Then and Now

Facebook suggested a photo for me to share from my May photos 8 years ago. Since it was a family photo, on the long bench at the Temple Quarry Trail, and I knew that we just had a photo taken there last year, I decided it would be fun to post it. 

3 more children, everyone a lot bigger, it's so fun having all these kids and meeting the amazing adults they are growing up to become! It is crazy busy and fun. Tonight was an example of the crazy busy logistical part of parenting. Corey and I planned out the evening. Corey likes to do his planning via spreadsheets:

Ok, so first was a bike ride. Our friend Rob arranged with Corey for us to go together. We started at Bike Park, up the road to Canyon Hollow and Brocks to the Peakview parking lot, then down Rush and Limelight. I got 36 achievements! I was pushing hard on Brocks so I was glad to see a PR for that - .38 miles in 4:28 (hey! That's my birthday!). My PR on that last week was 4:44. PR for Full Rush DH Official (not via "rush the trees") 2.04 miles, 9:30. Limelight was fun, I guess I could get used to riding that. I did 3 loops on the bike park beginner/intermediate track, which I think is called "Like a Boss". I got a little bit of air a few times today on the bike park loop and on a few parts of rush, but just a baby little bit of air, I'm still a beginner! Then home for a quick clean up. Then I took Katharine with me to go to Corey's sister's birthday party. 

I took the van. Joseph (in his car) took Lily to a Seminary party, then took Abi and Wayne down to see Abi's Lyceum concert. Hyrum took Corey's car and took SNODP with him to Hale Center Theater. A neighbor gifted us 6 tickets, so that was fun for them. I'm proud of us that even with just two cars, we are able to make it work. Extended family is usually key in making that happen. So pat ourselves on the back for making it work, and then give ourselves grace for when it's a mess - like this morning when Katharine dumped my 100% pure maple syrup in a big bowl of the oatmeal and bananas I served up for breakfast. 

I was glad that it was the serving bowl, and not someone's individual bowl. And since that was the case, I poured this new creation into ice cube trays to save for future oatmeal sweetening

Gotta roll with it sometimes and make it work!

10 Kids Logistics

Hyrum got here last night around 1 am. I didn't know he was here until he came upstairs around lunch time today, haha, so that was funny. Abi and Lily had GMS, Sophi and Natalie had violin group class. We were able to sneak in a date at the Sugarhouse Aubergine and then pick up Lily, who had to stay at GMS later than Abi. The logistics get a bit tricky sometimes. Busy busy. I'm glad I was able to blog a bit this evening. I'm always catching up. It will be nice having Hyrum here for a bit, Joseph is here too. It makes it feel like a real full house now, not like the scant 8 children that we've been doing since Wesley left for his mission. Hyrum will be doing FSY, Joseph has a wedding to plan, so things will still be busy for both of them. They are all in our room now, I think we'll be reading in here tonight. We do a good job of gathering as a family every night. Corey starts us off with some current events and fun things he hears during the day and wants to share. 

Katharine is a little busy body - taking turns going from Corey to Abi to Joseph...

After some current events we read some of the Come Follow Me plan and there's always a way to tie it all together. There is important work to do! It's exciting living in the latter days. Marvelous and miraculous days are ahead, and not just cause it's spring time and will soon be summer.

Corey and I are getting out where we can for bike rides. He had a good climb up Rattlesnake gulch today, and I went up LCC this afternoon. There is still plenty of snow, and some felled trees too - had these two that I had to get over!

I got over them, but it was a pain, and once I was past that there was too much snow to go much further up the trail, so I won't do that again until the trees are cleaned up. Not sure who does that, but thank you to whoever you are. I went and did the fish tail sandy track to get in a few more miles. 

We love these mountains and this canyon. I talked with Nicole during the bike climb and during 30 min of stretching this morning. My front splits on both sides are now the distance of yoga block from the ground (from the thinnest part of the yoga block). Stretching hurts. I've been doing it for over two months now! Making some progress. Also, since we're ready to start getting outside, today I submitted to Momentum to change our memberships. We're going to freeze the kids as of next Wednesday, cause they haven't been using it. 

