Lily is 15!

Happy Birthday Lily! Katharine saw the candles lit and jumped up to blow them out. 

Like a good older sibling, Lily didn't mind sharing the spotlight with her little sister.

One two three blow!

Daniel played her the Happy Birthday song a few times - when we sang to her, and then again when my mom came and we sang again...

Glad that music practice is getting put to good use! Good job Daniel

I made some fruit smoothies with whipped cream instead of cake. 

We didn't put candles in those but we did sing, and we sang again when my mom came by. My mom got her some great gifts, I was home with her when my mom came by, and the rest of the kids were on a neighborhood walk about, so we had more cookies for that. Sugar sugar everywhere. I think Lily's favorite part of the day was talking to a friend she met at FSY. Wayne took Lily out yesterday to a book store, so she liked that. I am getting increasingly lazy and thus, like I did at Christmas, I resorted to cash again. 

I did fold it into a heart though, if that gets me any thoughtfulness points? Corey is taking her out to breakfast tomorrow. Actually I had a Disney Lego set of a Disney Castle and I told her she could chose between that or cash. I'm ok that she chose the cash. Little kids still choose legos. Peter made a space ship today - 

And Owen made a big pirate ship! They both worked hard. I told Owen he's turning into a real lego master.

I saw today that BYU currently has a lego exhibit, so we've got to take the kids to that soon! It looks really cool. Maybe after the wedding. Got home from church today - Had the kids try on outfits, trying to figure out their clothes... we're not done with it, but K liked one of her two options. She wore this to church today - 

Then fell asleep with Daniel watching Veggie Tales - Jonah.

She's such a pretty little girl! Here she was sleeping with Natalie this morning too. I like how she and Natalie have their limbs all over each other.

These kids just keep growing up so fast. Daniel was (and still is) a little Ethan, and K is a pretty good Lily look alike, aside from the 3 feet height difference. One more year and Lily will be driving, crazy. Happy Birthday Lily, we hope it was a good day! 

One Week Away

Today Corey and Rob F and I went up to Park City for a ride. We picked him up at 6:15 and we drove up, it was Rob's first time there. We did Armstrong to HAM, then Seldom Seen. Corey and I both forgot to turn on our Strava but Rob's stats were: 8.09 miles, 1 hour 14 min. When we got back home at 9, kids were just barely getting out of bed, sweet, so that worked out perfectly. Yesterday I just went on a walk/hike/trail jog from Rocky Mouth to suspension Bridge, it was 5.11 miles.

Hyrum and Mel have been enjoying this week of FSY. They won't be doing it next week cause of the wedding. Melodie has been up at FSY in Boise. 

And Hyrum is in San Diego - super fun for him to be back in his mission!

Joseph earning a little honeymoon money by working at my parent's house

And now he's up in Idaho again - today he and Eliza met up with Mel at a water park! So that is fun.

Corey and I went out to eat last night at Aubergine in Draper, good stuff. We went over wedding plans again. We have an Airbnb booked for us and some of the Hibberts that are coming up for the wedding (My parents and Neil & fam). My parents are paying for that, and Wayne and Nancy & fam are all at an Airbnb together. Mark & fam are driving up that day I think? We don't totally know everyone elses' plans, but are trying to make sure they all know what our plans are in case we can be of assistance or coordinate. One week away, exciting. 

Katharine will take the ipad if it's left out. She knows how to get to PBS kids. We probably need to put a password on it.

Our clothes dryer is being stupid and sometimes it won't turn off, just like in this video - it has a 3C error code. If I unplug it for a while, then it will work, but then it will do it again. I guess we'll just try to be patient with it... Last thing for today - guess what! I found my first monarch eggs today! 5 eggs!

I've never found any this early, but the milkweed looks good, and today I just thought I'd check for fun, and yeah, five! On June 22! Wow. They should still be small enough that it won't be hard to leave them for a few nights next week for the wedding. I'm grateful that caterpillars are pretty easy pets to have. 

