > Another World
• Timberline Lift > Iron Man Lift
• Chrome Alley
• Quicksilver Gondola

Back at the Quicksilver Lodge for a photo. It was too bright!

• Down Broadway to King Con, cause that is the lift we know second best (we always bike past that when we are biking up Armstrong). 
• Up King Con
• down Sitka > around the Gotcha Cut off
• a little bit of Ladies Slalom 
• down Homerun
• Up Crescent 
• Down 1/4 load > Claim Jumper > Broadway 
• Up King Con 
• down Sitka (I think this pic was on Sitka)

Did a little bit of Gotcha then I tried to not be a chicken and we did Ladies Slalom from the top. Found an un-skied part of the CMG trail, took that over to the Men's Slalom > Ladie's Slalom > Homerun.

• Up Payday 
• Up Bonanza
• Down Trees/Blaster > Muckers > Short Liner - Miner's Mile 
• Up Bonanza 3:50 > Trees/Blaster > Step's Access > Homerun and then we were done. 

It was a great day on the mountain. 

Sorry for all the boring stats. I'm thinking sometime when we come biking next summer I'll be trying to figure out where we went, so those are for me incase my future self is interested in where we skied today. I usually listen to music when we ski but I didn't today cause I didn't want it to drain my battery, which I was hoping would last the entire day on low power mode. And I think I was wise to do that cause my phone barely made it. After we took off our skis, I was able to hit "finish" and was pressing "save activity" when it died. When Corey and I got to the car, I plugged it into his charger, and was happy when I saw that the activity had not been erased. Strava says we did 23 runs, a distance of 49.35 miles, and 23,616 vertical feet. 

Back at home now. Mel watched Katharine for us today. She left back to Lehi before we got home to thank her. She had the kids do their chores and music and made a little "pizza night" reward chart to help the kids do their stuff.  And she provided the pizza. Thank you Mel! Tonight Corey worked, we didn't go out for date night cause the whole day had been a date, but the kids still watched their movie and I disappeared by coming up here to blog. It was a good anniversary.

Valentine's Day Family Feast

Today we had our annual Family Anniversary dinner. This year I put the kids at the far side of the table. Here are all the kids minus Bella, she was taking care of Alvie. 

I meant to take another photo after she got back but didn't, though I did get her and Alive in this short video. I also forgot to take a pic of generations 2&1 at the table (Corey and I and our parents). I had them in the original video, but it was like 70 seconds long, and if it's over 60 seconds youtube won't let me add music, and I wanted the music, so I had to trim it down to under 60 seconds. Hence, just the kids. But Corey and I and Wayne, Kim and Linda were all here today enjoying a meal together.

So this morning we got up early to get started. Table and chairs were already set up from yesterday. Today we started making mashed potatoes and sourdough while we set up the tablecloth, setting out the china, figuring out what we wanted to do for the centerpieces. Girls worked hard, then took a break.

Sophi was working on a Valentine activity where we each got to write out things we love about each person. We cooked the salmon around 12:30, then prepped the salad and shrimp. We were ready at 2. My parents came around 1:45 with strawberries and blueberries. Corey left early with the kids to go climbing, and then they went to Wayne's house until feast time. My dad taking a photo of our banquet table.

Food all set out as guest start to arrive. Ethan! Don't eat yet!

Kids finding their seats.

Mel and Christian, Ethan and Bella & Alvie, and Hyrum & Wes and all the kids.

Wes and Hyrum went to Wayne's first where Corey and ODPK were hanging out. They went climbing this morning with Zeb and then went to Savers and turned in Corey's Where's Waldo rainbow shirt for some other sweet outfits for ODPK. After Wes arrived, people started asking about his new girlfriend, who is his girl as of last night. Wooo!

Sitting to eat. 

Nice fire on the tv.

One thing Corey worked on today was putting some of our old mission cassettes that we made for each other into digital format, so we played a few clips of those while people ate (like my mission homecoming talk at church). We both sounded so young! The kids didn't think we sounded old enough to get married. We also watched our wedding video while we ate and a Cupid cover video that Hyrum and Wes made and released today, it was really fun! 

We enjoyed watching that and played it a few times. Me and my pretty little princess Katharine!

We took a few selfies. She's cute.

After eating the main meal, we opened up the dessert table, which was brownies that Bella made, some strawberry covered pretzels, and passion fruit cake that Mel made. Hyrum and Wes were supposed to bring a dessert but they failed, boo. It's ok, but note to self for next year - don't outsource all the desserts. I was probably missing some of the magic cause I didn't have an abundance of desserts. After dinner everyone was invited (though most didn't hear? Or I wasn't clear) to come to the table to write down some love notes to each member of the family. 

