Sibling Outings & WOW

It's 9 pm and the kids are still gone in Provo. I didn't expect them to be gone this long into the evening. We knew they'd be gone during the morning and so we took one more opportunity to do another long ride. We rode Wastatch Over Wasatch in Midway. 20.21 miles, 2890 feet, 3 HOURS and 32 minutes IN THE SUN. I wasn't expecting parking to be $10, boo. Next time we'll go to Park City for free parking and lots of shaded trails. But I'm glad we did WOW and checked it off. We started waaaay too late though - 10:30 by the time we were on the trail. I was dying in my long sleeved BLACK shirt. We didn't bring enough water for the 2+ hour climb either. Still trying to smile though. Took a BeReal.

Corey's wearing a very thoughtful biking "dad" shirt his sister got for him. I was thinking about water for most of the climb. We brought 3 small bottles but it was not enough for such a long climb in the sun. I missed the Little Cottonwood creek - if we were by there I could pause and get a drink, or I'd have been in shade and wouldn't be suffering like I was! I was praying to come across a stream. We came across a plastic water bottle that had a hole it in but was mostly full, I gratefully drank it and thanked the Lord for hearing my prayer and answering it in a way I didn't expect. Then I was looking for more waterbottles that other riders might have dropped. We checked Life360, kids were still in Provo, so we continued on. Up near the top (2485 meters) we did come across a little cool stream and I drank and drank. Hooray for living waters! I hope we don't get giardia or anything... It was a matter of life and death/extreme thirst and dehydration.

I was very grateful for the water - it was cool and clear. The ride from there was not steep, so we kept going until we arrived at the WOW Aspen Upper Trailhead. Yay, I'm red faced but we did it. Sitting to take a break in the shade for a minutes.

So it was fun, but I hadn't expected that ride to take the whole day. It did because 1) we had a late start and didn't leave home until 9; 2) there was the hour+ drive to Midway via Guardsman and 3) the bike ride was 3 1/2 hours. And I was slow again cause it was hot and the climb was brutal. Corey says I have earned a carbon fiber bike like his but we won't be getting it yet, but I've earned it! My thighs are seriously always burning and he's just fine, I'm saying it's cause I have a heavy aluminum bike. Then after it was all over, 4) there was a ton of traffic on the drive home over Guardsman. I was kicking myself that I didn't go to Park City or Midway, but we found around 6, as Corey was reading the new, that maybe I had saved us some time - there was a truck fire in Parley's Canyon around 11:15 am so traffic was all backed up on I-80 for most of the day, and only reopened at 4:30. So we didn't know it, but we were with all the smart people taking the short cut. 

After we FINALLY got home, we cleaned up our bikes and ourselves, I got a report from Hyrum - they played Super Smash Brothers' for a long time this morning while Ethan and Bella were at work. Then  after Ethan came back, they did more Smash with him, had lunch (chicken tenders and mashed potatoes). Before Ethan and Bella got back, H tried to help them clean up. They knocked over a wedding pictures and broke the glass when they were playing Wii tennis. Then off to walk aroung the BYU campus ~

A lot was closed though, so they didn't see too much. 

Sitting down for a break in the BYU Store.

There was a little seating area to watch some football stuff on a big projected screen.

Next stop was the Bean Museum, they were glad that was open. Selfie in the Bean Museum elevator ~

I appreciate Melodie being a good document-or of the days' events. The little kids thought everything was amazing, and the big kids like seeing the little kids' reactions. 

Ethan took a few videos of Katharine being very concerned for all the taxidermized animals that were being eaten - "He's SAD!!! He's sad!!" Ethan would say "why?" and K would just repeat it, then finally gave the reason for them being sad was "because he's sad." They took a photo of Peter and Katharine next to a grizzly bear because of the dream I had Saturday morning of P&K being eaten by two grizzly bears. 

Horrible dream that was. I texted Corey right after I woke up at 5:36 am, and I was not going to go back to bed and risk having that dream start again. So I texted Corey "I just woke up from the worst dream, Peter and Katharine were both eaten by two grizzly bears. I was out camping with them and for some reason they were in a tent and I was in a little cabin and didn't notice the noise or anything until morning. The bears were still there eating them, Katharine's body was gone but her little legs were still there hanging in her umbrella stroller. I was hoping it was a dream but it wasn't, I stared to run toward the bears to scare them away but then they started to chase me so I was running away sobbing and screaming. My dreams are the WORST!" When I saw that pic, I said that bear looked nicer than the ones in my dream - they were skinnier and had blood all over their faces, so yeah, I'm never letting them go camping.

Then Bridal Veil Falls. Girls had fun. 

They sent a few videos of that too. I'm glad they had such a fun time together. We just called them (8:30 pm) They were into a movie and still had 45 min left, we told H to be the bad guy and tell them they had to turn it off and needed to clean up and pack up cause they have school tomorrow, darn! Wish all days could be fun and free like today. I'm excited to give them a hug when they get home. I am going to open the door like Peter does. Whenever I come back from the store or something, if Peter is on the main floor, he will hear the garage and run over to the door and open it up, but not stand in the door, he just holds the door open and hides behind it as he waits for me to come in. It's really cute.