Little Sister Art

Corey and I had an early morning. We took Skyline carpool together and then did a quick climbing session. Did 4 top rope and then a few boulders. The early morning exercise session might have contributed to me needing a nap, which I took. Aaaand I didn't look at the time, so I'm not sure if it was a long or short nap, but when I got up, it appeared I might have been asleep for a bit longer than I was aware, cause I woke up to this:

Peter drew on Katharine, and she might have drawn on him, or he maybe did that himself foo. The kids do work pretty fast at making messes when they are in the zone, so it could have been a short nap I guess? Who knows. Peter told me that “Katharine has blood all over her. Cause she got feed-ed to the crocodiles. Cause the bad guys fwoded (throwed) her in. She’d from the movie called Moses!” So it appears that Sunday's “prince of Egypt” movie made an impression. 

Corey texted me back saying "To make him feel better, let him know they just threw in the boys" ha. So they spent most of the day like that - I fed them lunch. Peanut butter and Jelly bread. And of course I always put a P on it, today I wrote his whole name.

K enjoying her bread and jelly.

I think it's pretty funny. 

The medium used here was permanent marker and crayola markers, both washable and non-washable.

I'm sure it will take a few baths to get it all off. It's also funny cause I recently listened to a talk by President Nelson (from Oct 2001) called Set in Order Thy House. Looks like I have work to do. There is definitely a lot to manage. I'm going to say that the physical mess of my home was not the main area that the prophet is concerned over. My kids are happy and healthy, although I do want to to better at teaching them and helping them develop good habits. We have a chore chart that we are trying to keep projected on the side room television, hoping it will be a visual reminder of the things they should be anxiously engaged in. 

Some things are in order and some things are not. I'm always working at it and I hope that that is the important thing. Today I read the Book of Mormon, not as long as I wanted, but it never is. I also did a bit of blogging (working on December, getting closer to finishing that, yay), sent an RS email, didn't do any high school reunion stuff... I need to do that. I watched some news, and a few calisthenics and climbing videos. Stretched, Lily cleaned the kitchen and made banana bread. Abi took O to soccer. And I was able to go to the Jordan River temple at 8pm. The tulips there are in bloom and lovely! If I get to the temple, then that's a good sign that priorities are being taken care of. 

Teddy Bear Service

Today I took advantage of having Melodie and Hyrum home. They left this evening, but it was nice to wake up and have Mel already awake and doing the dishes. She's an angel. She was the mom today while I ran errands, aka went to Costco (we were out of bread) and I did a quick drop by the DI too to thrift for some biking shoes. My blue Nike's have given their souls (literally) for my biking. The soles were shreaded, so I found some used shoes for $6 bucks! Sweet. Then Costco, then home where Peter and Katharine were playing outside and Mel made them a picnic and she was practicing piano. Corey and I took a quick ride up the canyon with Katharine. She fell asleep before we got to the parking lot, so we turned around and were going to go again, but Corey decided to stay. So I drove up to the parking lot, took the trail up just past avalanche hill, which was covered with snow from Sunday and Monday, but there was enough of a bike path that I was able to get up the hill, then a little bit more until it was too slushy and covered, so I came back home. We did a 3pm ride cause I couldn't do an evening ride, because of a service project going on at the church. We made cute teddy bears for Dolls of Hope - look at all these cute bears!

Lisa has spent a month plus embrodering the faces, Nancy has done the sewing the bear patterns - 

Tonight we cut them out, flipped and stuffed them, then sewed up their legs. A few had to be unstitched if they didn't meet quality control for plump enough ears and arms. And so much wonderful visiting with all my sisters in Zion, they are the best. 

Plus it was a treat to have all the young women and their leaders, I love them all. 