Wedding Prep Stuff

The wedding is a week away, and it's almost crunch time. There's a lot to do. Corey's been working on stuff for the 4th of July - he's in charge of a carnival for the community after the parade. That's kinda been on his mind a lot. He teased Joseph and Eliza that we could have their Utah reception that weekend, and their colors could be red white and blue! And we could have a petting zoo and a dunk tank at their reception! They didn't take him up on his offer. I've been gathering and printing photos for the wedding, showing all the fun things they've done together. 

That lovely mountain pic is from when they went on a backpacking trip with Eliza's family to the Sawtooth Forest. And I've been looking through photos and making side by side pics of them at similar ages, like I did for Ethan and Bella. 

It is really fun that there are pictures of them doing similar things -like both holding puppies ~

...both dressed up as cowboys - 

And I think this pic is one of my favorites - each of them sitting for a kindergarten photo wearing denim jeans....

Cute first graders. Actually that might be Joseph's 2nd grade? 

For a few of them if he was older, I figured that was ok, cause he is older than her anyway (4 years older!). Also with Ethan and Bella's pictures, it was funny that in the teenage years, in some of the pictures Bella looked so much more mature than Ethan even though they were the same age. So some of these are approximate.

Both of them at the temple.

So I'm about done, I have photos of them for every year and age. Good job me, I'm contributing to the party decorations. We're also working on our attire. I went through closets here at home and gathered together clothes that we already have. Then Natalie and I went thrifting. We added our finds to the pile, and also for fun, I added the pink and blue hats. 

I had Natalie find her outfit, and she put on the hat which was a perfectly matching shade. Then she and Katharine played some fancy tea party game. 

Feeling quite fancy!

I know there will be more involved for us to do when we are the parents of the bride, not the groom. Boy, when AbiLilySophiNatalie all get married, that is gonna be nuts. I hope they don't have too high expectations? Or maybe they will know exactly what they want, so it will be easy cause I don't have to figure anything out. Eliza's mom has been doing a ton and I'm really grateful. We've talked on the phone a few times. Corey and I have taken care of the lunch after the wedding. Joseph is making a video and Corey's working on a program for that. And I've got things set to go with Whatever Works Catering. I thought this was good advice ~ when I talked to the lady, she recommended not getting a variety, like last week I had decided to get two entrees and two sides (BBQ chicken AND lemon chicken, and for sides the Artichoke pesto pasta and the Sausage & pepper penne) but she said if you order two things, you have to order more quantity (prob 20 more) because people will want to try everything. Ah! I appreciated that tip! So, we're going to simplify and that will be enough food and people won't die of starvation and it will be good. So this is officially on the menu:

• Lemon chicken with artichoke pesto pasta
• Rice pilaf and rolls 
• spinach bacon and strawberry gouda salad
• fruit platter
• brownies and cookies

Things that are gluten free and vegetarian will be labeled. It ended up being $14.50 a person, cause of the rice pilaf which was extra. We ordered for 120 guest after the temple, so $1740 for food, $75 for delivery to the place, $104.40 tax, for a grand total of $1919.40. Which I'm happy is a better deal that what we did for Ethan's. So that's set to go, yay. It's ordered and I'll call again to pay tomorrow. When this wedding is all done I'll be ready for a nap. Katharine taking a nap after lunch today.  

But yeah I've kinda been struggling today. I was struggling a bit yesterday too. There's a lot to do, but it's all good things. Yesterday ASND all went to Wayne's house. Owen stayed here and read a book, PK played with the wooden train. Kids came back from Wayne's I took O&D to a playdate, N and I Kid to kid for clothes and then DI, when we noticed the shoes we just got from kid to kid did not match, they weren't the same size. So back to Kid to Kid,. Then at home I kept working on wedding side by side pics. Kids played games last night, I was a bit grumpy about letting them go, cause they have been slackers, aka I've been allowing them to not do their stuff. But I do like them playing with the good friends they have in our neighborhood. 

