Morning Ride, Evening Hike

Grant and I had a nice ride in Corner Canyon. We did Rush the end, so I could give him a little taste of Rush to see if he was up for it, and he was. So then we took Canyon Hollow up, Brocks over, and Rush  down. We also and Limelight. 

Grant did great, he's a natural athlete. The air might have been a bit thin compared to Texas, but he did great. I took Corey's car out there, so I could bring our bike (Grant borrowed Corey's) and we left his van at the bike park, then went up and parked at Coyote Hollow Trailhead. Corey drove out here in the van to swap cars with me. Corey took the bikes home and then Grant drove me back up to the van, which Corey left at the trailhead, and we were able to spend a little more time together by going out for breakfast at Aubergine! I was trying to be healthy and just got the "Wake Up Call" green drink. It has Spinach, kale, turmeric, cucumber, ginger, celery, broccolis, lemon, flax, hemp seeds, parsley, spirulina, and coconut water. It didn't taste very good, but it was heathy. I don't know what gave me the impression that it would taste good, so after my first "blech" taste, I chugged it down. And then Grant let me have some of his chocolate nut milk. That was very good! (Dates, housemade cashew milk, cocoa, almond butter and vanilla!). I also ordered an avocado mash toast for my lunch later. That was  also very very good. When I got home, Corey was gone at work, and Natalie was doing an AMAZING job as babysitter. She had all the kids playing restaurant. 

K was still in bed, so I woke her up and took her downstair for breakfast, a little pancake for a little girl. 

I worked on wedding stuff a little bit today. We found the caterer we are going to use in Idaho for Joseph's wedding - Whatever Works Catering. I found them through the EZ Catering app, and then decided to just call them. It is really reasonably priced, only $12.50 a person! Well, as long as we don't get any add on's (just cookies and brownies, no raspberry bars or lemon pound cake, so sad). The menu looks great. I let K watch a movie while I tried to get stuff done. She took a little nap in the chair.

Still wearing her pearls that Sophi gave her for her birthday last week. She had not taken it off! Not even for baths. This afternoon I took my so-easy-to-do-stuff-with-only-5 children on a hike up to Lisa Falls. 

And we've been up to the parking lot lots of times, to go biking on the south trail, but we've never explored the north side of the road! Today was the day. Natalie made a picnic dinner (Actually this was partially to get out of making dinner, cause Corey was working late)

Natalie made ham sandwiches for everyone, then off we went for a pretty quick 10 min drive up the canyon. As soon as I manually locked the van, I looked for my keys in my pockets, and then doh... I had left them inside the car. I'm glad I found out before we hiked up. I called Corey, who was on his way home, and he said he'd be there when we were done. Ok, that is good, and I'm glad we were at a place close to home. And then it was just a 5 minute hike and we were there at the waterfall!

The kids liked climbing the big granite slabs.

And felt proud of how high they could get. 

Natalie made it up too.

Katharine and I stayed by the pool. 

I watched her throw little rocks into the water.

Owen and Daniel both slipped and fell on the hike down. Prob need to get them shoes with better traction. Examining their battle wounds ~

And Corey was there with the key to the van, yay. Older kids are all doing well. Mel is at FSY, and ran into her younger sisters and took some selfies for me. 

Looks like the are having a great time! I'm so grateful. FSY is such a great thing, for the teenagers and the young single adults. I love the church.

Doctor & Library

I checked on Katharine first thing this morning. She got like 12 hours of sleep! 

That is good for a little growing girl. Natalie is being a good older sister again. I'm glad K didn't have a foot in her face. I've felt a little off with all the older girls gone. I'm glad that Natalie is still here to be my helper and allow Corey and I to get out an exercise. We did bouldering this morning. I finally did this orange V2 today! It's been eluding me and is a tough one.

Corey was ready to leave and wanted me to get back home to the kids, (and I was a bit spent after finally getting that V2...) so just I did 16. I got home, and then was grateful for my phone that keeps me on track, cause last week I set an alarm to remind me about Katharine's 2 year well visit today. The alarm went off an hour early, and I remembered setting it for that much before, but I was confused cause I thought the appointment was on Thursday. I guess I set the alarm without mentally registering the day and time in my head. But having the alarm an hour before the appointment gave me plenty of time to get all the kids ready to come with me. Natalie had already been playing with Katharine, and they were playing princess, so K was slightly overdressed for her appointment. She was all decked out in a new princess dress - not the purple gown she slept in, but Natalie's old favorite red and white dress. We all got socks and shoes on. I probably could have left Natalie at home with the boys, but I thought I might take them to the library afterwards so I had them come. But (little parenting tip here...) I didn't say anything about that to them, so as to not commit myself in case I changed my mind. We got there 10 min early, the doctor appt was at 11:30. Kids played on the bead racer toys. 

