Ohio Game & Opinionated

Eliza gave me a video call today and it was fun to talk with her and see baby Mary! I had sent a message when I went to the temple today, thanking her for her idea to put the Living Christ in a 3 ring binder with photos. I told her that I made one last month and I got the whole thing memorized last week with some extra help from the album I found. So I recommended that song in case she wasn't aware of it (I love it! I still had it on repeat today cause I love the tunes and the spirit it brings). I recommended it to Nicole as well - I visited with her on my way from Draper temple to Jordan River (Draper was closed, doh, that's what I get for not scheduling an appointment and checking!) When I got home Eliza called and we were able to chat. Mary is so cute! She's doing good at climbing up the stairs. Katharine was very excited to see her favorite baby niece. Eliza mentioned that they were going to a BYU game in Cincinnati tonight, and what do you know, they drove there with the son of one of our neighbors down the street! I knew they had a son in Columbus, but didn't know they all knew each other! 

I prob shouldn't have been surprised, since the church gives you all sort of connections and friends, especially when you live out of Utah. It's a small world! The Bearcats hammered BYU 90 to 68, doh! But it's still a good time when you get out with friends.

Mary you are so cute!

So, now - a story. Last week on Wednesday, Abi took the van cause she had Lyceum after school, and they had a late rehearsal so I wouldn't have a car until 9pm. Corey took carpool in the morning and so he was gone early,  and we were trying to figure out when to go climb, cause we hadn't gone since at all yet last week. I was going to be gone for the girls trip, so Wednesday was our one shot to do it before the trip. BUT trying to coordinate with him was getting frustrating cause he was just like "you tell me" attitude, and I am trying to support him with work and make sure he has time to do his stuff, so I needed some feedback about when was best for him. 

Me at 11:45 am - "Want to climb tonight?" No reply about that, though we did message about kids, bills, and other things. 

Me at 5:38 - "Abi has late rehearsal so whenever you come home we can try to go climb, or we’ll go Saturday if we can’t make it happen tonight." (See how I'm trying to give him options?) Nothing. 

An hour-ish later, Corey was home cause he had to bring S&N home for YW. At 6:27 pm: "we could also go climb early tomorrow morning if you want!" Corey replied right away - "I'm not sure yet - maybe we can do tonight still" Ok... so I'm watching the clock and watching him. He's working, I'm busy with kids, I'm thinking it's not going to happen. I'd asked him about it enough, but I tried one more time at 8:12: "Do you have more work to do tonight?" and that was where I gave up. We weren't deciding, and thus we were choosing the default, which was work and kids. But we'd go to bed early. I kinda wished I could take his car and go boulder, but I knew I couldn't leave him with the kids cause then he'd get interrupted. I decided I wouldn't ask any more about it, and I decided BY MYSELF that I was going to go to bed and get up at 6 (I wasn't going to tell him this) and I'd go climb before I left for the trip. Well, we did end up talking a bit after kids were in bed and he apologized for not getting back to me. Apology accepted. I did mention to him that it would be nice if he'd let me know what he's thinking or have an opinion on things, like he could have given me a yay or nay on climbing, or even an "I'm leaning towards _____" so I'm not just left hanging. I also said like when we are climbing, HE could choose the route we do. He always tells me to choose, so that's a heavy burden I carry. Yeah it's rough. So he's gonna work on that. 

Next, I would like to talk a little bit how is work going these days for Corey. He's been working a lot lately... I just asked for his hours and he texted me this:

• So far today/Tuesday (8:36pm): 10:55 
• Monday 12:36
• Saturday 11:49
• Friday 13:25
• Thur 12:46
• Wed 11:00
• Tue 10:55

Here's something he texted me earlier today that shows "what" he's been working on. It is in English, but good luck understanding any of it!