For summer exercise and outdoor activity, Corey, Joseph and I went to Corner Canyon yesterday. We did Anns, Edelweiss and Rush, and then I mowed the lawn and did some yard work stuff. I think I cut down a mulberry bush, doh. The bush thing where I cut my hiking sticks, as I was chopping at that a little bit more, I found blackberry looking things on them at the top, oops. Then stretched (and took a rest) in the closet, then took a bath. Today Corey and I went up the Quarry Trail to Ruins, did Techy and Techgnar on the way back. Techgnar is still a little scary! I talked to Amanda today, and Corey and I are going to take our bikes next week and go on a ride Saturday morning after the wedding celebrations on Friday are all done, so that will be fun.

Bells Canyon Hike

Well I did a good thing today - I got my girls up bright and early and we went on a hike.

I had given them fair warning a few days before and the night before that we were getting up as soon as it was light. I woke them up at 5:20 and they only dragged their feet a little bit. We decided to do Bells and I guess I haven't done it in a while, cause I didn't remember how long it was, or it might have been cause they were asking to be done. Lily was having a hard time breathing, feeling like something was stuck in her throat, so I kept saying a little more, let's just go a little farther, but then she turned around to go back. She was either going to wait in the car or maybe she'd walk home. Abi Sophi and Natalie walked a bit further. It was pretty cold, like low 40s, so our hands were very cold. ASN kept going, but they were anxious to bail out as soon as possible. Abi was continuing to follow us and hike, but wanted to make something clear aa she said "I want to go home, and I do hate this, but..." then said she didn't want to bail like Lily. She didn't want to be that kind of person. I kept looking at my strava to see how far we were from where I wanted to go, I thought we were almost there, so we went a little more. Natalie was the most ready to stop. I said they could go back and Abi could drive them home and I'd keep going alone, but they'd feel bad if they left me to hike alone. Another strategy - I said "Let's run! And see how quickly we can go!" I followed it with "...but don't twist and sprain your ankle..." Natalie did good during that brief part of our hike game. So we kept going, and when we got to a place that the map said was "lower falls" which meant that the place I actually did want to go was quite a bit further up the mountain. Ok, I guess it would take us another 40 minutes to get there, so, we will stop here. We took a photo and started to walk back. 

That was good enough. Plus I was worried that Lily might be in the car watching a movie and thus sucking up all the battery power. So we started to hustle back down, and 5-10 minutes into our descent and guess who we met upon the trail, it was Lily!!! She was hiking back up! But now Abi Sophi and Natalie were all done and ready to go home, so we talked and made a new plan: A would drive home with S&N, L and I would go up to the waterfall. So we did, and it did take us another hour, but we made it up. It was like going up a stone rock stair master. Lots of lunges. But the waterfall was worth it. Lily was impressed with how big it was. 

Despite how large the waterfall looked, Lily decided it wasn't really that big in quantity of water, but  because the water was hitting and spraying off of rocks underneath it, making is spray out and look bigger. It was all misty and cold - some branches of a tree down near the water had ice on it, and the tree trunks near where the mist was landing were all coated with black ice too. 

I brought along two hiking sticks which I made from some branches in our yard that I cut down. they doubled as sticks to stretch out my shoulders on the way down. Stopping by the small lower falls where Abi Sophi and Natalie turned around...

So it was fun and a good way to start the day. Then I admired our flowers after we got home... 

...and mowed the lawn, finished cutting down the wild tree that I cut the hiking sticks from, and I was sad to see some berries at the top, I think I chopped down a mulberry tree, darn. I ate one of them, it was sweet and good, so that's too bad. I didn't know what it was, I figured it was just some big fast growing out of control tree, like lots of the other plants in our yard. 

Other things that went on today - 

little kids playing trains - 

And I took another few steps to getting the catering for the wedding lunch figured out. I think we're going with 120 people and so we're going to split different entrees, salads, sides, and desserts:

• 60 Lemon Chicken 
• 60 Artichoke Pesto Pasta
• 60 servings GF Spinach Avocado Bacon
• 60 servings GF Strawberry Gouda
• 60 rice (adds $180)
• 60 rolls
• 60 brownies
• 60 cookies

