Willow Lake Fiddle Concert

This evening, I took seven kiddos on a hike up in the mountains. 

We went up for a little fiddle concert that Sophi and Natalie were participating in.

It was lovely - the fiddle concert and the scenery. On the walk down in the pic below.

We went to Willow Lake, which I had never heard of nor been to before. It was crazy hot on the way up (97 degrees in the valley) and I was dripping sweat on Katharine's head. She was wrapped up on me in her baby wrap. I had 7 kids and we were carrying two violins, 7 folding chairs, a blanket, and a bag with water bottles. Once we finally got to the top, Peter was practically cursing us cause his legs were tired and he must have accidentally brushed against some stinging nettle cause he said his hand hurt.

Peter! We're sorry! 

I carried him a few times and Lily was a great helper too. All the kids were working hard carrying stuff and it was a longer hike than I was expecting, which is good. Had I known what we were in for I might not have done it or not brought them all. But it was nice, and all the pain was forgotten after a sip of cold water and after seeing cute ducklings in the lake!

They started it earlier than planned, because they wanted to have the kids perform, but storm clouds were looming and no one wanted their violin ruined in the rain. Natalie is ready but wants to be looking at the ducks with the kids- 

She goes to get a quick drink of water...

And Peter sees that someone has taken his seat and he is ticked.

It was a super cute concert. Short, but the kids were all troopers and the teachers had great enthusiasm. 

We took a few videos, I'll upload them later, along with the names of the tunes they did. Katharine was great.

Cute baby ~

Ok, storm clouds are comin', let's go. We said goodbye to the cute ducks...

and then headed back down. Solitude Ski Resort behind the kids.

My workers load up and start to walk again - take a selfie?

The kids did much better on the way down, probably cause there was shade from the cloudy sky, and cause it was downhill. Peter did great. The trail was a little steep in some parts, and also sandy, so it made it pretty slippery for him. He slipped and landed on his bottom a few times, and would wimper and then get back up. On one of his slips, I was behind him and said "I'm sorry!" as in "I'm sorry that you fell" but he turned and quickly chastised me as Lily was helping him up saying "That wasn't you! That was the ground!" That made me laugh and then he yelled at me again "It's not funny!!!" and then I apologized and tried to hold back my giggling. He's super cute. He and the kids actually got way ahead of me (cause I was taking a hundred pictures of wild flowers) 

The flowers were so pretty. 

I freely admit I have a taking pictures of flowers problem.

Natalie stayed with me and teased me for my photo taking. 

It was beautiful! It felt like a magical forest!"

"Oh! Look at that flower!" 

I said "Ok, one more..." a dozen times. Natalie was very patient, as were the other people behind us. The kids paused to wait for my slow-poke self. Peter sat in his chair.

It was stuck open and we couldn't pack it up properly. At one point on the walk down, Lily was carrying it on her head with the chair right side up. I bet that with some circus practice, Peter could sit on it while she walks with it like that! It was funny. "Sorry, one more picture..."

I maybe went so slow because my heart was already feeling full of good vibes from a bike ride this morning and I was taking my own counsel to heart, to look around myself and notice the beauty. I went to Corner Canyon to go on a bike ride with Joseph. I had to go for him to go, cause his bike is kept here. So I get there, he's almost there, we thought it might be ok for me to get a head start, cause he's a young college lad and I'm an old woman. So I had like a 3 min head start. Then he gets there, and as soon as he's on the trial, he's trying to shift gears and his chain breaks. And our connections aren't great in the canyon so it took a bit for him to communicate that to me. By the time I knew I figured there wasn't anything I could do to help, so I just kept going. He put his bike back on the rack and went to our home, not back to Provo, and I finished my ride in a decent time. 

So I had thoughts on JOY during my ride that I shared with the kids tonight for scriptures. I love Ghost Falls and I love biking, and there was one part where I lost my connection and the repeat stopped and that caused me to notice... the world around me! I could hear it! I went a little slower, and stopped looking at the dirt path in front of me and I looked up and around at the magical place I was in. It could seriously be the Garden of Eden. I love biking because I love being in the hills, and then I thought of how most of the time when I'm on my bike, I'm focused on the rocks and gnarled roots on the path in front of me. 

This fact has occurred to me before. 

C'mon Tiff! Look around you!!!

There is beauty ALL around you!

So my thought was this: Life is like this, huh? Life is the path, we're the bikers on it, and there are lots of rocks/problems to overcome and there's lots of work/biking to do. But sometimes, you should stop and don't worry or think about the work ahead of you. Pause and look up! Notice the sky! The clouds! Listen for the babble of the brook and singing of the birds. Be present. Look up and notice the beautiful world around you! Don't just travel along in life looking down at the rocks in the road. I shared the first few minutes of this talk by Carl B. Cook with the kids tonight for scriptures - It Is Better to Look Up. So my new goal when I'm biking isn't to just try and get a faster time, but to pause and notice the beauty, express some gratitude, and let myself feel JOY. Cause that is the purpose of our life anyway!! 2 Nephi 2:25  and everything God does is for a purpose. He cares about purpose a lot. If there's no purpose behind the life/bike ride, that would destroy his wisdom! 2 Ne 2:12. That's a pretty big deal. So those were some of my thoughts this morning. Pause to look up to God and show some appreciation and feel some joy. I was glad that I felt Joy today, in being with my kids, in working hard along side them, and laughing and talking with them and putting my hands out the window on the drive home to catch the raindrops!