100th Day of School

Today was the 100th day of school for kindergarten. Daniel and his friend Millie got dressed up and Millie's mom gave them gray hair. With the walker and cane, they make a pretty cute pair.

Another funny thing about kindergarten. Yesterday I got a text from a mother of another kindergartener friend of Daniels. She let me know that her son came home with a very generous gift from Daniel - a $20 bill! Her son said that Daniel gave it to him because they "are such good friends!" So, haha, that' what I get for leaving cash by my computer! She venmo'd me back, but I thought that was pretty funny too. 

Owen had a fun day today - he was able to bring home the class pet, a cute Webkinz horse. I can't remember the horses name, but they did Math together...

Went roller blading in the kitchen...

...played with Owen's Ninjago legos. 

And Owen was able to teach the horse a little bit about playing the trumpet.

They had such a fun day together. I love the cute and simple lives of elementary kids. 

I had an idea yesterday that it might be fun to present something at BYU Education week. I'm making it as a goal, even though I've never done anything like that. I've led discussions with a lot of audience participation in our ward's Sunday school classes, but I haven't ever had a power point and done all the talking. Well, I guess I have given a talk a few times at church, but those are usually pretty messy and I'm winging it. I had one that was well organized and good a few years ago. Anyway, any proposal needs to be submitted by September this year to teach in Aug 2024, so I'm making a goal of that. 

Baby Hoodies

Hello on a lovely winter Sunday. There is snow falling out side again. We are grateful for all the "moisture" as it is often called in prayers around Utah, ha. Coming home from church today - Katharine wore her cute Carter's hooded bodysuit. She fell asleep in Wesley's arms as he kissed her cheeks. She was seriously snoring!

She has two of these hooded jumpsuits / rompers / whatever they're called. I bought them at kid to kid a few weeks ago, and since I got them, she's almost always wearing one and I'm washing the other. I love these little outfits because: they are warm, they just have one easy zipper, it's easy to change her diaper when she's wearing these (no snaps!), her toes are out so she can crawl, and the hood doubles as a pocket for her pacifier. Snuggling with Abi at home.

Ahh, Abi was tricking! She wasn't sleeping!

Here's her other jumpsuit. She wore this one yesterday to Sophi's basketball game at Alta, hence why it's this one that is in the wash right now. 

Yesterday at the game, I let Katharine crawl around and drop her cheerio halves on the bleacher floor, and then eat them. She's working on building up her immune system. Her pacifier was also dragging along the floor. I put it up in her hood for clean/safekeeping, and then she proceeded to eat her toes. 

Cleanliness just can't win. It's ok, I think it's good for her in the long run.

The rest of the time yesterday was spent cleaning, cause Wesley was having some FSY friends come over for a visit. They were the friends from his Weber FSY where they got to shake Elder Uchtdorf's hand (Wesley was quoted in a church news article!). So they (6 girls) came up from Provo, went to watch his hockey game against East (the Bengals lost 2-1 but Wes played hard knowing there were girls in the crowd watching him!) We cleaned bedrooms and the main floor and it looked great tonight before his friend came over. He was at his game so Abi, Lily, and I did the finishing touches, and put out treats and some games. They played Apples to Apples, ate Krispy Kremes and popcorn, and watched La La Land. 

A few more things from last night - Owen and Daniel had a playdate/pizza party from 6-8 and after they got home, Corey took SNODP to his parents house from like 8-10. Corey spent most of the day working on his HollowLense Spine stuff. He was stuck on one problem most of the day, but prayed for help before he went to work on it a little more at his parents house. He felt a small prompting to get his power cord, so his computer wouldn't die, so he did, and he was able to work on it some more, and the thing he was trying to get working today finally worked! He felt like it was a miracle. It was a full day of things NOT working, but it finally worked in the end. When he got home for scriptures, we talked about the Fight Song by Piano guys and the fireside we went to where Jon Schmidt talked about all the obstacles and uncertainties they faced when making that video. The quote at the beginning of the video is so beautiful and appropriate, especially after what we learned that they shared with us. "Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." God is watching over us. He is helping us, even when the process is stressful, messy, and we wonder if it's even going to work at all. It is working, the mess is part of the journey. That's how the light gets in! It's the same situation as in The Chosen and the three miracles they had there, I really loved miracle #2 (the opening of episode 3 of season 2). Also, last night I bought tickets for Corey and I to go watch the Season 3 finale in theaters next Friday! Yay, it's going to be good, we've loved watching season 3. 