So that was tonight. Yesterday was good too - I went bouldering by myself around 2, once again taking advantage of having Mel and Hyrum home. Corey didn't come as he had to get work done. We swapped cars on Monday so that the Velocirax wouldn't be outside in the snow and rain, so Corey took the van, but when I had taken it for climbing that morning, it was a little glitchy starting. Sure enough, later when we swapped cars, it wouldn't start for Corey. His dad let him take his car home, and then yesterday, after climbing, I went by to pick up Lily who got out of school early after finishing her AP test, and took the van - we jumped it and I drove it straight to Burt Bros. Hyrum met us there to take us home, but it wasn't busy so I sent Lily home with him and I stayed there for 30+ min while the van got a new battery. Wes called while I was climbing, he needs to pay $300 upfront to schedule the endoscopy, so I helped him figure out that. I did 30 climbs. Earlier at home I got in an hour of stretching, cause I'm going to teach my body how to do the splits. AND I want to learn to do an L-sit and a press handstand. :) Just little goals. Yesterday I caught up with May and April on the blog, did some high school reunion stuff, read scriptures, kids stayed up late until 11:30 watching walter mitty while I blogged. And Monday night Mel and I both put K down to bed, cause K cried when I left. The three of us laying on a twin mattress on the bottom bunk, once K was asleep I was able to sneak away. Her little voice is the cutest thing every, hearing her say "I love you!" or "so soft..." as we cuddled into her blanket. I love her. She's so fun. And Mel and I were able to chit chat while we all laid there together, haha it was funny. 

FHE - Pictionary

We had another game night tonight with the kids. Tonight we played Pictionary. 

Corey was the moderator. Sophi Natalie and Daniel were Team motorcycle, using a whistle that Daniel brought home today from school (that we all want to throw away). Abi Owen Peter and I were Team bunny. 

The Bunny, the Bunny, Ooh I love the bunny. That was our team song. This wasn't quite AP Pictionary, cause Corey was moderating so he just held K. If he had been trying to play too, then it would have been AP. This was a little bit advanced though, because the three little boys were playing. But since they were evenly spread, it was ok. Owen was really good, but Peter balanced him out since they were both on our team. Owen did a good drawing of a toaster, but it looked like a Thanksgiving Turkey with those little white things over the drumstick feet, so that threw us off, but luckily Team Motorcycle wasn't having much luck drawing it either. Four Eyes was one that I got. Same thing - I didn't know what else to draw, so we just waited until they eventually said it. Abi finally guessed it, then we all started to quote Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs "Four eyes! Four eyes! You need glasses to see-ee!" Abi drew a very good priest and a very good drawing for "stomach" too, but I didn't get either of those. I did say every other word for them: pope! Bishop! Clergy! Ummm, confessions? Orthodox! Catholic! And for stomach I said tummy, belly, chest, abdomen, etc. I didn't say intestines. Peter drew wonderful pictures of planet, giraffe, cow, and elephant. He was so careful with his art that we usually had to look over at the other teams pictures to guess. We didn't get any of those though. Team Motorcycle was in the lead with some rolls of 6 and 5 on the dice, and The Bunny's team got lots of ones. But eventually we caught up, passed them, and we arrived at the finish line first. The Motorcyclists were only 5 squares behind and we were drawing to the death! 

Sophi and Natalie were actually being so crazy and noisy. They were having a marker fight and kept trying to draw on each other's faces. But since this wasn't scriptures and we weren't trying to give spiritual instruction, that's was ok.

(even if it was a bit obnoxious). I'm glad they were having fun. As we came to the end of the game, the kids were totally screaming and thumping their chests. Team Motorcycle won with this amazing drawing of a dinosaur by Natalie. 

Natalie wanted to draw cause she said Sophi was better at guessing. And that strategy proved true. Well played, good game. I'm sure we'll be having a rematch soon. 

So that was fun. A few other items. Cute picture of Katharine playing with a spy glasses thing that folds up, she opened it up over and over again this morning at breakfast and would say "Hello?" using it as a flip phone. So cute and funny. Her sweet little voice kills me, it is so cute.

Had a phone call with Wes. All his older siblings joined in plus Corey and I. It's nice to gather, even if it is just virtually.