Daniel had K's Bingo stuffed toy that my mom got her for her bday, Kids also looked out the window and wandered and asked me why it was taking so long.

After waiting until 11:50, I was wondering that myself. I went to ask a receptionist, and she said they were running 45 minutes behind. They had a "45 min wait" sign next to Dr. Shultz's name, but not Dr. Schmidt, but I didn't point that out, we just went back and I told the kids "We've waited 20, we got 25 more!" They were boooored and starting asking me for Wendy's frosties or other compensatory blessings to offset this trial they were facing. I calmly said "no". I feel no guilt for denying them fast food. We did eventually get called in at 12:10, yay. And the nice nurses, probably knowing we'd had a long wait, gave everyone a snack. 

The appointment wasn't long once we got in. And they gave Katharine a new book, and I was feeling good and at this point did tell the kids that we'd be going by the library after.  

Katharine reading over in the kiddie corner on a toddler sized couch.

We checked out 25 things - 23 books and two DVDs. Kids played with the puppet show.

They got lost in their books for the next hour at home, yay! Kids reading in the side room. 

I made them lunch - Peter, Daniel and Katharine wanted pink oatmeal, ham sandwiches for Natalie and Owen. Daniel reading with his pink oatmeal.

While kids were eating and reading, I got a little bit done in my room. I came out to smell fingernail polish and found K in the basket of polish that Natalie had gotten down this morning when she got K all dolled up. I put it up high. K got some on her dress and just a little bit on the carpet. Could have been worse! Her fancy dress was getting progressively dirty through out the day. Seems like a good time to wear it to the park. Put K in the trailer - 

Kids got on their bikes...

And we rode down to the school. 

Owen and Daniel rode their bikes to school almost every day. I wonder if Peter will want to ride with them to school in the fall? I shall have to prep myself for that, cause that would mean K and I would probably go with them, which could be fun. I'll just have to get K ready for that every morning on the shotgun seat. As soon as we got there, Peter had to go to #2. 

Yay, so much for reading while the kids played... so I put him in the trailer and took him home, left N at the park with ODK. I got back at 6:15, NOD were done, so they went home and I stayed with PK until P was done. K playing at the top of the slide in her dress and pearls!

When he said he was, K went to get her socks and shoes which she had discarded. Getting so dirty, just like a kid should when it's summer time. Kat, go get your socks and shoes! You ready? "I ready!!!" 

That is probably the sentence Katharine says the most, and usually said with a hop and a jump, "I ready!!" So Peter got on his bike, I put K in the trailer, and we start to leave. We had been at the south playground for the older elementary kids and as we left and rode on the north side of the school, K saw the other playground and said "slide! Slide!" so then we stopped, unbuckled, and stayed a little longer. 

I barely got them to leave in time for when Corey was coming home. Corey and I both got there at the same time and hurried and changed clothes to get ready for a 7pm ride with our neighbor Rob. Since we had stayed at the park for so long, I didn't get the kids dinner. Rob arrived, Corey went out to talk with him as I finished getting ready. I went out, Corey asked if the kids were all taken care of. "Yes. ...it ok that I gave them Lucky Charms for dinner?" He said it was ok. "Ok, then yes, they are all taken care of." Natalie held down the fort while we went on a ride up the canyon. We went to the ruins, I got up the climb after Lisa Falls today! My second time this year. The top with the ruins was all washed over - the river is high from the summer temperatures that are here, and so it was all coming down the trail at the top. We did techy, and I hit everything and felt proud, and Corey wanted to show Rob Techgnar so we did that and I did the sticks bridge on that for the first time. I could probably get to like it, I just need to get more familiar with it. Came home and cleaned up, and tried to get ready for bed. We played a quick game of Great Dalmuti with the kids again. I guess they liked it last night. ...or perhaps left the peasants unsatisfied?

Katharine played, she was a wild card player, meaning that whatever she did was allowed. She didn't want to do anything except hold her cards though, so that was good for the game, but made her wail when it was time to shuffle. No tears from the boys this time, so that's an improvement. Time for bed, I've got an early ride with Grant in the morning! And since I knew that was coming, I wasn't going to go on a ride today, to save my energy, but Corey said I should cause it'll be Grants first time and if my legs are totally fresh, I'll leave him in the dust. "You don't want to be too gung ho for a beginner..." Good advice. Hopefully my legs won't be burning too much.

FSY & Oakcrest

I know that summer is here, because my Summer Roses are blooming!

And more on the way. 