Owen had an online trumpet recital today. He played Lightly Row and did a good job. There were a few students who we couldn't hear - the audio cut out once they started playing. I tried to test ours that it worked but wasn't sure, so hopefully it did!

One last thought - today after church we had the older kids watch Schindler's List with us. Corey tried to be prepared to skip some parts, but we wanted them to see others that were hard to watch. It's important that they see what evil looks like when it is fully ripe. And also for them to know that GOOD and EVIL do exist. There is right and wrong. It's not just all about "your truth" or what is right for you. There are some things that are right all the time and other things that are wrong all the time. How unfortunate that increasingly in our world, there seems to be denial that morality exists at all. But we want our kids to know that it does. Hopefully we can learn a lot of things from history and don't have to learn by personal experience. But just imagining how terrible it would have been to be in some of those situations, especially with children that you love with you, I can't imagine. The little girl in the pink coat had eyes and a sweet expression that reminded me of Peter. I brought up a few times what it would be like to be there with Peter or Daniel. I am grateful for the glory that awaits those who innocently died. I feel sorry for those who will suffer for the horrible crimes they committed against others. Also, remember that people are what matters. "One more..." In one of the last scenes in the film, as Schindler prepares to flee from the Allies, he is given a gold ring engraved with a quote from the Talmud (the book of Jewish law) “anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world”. In Hebrew:

כל המציל נפש אחת כאילו הציל עולם ומלואו”

People are what matters. When we leave this earth, we will take our experiences, our knowledge, and our relationships. I'm grateful that we've been allowed to have "one more" child join our family so many times, and for the wonderful experiences we've been able to share with each of them. “Whoever saves one life saves the world entire”.

Sports and Music

Sophi is on a Bantan Basketball team, playing on the "Brighton" team. She's having fun with that.

She's #14! Katharine and I went to her game today. 

Sophi usually drives with a friend who is on the same team, but that friend is at a soccer tournament this weekend. Sophi said she's liking basketball more than soccer, so that's good (cause its a bit less $ and less time commitment). One reason she said she likes it is because you run less (court is smaller than the field). I was a little grossed out thinking that Katharine was crawling around eating cheerios off of the bleacher seats - 

and sucking her fingers and toes that were touching a high school gym floor... but K didn't seem to be concerned.

Or she was just showing off her flexibility and her stress free hips. She sure is pretty.

This past Tuesday was Senior Night for the hockey team. Wesley, since he is a senior, was able to play in the varsity game! It was very fast paced game and everyone was really good but he had fun. 

It seemed like a big deal so I sent a text out to invite family. My mom and Corey's dad and cousin Seth and our kids at home came to support Wes. They had a little party afterwards and Wesley's siblings liked that. 

Wes also got a nice big banner of himself that I guess we'll hang on his bedroom wall after this? Haha or he can take it to college and hang it on his dorm wall, nice. 

It's a bigger than life poster. It's fun to see the kids working hard and enjoying what they are doing (most of the time). On Tuesdays, Abi takes the bus to GMS for her flute lesson. Usually she walks to the bus stop, but I have carpool on Tuesdays and so this past  Tuesday I picked her up and dropped her off. She had her school work in the black backpack, and her flute and music in her gray frontpack. 