Yesterday was a really nice day of rest too. It snowed, but that's not unexpected in Utah during the spring. I guess once we get into May, people are a little more irritated by it, but s'allright. I was glad we got a bike ride in on Saturday, since it will probably be a week before this is all dried up. Yesterday we stayed at home and I took a long nap and I cleaned up throw up from yesterday that I didn't know about. The kids had mentioned it and Abi sent me a pic over her phone to let me know there was a mess in the front room by the ottoman, but I didn't see it and so only got to it today. The kids watched Prince of Egypt, Peter said it's going to give him nightmares (killing the babies part). The girls all loved watching Young Victoria. I watched it for a few minutes, I liked it, made me want to learn more about Victoria and Albert. Abi made dinner and macaroons, we read scriptures earlier than usual, cousin Sam opened his mission call - he's going to Peru! And then on Sunday night I stayed up late blogging, buuut... I got distracted a bit with facebook and a post in my feed of mom's commenting on comments shared in this Instagram post of the Church referring to Camille Johnson's talk at BYU Women's Conference. Seems like people are quick to be stirred up to contention. Ugh I'd hate to be a public figure and have people always giving their negative opinions on things I say. I'd probably crumble, I'm not built for war. I'm happy to be here safe in our little village while Corey goes to war and goes hunting everyday. I'm also content to be a lurker and one that very rarely makes comments over fb or instagram anymore. I did a few times years ago and it didn't go well, so I retreated mostly. But blogging is a way I enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings for my kids to read in their future lives as they grow into adults. I'll probably post something about that IG post later on my spiritual blog, which I'd like to use more. I have mostly been putting pen to paper with spiritual things, but I do try to write up when I make the time. It was a good day, things are going well. Goodnight

Weekend Activities

Corey made the kids french toast this morning, and after K ate, I took her up to change her diaper and then she threw up her breakfast. Luckily, I was holding her, and I've got some wicked fast mother reflexes and I protected all the carpet and caught it on her, myself, and a rice bag that I was holding. Into the tub she went. I rinsed off our clothes and the rice bag, but the rice bag can't go into the laundry. It might be ruined now, but I put it outside to dry, we'll see. If it's ruined I have two others. I use those  almost every night to either prop myself up if I lay on my side or behind my neck and sometimes up my spine if I lay on my back. I like it better than pillows. So, with K sick, we made a change of plans for the day. Abi and Lily had to take the bus to GMS, which was sad for them, but we needed both cars. Hyrum has been our soccer helper the past few weekends, but today he was in St. George with Mel. 

They had fun going on a hike and stuff. We were going to have everyone (SNODPK) go to soccer and the trumpet recital, so that plan was changed. I had Sophi stay home gets to be our babysitter again, like yesterday. K went down for a nap, S stayed with her, and I took NODP to a Primary Activity which was so cute. They made little cars and talked about driving on the covenant path. They had a little drive through movie at the end when I was there to pick them up. It was really cute to see.

Corey left at 11:15 and picked up Owen for his 12 o'clock game. I was at the church 20 min later to get NDP. Showing me their cars. 

After the 1st half of his game was over, I took Owen and we went with N&P to his trumpet recital. He changed his clothes in the car and warmed up on the drive over. We were just a little later than she asked (12:50 instead of 12:45) but he was able to tune fine. Cheeks are still pink from working hard at his game!

Playing Ode to Joy - video here.

He is a very good little trumpeter. Abi and I have tried to play the trumpet and neither of us know how he is able to make a sound on that thing. It's impressive. Quick photo with other students in Kyra's studio. 

 