2:27pm - I love you - thanks for taking this journey with me
2:28pm - I'm about to send this prompt to ChatGPT:
   All of this work was to figure out the algorithm for a C# implementation using OpenCV (Emgu.CV 4.12.0.5764) that will compute and validate the linear equation, so that we know the proper px/mm ratio and display size in our AR system. But since there isn't a single px/mm ratio and display size (if more than one corresponding point) I will want your help with that later.
   First, I'd like you to create a C# method in the attached .cs file. Your changes should be purely additive, but using existing code. Later iterations should be surgical to the code you created. I compare each revision in a diff tool and I've found I get fewer errors if the changes are surgical. The attached file _SolvePnP3.cs has all of the methods used for estimating, refining and refining the CArmTargetToSource and reprojecting points from 3D to 2D (for visual overlay tests). We can also test this .cs file on the same datasets you've been using. It also has methods for choosing Dicom images/frames that are well-suited for the stereo vision triangulation. It also does triangulation on corresponding points (Marker/AprilTag centers) and validates the accuracy of them.
   I would like a method to calculate and validate the linear equation, using the different validation methods we've discussed. Whether or not validation succeeds depends on recommended default thresholds in an options class. I'll need you to provide the properties and recommended defaults (with comments). The main method return values should include both linear equations and other info we may need. When doing the 3D absolute position validation, please note that we already have classes and helpers defined in the .cs file for selecting pairs of Dicom images well-suited for triangulation and computing the triangulation. I don't want similar/redundant methods for the triangulation so please use exiting code whenever possible.
   When doing the validations, you'll probably need a method that will compute the px/mm ratio and display size. I'd like that to be a public method that I can call and test later on. So don't hide that logic in a helper function. Expose it so it's clear. 
   I'd love to have the CArmTargetToDetector also, but I don't (for these datasets) have the data you need. The DICOM tag for pixel pitch (physical distance between pixel centers) is (0028,0030) Pixel Spacing, which I can get with some C-Arms, but not others. There may be other DICOM tags that would allow you be able to calculate the CArmTargetToDetector values. Please include optional parameters or method signatures so that (when I have them) I can pass those values in to get the CArmTargetToDetector transform/pose. Please include comments on those methods/parameters to remind me later which DICOM tag values are needed.
   The code in _SolvePnP3.cs is currently being called like this. The next step is to calculate valid linear equations.
            var estimate = _SolvePnP3.CArmSourceCalibrator.EstimateCArmTargetToSource(c.Intrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, null);
            var reprojection = _SolvePnP3.CArmReprojection.ReprojectMarkersTo2D(c.Intrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, estimate.CArmTargetToSource, null, null);// estimate.FrameDiagnostics);
            var refined = _SolvePnP3.CArmTargetToSourceRefiner.RefineCArmTargetToSource(c.Intrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, estimate, new _SolvePnP3.CArmTargetToSourceRefinementOptions
            {
                OptimizeTranslation = true,
                MaxIterations = 75,
                TrimWorstFraction = 0.0,
                // NEW: optical center refinement
                OptimizePrincipalPointOffset = true,
                InitialPrincipalPointOffsetPixels = new Verifai.Types.Point2DF(0f, 0f),
                MaxAbsPrincipalPointOffsetPixels = 50.0,
            });
            var refinedReprojection = _SolvePnP3.CArmReprojection.ReprojectMarkersTo2D(refined.RefinedIntrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, refined.RefinedCArmTargetToSource, null, null);
            var triangulationOptions = new _SolvePnP3.CArmTriangulationOptions
            {
                MinCommonMarkers = 10,
                MinMeanParallaxDeg = 20.0,
                RequireStationaryCube = true,
                MaxCubeTranslationDeltaMeters = 0.005, // 5 mm
                MaxCubeRotationDeltaDeg = 1.0,         // 1 deg
            };
            var pairs = _SolvePnP3.CArmStereoTriangulation.SelectTopFramePairsForTriangulation(refined.RefinedIntrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, refined.RefinedCArmTargetToSource, topN: 10, triangulationOptions);
            var triangulations = _SolvePnP3.CArmStereoTriangulation.TriangulatePairs(refined.RefinedIntrinsics, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue, refined.RefinedCArmTargetToSource, pairs, triangulationOptions);
            var comparisons = _SolvePnP3.CArmStereoTriangulation.CompareTriangulations(triangulations, frames3, offsetsByMarkerValue);

