Really Good Day

Today was a really good day. Looking back now, I think it all started with catching the sunrise as I came out of the temple.

The sky looked amazing from over in South Jordan. It was pink across the whole valley, from the copper mine to Mt Olympus. I was soaking it in at 5:59 am after doing initiatories at the Jordan River Temple. I drove from there to the rec center, sat in the sauna for 30 min, reciting the Living Christ, then had more time alone with my thoughts as I swam for 60 minutes. 

I was just sending my evening report to Jill and Elasha (which started after our hike last week) and I had a 100% great day! I didn't have any junk today (eventhough we have ice cream and nutella in the house) I had two meals with one snack in between (bean kimchi salad for breakfast, 1 snack of sourdough, choc protein powder banana berry chia bowl) and I stopped eating at 3, finished my painting mostly/kinda (gonna put it on the wall and stare at it for a few days and see if there's anything I want to add or touch up)...

and while I painted I listened to 25 chapters of the old testament.. Then mowed the lawn this evening (it helps that tomorrow is garbage day). After Jill and Elasha told me good job, I remembered that I also went to the temple and the gym AND read a book (12 Hour Walk) for an hour! I didn't tell them those last 3 things cause I'd already tooted my horn enough, but oh yeah, it was a killer day! 

Cute Katharine this morning, coloring at the table while I ate my bean salad. 

I liked her tongue concentrating. 

She mostly colored this morning with markers, but as I was cleaning today I found this cute person she drew.

A few other things that helped today be great - Corey took Owen and Edmund biking. Abi took Natalie and Katharine thrifting, Abi face timed me to ask me a question and I took a few screen shots of her. 

She looks so cute. Her cheeks are obviously still puffy, and they are also still bruised, which hasn't happened to the other kids. 

She sent me this after, haha.

Her friends came by after she got back, and they brought her gelatto. Today I also listened to this video video by Sophie Winkelman that Corey sent while I did dishes. She talks about how kids are forgetting how to play with so much technology. Devices in school are actually hurting our youth. My thought is yes, kids need to be bored long enough to start getting creative on their own. It can be hard to not intervene during the boredom stretch before the creativity kicks in. I was pleased that, Natalie asked if she could WALK to Macey's with Daniel Peter and Katharine. I gave them by blessing. That was gonna be a long walk, but they were going to go buy ice cream for themselves with their own money. 

I was ready to sponsor this outing, but paying for yourselves is even better. They left at 5:11 and got back at 7:50. I didn't have the car or I would have gone looking for them. Instead that was when I went out to mow so I could watch for them. 

It was a long walk. I'm not sure they'll do it again, but if they do, I'll pay. It was nice to have time to paint knowing they were doing something good for their development. Now it's late (11pm). Corey just got back from taking the kids to the church to play. I've been blogging but also watching art videos. I liked this one by Ian Roberts about learning how to paint with bold brushstrokes and paint it and leave it (don't over work it). 

1) think structure BEFORE you put paint to canvas (horizon, spine, lines to focal point, focal point is sharper)
2) Mix color carefully
3) Think shapes
4) remember that confident brushwork requires a lot of attention, it doesn't happen automatically. 

I think I'll bring some paints and a canvas to Newport!! :)

Lisa Hike

This is Edmunds last week with us. He has been visiting us from Texas. He drove out with Grant when they came for Conner's wedding. Grant was also bringing their van to sell to a family member, so it wasn't a problem to bring an extra body but no one else came cause of the cost of the flight home. They decided that Edmund could come, however, if he stayed, and they offered to put some $ towards him eating at the Wride's Summer camp during June, so we did that. They are coming out this Friday and will pick him up before we leave for our family vacation to Newport. I hope we've showed him an ok time. It's been pretty simple - chores, library, playing with friends, and a few bike rides. I've been meaning to take the kids all on a good hike with him, but we haven't done it yet. Today I tried to do it for FHE, but kids were either gone at different places (Lily and Sophi at FSY, Daniel swimming at a friends house) or not interested (ANP), so I took what I could get, which was just Owen, Edmund, and Katharine. We also left kinda late, so we only had an hour before it would start getting dark. We went up the canyon to Lisa Falls. Quick pic before we start up the very short trail.