I didn't bring any treats for the pot luck refreshments after, sorry! Just couldn't swing it all today. And I'm also sorry that my 3 kids that came with me took more than their fair share. Corey stayed with D for his game which was at 1. Corey said that Daniel scored a goal, and after he did he cheered and shouted to Corey: "Now we get to go to Wendy's!" The parents all thought that was funny. Since Corey and I were taking care of our quiver all day, we didn't workout in the morning, but Corey got a text from a friend in the neighborhood, they've been going back and forth about doing a ride together sometime. They decided today to do a long ride and bike from home out on the BST to Corner Canyon. I didn't want to do all that, and they didn't want to bike home, so we made a plan. I drove out and parked at Coyote Hollow and that way I was able to give them a ride home. They told me that they biked up Rocky Mouth and then to BST all the way to CC from there! Impressive. I only knew how to get on BST from Hidden Valley. Rocky Mouth had some wicked switchbacks, but Corey did Parley's trail ok, so he probably was good. So I parked at Coyote Hollow and then did Rush the end, then over to BST until I met up with them. Corey did 15.14 miles, 2 hours 1 min, and he got 26 achievements on Strava, like a Gold for Fly by night to Rush. He also wiped out right at the beginning of rush and got a good rash on his left leg, ouch! Totals for me: 8.99 miles, 1 hour 16 min, 14 achievements, like Silver on Brocks (4.44, PR was 4:29 on 6/24/23) Rushing Corners (1:38, PR 1:28 on 11/13/23) Quite a few Silvers on the Rush downhill so that's cool! PR on Chainless Rush (from the Ghost Falls jump in to almost the end?) 3:29, Previous PR was 11/13/23 3:32, 21 efforts doing that. Also a PR for Lower Rush, .3 miles in 57 seconds, 65 efforts on that, so that's fun! After that Corey, Rob and I also went to the jump track and did a few rounds, I want to learn how to jump. I got air twice and it was terrifying but I'm glad I didn't fall! I don't know how people keep their feet on the bike when they're floating? Or how you know where you're landing when you put them back down. I just got lucky today. I am going to go try that little jump track again. It will be fun to learn. That would make sense to get clips for that, but I should probably get better first. Anyway, that was really fun. Corey also had a good wipeout right as we were starting down Rush. Tore up his left leg a little bit but he rode the rest of the trail great. 

Bike, Lunch, & Debate

We took Katharine on a ride again yesterday. I wasn't planning on her coming, but Corey opened the opportunity for her and then he felt he had to and seemed like he wanted to. He wasn't being quiet like about it like I am. I quietly sneak out the basement, but he was rather inviting the opportunity. Ok, I guess we'll be going slow today. We hadn't even started when she wanted him to fix her gloves.

Then he had to keep helping her take them off then put them back on during various stages of the ride...

Gotta keep the toddler as happy as possible or else the ride is doomed. I was reluctant to bring her. I wanted to sneak away and leave her with the older kids, cause I knew she wouldn't make it to the techy section and I wanted to do techy. Corey was nice and after we all made it to the third bridge, we let K get off to wake her up for a bit. She threw rocks into the stream.

Then they headed back home on the road and I finished going to Techy section. She didn't fall asleep today and did great! Good job K - 

We may have a future mountain biking star on our hands, once she figures out how to be ok with bumps and going over rocks. 

So our 30 year high school reunion is coming in up August. Crazy, 30 years. I was at the bank last week opening an account for the reunion, for us to use to sell tickets and to pay for the venue and stuff. The guy at the bank, as he checked my ID, noticed it was almost my birthday, said "happy birthday" and then let me know that my drivers license was expiring that day. Doh! If I had gotten a renewal in the mail, I never saw it. So I scheduled an appointment online. I had a few days with an expired license but I was able to go in yesterday to get that taken care of. Peter and K playing in the DMV line - which thankfully was open at the moment. 

My appt was at 10:10 and by 10:26 we were back in the car. In and out in 16 minutes - not bad! 

Today was a full day - Corey and I left for Provo at 12 to take Joseph and Eliza out to lunch at 1. We were all late and were sitting down at 1:20. BYU's Women's Conference was going on and we were surprised but grateful that it wasn't busy. We enjoyed a nice meal. It was a "congrats on graduating and getting engaged" date with them. We decided to take him to the Skyroom in Provo cause that is where Melodie works - 

AND cause today was the last day that the Skyroom will be open. Mel brought us our food and we enjoyed the meal very much and had a nice visit. Ethan and Bella went out to eat there yesterday to say their goodbye to the Skyroom .

Joseph and Ethan are grateful for Mel working there, cause she often took them leftovers, thus helping them survive another year of poor college life on a diet other than top ramen. 

Joseph and Eliza will be going to The Ohio State for Medical school in August right after our Wride reunion at Park City this summer. I brought Joseph his ski boots cause he's going to sell them. He's been trying to figure out how to make ends meet until then (and that will continue to be the story for the next decade plus I'm sure) Joseph is thinking he might try painting house numbers on curbs? Or maybe will be able to work for my parents or Eliza's uncle up in Idaho. Exciting decisions and years ahead for these two! We finished off with some dessert - a strawberry cheesecake thing, interesting looking!