They are so pretty. There are a lot of aphids on them that I sprayed off with a hose last week, and I've just been squishing with my bare fingers since then. They gotta go away! I was admiring the roses after I got back from a ride. I woke up this morning at 5:15am, got dressed, and went to Corner Canyon by myself, arrived by 6. I'm prepping myself for a 6am ride with my little bro Grant on Wednesday, it will be fun! I tried to go early so I could be back for the busy morning. Sophi was leaving for Oakcrest at 7:30. She woke up on her own and got out the door, and her friend picked her up right as I was pulling up, so I didn't give her a hug but that's ok. She'll be back Friday at 12:30. Kelsy and Sophi are on the bus and ready to go!

I was a counselor up at Oakcrest in 1996. It was fun. I'm excited for her. It'll be good. After I got home, I woke up Abi and Lily and they finished getting ready for FSY. Their check in wasn't until 11, and went from 11 - 1, so we had a nice window there. We got there around 11:40 and there were a ton of people. "I hope we don't have to wait in that line!" Abi said as she saw a line extending out from the Marriott Center. I didn't know, so I dropped them off to go figure it out and we waited with their luggage in the car. They were back in a jiffy - "Luckily there were not very many people with the last name W..." And then we went over to building 12 and at noon they were off on their way to an awesome week with new friends.

Have fun girls! Melodie is an assistant coordinator at FSY at BYU this week, so she was there and after I dropped off A&L, Mel called to see if I wanted to come inside to where she was. I didn't really, since I had 5 kids in tow, but we drove over there and she came out to give the kids a hug. "Meeeelll!"

I dropped Hyrum off yesterday at the U of U, he is an FSY counselor up there this week. Then he's going straight to San Diego from there to be a counselor there, and for a few more weeks after that. He's excited. It's good for him to be out of here and not be my live in babysitter (sigh).

But he was an awesome help. Thanks for spoiling me Hyrum. So after hugging Mel, my captive passengers and I headed back home. They watched Monsters University in the car. They wanted to go by Wendy's but I don't do Wendy's. So instead I gave them outshine popsicles after we got home. That inspired them to make an ipad movie about deadly popsicles (they didn't like the lime flavor). We had a good turn out on the phone call with Wesley today! Joseph and Eliza both driving...

Joseph was driving back from Las Vegas which was where he drove to to fly out to Guatemala last weekend. Glad he's back safe. AND with a pretty good beard to show for it! Ha, 

He said "I'm coming for you Hyrum!" (Ethan and Hyrum had a little facial hair growth contest over Christmas, Hyrum won. Joseph didn't compete, but I think Joseph could hold his own!) Joseph will be going to American Fork tomorrow to be a counselor for an American Heritage school retreat, so with JMH all gone (and E married and W on his mission) and AL at FSY and S at Oakcrest this week, it will just be me and NODPK, so I'll have a small family with only 5 kids for a few days. It will be just like old times back in 2011 when 11 year old Joseph was the oldest at home. But I guess in 2011 I had 8 kids... so maybe we need to go back to 2006 when I had 5 kids! But they were 6 years old and under, so this week should be easier than that was. It'll be good. I'll try to do some fun stuff with them and not be my usual contented home body. 

Hibberts in Town

My little brother Grant and his family are in town, and we got together today with them and the Utah Hibberts before they head up to Idaho for a reunion. They don't leave for that until Tues, but we did it today because Abi, Lily, and Sophi will be gone tomorrow morning - Abi and Lily to FSY in Provo, and Sophi leaves bright and early tomorrow morning for Oakcrest Girls Camp. We all gathered near the Hibbert headquarters at Antzcak Park. Enjoying a nice sunset view. 

Ethan & Bella and Mel were able to come so that was good. We had a big potluck feast, and then spent the evening visiting...

...and playing spikeball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. Natalie taking on her older cousins Mikey and Sam.

And having fun on the playground of course. 

We were sad that Joseph and Hyrum weren't here. I took Hyrum to the U tonight for him to get settled in before his first week as an FSY counselor. And Joseph is gone in Guatemala. Jerusha's family and Matt and Beka didn't make it either, but it was good to be with the Texas and Layton Hibberts. I practiced a few headstands from the top of the hill and Katharine and I played a game of running towards each other with arms stretched out a few times. The kids rolled down the hill. Lily took this photo - look at Katharine's little smile! 

So cute. Peter, you are cute too. The kids kept playing after it was dark, cause they were having lots of fun with all the Texas Hibbert cousins. 

We love Hibbert cousin time. Also two pics from yesterday - Natalie climbing one of the pine trees in the back yard...

She's up pretty high! And Corey took the kids all out for fun on Saturday. They enjoyed some ice cream shakes at Iceberg on 39th. He's a fun father. I'm glad that he's good at being a dad.