We wrote notes to Joseph Eliza and Mary too that I'm going to mail to them. They had their own Valentine feast in Ohio and sent us a photo. Yay! We're miles apart but together in this tradition.

Or they were just doing a valentine's day thing, but I'll say they were having an anniversary feast. We didn't dance after or anything, cause people cleaned up and my mom hinted that they had to get back to get work done. We also didn't do a dance, cause Lily Sophi and Natalie all had "Galentine" dinners planned for tonight, booo. I didn't love that they had places to go. Next year I'll try harder to make this tradition happen on a day where I can keep everyone captive. Wes and Hyrum both disappeared to take naps cause they had stayed up late working on their video. We had a fun time visiting with M&C and E&B for a bit. After the girls left, Wes and Hyrum came up from their naps and then Wesley took ODPK to the mall to the Lego store, cause he promised them he'd do that before his mission. They came back and built their legos sets.

It was nice of Mel and Christian and Ethan and Bella to hang out.

Ethan and Bella are sleeping over, cause they are coming to our ward tomorrow to hear Wesley speak for his mission homecoming. Mel and Christian are coming back up for that too, but they are sleeping at home in Lehi. They just moved into their new apartment yesterday. We have been visiting more with Ethan and Bella in our room. It was a nice day. Didn't totally hit the spot for what I was going for, I think mostly because people had other places to go, which might be cause we had it on actual Valentine's day instead of our own day. So notes I made for myself for next year: 

• have a dance party
• send out itinerary so people know what to expect
• Plan a family history moment (find parts of mission tapes, journal entries from around our engagement or wedding, or something about us that the kids don't know about us)
• More desserts - me be in charge more? This year the kids did all the desserts, need it to be more wow
• Do it in the evening so there can be more ambiance with candles or string lights.
• Don't have it on a Saturday when people have other things going on
• Don't have it on Valentine's day (unless Valentine's day is on Sunday)
• Make a photo booth? That could be fun

Abi is BYU Bound

Some exciting new today!... Abi got accepted to BYU!! 

Yay Abi!! Good job! She put all her eggs in one basket so we're grateful that it worked out for her! She's all grown up and ready to launch - 18 years old, graduating in May, a mission call, now college plans are in place (she'll probably defer to Spring term 2028). Exciting things happening. 

The kids had a day off from school for President's Day Weekend. Corey and I stayed up late last night reading, but he still got up around 7:30 this morning for top rope. We went to Ft Union. The red 5.10d that I finally sent on Tuesday was gone, so yay I sent it just in time! I was avoiding that area until the end cause I didn't want to try it again, and then saw that the whole wall is new, so we'll go check those out next time. 

Today with the kids home, I cleaned in the side room a lot as we rearranged things to make room for the banquet  tables: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming the rug and under the couch cushions. I have it set up some for dinner. Owen was a good helper. He went to the church with me to get some folding chairs. I went to the DI for some goblets to make flower arrangement like these, then Costco for food.

I didn't end up making the flower arrangements this evening. I don't think I'll have time to do it in the morning, so we'll save that for next year. Mel is making maracuja/passion fruit cake, Bella is bringing brownies, and Hyrum and Wes are bringing a dessert. I requested Tres Leches, but that's when I thought they'd be here today. They are still up in Idaho and are going to come down in the morning, so we'll see. They might just run by the store for a box of chocolates or something. Corey and I went to the Draper Aubergine for date night then back home for him to work more. I have beans soaking to cook tomorrow night before Wesely's homecoming on Sunday. We're inviting people over, but I didn't get any desserts at Costco for it. It wasn't in the budget. We're going to have a taco bar with chili, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, olives, cheese, salsa... I forgot tortilla chips, I'm not cooking beef or chicken. Lily will serve up a few loaves of sourdough. That will be good. Maybe I'll ask Abi to make cookies, or we just serve clementines next to a jar of raisins and walnuts. 

Headstands & Late Night Reading

Tonight the little boys and I practiced headstands in my room. Daniel's got down the slow controlled raise to headstand.

Peter gets impatient and swings his legs to try and get it with momentum. 

It's fun. I want to learn a press handstand and the splits as soon as possible. I need a coach. Maybe the boys and I can join a tumbling class. 

