Bye Joseph & Eliza!

Hello hello! Life has been going 100 miles per hour and I am way behind on the blog here. We are up at Park City this week and today seems like the first time I've sat at the computer for a few weeks. I registered the older girls for school (can't believe Natalie is starting junior high) and that made me tired, I had to take a nap half way through. It's been a busy past two days, with the Provo River on Monday and Jordanelle yesterday, so I don't feel bad for needing a nap. I just caught up Wesley's mission blog and my workouts and now I'm here doing a post for today before I begin to try and catch up on family documentation. I have to finish Mar-June plus I've only done 7 posts for July. I don't know if I'll have much time up here, maybe next week? Or I'll catch up after the kids are all in school and it's just Katharine and me at home. So today was Joseph and Eliza's last day here. They left this afternoon to go to Boise for a family reunion on Eliza's side up there, and then they will be flying out to Ohio for 4 years of medical school. I wanted a group pic of the kids, so I'm glad we got that - 

I think a pic on the Park City couch will become a traditional photo for us (2020 installment below). 

This morning, Corey and I went on a ride with Joseph. Took a pic at the top of HAM before we started our descent.

It was Joseph's last ride through the Rocky Mountains for a while. He borrowed our neighbor's nice nice mountain bike, and Joseph says he LOVES mountain biking now! A nice bike does make a big difference! After we got back, we said bye to Joseph, he passed out shells that he brought back from Playa Conchal that he and Eliza gathered last week, and then I sat at the computer (school registration, reunion stuff, Wes blog, etc etc) while the kids did crafts with Mel - making popsicle stick "boats" today - mostly little rafts that she said they would have a race with.

Owen wants to be an engineer, and he went over the top on his boat! Natalie was impressed!

He said it did float when they tested it, so good job Owen! Not sure how/why he knew how to make a seaworthy vessel, wow. Nancy had dinner today - taco salad, and then we played hotel tag, which the kids had been begging for. It was fun. We had a had as the sign that you were "it" - which was Ethan in this picture.

Hyrum was like me - I took off my flip flops so I could sneak around better. As quiet as a mouse

Hyrum was it when we were about to wrap the game up - 

Hooray for hotel tag. 

Then we all went swimming while we waited for the House finale to upload.

We swam for like 30 minutes. Katharine is a little possessive of Corey. He had to go in the pool she was in. Bella and Ethan let us know that ice cream was ready and so we walked in. K's got Corey.

We watched the House together until past 11:30. Corey doesn't think he'll make it on a ride in the morning, we stayed up too late. I have an ability to not get sleep yet still get up in the morning (and take a nap). So Ethan really did an amazing job on this video gift to our family. I don't know how much he could reasonably charge other people to make something similar for them, but I wish I could give him a lot of money for the sacrifice of time he's put into this. It's a treasure that will last for many years. I'd put the link, but he took it down to finish a few last errors that he noticed as we watched it. One of my favorite parts was Ethan's interpretation of Katharine's jibber jabber in the subtitles, it was funny and so cute. I sure love being a wife and mother and having all these kids in my life. 

Jordanelle

It's been another nice day at Park City with the Wrides. Corey and I did an early morning ride up Armstrong and HAM and down Seldom Seen, and then I gave Corey the day off and I took the kids with me and we spent the rest of the day was spent at Jordanelle. My favorite pic for the day was Katharine looking back to give me a smile as she built her castle ~

She was working on it very hard and was proud of her work.

Mark was so nice to put this day together. He rented the pavilion, brought the chairs, canopy, all his kayaks and water fun items, AND he rented jet skis this year too! Plus provided all the food for lunch: Sandwiches, watermelon, pineapple, and plenty of snacks and treats. 

The kids took turns out on the jet skis. When I arrived, our 4 girls who had gotten a ride over with Wayne, were all out on the water (Abi Lily Sophi and Natalie). The little kids, Hyrum and Joseph and Eliza drove over with me. Joseph only stayed for an hour before he had to leave for a lunch with friends, so he and Eliza wanted a turn before he left. They took one jet ski, and Peter and I took the other. 

Peter didn't really want to go, but I promised him we'd go slow. He was a good sport, only got scared a few times (when I did try to go a little faster)...