A few other things that happened today - Sophi had a buddy brunch with the YW in the ward, O&D had a playdate with Deakon and Zander, Wes had a hockey game tonight, and Corey took kids ice skating at the rec center. I spent spare time I had today cleaning. With sports, music, scriptures, prayer and church, we're hoping to help them all stay out of trouble. No easy thing in today's world.

Rough Night & GTI Open House

I had a rough night yesterday. 

I sent a message to Corey at 3 am just to vent and for some emotional support in my trial. She had been crying for an hour, wouldn't nurse. The water tank was fixed on the 25th, but after giving it several hours to heat up the tank, we still didn't have hot or warm water. Another technician came by again that same day and said the OTHER tank (Dec 2013 one) was bad too - the pilot light wasn't coming on. But he did turn some dial on the new tank and with that we did have some warm water. I was grateful to have enough for a bath. I only put in "hot" water and had it all the way on full blast, and with that I had a decently warm bath with Katharine. In the warm bath, she was acting all sweet like she hadn’t been totally freaking out for the past two hours. We finished in there and she finally nursed and I went back to bed at 4:45 am. I felt like today was going to be shot, but it turned out ok, K and I both took a small nap. I was still able to function and I took Owen to his trumpet lesson, and Lily came along with us, because after his lesson we went by the Granite Technical Institute building for their "GTI Open House". It was something that Corey wanted Lily to go to, so that she could go check out the computer animation class. Lily is an amazing illustrator. I don't know if I've mentioned that before. It was at a GTI open house, when Wes was tagging along with Hyrum, that Wes discovered architecture. So we were hoping the same inspiration might come for Lily, and it did.

I got super excited too! It looked so fun and cool!

We enjoyed cookies from the cooking class too. 

So many subject to study and things to learn. When we got back home, my heart was happy to see that the kids were helping out take care of their younger siblings. Natalie reading to Peter, aww.

Such good kids. Time to gather them up, read, and head to bed.

Cold Showers

Last night, Lily was taking a shower before bed and was freaking out. She was yelling through the door that it was broken and wouldn't get warm. Abi was sitting by waiting for her turn to shower, and just rolled her eyes and told Lily to stop turning off the water and just hurry and finish. I thought maybe the shower handle was stuck or something. We didn't really pay attention to her wailing. But then Peter misfired in the bathroom and got himself wet, and when I went to draw a bath for him, behold - there was no warm water! Hm, interesting. I went to check the basement and it looked like the water heaters did not have their pilot lights on. So Peter had a baby wipes bath and we learned that Lily wasn't being dramatic. Her shower wasn't tepid or room temperature, it was legit COLD. I laughed and said lucky for me and Wes, we've spent over a week getting used to cold showers! Wes told me about Wim Hof on Saturday Jan 14, on our way to Momentum, and after watching this video with Yes Theory (and several other people on youtube saying all the amazing benefits of cold showers for your brain and body...) I've taken several cold showers, done some snow exposure, like sitting in it, laying it in, taken out the trash barefoot (to the street) and yeah, it's kinda fun to shake things up with a little cold exposure. I tried to increase my time last Thurs and spent 6 minutes laying in the snow, before we went to St. George, and then on the drive down I noticed that the tips of my thumbs were still numb. The tips felt kinda numb/asleep for a few days, and my left one still does a little bit, so maybe I did some nerve damage. Sorry, thumbs. No more 6 minutes in the snow. I'll keep it quick. Maybe I got a bit of frostnip? So I'm not doing it that long again. Just 11 min a week. I know, I know - the disclaimer in the Yes Theory said to not attempt, and I didn't do a 4 hour hike, I was just feeling ambitious/crazy by choice. Looks like everyone else gets to be forced into it now for a day. Abi took a shower after, and she was washing her hair (I told her that's a bad idea) but she did it, cleanliness must prevail, and Abi afterwards let us know that it was a horrible experience, and that she "was screaming like an opera singer the whole time!" 

"I don't think opera singers would say that they 'scream'..." "I was like the bad lady on Phantom of the Opera" and I was laughing again thinking of Abi in the shower singing like Carlotta. We didn't hear her case we were downstairs playing around with the pilot lights. 