So to review:
 - Method to compute and validate linear equations for each data set (filtered on orthogonal'ish frames)
 - Whatever method (called by validation tests) that uses the linear equation values as parameters should be public so I can easily test that separately
 - Show me how to call the method
There is more to come after this, but does this make sense? If so, please suggest the method signature to calculate/verify the linear equations and what the recommended default options are.

I replied via a dizzy emoji and said: "I'm not sure I could figure that out if I had a decade"

Corey replied:
it's taken me this long on this project to understand it myself!
but now that I do (mostly) I feel like I'm going fast
hope B_____ can hang in a little longer (referring to his friend who had this idea a few years ago and has been funding it this whole time by himself)
would take months to implement/test all this code, but ChatGPT is fast...amazing. 

Ok, given that text message above from earlier and ALL that complex whatever it is programming stuff work that Corey's brain has to do day in and day out, I'll guess I should try and just chill the beans about him not having strong opinions on all the little things around our schedule, life, or home. His brain is full and does not have room for it! There is as much risk as ever on this project, and our jenga tower is about to topple, but we'll keep going, like Abraham climbing up Mount Moriah but with the determination in Genesis 22:5 that the lad and I will "come again unto you"

Neither Corey or I exercised yesterday, so we did make it a priority to go climbing tonight. I gave him a four options for what the rest of the evening could look like, then he asked me which one was best for the kids, and I chose #1, so that's what we did: 4pm climb, 6pm dinner, 7pm more work, 9pm scriptures 10pm bed. We went, we climbed the climbs, and I chose all the climbs, but it was ok it was at Millcreek and there were lots of new routes that we hadn't done, so it was easy to choose cause we were mostly trying the new ones. On the last one, I did a 5.10a and he said he wanted to do a different one! I congratulated him afterwards for having a preference!! Then, Lily had stayed after school, so we went to go pick her up on Neff Lane. As we were leaving, I drove east and then I had to turn left/south and there were lots of cars coming. I wondered aloud if Neff Lane had an east exit? Could get out that way? I tried to look at my map but was still watching cars... Should I turn around? Corey said passively "If you want to" then after a pause he continued: "Would you like me to have a strong opinion about that?" Which had me laughing as we drove him back to his dad's house. So accommodating to check if I approved of his non-opinion. It was funny. He makes me laugh. I'm still here blogging, he's still at his dad's, so the "9pm scriptures" didn't happen, I'm going to go read with the kids now and hopefully Corey will be home soon.

One last thing - Corey and I both went to the temple today. I woke up at 4:15 but I didn't get out the door, cause at 4:30 as I was exiting the closet, Katharine was awake on the bed and was a bit chatty. She said I should stay, so I did and I got back in bed with her wearing my dress. She told me about her dream (she fell off the trampoline). Corey left for intiatories at 7, and after he got back around 8:45 I was still in my dress. He asked if I'd gone to the temple. I said no. He said I could go now and he'd work from home, so I did and it was nice. When I got home, he asked if I'd received any insights. I said that I was thinking this morning about an answer I got last year, so as I sat in the celestial room, I looked up those verses. I couldn't remember what book it had been in - I searched Ezra first, but I remembered it was in a "chapter 2" and Ezra 2 wasn't it. Then I found it - Joel chapter 2 - . Joel 2 was an answer to prayer in Dec 2022, and again in Jan 2025, which is journaled in the photo below (I'll try to come back to type it out later): 

So I sent that pic to Corey, I don't know if he read it. I sent him the verses I liked - verses 21 - 27: 

21 ¶ Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

And I also sent Corey these other photos, which are other answers I received in the temple to prayers from 2024 and 2025, most of which were for him and his career/efforts to provide for our family.

