"Last Ride"

Corey and I were watching the weather this weekend and it was 60 today! And forecast says there will be snow tomorrow. So... this is our last chance! Thus we took another "last ride" today. We did a repeat of our Saturday ride, parking a bit before the tollbooth, riding up to the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead, up the switchbacks to the Pipeline trail. Today we took it west to the peak at the beginning of the canyon, then turned around and rode it all the way east until we got to the elbow! It was a serious climb. 15.68 miles, 1781 elevation gain. Took us 2 hours 10 minutes. Here we are at the elbow, with sunset upon us, and so we've just got 10-20 minutes to make it back to the car before dark. Luckily that's pretty easy via the road.

Let's keep it under 30 mph, allright? I was surprised to see the road was not plowed. We were riding in a winter wonderland! We were glad the trail e climbed up on the north side of the mountain wasn't snow covered like this. But it felt kinda hardcore, so it was fun. We didn't slip and slide. 

And when we got to Maple Grove where a winter gate was blocking off the road to cars. Ah ha. So I learned that this is the Millcreek Canyon Nordic Track in the winter. Fun! Someday maybe we'll get fat bikes and do winter riding around here. So we were riding for 2 plus hours, plus the car drive out and back. We also went to Macey's to get a treat for FHE. So, we were gone for a bit. Corey said we should probably stop pretending that we're retired. But we've got good babysitters, so it's ok, right? As we pulled up we were a bit surprised by what was happening at home with our children. Owen was throwing the carved pumpkins from his open window onto the driveway. 

"Hey Owen, don't do that. Close your window" He pointed out that a pumpkin was stuck on the roof. Corey said he'd get it. Ahhh, I'm glad Peter and Daniel weren't in there with Owen, they might have gotten a little too excited over the open window. Ugh, so, calmly bring them back inside. Daniel went out to help Owen put all the pumpkin pieces in the garbage. Another mess that was waiting for us - Katharine drew on her dress. I wouldn't have really minded this IF she was open to wearing other dresses to church. So we'll see what this Sunday looks like, if she: wears a nightgown, wears a colored on dress (Maybe spray and wash will get it out? but I doubt it) or maybe something new? Pretty please Katharine? 

Aww what a sweet little face. We have trouble standing up to her. She drew on her baby too, all over the face. I was glad that washed off with the magic eraser, yay.

Otherwise this baby would shortly be retired to the trash. Cause I kinda hate toys with pen or marker all over their faces. (see Lily's baby and Woody). I got that fixed, Baby will have to deal with blue clothes now, cause I'm not sure if that will come out in the wash. Then we got dinner and dessert ready. I picked up Pumpkin cream rolls and butter pecan ice cream and caramel, and we made a fall dessert. Kids approved. 

Kids ate it as they cut out leaves for our Thankful Tree that I made today, you can see it on the coat closet door behind Daniel.

Boys were still proudly wearing BYU Blue today and feeling thankful for that holding call, haha. Abi stayed home sick today, her sleeping with K on the floor this morning, where the essential oil diffuser peppermint can try to help her congestion. 

K loves to sleep with Abi. So with Abi home, I was tempted to try and go on a ride solo earlier during the day around 11, cause I wasn't sure if Corey and I could get our act together to go together, but I'm glad we did. It was good. Corey had taken the van, I loaded up our bikes on his car at home, and brought A&K along with me in Corey's car, we met at Skyline to pick up Lily from school, then ALK switched over to the van and Abi drove them back home, and Corey and I went to the canyon for our ride. Glad we got one last ride in. I've got a 5 am appointment at the Jordan River temple for initiatories in the morning. Years ago, when we were in the "pink house" and I had JMEH at home, the only time I could go was Tuesday mornings at 5 am, and I remember I really liked going at a set time each week when I knew I wouldn't be missed at home, so excited to give that a go again. 

BYU vs Utah

We stayed up late last night/this morning (2am) watching the BYU-Utah game, and wow that crazy. 

BYU won 22-21, and once again it came down to the last minute. Ethan had two tickets and so he and Bella were at the game. Fun for them!