I took Peter back and then went out for a bit more with Abi and Natalie on one ski, and Sophi on the jet ski with me. We put the ski in Sports mode and went faster, and that was fun! Sophi wanted a turn, but I didn't want to share (I don't like letting the kids drive the car, and didn't think I'd like her driving the jet ski either... plus she is a bit too young to drive it, right? but she and Natalie both said that Mark had already let them) so I moved back, let Sophi get in the drivers seat, and within 60 seconds, she hit a big wave (made by Abi and Natalie who had crossed in front of us) and I was thrown from the jet ski. I think I landed on my head and felt like I'd had the wind knocked out of me and like I'd just gotten off the tire swing. Good news after that - she didn't nag to let her drive again. It was a little scary holding on in back. I was holding onto Sophi when I was behind her, but admit that I was not committed to it. She was not a sure foundation or a secure anchor. I didn't want to hold on to her so much that I'd pull her off, so when she hit the wave and my commitment was tested, I let go and went flying. I thought I was going to lose my flip flops, but they float, hooray! After that, we went around the water a little more, got to 41 mph, and then I was done. Abi really liked the jet ski and was happy to take whoever wanted a turn. 

We went back to the beach to sit with those waiting a turn or who had finished their turn and were staying in the shade enjoying the view. 

Katharine is a cutie pie. She liked playing in the sand as she ate (not always a good combination!) 

She did not mind eating cheese puffs sprinkled with sand. She actually held on to them for quite a while and did end up eating all of them. Whatever makes her happy.

Peter had a sandwich first, with a side of oreos, but I'm not sure how much of his sandwich was eaten... 

The boys seemed to mostly drawn to the processed stuff... Peter with a bowl of Cheetos and MnMs.

I didn't have much energy to take a stand on anything diet-wise. Everyone enjoyed getting warm in the sun.

I was sure to coat myself and everyone well, after my shins got burned yesterday on the Provo River. K still playing in sand.

She did that the rest of the day, and it was only at the end of the day that she learned the difference in consistency that water makes to sand. That was when she made her castle with another little girl on the beach. She didn't want to leave but we eventually had to grab her. After Joseph was back, people we packing up, but he wanted one more go... the jet skis were gone though (needed maintenance) and so he and Eliza took a swim out to a little island (you can see it behind them). 

They were swimming against the wind on the way there, so that wore them out, but it helped them on the way back. Wayne made dinner for us all tonight - lasagna, a salad, and gluten free pizza for Bella. 

Then we watched the House 5. Ethan has a goal to finally finish all the episodes up here. He's been staying up until 3 am working on it for quite a while (weeks? months?) He's been sending pics of his blood-shot eyes at 3 am the past few days, and let us know that "the House is ruining" his life. It's a self imposed burden. It was his idea and we will give him full credit for the masterpiece it becomes. It will be a treasure that will last many years into the future, to be enjoyed on Anniversary dinner nights. Because we watched that, Corey and I didn't get out on an evening ride again, but we've just been having too much fun I guess! We'll see if we pull off a double ride tomorrow. 

Provo River Float

My week up here at the Wride Reunion did not totally start off on the right foot... Katharine wanted to sleep with us last night, and for some reason I thought it would be ok. I had to keep her from Corey though, so I put myself in between them, but the bed was smaller than our king, so she was literally kicking me every 3-5 minutes from midnight to 3:30 am. At 3:19 I texted Corey and said "This is the worst night's 'sleep' I've had in a while..." When Corey woke up, he said with some relief in his voice "That wasn't so bad sleeping with Katharine!" I didn't agree, and said "I texted you..." and he checked my text and saw the time. I was still able to make it out on our first ride, but I did take a morning nap. We rode Mother Urban with Joseph, then came down Mid Mountain, Jenni's, and Loose Moose. It was a good ride. Then I took a nap while Abi made breakfast, I did reunion and Relief Society stuff from 12 - 12:45. Terry texted me that she'd had a busy morning greeting 6 emerging butterflies, yay! I'm ok that I missed sending them off, even though I still think it would have been fun to share it with family and people here. It would have just been a bit much to try and carefully transport them up, as we were already pushing ourselves and had reached our max stress capacity. 