Today I went to Walmart for a few things for Family dinner on Saturday. For the past month I've been trying to decide when to have it - I'd prefer Sunday, but that won't work cause we'll have people over after Wesley's homecoming. I thought maybe Monday/President's Day, but Hyrum and Wesley will have left already, or we might go skiing. So, Valentine's Day it is. I texted out an invite to the kids on Saturday Feb 7. It will be this Saturday at 2. 

Pretty K today - I ordered her some sparkly clip on earrings, fun!

Hmm, do K's eyes look a little crossed? I shall be watching.

Ok, now it is past midnight (12:45am). Corey's in bed, and I just thought I'd write for a moment, cause no one has school tomorrow so I can sleep in. Corey's got a heavy load on his shoulders and it's hard and stressful and frustrating and scary. Around 10:30, after I got the kids ready for bed (teeth brushed), he said he wanted to work a little bit more and asked me to read something to him as he worked that could distract his mind from his worries. He's been reading Shackleton on Sundays, and I asked if he wanted me to continue where he was at in that? He didn't say yay or nay, I looked over a few other books - Pres Oak's biography? And then I saw it - 1776. "That's the one." (- Napoleon Dynamite) I had just read a few pages of 1776 to the kids a few weeks ago on a night when Corey was working late. I was sure that the story about the Battle of Brooklyn and Kips Bay were gonna hit the spot. I read to him for 90 minutes, from page 182 (starting at the III) to 219. There's too much there to recap, so go read it. All of these phrases from page 182 started us off and really resonated with Corey - "the situation faced by Washington and the army was critical." "They were now hemmed in at Brooklyn" "Brooklyn was a trap ready to spring" "...he did not comprehend how perilous his position was." Page 184 - Washington's men were much "distressed" haha that's putting it mildly! "Yet for all the miseries it wrought, the storm was greatly to Washington's advantage." Sometimes our problems are helping us (like the freezing temperatures before the victory at the Delaware helped freeze the ground and thus aided them in transporting the cannon they needed for victory.) Corey also liked hearing how they made stupid mistakes, like not securing the Jamaican Pass (bottom on page 193). Page 193 "For Washington, almost nothing went as planned." We know how the Revolutionary War ends, so we see Washington as victorious and a hero, but when he was living through that, he did not know the ending! It had to have been so nerve wracking and stressful!!! Oh, this at the top of page 185 "With the situation as grim as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind that Washington, making is rounds on horseback in the rain. They must be 'cool but determined,' he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself." 

I also liked how, after the retreat from Brooklyn, some papers were calling the people to repent. From the Massachusetts Spy - the defeat on Long Island and consequent distress were "loud speaking testimonies of the displeasure and anger of Almighty God against a sinful people." ~

We have thought God was for us, and had given many and signal instances of his power and mercy in our favor, and had greatly frowned upon and disappointed our enemies; and verily it has been so. But have we repented and given him the glory? Verily no. His hand seems to be turned and stretched out against us - and strong is his hand. 

Give God the glory, give him thanks, turn to him and trust Him. I also liked reading that the Hessian's were singing hymns before the attack at Kips Bay, page 211 "the Hessians, unaccustomed to this water business and fearful of being fired on when packed so closely, began singing hymns, while the redcoats responded in their own fashion 'by damning themselves and the enemy indiscriminately with wonderful fervency.'" (tsk tsk!) 

The statement of the night was the quote by Henry Knox at the beginning of chapter six, page 201: 

"We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged." - Henry Knox

Like Shackleton taught through his example, we have to be optimistic, despite the challenging circumstances we may find ourselves in from time to time (or almost constantly, as in the case of Washington and Shakleton!) We will pray for the strength to endure more and overcome through Christ, our Lord. 

Anthony's Fine Arts & Antiques

I've been thinking about art all day. This morning, I went downtown to Anthony's Fine Arts & Antiques, as part of a surprise b-day gathering for one of our good friends Amy. It is one of her favorite places. She thought she and her husband were just going down there for fun, but then she saw that all of her kids were the and a big group of friends. So it was fun to surprise her and I was amazed at that gallery! It was incredible. As we were waiting for Amy, the curator there, Micah Christensen, told us about a Normal Rockwell painting that was behind us. I think he said it's worth 2.5 million, but this says it auctioned for $50k in 1990, so maybe it's not that much. After Amy arrived, we asked Micah to tell her about it too, which he did, then he offered to show us a few more of fun items they have and he ended up giving us a little tour. (You can view the collection here.) He showed us a 16th Century Spanish Vargueño Cabinet with Limoges Enamel Drawer Fronts, price $160,000, wow! 

