End of Summer Report

Ok, this last week of summer has flown by. As a farewell to summer, Corey took the kids to the zoo yesterday. They liked that well enough, but the thing they were really looking forward to was the ice cream afterwards that Corey promised them. I don't know why he's always promising them food. Seems like the outing should be enough on it's own, but I get it, food makes it memorable. Especially Handel's ice cream. Katharine would not let Corey help her with her melting dripping ice cream on this hot day. 

HE had just bought this treat for her, but it was HERS and she was not going to share with him (the audacity!!!). She was not letting go. Keep this cold sugary creamy concoction close to my lips, mmmm...  She was gripping this soggy cone very tightly...

Haha, WHAT A MESS!! So funny. They are good at making messes. After they start school, I will not miss the messes of food that they make all day. I won't miss seeing their bowls of unused peanut butter left on the counter from when they were dipping apples. 

K, let's see, so the past few days there were a few things I missed recording, so time to give a report. I might just be rattling some of these things off. On Wednesday Sophi and Natalie had their last summer violin lessons. 2 female butterflies emerged. On Thursday Mel and Abi began their travel back from Europe - first to Amsterdam, then to Chicago, then arriving in SL at 10 pm Friday night. Nicole came by to visit us on Thursday and she left Friday morning. Pic of us on Friday - 

Nicole is my favorite. I'll give the details of her travels. She left Maryland on Sunday, drove to Ohio, then drove Ohio to Utah on Monday. They arrived early Tuesday morning and came to our house for a shower and then they went to the airport to get the missionaries Tues morning. Her twins entered the MTC on Wednesday. Corey has been called to the Bridgetown Barbados Mission, and Nic is going to serve in the Canada Edmonton Mission. Exciting! They went to lunch as a family and then went to Bountiful to visit friends that are like family (the senior couple that taught her husband the gospel years ago). She stayed in Lehi Tues night with friends. She and her missionaries went to the Orem temple Wednesday morning, then picked up the rest of her kids to go with them and say goodbye as at the MTC Wednesday afternoon. I enjoyed hanging out with her Thursday. The kids liked playing with their dog.  

I had one male butterfly emerge on Friday. Peter new kindergarten teacher came by to say hello with the other teacher that Owen and Daniel had. They were excited to have them come to our house, it felt special. On Friday night we had a date night dinner at India House, then went to the pre-wedding open house of a son of a friend from high school and Corey's college roommate Nathan. It was in their backyard, which I was very impressed with. It was obvious Mary puts a lot of work into it! We were able to see and visit with some high school friends there and tell them to come to the reunion in two weeks. 

Friday was Joseph's White Coat Ceremony, and I went on a bike ride and got a PR on Clarks! 16:10, which was a tie with Corey and Joseph's best time! 

I had to point out my time to them, not bad for an old lady!

It is a good way to honor him on his official start of medical school. Kids enjoyed having a lazy morning today. It's nice having 11 o'clock church. There are only a few more days to sleep in. School starts for ALSN on Wednesday. Katharine slept with Natalie on the bottom bunk but ended up in the morning asleep on the floor.

Watching a Sunday movie at 4:46 pm.

Natalie being creative this evening. I was gonna get a photo for evidence of her craziness, but she fled before me. I still got her back side. She had stuffed her clothes full to make herself look large and then was doing an exercise show. 

Sophi was joining her in being silly and taped her nose up like a pig. She asked me not to put the pic here, so I'll honor that request. But just know that they are both silly tweenager girls. They'll have fun at Junior high. 

White Coat Ceremony

It's been a good Friday. Most significant thing that happened from among our quiver of children, is that Joseph had his "White Coat Ceremony" out at the Ohio State today. 

Corey and I watched the live stream of it and took a screen shot when it was his turn to come up ~

Sorry we didn't come out in person, Joseph! I promise we'll make it out for the graduation ceremony. Joseph got a photo with all the other BYU Alums. Not sure of the order, but he said we've got Seth, Jake, Bryce, and Darien in this photo ~

And all the young men with their lovely wives. 

Joseph said "3 of us are in the same ward and live on the same block and the other 2 live about 5-10 min away." Corey commented "Young, married, American-born in grad school? America doesn't do that so much anymore."

We're excited for Joseph and Eliza as they start on this new adventure! Joseph shared this on his facebook: "The hand of God in this journey has been unmistakable. He put the right people and opportunities in my path at just the right time and lifted me up to do more than I could have on my own. I’m so beyond excited to be starting school at the Ohio State University College of medicine and all the miracles and learning ahead! Go Buckeyes!!"

Then as the final act of the ceremony, they projected the Medical School Oath on the screen. 

They said "This is your last test before Med School". Joseph, in case you need it later, this is the "Medical School Oath" that you took today:

As we enter the medical profession, 

  We will become members of a larger community working together for the health and well being of our patients and society. 

  We will strive for clinical excellence, and we will employ our skills with compassion and dignity. 

  We will use our individual backgrounds and our personal ethics to enrich all of our interactions but never as a basis for malice or bias. 