So, perhaps our ship is not in great shape, but I we're afloat, and our flag is still flying! I will trust and not murmur, I will have faith and fear not. God has dealt wondrously with us!

Sourdough Kick

Today Katharine and I went over to my parents house and did a little cleaning. K didn't play as much this time, but she was still good. After like 2 hours we left and went by Macey's on the way home. 

The guy today gave us a huge cup of ice cream. K did a lot better sharing it than she did last month. We also enjoyed a sample of sushi.

Abi texted this photo to Wride Nation to let us all pay our respects to the last of the OG Skyline as the gym demolition began.

FHE tonight was simple. We started watching season 5 of the Chosen and got through the first episode. Everyone was asleep half way through the second, so we called it good. Didn't get a treat tonight, Corey decided to now spend the $ cause things are a bit too tight. I had wanted to watch The Chosen yesterday, but we were too busy with company and making dinner. Yesterday I did not take a nap, which is a first this year. We had two lovely couples come by after church. Lovely couple #1 was our own Mel and Christian. They stayed for a visit before going to dinner at the Bennett's at 5. They brought along Wesley and his girlfriend Lauren who were both in Provo this weekend. We all had fun visiting in the front room for two hours and then the little kids made Wes and Lauren go play outside until their ride back to Rexburg came to pick them up. 

Wesley came down this weekend for an FSY interview and Lauren came down to do some mission prep stuff. She is leaving for a mission in April, going to Guam! Wesley ended up staying in Provo the whole weekend, slept over at Ethan and Bella's house, so we didn't even see him until today. I came back early from the girls trip to see him. I knew we weren't going skiing, but thought I'd atleast get to see him, but I guess he had other priorities now! After they left, we got dinner ready. Wayne came over at 4 and we had dinner with Mel and Christian, er, I guess it was a pre-dinner snack for them. Mashed potatoes, pork, broccoli, and sourdough of course!

I made this one - should have taken a pic before it got cut up, but I'm liking how it looks with the scoring lately. Mel brought a maracuja pie that was very tasty. Corey made his gallon+ of tapioca for dessert. Lots of food and lots of clean up. We loaded the dishwasher, but didn't get any of the big pots and pans washed yesterday, so I feel like I've been doing dishes all day today to catch up. Thus tonight's dinner was simple: sourdough with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and an olive garden-ish salad. 

I made two loaves yesterday and three today. This dinner loaf above was started this morning and I was planning to cook the two others tomorrow morning, but Lily cooked them tonight. One was immediately scarfed down by everyone, and Lily hid the other so she could have some for breakfast. Abi said she likes the sourdough kick I'm on. Yeah, this one is a little more useful/helpful to everyone than when I was on a lego princess kick last fall. I've mostly been following Lily's recipe, but I started looking up sourdough stuff on youtube this past weekend and now I'm not sure we've been doing it right. Most people I saw feed their starter like 6 hours before they start baking but Lily always feeds it after she uses it. But we've been using it almost everyday, so maybe that's turns out close to the same? I don't know, I'm researching. And I'm learning there are 100 different possible ways to make it, so maybe it's whatever. This is the recipe Lily used for the sourdough for Mel's wedding that I have on my phone cause I've texted it to a few friends who requested the recipe: 

Get a food scale

MIX 520g of bread flour and 12g of salt in a big bowl

In a smaller bowl MIX 385g of water and 90g of the starter. POUR it into the flour mixture immediately after mixing and MIX the two until you think its well mixed

Cover with a wet towel for like 15 minutes then FOLD it again before putting it back in the bowl and covering with a lid

Let sit overnight / 6 hours 

Fold again and shape top into a smooth loaf, put on parchment paper in a bowl, cover, and let rise in fridge for 4-10 hours or on counter 2-4 hours. 