Next we went to some Utah LDS items. He showed us a stitching of the Nauvoo Temple made by Ann Eckford. She was only 11 when she did that, but he said the quality of stitching such straight lines was especially extraordinary. That inspired me too - it doesn't matter how young or old we are, we can create works of beauty that will be enjoyed and treasured by others! Next he showed us a painting by Albert Bierstadt called Little Cottonwood Canyon! "That's the area that we are all from!" I told him. 

Yeah, I want to paint nature - flowers and landscapes. Our neighbors first visited this gallery like 5 years ago when their friend, Brad Teare, had an exhibit. This is one of his paintings - Grand Monument. 

Next we went upstairs. There was a painting titled "Light" by Gabriel Cornelius von Max was purchased from Alex Trebek's art collection. Micah said Trebek was religious and this painting was in his bedroom. 

The last thing he showed us was walnut paneling from a French Master Bedroom, all put in place to make a very ornate living space. The walnut alone was $700K, and the carving in the wood made it even more unique and rare. He said Brandon Sanderson considered it briefly for an underground room (secret lair!) he's making, but decided it was too dark.

After the gallery, we went to Gourmandise for lunch. I'm grateful for so many wonderful ladies and friends who influence me and have blessed my family in so many ways!

Very grateful for our little corner of heaven here in Granite. Melodie came here to watch Katharine for me while I was gone. Katharine peed on the floor. Mel was a champ to clean it all up. 

Mel painted a waterbottle for a friend and K sat close by and painted with her.

It was good to go out with friends today cause I've been in a bit of a slump, feeling a lack of desire and yeah, just in a funk. Abi trying to apply for passport cause she lost her old one, but I haven't been helpful to her as she's trying to figure it out. Sorry Abi, in a funk. Corey's been working a lot lately, trying to make up for so much time off over Christmas and skiing and the wedding. 

Yesterday there seemed to be a good window to go on a ride, and I felt like I should go cause, per the weather forecast, and cause I might not be able to go again until Friday (sleet tomorrow and Thurs) but I didn't feel like going. I took O&D to the church for activity days yesterday (they went to the firestation) and after dropping them off, I drove up the canyon for a short hike from the Lisa parking lot, up to the ruins and down techy. It was icy, which made me feel ok about not having gone on a ride. One good thing about sticking around home was that yesterday I finished blogging November, yay go go me. Katharine's friend Scarlett came over to play yesterday at 1:30 too, they are cute little friends. Last night the kids were being cute and silly tonight - I think they grew shorter??

Little people with little legs.

Corey and I did a late session top rope last night. Good news - I did this red 5.10d and I finally got it!

I was very proud of myself for that (details here). I was surprised I got it! It was good to get a win at the end of the day. 

Valentine Boxes and Cards

For FHE tonight we did a 2 for 1 again by having the kids make their Valentine cards as our activity. We already do so much for the kids, I sometimes resent trying to do even more on Monday nights, but I'm impressed with how committed Corey is to FHE. It's a good thing. So today they made their valentines and got to eat some of the leftover candy, thus activity and dessert both checked off, yay. Peter showing his heart valentines. 

Natalie taking over the gluing of candy onto the hearts~ 

...and Abi wearing an angel halo headband. Owen was talking about his box and trying to get ideas of what to do to so it would be a winning box. I could hear the competetiveness in his voice, ugh. I was very very grateful when Natalie saved the day once again and took over helping the boys. She cranked them all out yesterday, and did very high quality too! A milkjug frog prince for Owen - 

Mario World for Daniel, wow!

...and Perry the Platypus for Peter. 

We'll read scriptures in a bit after Corey gets home. He's working a bit late tonight but ok with that since I had FHE taken care of. Owen finished his cards, so he's practicing trumpet now. 

Abi just took K to the store to buy a few more treats. I bought a pack of 84 treats on Saturday at Costco, and I apparently snuck too many of them over the past 3 days so we needed a few more to be able have candy for all of the kids in Owen Daniel and Peter's classes. Abi is so helpful to go get that. She also took the kids to the park and made dinner tonight after they got back. Sigh, I'm going to miss all of her help when she leaves on her mission. She's a life saver.