So today, Mark had arranged and planned for all of us to float the Provo River. I would have been ok to miss it had the opportunity presented itself, but since I'd never gone, and because everyone was going, I  followed along and it was good. It was about what I expected, it was fun and nice. Peter and Katharine are ready to go!

Sophi, Natalie and Abi at the "put in" point 

Everyone chose their water vehicle, found a life vest, and put on sunblock. I got a yellow boat for me and Peter. But then he ended up going with Rhyan, so I followed Corey who had Katharine.

It was Katharine's first time too, and she was definitely out of her comfort zone. It was a bit cold getting in, and then anytime she got a little splashed, she was very sad. 

Next time I think we'll go for a larger boat. My phone was safe in a floating waterproof pouch that was secured to my vest, but it did make it challenging to use, and also I could not really see in the full sunlight, so I took a blind video of us doing my best to guess where the focus should be. These are two screen shots of it. She was not screaming out in terror in the pic below, she was saying "I sad!"

She was ok if Corey kept one arm around her belly, but when he took it off to paddle, she felt vulnerable.  It was good for the two of us to stick together. I didn't have a paddle, but I was able to hold onto the rope on Corey's tube and turn him around, that way one of us was always facing forward and could see. 

We avoided most of the low hanging branches and baby rapids. Ethan and Hyrum were on kayaks and were chasing everyone down and soaking them with their water guns. Especially Mel and Lily. Lily's raft got a few holes and she joined onto us near the end to keep her from sinking. There is one point where you have to exit the river and put in again, and at that spot, Corey got out with K and they walked the rest of the way. He thought it was just a short walk but it was kinda long. But K was happier to be out of the water. I took Lily's deflated raft as my back cushion and I was almost on a chair, so that was good. I joined up with Bella and it was great, everyone had fun, Wayne was waiting for us at the bottom and took 3 drivers up to get the cars. Kids played on the playground until they were back, then we loaded back up the boats and hurried back to the hotel. We made dinner tonight - Corey and Jeremy had agreed this past Sunday (J came to apologize for Pineview) to a fatted calf peace offering (tri tip steak) and so they grilled that up. 

It's been a long while since we've had Corey's Brazilian steak. Abi made mashed potatoes for the side and steamed mixed vegetables, plus a salad and rolls. It was a feast. Thanks Abi. (She's agreed to be our main chef this week.)

We watched episodes 4 and 5 of "The House" tonight with extended family and ate leftover dessert bars for the treat. Ethan has been staying up late every night and is almost ready with the finale to show us before Joseph and Eliza leave on Wednesday. :) He did a good job, these videos will be a treasure for many years to come. 

Wride Reunion

We have arrived up at Park City for the annual Wride reunion. 

We're looking forward to biking this week! Corey and I went shopping yesterday afternoon to get stuff for the wedding open house yesterday AND to get food for this week at Park City. We had two full carts when we got to check out, and spent over $900, yikes. I wasn't up for shopping for both, I thought it would be easier to just focus on the open house and then come back on Monday to do Park City, but Corey was determined and now I'm grateful that we don't have to worry about going down again for food. We have a ton here - a ton of food and a ton of stuff - 7 bikes, two bins of roller blades, two saxophones, I brought 6 books (goal is to read atleast a little bit from all of them! Right now I'm 1/6), plus clothes and luggage for 14 people (CTJ&EME&BHALSNODPK) And I had packed my butterflies so that I could bring my chrysalides that were going to come out tomorrow (they were all turning dark) but at the last minute I decided it would be too much. It would have been fun to share with family and strangers at the pool, but I guess they'll be safer at home, and it made it a bit easier to unpack and get into the room. I gave two chrysalides to a neighbor Amy, and 11 to Terry, and then I had Hyrum take Terry the last 6 that I had been hanging onto for myself. We had three male monarchs come out today. I might let my butterfly days this year be over - I've been thinking it might be good to just have it be a July thing. We'll see if I can resist looking for eggs. A few pictures from church - Melodie and I taught Peter's class. They were a cute little bunch!

Teaching them about Alma 32 and taking our seed of faith and helping it grow into a tree of life that will bring forth good fruit! 

They were a cute little class, I love kindergarteners. They are so sweet.

