Basement Buddies

I took Katharine to a friend's house today, Briggs, where a few of the neighborhood kiddos were gathered for a playdate. She was there from 9-11, and I took the opportunity to go to the gym (I was able to borrow Wesley's car). I was able to swim in the outdoor pool while Corey was still there after taking carpool. He only takes it on Monday's now, which is better for him, and makes sense since none of our kids have been in carpool. Owen started jazz band last week so he's not in morning carpool anymore, and Natalie goes with Lily and Sophi cause she'd rather go earlier than be in the car with neighborhood boys, kinda funny. Anyway, I was able to exercise and then went back to pick up Kat and then we went to Macey's for the last punch card on Daniel's free ice cream cone card. Thanks Daniel for letting us use that so often. I probably owe him $50 bucks worth of ice cream for all the cones that I gave to Katharine. Sophi, Natalie, and Owen all owe him $ too. On our way home with K and Elephant safely buckled.

I went for a hike this afternoon. I had fun exploring the other side of the creek. It wasn't as scary this time. I had to run back to car cause of storm rolling in, which was kinda fun. The clouds looked ominous so I got back to the north side of the creek, and then thunder was warning me that it was coming as I hurried down the trail. When I got back to the car I was a little wet but not soaked. It was fun. 

We had leftovers for dinner tonight, and I let Natalie made pumpkin cookies for FHE, which was Flip 7, and cookies. It was funny as we were playing, Katharine excused herself and then tried to discretely get Peter to come with her by saying "Peter! Sneak! Sneak!!" Peter was smiling at the invitation, and I told him it was ok, he could go, then he scampered off to play with her. 

This pic above is from yesterday. When it was time to come up for dinner at 5:30, Daniel said "You guys were in the basement all day!" Peter replied "Yeah, it's our hobby." And then Katharine added "Yeah, we're basement buddies, duh!" We all smiled at that and thought it was so cute. Two other photos from yesterday - kids playing on the trampoline overlooking the ridge.

And more kids swinging in the hammocks. 

We went over to visit with the Morgans, who welcomed home Anna this past week, and also we went to visit with the Kofoeds after their son's farewell before his mission to Texas. Those visits went from after church until 2, then home for my ministering sisters to come visit me, and then Corey and I went with Natalie for her to receive her patriarchal blessing. Hearts feeling full for many blessings today. We are so grateful for our children and to be able to raise them in such a wonderful neighborhood. I'd say this place is as good as the 80s were! It's just a beautiful area to live in and our neighbors are the salt of the earth. So great to be able to raise our family with all our wonderful friends in this village! I've been thinking of the word "village" after reading some of the comments in this video that Mel shared with us yesterday, a documentary called "Birthgap". Corey watched some of it last night, and shared some tonight at scriptures. It's interesting to see prophesy fulfilled and see the warnings in the proclamation on the family coming to pass around us. Members of the church need to be careful that we don't follow the trends of the world (see this BYU devotional by Elder Cook from Feb 2017 "A Banquet of Consequences: The Cumulative Result of All Choices"). Corey also shared this clip that his dad sent to him - Tough love by Sister Holland, Sister Nelson, and Sister Clark. Then kids kept sharing reels and things they've seen (this is about how "scriptures" go every night!) we watched the Harry Potter HBO trailer, Hyrum shared this comedian talking about black Snape, then the kids shared Harry potter with guns and the fun just keeps going. But now it's 10:30 and we're going to bed. I'll head to the temple in the morning at 4:30 and will be back around 6:30 for girls to have the van. Buenas Noches.