I was a bit numb this morning, as I'm fighting feelings of regret over how we missed our health insurance payment in October AND all the notices they supposedly sent us in the mail after that. So dumb. I haven't been consumed with worry, but it's there in the back of my head trying to fight it's way forward, and I'm trying to stand in front of it and not let it get by. Things will work out. I went over to my parents house and did the dishes and swept as I felt numb. So I wasn't super helpful, but I was able to share with my dad what happened. That helped me feel better. Then as I was leaving, I thought I'd go to the Select Health Offices in Murray and see if talking to a person in person would help. I said I wanted to speak with someone about getting our insurance re-instated. Then I waited with K for 30 minutes. We played catch with a nail buffer I had in my purse while we waited. 

K was a perfect little angel.

Then a guys with a "SALES" name badge showed up to talk to me, and I thought "drat". It went about as I expected after seeing "sales". I'm not here for sales. Can I talk to a manager or the CEO? Is there seriously nothing anyone can do? Nope, nope, "it's past the grace period", can't be re-instated. He said even the marketplace can't do anything "that far back". Ugh, so dumb. I feel so frustrated about the lack of communication from Select Health BEFORE they terminated the health insurance for a family of 12 (it was Corey and I and HWALSNODPK), and I'm so mad by their seeming "tied hands" now that it's terminated and we're past the "grace period". So so so stupid. They have their proof that they told us - a digital list of notification letters they sent through the mail. We did not get any of them. It also showed that our new insurance cards were sent in December, and we did get those. That only made me feel/think that everything was on track though. We had no knowledge of our October payment not going though, nor any of notifications supposedly sent Oct 14, Nov 14, and Dec 14 that our coverage was in jeopardy. The first I was aware of it was this past Thursday. None of that mattered. He can't do anything. He did give me a quote for a short term plan that we can use through December that doesn't cover anything for $750 bucks a month. Boo. Came home, K played Starfall while I called the DWS line and was on hold for a while, to update address and do SNAP interview. Then I gave Nicole a call. She took a trip to Ohio last week, and on her way back, 8 hours from home, her van broke down. So she's spend 3 nights in a hotel, the place it was towed to was closed until today. She's rented a uhaul with her stuff and is going to drive that back home and come back for her van next week if they aren't able to get it fixed by tomorrow morning. Everyone is struggling with something. Life is a game of choose your crisis. I also had a meeting yesterday with ladies in our ward discussing some challenges ladies are having. One sister is on her way back after attending a grandson's funeral in Idaho - her 18 yo grandson died by suicide. Another sister's grandbaby was recently stillborn with Gastroschisis, a congenital defect where a baby is born with intestines outside the body through a hole in the abdominal wall. I have also been thinking of the story of the WW2 widow who buried her 4 children - a story I read with the kids a year ago that's been on my mind again recently. Katharine climbed into bed with me this morning, and I thought of that lady. Here I was with my little girl, safe and warm and alive in my arms. "Every ordinary day seems magical". My life is very very good and blessed. Things will work out. 

Brief sum up of the weekend - Yesterday I was going to blog, but instead I took a long nap, and then Corey put on a movie, so we just finished watching "David" by Angel Studios. Girls said "cringe" quite a few times, and I admit it was a bit much, with the singing and the typical variety of characters - buff big brother, fat brother, annoying tired ugly brother, etc etc. I ate cookies that we had leftover from Abi's mission call opening. The kids ate some leftover taco bar dishes with all the fixin's for dinner that the Hansen's gifted us. Small blessings, I'm thankful for to God for providing for us. 

On Saturday Corey went climbing with our neighbor Zeb, who is a young man that is Joseph's age, and while they were doing that, I got in an early ride to the ruins. I left at 8:45 am when it was 41 degrees! It was 47 when I got back. That's kinda crazy. It has been so warm. In the nice spring like weather on Saturday, Abi took kids to the park. She's so nice to do that. Daniel waiting for them to be done?

Corey and I were going to do top rope Saturday night after a re-do date night (since we didn't go out last night with the ward youth fundraiser activity). We drove up to Park City to go eat at Sammy's Bistro (only took 10 months to finally go there with Corey! I got the teriyaki salmon sandwich again and sweet potato fries, yum). Before Sammy's we first went to pick up his Medicline Pillow that we left at the Summit Watch after our ski trip last month. They said they'd hold it for 30 days, which means today. (See, Select Health! We don't miss deadlines when we freaking know about them!) The wait for Sammy's bistro was longer than expected (said 10min but it ended up being 30) but it was worth it. So we didn't make it to Momentum in time to do toprope, so we just bouldered until our hands were spent. Aaaand, I did 4 V3s! Two I'd never gotten before on the South Slab, a white V3 (below) and then a black V3. 

Also the OG Purple V3, I was able to do it about half way though the bouldering session, then one more time at the end, yay.