The House: Episode 2

I'm up late again. Been working on finding "lost eagles" from our Senior class of 1994. I finished going through all the A-C Mon - Tues, today I did D-G. There are a lot of H's missing, so I'll wait on that one until tomorrow. Actually I have a lot of other stuff to do, I should prob wait on reunion stuff until after the open house. I can do it at Park City maybe.  I need to order the food for the open house... I'm struggling making a decision, there are too many options, I need someone with a strong opinion to help me! So that's what I did and didn't do today. And Sophi and Natalie had violin lessons. Daniel, Peter and Katharine came along too. Not much else to report, other than a new family video treasure is done, the first of five.  Last year Ethan decided to make a sequel to "The House" video he made of our family experience during covid. For this sequel, he filmed a lot over Christmas break, but as his creative juices started flowing, he added on several weekends of filming, and pushed his self imposed deadline to our anniversary. But he wasn't quite satisfied with the finished product at that point, so he kept filming and editing and thought it could be a birthday gift to me, then mothers day... He had a world premier in June, and NOW the wait is finally over. It is really finished. It has turned into an 8 month labor of love, thanks for this treasure Ethan! Link here (Ughh... I was able view it on my phone but but my laptop computer won't let me see it for some dumb reason, I can't take it off of restricted mode... ok, now I'm down at the family desktop, got the code to embed the video, ok got it...) enjoy ~ Episode 2 (1 of 5)

Unproductive

Hello hello. Trying to get stuff done around here. I'm doing probably a below average job on my own (C- grade) although last night we had a great FHE in my opinion. We did what I wanted for my birthday and mother's day and every Saturday of my life - we cleaned the basement together! Cleaning basement together = quality time = my love language. I said it was family service, and they played with legos while I tried to clear off tables and Corey put away ski stuff. Kids were totally fine with it, and we were able to talk as we cleaned, and Corey didn't have to hold Katharine. We made significant progress in 1 hour together, enough that it would have taken me two days on my own, and now you can actually move around down there freely. Today I put away the blow up mattress that we still had out for the college kids, cause they aren't going to be here for atleast a week, and I hate pulling our bikes around it in the mornings. Better to move it out of the way and let the college kids blow it up again when they get here. Joseph and Eliza left yesterday morning for their honeymoon in Costa Rica. Melodie is in South Korea with a BYU music group, Hyrum is at FSY in Provo. I'm up a bit late trying to catch up on life cause I'm busy all day, and now I'm wasting time, but I found this instagram reel that made me laugh...

Yesterday and today Corey was at home all day... Corey has said that when he stays home to work or gets a late start leaving here, that it's usually not a good day for him. And I told him it's the same for me - like I can't relax when he is here even if he's in his office, cause kids might hear him and go bug him, so I have to keep them away... I tend to be in a funk after a day like that (although I might relax a bit too much when he's gone, haha.) So I thought it was funny that her facial expression and words expressed what might be happening here: I want to be unproductive in peace! lol. 

Today I went to lunch with my sister Jersh, which I've never done, it was nice! (I texted Corey in his office to let him know that Natalie was in charge). We had some Vietnamese food from a restaurant that is close to the office where she works. It was quite good! Pho - I want to learn how to make that. I was inspired, going to try and give some rice bowls a go, after I go shopping. I still haven't gone to Costco, it's been like 4 weeks! We're still trying to use up some of our food storage, and I'm making a good list of stuff to get. I'll be going maybe this week, definitely before the open house next Saturday, and Park City the day after that. A big to do that I meant to do today but still didn't finish was to order food for wedding open house. I'm having trouble making a decision, too many options. I've also been working too much on our 30 year reunion stuff, working on finding classmates. I've told my kids to never run for senior class office. Too late for Ethan, but I can save the rest of my kids from this obligation. And now a text just came from Ethan (it's 11:50 pm) saying that the House 2 is uploading, set to premier at midnight! I'll prob watch for a little bit and stretch, but I should go to bed.... but at night I finally get to be unproductive in peace, haha. Funny that I tell myself that I'm finally going to get to my list of tasks, but I've just been wasting time. Ok, goodnight. 