He was also able to give us a live feed from the stands, like the U's student section chanting f BYU and f the Mormons. Near the end of the game, aka midnight, Ethan and Bella wanted to beat traffic so they left quickly after the quarter back got sacked on a 4th down and it looked like it was game over. Yet this is a big rivalry game, and much like 2006, it ain't over till it's over, not even with seconds on the clock! Here's the last 3 minutes of the game if you haven't seen it. Ethan didn't stay long enough to know that there was a holding call on that play (at 1:20), which gave BYU their 1st down and kept the game alive. They were confused to tune in, as they were driving home along Foothill Blvd, and learn the game was still going? and that BYU had possession?? Corey and the kids stayed over at Wayne's watching the game until past midnight. Most of the kids fell asleep but Corey's screaming "GO GO GO GO!!!!" woke them up. They've never seen their father like that. Kick is good! (4:10) I stayed home trying to work on a lesson I was giving today in Relief Society (on Bishop Burge's talk) but for the last few minutes of the game, I tuned in via KSL radio. When I heard all the screaming after the kick I thought he must have missed, but no, there were enough BYU fans in the crows that that was them screaming. It was a game full of passion on both sides. Also crazy how in the final minutes, BYU called a time out, but the officials didn't hear it cause the stadium was so loud. Comment from instagram - this one talking about people saying their prayers tonight: "Thankful for this day. Thankful for that holding call..." "The church became true again in that last minute. First 3 quarters had me questioning..."

Comments about the game: "That was not pretty but I'll take it" "Our worst game yet and they STILL couldn't beat us" "I thought nothing good happens after midnight. They lied." By the time Corey and kids got home, the game highlights were on youtube, so we watched that. 

Fun to see both teams in full colors!

Re-living the highs and lows of the game. We're grateful BYU came out on top this year! I'm not sure how Owen would have handled a loss. Lily made this picture for him. I don't think she knew the significance of the number 26.

Ethan said that when Owen turns 26 we all need to go out to eat, haha. Ethan and Mel shared the BYUROC instagram page which showed the party in the streets that was going on in Provo. Sports Illustrated article today by Joe Wheat was funny. "Students flooded the streets of Provo until 5 am and were still in their seats for 9:00 am church." Comments in Instagram and on youtube made us laugh too. "The crazy thing about this is everyone's sober!" On the internet, commentators have been calling this "the holy war" including in that SI article. As we were reading it, Corey said "No one calls it 'The holy war'..." They're trying to get people to call it that. Then after a pause he said "... but if it is a holy war, they should be the infidels..." Haha! We were laughing. Well, some of us were sleeping. Daniel snuggled up on Bella.

It was a long evening for little girls.

We left everyone to sleep where they fell. So it was a fun day yesterday. A few other details from yesterday - after our date on Friday night (Aubergine in Draper), Corey and I went by Harmons and got stuff for a nice sit down breakfast. Peter asked me this past week if we could ever eat at the table again, which pricked my mother heart and let me know I've been slacking on sit down dinners. So this was a first step to make that up to him. Corey made crepes and whipped some cream, we got out nutella and strawberry jam.  I cooked sausage, put clementines into a bowl, and cut up Lucy apples! (Discovered them this past Monday at Wellness night, and yay I did find them at Harmons!) They are yummy! I currently enjoy them as much as Pink Lady apples. While we were getting food ready, we turned on the Cougar Fight Song. Owen, who is always our first one up, was all dressed and ready for the game tonight, and he came dancing down the stairs doing a little dance. I laughed, made him go do it again so I could record. He's fun. I'm not sure where  this little 9 year old learns these moves. Ok, breakfast time!

Chore went well yesterday. Hopefully they'll keep it up, and if kids are helping me out, then I can start focusing on meals a bit more. 

Abi left for GMS, and after breakfast the girls went back to bed. That was a little disappointing. When I got them up (after 11:30) I told them this was not what I was going for. Corey and I went through this extra effort to help us all get up and going. We'll try that next week. Kids eventually did their chores and practiced. They were done at 3, and then they went to Wayne's house to rake leaves before watching the game. 

I'm glad they were able to help. 

While they were raking, Corey and I went on a bike ride, cause it was in the low 50s today, yay! We drove to Millcreek canyon, parked before the pay booth, biked up to Rattlesnake Gulch Trailhead, and then up to Pipeline. We were able to bike it all the day to the Birch Hollow Trailhead, close to Porter Fork. It was muddy in a few spots, but mostly really good for November and we were grateful to be able to get out. Then I dropped Corey off at Wayne's and I took the bikes home and worked on the RS lesson. Kids eating pizza last night:

Then they watched a Bourne movie and then it was game time. Mel came up to watch the game with them.

So it's been fun processing the game today. Mel, Ethan and Bella all slept over last night and have been hanging out today. Girls in their favorite past time together - watching reels. 