Plus they include a fruit tray. Estimate $1680, pretty reasonable. Corey and I went to the temple for a session (he was having a bit of a hope crisis - not faith in God, just in business: "I don't think I can/want to go on like this" "why is it that I always tend to go deep on good faith and then feel taken advantage of" "like I'm way patient and then that good faith turns into resentment - must be a problem with me" "I think I'm too much of a push-over and not clear enough about my expectations and what I need." "but I've also found when I push back on investor-types who have all the leverage, it almost never goes well. They are offended and hit back hard" - so that was some of the thoughts on his mind and what he was wrestling with, and so the temple was great, but as soon as we got out, we got a phone call and there was drama related to us about people who were or were not properly invited to Joseph's wedding, so we called J to tell him he had to fix that. I was a little irritated but Corey handled it well, I went on a walk and decided to call Nicole to vent about it, not about J. Joseph is doing great, it's a lot to try and keep everyone happy with all their different expectations. He went to pick up his wedding suit at Mr. Mac, and guess what he saw that is coming soon there in the Fort Union shopping center? A new Momentum climbing gym! Awesome! He sent a picture, that will be fun! We only cancelled our membership last week, but I'm already looking forward to December when we climb again!

Prince Eric 💕

Kids have been watching movies that we got from the library. The boys have enjoyed Alvin and the chipmunks, and the girls have REALLY enjoyed watching The Little Mermaid. 

Like they get all goofy and squeal with excitement. They think Prince Eric is sooo handsome. They were watching the "Kiss the Girl" scene and it was funny to watch them watch it

AHHH! The suspense!! "Shush Sophi! You're ruining the moment..." - Abi

Aaaand they don't kiss. I shared this video with their siblings. Hyrum thoughtfully replied at 11pm tonight: "This type of behavior from my sisters is still new to me. I don't know how much they changed over the mission. I just find it weird because I never remember Mel or Abi acting this way in their teenage years. Maybe they were just better at hiding it?" Lol

Father's Day at Home!

We had a rare treat for Father's Day in that we all stayed here at home! And it was just us! We had Wayne over last weekend, and he went up to Mark's house today. I gave my dad a phone call, and other than that we stayed home and Corey had a relaxing day, which was really nice for him. Ethan came up and introduced his younger brothers and sister to the Toy Monster. He called a friend and told him what to say, and then his friend sent him some voice messages saying "I love to eat toys!!!" and Ethan played them over the Bose for his impressionable younger siblings... 

Ethan, you shouldn't scare these little ones!

But we really appreciated him having the kids clean the house! That was a nice Father's Day gift to Corey. The primary kids did a good job singing in sacrament meeting for their Father's. 

Ethan also let us know that the PUBLIC RELEASE of Episode 2 of the House will be coming soon to a computer near you!

Last week I listened to an awesome BYU speech by Bradley P. Owens “Let Us Run with Patience the Race That Is Set Before Us”. It was was so good. I shared it with the kids today cause I wanted them to hear the story of Cliff Young. I'd never heard of him before, but wow!! Such an amazing, inspiring and fun story! My jaw dropped when he said that Cliff beat the previous record by two days! This whole speech was so fun. And another reminder to me to simplify simplify simplify. Cold canned food and farm boots? No problem. again, such a fun story. Corey is having a nice rest day, as are the girls. They got some pictures back from Young Women's camp last week and ended yesterday.

Rafting the Colorado River from Cisco to Moab. Amazing.

Happy Birthday Corey!

Happy Birthday to Corey! So here's an example of one of the differences between Corey and I. On my birthday this year, I went to the library where I could be left alone. Other times I turn the kids into my personal slaves. For my birthday meal, we had salad and some cake and ice cream. On Corey's birthday he takes the kids biking! And then takes them out for ice cream and fries at Leatherby's with his birthday cash. He is outward focused on his bday, and for me, that's a time when I focus on what I want and don't feel guilty about cashing in on it. So, there's a little difference showing how Corey is a bit more selfless. But perhaps it could be argued that since I'm with kids all day, it's ok for me to do the opposite and take personal time on my birthday. Anyway, I found it curious. He and I went on a ride this morning to Corner Canyon and then we went out biking again with all the little kids. (Abi Lily and Sophi are still at YW camp, but they got home later this afternoon.) We parked at Peakview and all road along the Draper Alpine Trail to go to Ghost Falls. 