Picking Apricots

Corey and I did a ride in Corner Canyon this morning. We left kinda late, and we did Clarks, and I kinda hate Clarks, cause it's just a climb with NO breaks for 20 minutes, but we did it and I got a PR today, so yay that's good I guess, but I do hate it. Then we did Rush down and called it good - done in 40 minutes. Abi Lily and Sophi had a brunch with the Young Women in our ward today. After they got back, I loaded the car with the kids and they each got a big bowl, and we went over to pick apricots from a neighbor who texted that they have a tree full of ripe apricots ready for picking.

The kids started climbing the tree, but it seemed a little brittle and I didn't want us to break the branches, so we were cautious. Natalie did a pretty good job climbing and picking, but confessed that it hurt her feet. The rest of the kids used some ladders the the neighbor's had out. 

It was a HOT day again, but it was good to be outside. And we got like 5 bowls of apricots, and ate a lot of them right off the tree. 

Katharine liked sampling all of them. She'd take a bite, then put it back in the bowl, grab another one, take a bite, repeat... 

So then after we got home I had to hurry and serve those up. Warm soft apricots go bad quickly. I had a bowl of hard tart ones that I put in the fridge, and we tried to eat the rest of them. I might need to get a food dryer thing, cause then I could made fruit leather and stuff like that. After we got back, kids were recovering from the heat. I was upstairs working on reunion stuff most of the day (trying to make sure the people in our '94 facebook group are not marked as "lost") and as I was doing that, Peter came in and was spinning himself around on the chair as he asked rapid fired deep questions of the universe ~

“Why do we have imaginations?”

“Mom, what makes you cry?”

“Why is alcohol in some foods?”

“How do babies talk to how we talk when they grow up?”

He's so cute. I went to the Draper temple for initiatories at 6:30, and other than that I've been working on reunion stuff and slightly hating it, took me a few hours, I have a lot of other things I'd rather be doing and need to do... I'm probably doing too thorough of a job, and don't need to do everything I'm doing, but sometimes can't stop myself. I finished all the A-B surnames, every other letter is assigned out to different people, so I'm done with my part unless I decide to help other people with their sections. K but I'm going to bed now. Need to go read my scriptures too. 

Wedding Pictures!

Joseph sent us the link to his and Eliza's wedding photos today, so I have a new cover photo on my fb of our family ~

Our family picture with Wes is still my profile pic - cause I need Wesley in our family. Everyone cheering for the bride and groom!

Joseph getting a hug from his little brothers - 

I think Joseph and Eliza must have practiced this dip and kiss move, cause they had it perfected!

It's been fun to look through them all! We have so many blessings in our life, and there are 14 of them right there. 

Corey and I with the bride and groom - 

Joseph and Eliza with Wayne - 

And my parents - 

With all the Hibberts and Wrides - 

And just Wrides ~

...and Hibberts ~

So yeah, it's been fun looking through these! I need to print up some for the wall. Man, I still haven't done anything with our family photos last year, or Ethan and Bella's photos... other than update my facebook with them. And blog them. I need to put them on the wall though. I've been doing a good job cleaning. I cleaned out the garage today! I haven't been shopping for a few weeks, and we've been using all the frozen stuff in the fridges. I was able to move everything from the fruit fridge into the veggie fridge and clean out the fruit fridge, then I turned it back on and moved all the food into there - so today I cleaned out the veggie fridge and the box freezer. I put the box freezer outside and let the ice stuck at the bottom all melt out in the 100 degree weather. I couldn't put it back until I swept underneath where it was, and so I did that and ended up sweeping the whole garage and it looks really good now. So good job me. I wasn't planning on doing that today but I'm glad I did. The fridges were both very nasty. I don't think I've ever cleaned them out. All clean now. I haven't turned then back on cause we don't need them yet, I think I will after I got to Costco, but it's been a few weeks since I went. I'm hoping to continue with some of that cleaning energy and attack the basement. I really need to. Another good job me is that I stayed up until 1:30 last night and I finished blogging February, yay. Corey and I went out to Scelto tonight for dinner. It was a new place for us, I think it just opened. Didn't quite hit the spot... Corey said the taste, the portion sizes, and the price let him know it won't be a regular for us (aka more of a Charleston or La Caille experience). On our date, we were able to talk a little bit about what we are going to do for the open house for Joseph and Eliza, that is in two weeks. We're going to have company then, so yea, gotta get the house clean. I'm hoping last minute panic sets in soon.