Winter Ride and Concert

This morning I took Owen to a group trumpet class, and after I got back, the temps were good so Corey and I went on a ride. I got a little distracted by this frost on the side of the road, before we even got to the trail...

They look like flowers! So amazing!! Wow!

I don't think I've seen anything like that before. Man, the world is just so amazing and beautiful. I'm in awe of God's work. So we did a ride up the trail, made it all the way to the ruins. 11.26 miles, 1 hour 40 min, 1523 elevation. 42 degrees when we started at 12:30, 45 when finished. I love that we can still ride up the trail in the winter!! I feel a new found freedom for winter fun. Skiing is a lot of work and expensive, but we didn't get passes for it this year. Even when we do have passes, it's so hard to get out and find a day that works for us and the kids and not too busy (weekend or holiday), but biking has made it possible to still get some winter time in the mountains and it's much more convenient, so yeah, I'm good and feel a new sense of freedom. Maybe we'll upgrade to fat bikes but right now we're both ok using our regular skinny tires. 

Lily had a Christmas concert in Provo today. 

This whole blog is just the highlights of my half of our story/life with our 13 kids. Corey's got his own version that I'm glad I sometimes get enough info to mention. 

So Corey took Lily down for her Blue Note Band concert and took ODPK with him. Call time was 5, concert was at 7:45. It was at the Provo Towne Center. They had some time to kill so they got a treat. 

Mel said Peter got a lemon thing that wasn't good, and Corey got Mango cause it was the first one listed "so it had to be the best" he told his children, but then it wasn't good at all - like it was spicy with cayenne pepper or something and they couldn't force themselves to finish it (but Mel got a pic cause Corey was being funny)...

"How could they ruin mango???" and "Well, Life is full of disappointments". Sometimes things aren't going to go your way, so ya got to suck it up with transmissions and mangos sometimes. Oh by the way, I left a review on Tanner's Transmissions yesterday via google maps and gave them one star. I'd give negative stars if that was an option. "Last Friday we were headed out on a trip when a light came on the dashboard of our Honda Pilot saying “transmission system problem”. There was no issue with the car except the light. Still, we pulled off the freeway and took it here cause it was the closest place open on Black Friday, our mistake! We are now a week in, there has been ZERO communication from them. We keep calling them, they still haven’t told us what the problem is. We haven't seen a report of their inspection. When we call they just tell us they are still looking/waiting for parts. Very frustrated, horrible experience so far. We've been without our car for a week and don’t know when we’ll get it back. Will update review after this is over and if experience improves." It felt good to vent out our frustrations about all that. 

So after their treat, Lily went for call time and Corey had the boys do a bit of Christmas shopping with Mel's help. Mel came cause Corey told the BYU kids about it, plus she had a date at the mall so she was headed there, but then the date fell through, so she just went to hang out with Corey and her little siblings. We drew names for "secret santa" this past Sunday (Owen has Peter, Daniel has Owen, and Peter has Daniel) and so Mel said it was funny trying to see the boys looking for Christmas presents for each other while simultaneously trying to not give away who they were buying for, yet ALSO drop hints about what they wanted for the person who had them. 

Owen ended up getting Peter a dinosaur wooden skeleton puzzle, Peter got Daniel a boomerang and crystal growth thing, and she can't remember what Daniel got for Owen. Katharine also got some squishy ball thing that she broke so they had to buy it, but it was a gross mess. The presents are hid in Corey's office. We get to try and wrap things and then box it up in luggage to take to Florida for Christmas, yay.