And 5 minutes later we were at the falls. The boys gave a go at the climb Corey and I did with Craig. 

A view of the Techy mountain (mountain peak we see from Techy). It would be fun to climb to the top of that someday. 

"Mom, take another picture of me." Pretty girl.

Owen and Edmund taking a stab at a few other boulders.

I told them that, while I'm sure they were very capable climbers, they couldn't go further, cause I couldn't go with them with Katharine.

Katharine, you're so CUTE!

Playing king of the rock. 

They they went to touch the water, Owen reached for something, stepped on a loose rock, lost his  footing and twisted his ankle or hit his shin. Him telling the rock "Bad rock" in this pic here.

I'm not sure, but he was struggling to walk back down. I gave him a piggy back ride for some of it, he scooted on his pockets a bit and hopped a bit too. So that cancelled us going down the trail on the other side to the creek and we went home. I don't have a boot, but we put some ice on it (Abi showed him how, she's currently a pro) and we'll see how it feels in the morning and if we need to take him to the urgent care or anything. I guess that might be it for our hikes this week if Owen's out. 

A few other things from today - I picked up this book from the library that Nicole recommended. Excited to see what it's about, I know nothing about it and Nicole hasn't told me anything either.

Lily and Sophi are off at FSY this week. I dropped them off at a neighbor's house this morning cause a group of girls in our neighborhood arranged months ago to go down together. They will be at the Orem FSY, which is coincidentally really fun, cause that is where Wesley is a counselor at this week! I know they'll have a great time and we'll see them Saturday morning. I'll share pics if they send me any this week. 

After dropping them off, I went for a hike/trail run from the ruins to the 1st bridge. I love our canyon.

Katharine playing at a friends house today - she's Elsa!

Reveal

Exciting news - Mel and Christian came by after church today so they could announce a certain something. Can you tell what it is? Here's a clue - look at the color of their clothing. 

Yes, they found out the gender of their little one! We noticed Mel was wearing a blue dress and Christian had on a pink tie... Hmm, how to tell. We also happened to serve dinner with plastic pink and blue cups, so the kids thought that might have been a clue as well. We ate dinner and after that they served up some pink and blue cookies. After the kids ate cookies, they told the boys to open their mouths, and they all revealed blue tongues. They had given them blue jolly ranchers before the cookies,  so that was the reveal - it's a boy! The clothes, cups and cookies were just distractions. Exciting! Congratulations Mel and Christian! She is due November 1st. 

After dinner, Mel and Christian had to go up to Bountiful to tell his parents, but first they showed us some of their pics from Brazil and told us about their trip that they got back from last Sunday.

Oh, one last thing from dinner - as we were there eating, Christian said he saw a butterfly outside on the milkweed. I looked out and sure enough, we had a monarch laying some eggs! I went out hunting and found 3 eggs, so monarch season is here! I gave them to Mel and Christian to take up to his sisters who enjoyed their caterpillars last year (though they had a little drama with it when a butterfly got loose in the house if I remember right...) 

Abi's recovery is coming along... maybe?? She's 24 hours in and looks like this -

She's had the worst experience and poorest recovery of all the kids so far. Despite her diligence with icing, she's super swollen, her cheeks are bruised, she can hardly open her mouth to clean out her holes, and her lips and chin are still numb. The nerve damage could be permanent but were hoping and praying for the best for her. They said recovery could take 8 weeks, so we'll give it until then and then we'll know if this is her new normal or not. I'm impressed with her that she's still going out in public. Yesterday she went to a friend's farewell with her ice packs on her face. She wore the ice all day yesterday, wearing them at dinner. Ice cream, yogurt, and mashed potatoes have been on the menu for her the past three days. She gets to start solids tomorrow. 

She's being a good sport about us all giggling at her.

She went to the ward walkabout last night and was chatting it up and enjoying ice cream. She knows she looks quite different and she hasn't been recognized at first glance by some neighbors and friends, haha. Katharine and her friend Becca enjoying creamies. 

They are cute little friends. 

Abi's Wisdom Teeth Out

Abi had an appointment at 8am this morning here in Sandy to get her wisdom teeth out at the Wisdom Teeth Guys. Before the trauma... 