Corey got it lit on one tank briefly (Dec 2013 tank on left), but then it didn't seem to be on again, and the other tank looked like it was having problems (water at the bottom, Feb 2018 tank on right). Good news: we didn't cause an explosion. Bad news: we didn't fix anything. Water was still cold. So this morning it was a VERY cold shower for Wes, Corey showered at the gym, and I haven't showered today. I could have done cold, but I didn't feel like it today. Hmm, maybe that's why I've been in a kinda bad mood today. Note to self, go take a cold shower in the morning, don't skip it. 

I texted our landlord and she gave me the plumbers that we used last time (Neerings) and they were able to come out within an hour and had a new tank in by noon. It was under warranty, only a $49 service fee and yay, I thought we were back up and running. They said to give it 30 minutes, so I started laundry and then I had carpool and was busy until 4. Back at home, I went to wash dishes and hmm, it still felt kinda cold. I checked another sink, then went to the basement again. Seemed like it still wasn't working. I called Neerings again, they sent out another technician, I actually wasn't sure which tank was the 2013 or 2018, but he said the 2018 was the one that was under warranty and was replaced, and that the 2013 one on the left wasn't working either. It was an old brand that they don't use anymore. The pilot lighter needs to be replaced, but he said it's such an old tank, and would be $700 to fix, but he didn't think it was worth it to fix on an old tank, we should replace that one too. Doh. That one's warranty is expired. Sooo. we'll still be having cold showers tonight and tomorrow morning, and they will be back here at 9 to take a look again and then we'll see if we will be having warm baths tomorrow.

But I like the Yes Theory's idea of "Seek Discomfort". Maybe all these warm baths and comfortable homes have turned us all into pansies. A little bit of cold discomfort might make my body toughen up a bit. It's been making Katharine all the more lovely though. We discovered how soft she really is after we got calloused hands from bouldering, and now I'm really seeing how warm she is from getting myself a little cold. We'd never give her a cold bath, that would be so sad, she'd cry like a baby. She's  everything we want to be if we're just hanging out in our comfort zones, but we need to seek discomfort. It's good for us. We're not babies anymore, time to grow up and enjoy the dignity in calloused hands. 

Quote Wall 2

We all know that our house is full of cute kids, as demonstrated by this pic below of cute cute Katharine.

We also have very funny children, the little ones and the big ones. I'd say they mostly get it from their father, although I'm kinda witty too sometimes. I always feel very proud of myself if I can surprise Corey with a clever comment and make him laugh. He's always making me laugh. 

On Saturday morning, as we were in St. George packing up to go home, Corey had me laughing as he mulled over in his head some thoughts about bowling. So Ethan's bowling ball is missing and he's made some "Have you seen me" posters with a photo of it that he's thinking of putting up around campus to try and find his ball. I told him not to do it, cause I seriously doubt it will bear any fruit. I don't think any fellow student took his ball. I think he just misplaced it or lost it somewhere. Corey told him not to and then confided "I do feel like a failure of a parent because he likes bowling... at a key moment in his development he needed a sport, a challenge, and we missed it, so that's what's left for him. ...and then he BRAGS about it so unabashedly, he's not even aware of the shame..."

I sent that to Mel in a text, but told her that dad did not want to be quoted on it. And I'm catching up here on the blog (today is actually April 24) so I'm hoping that I can put that here and not be found out. Cause it was a funny quote. Melodie captures funny quotes from the family. I put the first installment of family quotes here on the blog in November. Mel sends out her collection of quotes on Wride Nation every month or so. Here are all the ones I've gotten since November (I think)... 