It was a strawberry fondant mold with the cheesecake inside on top of a brownie. We hung out a bit until Mel was done and she gave us some extra steak and desserts to take home to the little kids, yay, and also gave us a ride back to our car. We came down in Corey's car. I left the van home for Abi and Lily to take to GMS, after they dropped off Hyrum at frontrunner. He and Mel are on their way to St. George for the weekend. Hyrum didn't come down with us, though, cause we needed him to stay home and watch P&K until Sophi got home. Then S was in charge of all the kids while A&L took H to the train. It was a bit tricky figuring out logistics today. This lunch date was our date "night" though - so this evening I just have been up here blogging. I took Corey back over to his dad's house after Provo, so that I could have his car to go pick up Natalie at the State Debate Championship. Took C back to his dad's to work, I had his car to pick up N and her freind from a Debate thing. She got a ride over their with her friend from school. It was a long one again, from 3:00 to 8pm. 

Natalie took home a trophy this time too. She won 2nd place in State!

Good job Natalie! Let's see, that's about it for the past two days. We have a primary activity and soccer  games and a trumpet recital tomorrow. Always busy. Oh, one more picture - K thew up at 1:30 am last night/early this morning. She was with Natalie up on her bed, and threw up on Natalie and N's blankets and pillow. So her first throw up was on Tues May 1st, Throw up #2 was at 1am this morning, then she threw up again tonight at 8:20 pm. I guess it's good I was home and not out on a date. Hopefully this was her last one? She's holding back, I don't think she's letting all the sickness get out hence why she's still got it inside her. She's been taking a lot of baths.

I had carpool this morning, then getting kids off to school and lunch date - so Corey and I hadn't exercised yet. I told him I wanted to go climbing, and it is open until 11pm M-F, so it's just past 9pm,  which is a bit late for us, but we're going to go climb real quick. Corey and I have done all our biking and climbing togehter this week! (Well, I did one extra climbing session on Friday, but we've done pretty good doing it together. Go team. Oh, one last pic of cure Owen that Ethan sent tonight. Ethan has been working on the House 2 for a few months. He says he's close to being done. Should be fun. 

Owen, you are cute!

Kat's Turn

Look at Cute Katharine! This cute pic was tonight after her 3rd (4th?) bath for the day.  

Natalie did her hair and let me know that she likes it when K's hair is more whispy. I guess we can do that. K is wearing boots that Wes sent back from Texas with Mark! He found them at a thrift store and got them for Peter but they are a bit too small for Peter. We'll try to get K to wear them enough to get use out of them, or we'll save them for Wesley's kids to wear. They are super cute with a Texas flag on them! Aww, cute. I was glad that K seemed to be well today, cause the morning started off a bit rough. She threw up in her bed at 5:30 am. I'm glad that I had moved out of her bed around 2 and I was spared. It wasn't much of a mess... she hadn't eaten much dinner, just a clementine. Still, she did NOT like not being in control of herself!

This involuntary reaction, boo! She threw up again in the tub and seemed to be trying to keep it down and not let it out. It was sad, poor thing doesn't know what's going on. 

She loved being in the kid's bathroom. The water there works a little better than the faucet in our room, to control volume and temperature, so maybe I'll give her baths in here more. She stayed in the tub for a long time, but eventually I put on a movie for her and Corey and I snuck out for a ride while Hyrum got kids to school for me. Abi stayed home sick so she was able to help a little bit too. They put K down for a nap in my bed, and when she woke up at 10, she had a big blowout that I got on my bed, so I had to wash our sheets too, and that was K's bath #2. So it was a laundry and stay at home day, and that's ok. Corey and I did sneak off to do top rope at 8pm and that was fun. We were able to make our get away cause K was in the tub again, Lily watching her. We've been trying to do all our exercising together, for climbing and biking. We'll see if we're able to keep that up in the summer. I'm glad we're still climbing! I hope that K's sickness does not mean that we're about to start another round of throwing up for everyone. Hopefully it's just her checking off her turn from the sickness we had going around here two weeks ago. I'm glad she seemed fine the rest of the day. She's a cutie pie.