I took a long nap, I was tired cause of the 2 am bedtime and then I got up at 7:30 to finish lesson thoughts. I was glad Mel was here to be my replacement while I slept. Ethan and Bella headed back around 6 and Mel is still hanging out with us. We love having college kids home and it's fun to have three at BYU right now and to be able to cheer for their team. Way to go BYU. Even Katharine learned last night how to jump up and down and shout "B-Y-U! B-Y-U!" That was fun

Two Dresses

Katharine currently has two dresses that she will wear. She has her Moana nightgown, which is her #1 favorite. And her pink dress. She wore her pink dress to church on Sunday, then changed into Moana dress for Sunday afternoon. I was able to wash "Moana dress" Monday, and our clothes dryer is currently broken, so I've been hanging clothes up to dry, but she needed it so she put it on while it was still wet. She admitted it was "A little cold" but we bundled her up in her blanket and she was fine, while her hot little body made the moisture evaporate. When I told her we were leaving the house on Monday, for the Wellness night, she took off Moana and put back on the pink dress. She wore that Monday evening, all day Tuesday, and has been wearing it yesterday and today as well. Yesterday we went to a farewell visit for a lady in our ward who is moving. Kathy, who hosted Bella's bridal shower, hosted this one too. 

I took K downstairs and showed her a very cute little house that they have for their grandkids. Katharine was thrilled!

I remember being at Kathy's house years ago and it was probably Natalie who played here then, Abi remembers coming over to play here too. 

It's so adorable. I would looove to have a little house like this in our home someday. So that was fun for K. 

I liked these narrow toy bins that were on their walls. Gonna get those too.

After that we went home for lunch, then around 2 I took her to the church to play with toys and I read my scriptures there. 

The plan there was for us to go meet the boys after school, then head to Wayne's house where the kids could play and hopefully work a little bit too helping Wayne, while I took Owen to his trumpet lesson, and then we'd head home after that. 

Tuesday morning it was looking a bit dirty, but oh well. Lily said home Tues not feeling well, and so I  was able to go for a walk. When I got home, K was telling Lily about a scary dream she had, where a dinosaur ate her dress!!

I recorded Katharine talking to share with the college kids. Joseph said it was the cutest thing he'd heard all week, and commented how lucky I am that I get to play with Katharine all day. I totally agree. I love being a mother! It is the BEST calling in life!

Here she is taking a nap in her Moana dress today, with her pink elephant and snuggled in her pink blanket.

K asleep in the chair with Sophi on the floor - This was around 4 pm. I had left to go to temple at 3:30, and at that same time Corey was headed home to get his bike and hopefully go for a ride. He wasn't sure if he'd be stopped by K wanting him. He was able to make it out unscathed.

It's really cold outside. In the 40s. But Corey's diehard. More power to him. I'll do handstands and stuff inside, and maybe go on a ride if it ever gets in the high 40s or low 50s. Today was too cold for me to want to join him. I am itching to go climbing though. I hope we can start going soon! We're trying to resist until they offer a Black Friday deal. 

In God We Trust

It's election day. I don't think either choice was good. I've been imagining that I will wake up tomorrow, will pull back the drapes and look out the window, sniff the air, and will hopefully say "Seems ok?" We've been checking the news, but mostly checking in with family via text. My little sister sent this that made me lol...

Haha. This Onion News Network video had me really laughing - Election Touchscreen Map Takes Deeper Look Inside Key Swing Voter. (Literally inside the voter!) I showed it to the kids tonight at scriptures and was crying. And what do you know, that was when Corey gave us the update that it looks like Trump is going to take the win. I didn't see that coming. I'm ok with it though. I gave my heart to the election of 2012 for Mitt, and after that I was really sad and disappointed (America hurt my feelings very very much) and since then have kinda felt that we get what we deserve. We could have had a good nice moral man as a Republican as president, but we didn't want it. I also felt that I had put too much of my faith and hope in who would be President instead of Christ, so since then I'm just trying to focus on keeping my faith in trust in God. Corey and I voted over the weekend and mailed in our ballots. And now (as my sis also shared via this meme) it's the waiting game... 

Wake me when it's over.

That is the kids taking a nap after school today. I got a chuckle out of seeing them, especially Peter with his eye mask that he made last night. He and Daniel wore them to school today, cute kids. Corey worked late tonight. He texted and asked me how the kids were doing on "their stuff" aka homework music chores etc etc, and I said good, even though we weren't yet, and then I said I was working on the chore board, and then I did hurry work on it, and now I think I've really finally kinda got it up and going! I have collected some fridge magnets of the school district calendar from over the years (but mostly from the few extra I grabbed last night at the school), and then I found some stickers that I could write on, and I put those on the magnet sheets, cut it up, and we've got this this going on the wall now. 