• Mom to Eth at cabin “how you doing?” Eth as he strikes a superman pose “feeling completely normal and healthy!”
• “In Wesley’s defense, I’m super good.” - Joe, paraphrased by eth (playing foosball)
•  Eth (i think): “As Jim always says, put enough sauce on it and it’ll go in.” Joe: “I’ve never heard him say that.”
• Mom: "I don't think we're going to buy eggs, they're expensive right now." Sophie: "Well we can just get some milk and let it molt"
• Wes: "Abi, have I ever told you that you have an amazing voice?" Abi, flattered: "No!" Wes: "Yeah... So stop singing."
• “Each time he screams his teeth get one shade whiter” - Joseph as Ethan wails because his whitening strips sting
• “Look at all these humans that Mom and Dad made!” - Ethan
• Mel: “tomorrow is Christmas Adam because Adam came before Eve” Ethan: ”If tomorrow is Christmas Adam that means today is Christmas GOD. Does that make the day after Christmas Christmas Cain?”
• Mom: “Everyone say thanks to Mel for making dinner” Everyone: “thanksss mellll” Owen: “thanks for the ONE piece of chicken!” Ethan: “That was the most passive-aggressive comment I’ve ever heard.”
• Mel, trying to encourage Ethan before his date “Don’t stress it, just be yourself!” Ethan: “That’s what I’m afraid of!”
• “This is a priesthood obligation! I need to go on this date so I can find a wife to financially support… And love.” - Ethan
• Mel singing Peter: “that hurts my ears! It’s making me have nightmares.”
• "How was your first day of classes? I can see that you haven't left your bed yet, that's a good sign... Doing homework in your bed? That's the most self-deceptive thing I've ever heard." - Dad
• On a video call with Hyrum "The worst part of these calls is that I have to see my own face." - Dad
• Mels queue: "Would you like to restate that?"
• Our ancestors in heaven: "So what was your great trial in life?" Mom and Dad "Well, we had 13 kids!" Ancestors: "Yeah, everyone did..." Mom and Dad: "Well, we didn't have to wash our clothes by hand, and we had refrigerators... But we did have to make the hard decision of choosing entertainment that wouldn't degrade us."
• At Pie pizza for joes bday Ethan: “Next time we should go to Chuck E. Cheese!!” 

•  Listening to Fiddler on the roof If I were a rich man Ethan: “Tevya thinking about that double chin on his wife like (flutter tongue) rrrrrrr”
• Ethan singing fiddler on the roof: “Do you love me?“ Daniel: “No.”
“It’s a critical defect of the Y chromosome. If there isn’t a battle to be fought, a male becomes dormant.” - Dad
• Mom: “If you’re righteous, you won’t die before you’ve fulfilled your calling.” Dad: Even if you eat eggs and sausage? Mom: Well, we’re all here to change…
“What’s wrong with Youth in Asia?” - Joseph “Everyone’s talking about how Euthanasia is bad, but whats up with them? What about the youth in America? They’re pretty bad too.” Mom: “I had to euthanize a few caterpillars..” *flashback to mom freezing caterpillars and squishing with a rock • “Mom, am I an orphan?” -Natalie
• “I will spank you on the eyeballs until you die.” - Peter

• “I just want someone to be obsessed with me!” - Abi
• Peter, touching his nipples: “Dad, look at these tiny things!”
• “I did not fart! I always own up to it! Wes, don’t let them accuse me” - Ethan
• Joseph and Ethan thinking that the woman with an issue of blood had a cut in her arm
• Dad: “What guy here has ever felt tempted by impure thoughts about women?” *Daniel raises his hand Dad: “If Sophie was with me all the time, I would never make a mistake again. The other day at church after after talking with Sister Eakins, Sophie came up and asked “Who was that woman you were talking to??” 