When you're ready to cook your sourdough, First place the empty dutch oven IN the oven, and preheat to 500°

After about 30-45 of the pan getting all the way hot, place a cookie sheet on the rack below the Dutch oven so the bottom of the bread doesn’t burn and take your sourdough out of the fridge and score it with the scoring tool. 

Immediately after scoring, set the sourdough inside the dutch oven with the lid on for 25 minutes. 

Then 10 minutes without the lid on. After that take the sourdough out and let it cool for a few minutes. Stick a knife through the bottom to ensure it's cooked all the way.

I did some math and got Lily's loaf up to a 750 grams of flour loaf, but the loafs yesterday I used this one, and I like it cause it makes a big loaf (1000 grams!). The recipe she uses is the first comment there. I don't love how much that one needs stretch and folds. Lil's is just two times. Also, compared to videos I saw, I don't know why my dough is aways so much stickier than theirs look, I can hardly roll it at all. I did like her scoring on this. I made mine look pretty like her today!

Ooh, just found this version by Ballerina Farm, I think I'll try hers next.

Factory Reset

We didn't go skiing today. Instead had a pretty chill morning, slept in a bit, Corey said we'd climb later. Started my fast before fast Sunday tomorrow. Kids played with friends, Corey working in the front room. I've been up in my bedroom most of the day reseting my phone, yay. Mel had texted me yesterday that Christian helped her factory reset her phone and afterwards she had 26.63 GB of storage, wow! My phone was at 63.93 of 64 GB in use as of this morning, with 421.9 MB available (not good). Corey said he could help me with it tomorrow, but I decided not to wait and see if I could figure it out. I didn't know what I was doing, but with google AI and youtube videos helping me, I was able to do it. Mel said she used this app - Apple Devices for Windows. I backed my phone up there, then I backed up to icloud as well, then to the Settings app to the bottom of General, to Transfer or Reset iphone where I clicked "Erase All Content and Settings". That was a little scary. Thankfully it came back on, opened up to the new factory settings, so got that going after each prompt: Language English, set up face ID, etc etc. Then back to the computer to restore my backup info. My phone said "Restore in Progress" for almost 40 min, which I was quite a bit longer than it had taken to back everything up, hmm. I couldn't push anything or do anything about it, so just waited, only a little bit concerned. Soon it opened up and was loading all my apps and info, and look at this - ok looks like all the stuff is there again, good! And I go to check my iphone storage and look at this ~

41.56 GB!!! Yes, that's much better! Man, what in the world was all that iOS space filled up with this past year? It has been taking up 55% of my storage! I don't know what that was about, but I'm glad it's gone, yayyyyy. It loaded all my apps, photos, text messages, etc everything like it was this morning. And more good news: I was able to reinstall things I've been deleting the past month. I have Gospel Library back, yay, and Apple podcasts, and now I should be able to take photos this year, yay! So I'm much relieved about all that. Today I've done laundry, swept and mopped the kitchen, practiced the Living Christ more, and scrolled a bit on Instagram. Oh yeah, I was able to get that app again too (thought I had deleted it before the lack of storage issue, so hopefully things don't get out of hand with the girls wanting to use it or me scrolling myself.) A reason why I wanted to fix my phone today was a friend who did the girls trip with us has gotten very slender these past few months, and she shared the link in the girls trip group chat of the health coach guy's instagram account who helped her, it's her brother's friend I think she said? His handle is fitnessdane, he talks about inflammation and I've seen the result with her, so I'm interested. Going to focus on not stressing my body and resting more. She cut out cardio when she started in July last year cause he told her to and to keep walking to under 10K steps. UNDER! She has started to work back in weight training now that she's not inflamed anymore, and is doing that 3x a week. For exercise I've been doing all the same things I've done for years, but weights been creeping back on, and even though I know I'm stronger from climbing, all the weight is not muscle. I feel bloated, so yeah, hoping to learn more about this and see what happens. She said he required her to work with him for 6 month, and it was $400 a month, plus the supplements and stuff he told her to get. That's not in our budget right now, and even if it was I don't know that I'd do it. I'm going to listen his content thought and see what I can figure out. With it being fast Sunday tomorrow AND the first day of the month, maybe March would be a good experiment for me to do less and rest more and read and we'll see what I can learn, Kinda like a personal reset month as a lent-ish thing before Easter. I like that idea. Ok, going to go climb and/or sit in the sauna. 

