Bridal Veil & Creamery

Grant and I got to hang out today with all of our little boys (and Natalie) (...and Katharine, but mostly little boys...) One of his "to-do's" while he was in Utah was to go by the BYU Creamery for some Graham Canyon ice cream. Since we were going down to Provo, we thought it would be fun to go on a little hike, so we went to Bridal Veil Falls - 

Everyone hiking up - 

Grant was on "active kids" duty (hiking back down with a toddler in each hand)

and I watched the kids as they decided to stay put in the wagon, the pool, or on the side walk. Peter enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them in the bushes - 

Caleb joined us. Soon there were more of them gathering at the street - Owen and Daniel throwing rocks down into the river - 

O and D left for a moment to conquer greater mountains, and Peter kept on his little shelf throwing rocks into the river - 

His brothers and cousins soon joined him again - I thought this photo was precious - 

Life doesn't get much better than that for little boys - just sitting by a river and throwing rocks. Grant and the older kids were trying to build a dam/fortress - 

I thought it was very hot. I hugged the shade, Peter stayed close to me most of the time. Peter showing me a rock - 

Peter and Caleb squabbled with each other as if they were family. Baby Katharine slept through the whole thing. 

I knew she's be hungry before we'd be able to get back home, so we went by the creamery and I fed her there. Guess who else was at the creamery - two of our favorite big kids! Joseph and Ethan!

Ethan had to hurry back to the MTC for work, but we enjoyed saying hi.

We tried to look for shade, it was hot, we went inside for ice cream. The little boys wanted more cold ice cream relief and attacked Joseph - 

So I fed Katharine a little bit, but after we were back in the car, she was crying for more. Most of the kids wanted to go in my car with me, since I had Katharine. Daniel and Caleb went in Grant's car, and I had the rest, It was a bit crazy cause now I had a few more kids "calling" who go to sit by K and making each other mad over who already had a turn or who sat by her last time. I can't keep track of it all. Kids are arguing, K is crying, so I came up with a quick plan - let's go by the Roots of Knowledge exhibit! Hallelujah it was open. I sat on the floor and fed Katharine, the kids looked at the windows. 

I was very proud of myself for knowing about this gem of a place. 

It was perfect. 

I told them of a few of the "easter eggs' that I knew about, like the Millenium Falcon star, and the Piano guys in a Mozart duet.

They stayed busy and relatively quiet and under control while I nursed Katharine.

Then bathroom break and back to the car. Grant picked up Stephanie and they got home before I did. They had dinner ready by the time we were back, and the kids ate and I ran upstairs to feed Katharine again. We watched a few videos of the day's activities and I was ready for bed. 

It's been a fun day, but I'm spent. I don't get a break with all the big kids gone. Joseph is on his way back from Puerto Rico. They were flying towards the sun, so he got to enjoy 3 hours of sunset light, pretty fun. All of his sunset photos here. Even though J is coming back to Utah, he'll be headed to Provo. I miss having all of my older helpers! I have been leaving K with Natalie to babysit almost every day this week when I leave to take Ethan to frontrunner. She's been a lifesaver. I'm glad I've had one daughter here while the others abandoned me to go rafting. It's ok, N, K and I will go next time. Normally E could take a car to work or to frontrunner, but the fiesta was being weird on him last week. He just left the car there in the frontrunner parking lot, but on Tues took it to a shop in Provo. Found out yesterday that the clutch needs to be replaced. $1800, yay.