Still my first draft but it's good! I put the task magnets on for each day, the kids do their tasks, when the are done with their daily's, they move them over to the next day, and I can add different chores for tomorrow if I need to, depending on how things look. They did a great job tonight. The state of the house is much improved. Yay. Really the best thing I can do for my country is be a good mother to my children, so that is where my focus is, and I'm grateful to have Christ and his gospel in my life to help me with that. 

Wellness Night

This week is "Wellness Awareness" over at the elementary school. And tonight was a "Wellness Night" put on by the PTA. The boys wanted to go, so as soon as Abi and the girls were back with the van, I loaded up and we headed over. (Abi took the van to school and then picked up SN for violin and stayed out there until they were done. Saves me a trip, so that works for me) I thought it could be our FHE activity for tonight, and it kinda was. Corey wasn't there, he was still working, and Abi stayed home, but LSN came, they walked over to the school for it with some friends, so that's 80% attendance, that counts. It was a fun activity. They had each person take a paper with 7 activities written on it to get punched as we completed them. One was a physical wellness - sponsored by Tiger Rock - a local karate place. The boys enjoyed that station. They had to hop on one foot down a ladder...

then across a balance beam

then on the quad steps, then chop a karate board!

Go Katharine!

There were other stations for mental sharpness (games and puzzles), online safety health wound care sponsored by the Red Cross (Katharine bandaging up a stuffed dog)

Eating well (they served up some Lucy apples that were so good! They were like pink like they had been dipped in raspberry juice or something, I googled where to buy them, I think they are available at Harmons) a station on Sleep where they decorated sleep masks. I made Katharines to match her dress.

But she gave me an orange pen, and I wasn't sure if she really wanted orange or not, but I didn't want to upset her, so I did an orange circle even though her dress doesn't have orange. Don't judge me!

And also a thankful/gratitude station where the kids got to write Thank you notes.

Seems like I hear a lot about "wellness" these days. Is there more talk about it this year cause it's an election year? I hope everyone stays mentally well out there, no matter what happens with that. Or maybe it has become an area of concern ever since covid? Having the large family that we do, Covid was just a big happy break from the world. The kids brought home a list of things for us to do this week as a family, like have a game night, have a dance party, make a snack together, go on a walk or bike ride, etc etc suggesting other things to do for wellness, and I was patting myself on the back, cause we do this stuff like this all the time. Go team. I guess we're doing pretty "well" at life! 

Impulsive Haircut

It's late, and I should go to bed. But thought I'd share that when you stay up late with teenage daughters, you might do impulsive stuff. I was wearing a hoodie tonight, and most of my long hair was tucked in it, cause I never pulled it out, so it looked like I had short hair cause only my short layers were showing. Then Abi said "You should cut your hair..." and I thought it would be fun, then looked at Corey and back at myself in the mirror a few times, with Abi prodding me on, back at Corey, he said "I'm the wrong person to look to..." and then I figured sure, why not. So I cut my hair! 

I don't think I've had it this short since Wesley was a baby. Holding my now gone locks.

I wasn't the only person Abi was giving a make over today. She and her sisters were wrestling their brothers down to try and darken their eyebrows. 

After pinning them down, and hearing the boys scream, I made them stop forcing the boys.

And then the boys came willingly and had their eyebrows done. I didn't get a picture of the finished job, but it did change their look a little bit. It's subtle. 

Corey gave the lesson in Sunday school today. The couple that usually teaches has been travelling all of October and is still gone. Corey did such a great job. He really is an amazing teacher, and I know we are lucky, cause my kids get that kind of instruction every night! He talked about enduring to the end, which was the command given to the early apostles and saints, and how for them it meant being eaten by lions in the coliseum or being burnt alive as a "Roman Candle". Today our prophet gives us a message of much greater hope. We are told "the best is yet to come" cause for us, it's most likely not going to end in death. There is not going to be an apostasy of the church this time. The church has been restored and it will be here when Christ comes again. Our job is to be faithful and to get to work preparing for that day when he comes. If I get some of his screen shots I'll put them here. Or maybe he'll give me a link to his slideshow presentation. I had a good day at home reading the scriptures. We only have three chapters this week, so I'm hoping to get through those and go back and finishing catching up in Alma (I got behind during Park City and so I skipped over Alma's instructions to his sons back in August and went straight to the war chapters).