Art Director

Lily is running for SBO - Art Director. Her posters were due this morning, and I must say, they were/are awesome.

I especially liked whatever this creature is. 

It was a rip off from Napoleon Dynamite, but I think Lily did it better. For the other one, she wasn't sure if she is allowed to have her face on her poster, so she had that copy of her face on tape that she can take off if needed, and then her poster will just look like this.

I'm so impressed Lil! I'm 95% sure that there is not a better artist at Skyline than her, so if that's the main criteria for Art Director, she's got this in the bag. She had those turned in at 7:30 am today. It was good I didn't go climbing (didn't set my alarm) cause I was home to help her - she had a few things she needed printed in Corey's office. 

After she was at school, she asked me to send her the pic I took of her posters, and I couldn't cause there was "not enough space" to download it to send. I'm so frustrated with my phone lately. So I deleted my Costco App, Walgreens App, Ancestry App, and Lastpass App, and then it still wouldn't let me send it. I restarted my phone, deleted 4 photos from the attachments in my messages, and then I was able to send her that one photo at the top. My phone is being so dumb. I predict that I am not going to be able to take any photos this weekend on the girl trip to St. George. I think I'll need a new phone soon, or I need to take it in and have someone smart figure out why the IOS takes up like 55 percent of my Gigabites, and the IOS another 22%, apps 22%, photos and messages 2% and I'm always fighting for that last 1% so my phone doesn't shut down and tell me "not enough space". So yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 8:30 until Friday night to go to St. George with a lot of neighborhood ladies, for a bday trip for our friend Stacey that she planned for her 40th bday. A biking and hiking trip, so fun. It goes through Sunday, some are coming back Saturday night, and I'm in the group coming back Friday night. We were going to go skiing Saturday with Wes, but with the high temp in Park City on Saturday being 50 degrees it might not happen. Maybe we'll just go and see how it is to ski in slush? We have one more day pass and this could be one of the last chances. For the girls trip, we are going to bike Gooseberry on Friday which will be fun. I haven't been on the bike for over two weeks, so it will be nice to get out and ride.

Today I worked on my Living Christ book while I listened to the songs from The Living Christ Album to help me memorize it. Here's the songs that are helping me. I am doing section 1 from a different album, there are two: The Living Christ Album by various artists, and The Living Christ Project which are mostly sung by Kristen Bodine Scott. I recognize her voice from some primary songs, like Risen. But for this memorization project, her singing all the songs to different melodies was just getting my brain confused, so I am using her for the first section, but I couldn't get the second section down with her, so I searched for something else and found the other playlist. So that's how I'm doing this - 

• Section 1 - As We Commemorate - Kristen Bodine Scott
• Part 2 - He Was The Great Jehovah - Felicity Roberts
• Part 3 - He Instituted the Sacrament - Voices of Zion
• Part 4 - He Rose - Jessica Slater
• Part 5 - Of the Living Christ - Richard Peters
• Part 6 - Of Him the Prophet Also Declared - Silvia Soledad
• Part 7 - We Declare Donovan Delta
• Part 8 - We Bear Testimony - Bree Hoover

I've got them all in a playlist now, here and in my itunes. I'll listen to them over and over again until I get it down! I've got 1 and 2 and started 3 and 4 this morning as I made sourdough, and have started 5-7 this evening. I better go pack for tomorrow. Hopefully Corey and I will go climb tonight, or I'll go boulder in the morning.

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.