Peter was struggling a bit. Corey stayed with him for a bit, but then we traded cause I wasn't feeling brave to take the kids down the hill. I also thought K, who was on the bike with Corey, would be mad if it was slow and boring. So I stayed with Peter and we did a little bit of Canyon Hollow down. 

He still thought that was a little fast and scary, but he did good and it was a successful first ride in the mountains for Peter. When he was ready, we turned around and returned to the Draper road. We walked our bikes up the hill and got back the car. I checked Life360 to see where Corey and the kids were. Corey was following behind Natalie, Owen and Daniel, with Katharine on shotgun. I think Natalie was leading the way in front. They went down Ghost Falls and then on whatever trail to the bike park. Peter and I drove from Peakview to the bike part and picked them up. After we stopped to take a picture at the temple to send to Wes. But the sun was a little too bright!

Ok, that's better. 

We were all loaded up and headed back home at 12:20. I had to go to a high school reunion meeting at 1. I made banana shakes for everyone first, then left for 2 hours. When I got home, the girls had made it back from camp and Lily was up in her messy messy room... talking to a boy...

And I told her she better clean up or I'm going to text him this pic of the reality of her cleanliness habits. There's always an excuse. She said she had to hurry and pack for YW after she got home from FSY, so she hasn't had time to clean up things. She's got a lot of dirty laundry and mess that she needs to clean and organize. Abi and Sophi  do too, cause they were at FSY and Oakcrest, but their situation is not as big as Lily's. I let them have some time to chill and relax after a long week, and they told us about some of their week. A&S were teaching Daniel's friend Millie how to make friendship bracelets. 

After I got back from my meeting, it was finally time to go get Ice cream. At Leatherby's

Wayne joined us. Katharine studying the menu...

And taste testing the water. Hmmm...

Corey ordered some cheese fries, and I figured out everyone's ice cream requests: 

• Abi got the Annie Lynn with peanut butter cookie dough and Dutch Chocolate
• Sophi - Annie Lynn with cookies and cream & brownie fudge
• Natalie ordered the Emily raspberry chocolate rhapsody 

Thankfully they had a kids menu, so the little kids each got the Gavin dish with one flavor of ice cream: 

• Owen - cookie and cream
• Daniel - blue bubble gum
• Peter - Dutch choc chip
• Katharine - Dutch choc chip

Fries delivered with fry sauce and ketchup. Nice Natalie - 

They ate some fries, and then the ice cream sundae's were delivered. Everyone enjoying their desserts. Corey shared with Katharine (and this time she was willing to share, so that's good) and I took a few bites here and there from kids dishes.

Natalie's "rhapsody" was very very large. There was literally a pool of syrup and sugar in the platter underneath her huge sundae bowl. When she wanted to order something so large, Corey told her that she had to finish all of it or she had to pay for her dish. 

And the mess we left behind. 

Joseph and Ethan each sent him a video that they had made. Here is the video from Ethan ~

And from Joseph (who is up backpacking with Eliza's family for the weekend, they are featured in the video, fun!)

"OreyCorey" is how you say Corey in "Corey-Latin", which is similar to the word conjugation of Ferb-Latin, which Ethan introduced to our family. Several of our children speak it fluently. So when Ethan was in California selling pest control for a few months, in June 2020, he asked a lady that he met to wish Corey a happy birthday, and that is her featured at the beginning of J's video. Now Corey is wondering if Eliza's family will be calling him "Oreycorey" in two weeks at the wedding? Ha, I guess we'll see. That was a cute video by Joseph. We have talented kids, and I'm glad they are skilled at creating and sharing family memories and footage digitally! And as a final birthday tribute, let me sa that I'm pretty much in awe of Corey. He's such an caring husband and an awesome father. I need to find a way to preserve the emails he has sent to the kids on missions. His emails to Wes are so good and thoughtful and instructive. I'm grateful to have him call us all to gather for scriptures every night. 

I would that everyone had a Corey in their life. Happy 48th! Hoping we have atleast another half a century together.