She's feeling good enough, not too scared yet, kinda resigned that she had to do this. I did call the dentist a week ago to see if she could just leave them in, and they said no, hers need to come out. She had one tooth that was really coming in side ways. Ok fine. I guess we're doing this. The calm before the storm.

I held her hand as she got an IV put in. She thought that was the worst, but she didn't know what else was coming... They showed the xray and there was the one tooth (bottom left?) that was coming in sideways. The doctor said it was also really close to the next tooth, and there was a chance that the other molar would come loose as they got out the wisdom tooth. If it did, he wanted us to tell him if we wanted him to put it back in place (slight risk that it wouldn't hold and she'd need to get dental help and/or that it could get infected) or, if it came out, should he just keep it out. We decided to just let it come out. Thankfully the surgery went well and he said that 5th tooth didn't budge, so that was good, but boy did Abi look like she'd been through the war when I saw her!! 

She looked so so so sad!!

She wasn't silly or goofy or talkative at all, she was just sad and broken.

I called Corey to help us walk in the house after she got home, but he was gone on an epic ride (rode from home to Snowbird then went up Big Mountain to Midgad! Wow!) So I brought her in and had her sit down while I got her some ice. 

She took a lot of selfies as she tried to make sense of what she had just been through. 

I took a few pics too - she looked like she lost her chin!

Attending to Abi was my sole focus today. 

I couldn't figure out how to wrap her headband again, so I just held it for a bit. 

Poor Abi.

Then we found some headbands with the winter clothes, and she used those to hold the ice. 

She slept most of the day. They also said the roots of that one bottom tooth were really wrapped around her main nerve along the jaw line, so there might be nerve damage from that. She can't feel her chin or bottom lip yet, but we're hoping it will be ok. I think it's the inferior alveolar nerve, cause that's the one that google says goes to the lip and chin. Doh, google also says it could cause "temporary or permanent numbness"... we'll hope it's temporary!

So yeah, poor Abi! I told her that Ethan iced his face a ton and he didn't swell up at all, so she's been very diligent and we're hoping for a similar result. 

Wes got home today. He's back from Santa Barbara California, and I was on my way to Costco when he called and said he was at the airport and thought there was a shuttle, but there wasn't... I was about to Costco on 106th, which was a perfect spot to hop on the freeway and I was there to pick him up 20 min after he called. Then he went with me to the Costco in West Valley which worked out fine. We also picked up a tray of sushi at Smiths as his belated birthday cake. Birthday pic!

Cute kid. Blowing out his candle. 

I went on a short walk/hike in the mountains tonight. It was good. Abi looking a little better after I got back. Yay she's upright!

Being a good sport for the war she went through today! 

Watching Alvie

Tonight Ethan and Bella went to a play at Hale Theater, so we got to watch Alvie. He wasn't too keen on being left with us. Too many people eager to help him - 

He loves his mom and dad. At one point, when he seemed to come to terms with the fact that his mom and dad were not available to come help him, he reached for me, and that was precious. The kids all did a good job bringing toys and hoping to help him feel happy. Daniel won with the Pokemon ball. 

I was sure that when Ethan and Bella came back, that Alvie would see them and burst out crying, after trying so hard to be brave all evening. But when he saw them, he didn't cry, he just smiled and was happy. Cute little guy.

Abi got back tonight from her senior trip with friends to Newport California. We will be going out there again as a family next week from Jul 4 - 10. Corey and I went to India House tonight for date night. It was a good week and a good day. I went on a hike this morning, starting from close to the 1st bridge, and hiked up to the ruins. Took me an hour and 35 minutes to do that, 5.17 miles. I liked how the water was reflecting at the bottom of this photo. 

The sun was shining off the water, and with the sun coming through, you could see all the water droplets jumping in the air as the creek ran.

I love it, it was a beautiful morning! I wish I could live up here. But, reality calls so I hiked back to the car. Katharine's friend Scarlett came over to play today. They played nicely - coloring in my room. 

A little later they came to the basement with me, I painted while they played. I'm working on a pic of the garden tomb from a pic I found of it online - Progression I made today, before:

After

I worked on it for about an hour. It's fun to paint. I wish I had actually visited Jerusalem though so I'd know better what I'm looking at. Someday.