• “Dad would pay us to keep an eye on Ethan and Ella” Sophie: “I remember that! We would watch you all day.”
• Ethan: “When I was running for SBO in 8th grade, I just finished my presentation and I got up in front of the entire school, and the best thing I could come up with to say was: “I really have to pee right now.” Dad: “You know, the guy you were running against told you yo say that.” Ethan: “He did??” •Mom: “I think it’s a little harsh to say that all men are naturally pigs” Joseph and Ethan and Wes: “I disagree.”
• “Die for your own honor!” - Owne
• Dad: “Who left their food here on the table?” Daniel, with his plate right next to it: “I saw Owen do it…”
• Abi: “Why did we buy so much oatmeal? Mel: “Because we eat oatmeal every day!” Abi: “No, we COOK oatmeal every day.”
• Mel: “Everything is funny at 1am” Ethan “Then 2am hits and everything is super depressing” Joe: “I had a midlife crisis at 3am waiting for Zeb at the airport.”
• Eth: “It was so weird, she held my hand and said ‘we could pretend that we’re dating!’” Mel: “You do that do me all the time” Eth: “Yeah, but we’re related!” Wes: “that doesn’t make it better”

Wes' Weekend

We had a really great visit with the kids tonight. The kids at home - not the college kids. After dinner, we just stayed around visiting and talking and it continued the rest of the night. The highlight for me was Wesley talking about how he's been putting the gospel to the test a little bit more - he's tried to go to the temple, he's been reading his scriptures and praying more consistently, and today he was up and about doing lots of church stuff: after preparing and serving the sacrament in our ward's sacrament meeting, he went on to go be in a discussion panel for two other wards in their ward conference (he's on the Stake Youth Commitee) and they talked about the new For The Strength of Youth pamphlet and answered questions, some of which would have never been brought up back when I used to be in YW (one example that one of the youth in our stake asked: If I'm a girl and I kiss a girl, am I going to hell? Wesley helped answer that one (No, but you should go talk to your bishop)). He also got back late last night from being a 11th wheel to a school dance (There were 5 couples and Wes) and he said he had so much fun and danced with more girls than the guys, cause at the dance, the guys all get together in a circle and dance and the girls did the same, and Wes was like "forget that" and went to the girls group and was just being super brave and putting himself out there. As Debbie W. said today in Relief Society as we discussed the Doctrine of Belonging: "Sometimes all it takes in 20 seconds of courage."

Anyway, so Wes had so much fun there, and he got home sometime after 2 am (we went to bed but he told us in the morning) cause they were watching Cars 2. "That movie is hilarious! It was so funny! But it was 1 am..." and then he was depressed around 2, true to sleep deprivation form. (See one of the quotes here) So Wes had come back early from St. George with his aunt and cousins so that he could get to hockey practice at 10:15. He said that he did an amazing shot and scored on a 3 players vs. 2 coaches drill, and his coach was amazed "WES! Have you been practicing?!?!" He said yeah even though he really hasn't been practicing hockey much, but he has been putting the gospel to the test and he said that is the only thing he's really been doing differently. His coach also said "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" and Wesley sent Corey this pic to share how he felt:

Anyway, it was so great talking to him tonight and he shared some of the things he's been feeling and learning with his younger siblings during scriptures. It was really fun. My heart was full of gratitude. We also talked about dating with Wes and Abi, and some of the things their older siblings have learned so far from their dating experiences. Abi said "I'm so glad that we have older siblings so that we don't mess up like they did". Ha. I'm sure you'll mess up in whole new ways. We all mess up and that's how we learn.

After we got home, I put my hand in ice water as I looked at a cold photo and a warm photo for Sophi's science fair project. Gotta love science. I could have gone all night, but I stopped after 2 and a half minutes and easily won the family endurance challenge.

I did a good on Sophi's hair for church! The youtube algorithm gives me a lot of hair videos, I usually share them with Mel, this is one I tried on Mel that didn't work great, but today on Sophi I did good and it was so pretty. 

Owen had a baptism preview. He's going to be baptized in August. Pretty exciting. These kids keep growing up. Nice bow tie, Owen! He's a sweet and innocent little kid. He tries hard to be good and is doing a great job following Jesus.

Owen accidentally broke an ornament on my wood board thingy (2nd to last pic). It was a new one I just got this past Christmas to represent Peter and his love for dinosaurs, especially brachiosaurus's. This is an ornament like "Tiny". It had a fragile glass body and resin feet and head. Well, lately Owen's been playing with a ball throwing it up the stairs. I told him not to, cause might hit the glass ornaments. He did after church today, and I tried to glue it back together. It didn't all line up perfectly, but pretty good. There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

The kids haven't been keeping up Katharine's Instagram - they're following my example of being behind. I did a little post with these pics I took - It's never too early to begin dental hygiene! 

(But if it could be too early, "before teeth" might qualify.) Katharine is flossing her gums. And with the wrong side of the floss pick.

Such a silly baby. She's soft and warm and smooth and squishy and little and fun, babies are perfectly made to be irresistible.

Ninjas and Bike Park

We just got back from a long drive from St. George. I was glad that it was in the light and the sun this time. This morning we packed up and checked out at 10, then we went to go check out a bike park. St. George looked so pretty - the red cliffs with the blue sky and snow capped mountains in the distance - it was lovely!

That pic was on our way to the Snake Hollow bike park. We got out and took a look around, but it was a bit wet, so then we went to the Grip Ninja Warriors. We noticed we were backtraking - we didn't  realize that it was close to the Worldmark and that we had actually passed on our way to the bike park. We had one hour there and the kids loved it. Trying out the beginner warped wall - 

They'd come running from across the room to get as much speed as possible, ha. I think Peter's favorite was the foam pit. 

Katharine checking out the holds - 

Owen doing a flip off the trampoline!

It was fun. While we were there, I was actually able to hold myself in a one arm hang for 5 seconds! I was very impressed with myself. I'm getting better and stronger! at 11:55 we were done, I nursed K, Corey got the kids in the cars and we were off to the bike park again. It looked like a nice park. 

Paved trails for the little ones, and big jumps for the high schoolers who are professionals! Family pic after we were done. 

Driving home. Abi took this pic - 7 bikes on the Velocirax, snow capped mountains in the distance. 

We made it home before dark and weren't in any scary storms. Yay. Corey stopped in Provo to give something to so I beat him home, we unpacked, kids helped a little bit, and now time to go get kids cleaned up for church tomorrow. 

Trip to St. George

First step before any trip: the Grocery store errand.

Katharine! Are you ok buried in there? Sweet baby.

Next: packing. The kids did most of their own packing. Corey loaded up the bikes and helmet. We were ready to go at 4, but we just had to wait for Owen to have a speech therapy meeting or other. I went over to the school for that with him, and then we were on our way. There was a little storm that passe dover us as we drove into Fillmore, and it stuck with us through St. George, but thankfully we arrived safely. Ugh I hate driving in snow storms though. It was cold and rainy last night, but looked nice this morning. It was so nice that the kids thought they'd like to go swimming. 

Unfortunately this place doesn't have an indoor pool. And while it's not Salt Lake temperature, it IS still winter, so the water was still cold. They went out, jumped in, got out, tried to get warm, and then we were done.

Walking back to the room. Corey took the kids to explore a bit. 

Last night I took Wes and Abi to sleep over with Mark so that they could leave for the trial nice and early. After Corey went exploring, he wanted me to go check things out on my bike. So I did. I didn't know where I was going, but afterwards, Strava told me that I was on Zen's trail and also I got a bit lost in Bearclaw, had to back track a few times. It was good. 

Not as pretty as Corner Canyon or the LCC trail, but it was fun and was nice to be biking again. 

The new bike Corey got me for Christmas is super nice. I got back in time to take Katharine so Corey could take kids to go jeeping with his brother. (Btw, Katharine is crawling so well!) I'll try to get them to send me pics of them jeeping. I'm sure they are having fun and looks like they will be back late. I was trying to keep dinner warm on the stove top but ended up burining it, so that was too bad. Heading back home tomorrow. Just a quick trip, it's been good to get out of the snow for a day.