  We will respect the efforts fo our mentors and peers, and we will not hesitate to ask for their guidance when needed. 

  We will honor the privacy of our patients, and we will maintain confidentiality appropriate to the doctor-patient relationship.

  We will remember that to care for our patients, we must attend to our own well-being in spirit, mind, and body. 

   We realize that medicine education is a lifelong commitment that only begins today, and we choose to accept the high standards of honesty and integrity to which society will hold us accountable.

So that is exciting. Good job Joseph. Joseph called and mentioned some thought he had on the parallels between that ceremony and the temple. He will be a longer and longer white coat each year as he continues his studies. In 4 years when he is finished, he will be given a new name. He took an oath and committed to certain things. After he learns those things, he will be entrusted with opportunities. Anyway, cool stuff. Joseph and Eliza have been doing a good job setting up house - they found a steal on a table with like 4 leave inserts and 6 chairs for $200. They're living the dream!

What else happened today:

• I released my last butterfly - a male. I have not been looking for more eggs, so I think I'm done for this year unless I happen upon a caterpillar or something.
• Peter's kindergarten teacher came by our house for a visit at 1pm. He was all excited and laying on his back and kicking his feet, which was a new thing to see him be weird like that. He's usually pretty calm and normal. I said a few times "Hey Peter, put your feet down..."
• Corey and I went our to eat at India House. I like their butter chicken. 
• After our dinner out, we went by Mary and Nathan's house for a pre-wedding reception. Their son Dallin is getting married tomorrow in Logan. Their back yard was lovely, and I was inspired. I want to make our backyard a more inviting space for the kids and Corey and I too. I am going to ponder on that more and hope to get some inspiriation. 
• Abi and Mel arrive home from their trip to Europe tonight around 10:30pm. I'm going to head down for scriptures and then go pick them up. Bye.

Summer Hobbies

Kids are still busy on this last week of summer break. Owen still working on his ship. 

Peter playing with him with a small skiff.

Daniel has taken up knitting to pass his time. 

I'm still working on reunion stuff. People are making payments to me via my venmo. It's a nice feeling to have money in there, even though none of it is actually mine. It's kinda crazy how quickly you can get thousands of dollars when couples are sending payment for tickets thare are $80 each. $120 over and over again, ka-ching! Maybe we will actually break even on this? I spent too much time on the computer working today, but I'm grateful the kids kept themselves busy. I did take a quick evening ride before the sunset. I parked at Lisa falls and did a few laps on Techy. I did it 5 times until it was so dark I fell. I got the Lisa rocks twice! AND Techy 3x! Total distance 3.5 miles. My lap times were: 3:25, 3:12, 3:41, 3:21, 4:25

Yesterday morning Corey and I went to Corner Canyon and did Clarks and Rush. 4.37 miles in 39:30 minutes, I got 15 achievements including a PR on my fav part or rush where it really swoops around, it's like real Mario Kart! So fun. Oh what else... we had one butterfly emerge today. I was worried about this one cause there was a hole in it's chrysalis...

But it emerged looking fine and normal and I sent it away with prayers for a safe journey and life. 

Cute butterflies. They are so sweet.

We figured out carpool to the junior high today, so I guess that means school is about to start. I have the same morning drives I did last year on Tuesdays and Fridays.  

Primary Olympics

The Primary in our ward put on a cute activity for the kids today. They held a Water Olympics and it was super cute. Peter playing with the water gun.

Peter dribbling a soccer ball in a relay.

More relay races.

And then they did a little triathalon around the neighborhood where they had to do a bike ride like three laps around the neighborhood, go swim in a few laps in a neighbors pool, and then run two laps around the block. It seemed kinda intense but Owen didn't give up - he did it in his flip flops! 

Group pic in the Olympic pool noodle circles. 

I'm not a primary teacher, but I saw that they looked a little short staffed, so I stayed and helped. They appreciated it. I was glad to lend a hand. I did K's hair tonight. She is good at holding still and doesn't fuss when I pull it. She's a cutie.  

Last Full Week of Summer Break

It is the last full week of summer vacation. They are going to keep partying hard while they can. 

Partying around here means doing Just Dance! Dynamite! 

That's what makes you beautiful!

It is fun to see them dance together, and it's good exercise. We had two butterflies come out today,

And two females yesterday. Playing with the butterflies before church. 

Aren't they so pretty!?!

Yesterday was fast Sunday. I fasted for a strong marriages for some couples I love. We watched lots of John Adams, I did one blog post, I took a nap, and we ate leftover dessert bars for dinner. I'm going to let myself take it easy this week, no guilt allowes. A few pics from today - an afternoon veggie tray for lunch. 

Owen has been working hard on a lego pirate ship. He'll come down every day and show me a few more details he's put into it. It's really good! I'm impressed Owen!

Pretty K taking a nap.

We took a few pics to send to Wesley today. Peter giving his winning smile. He likes is 4th of July tank top. 

Daniel showing Wesley the marble craft he made at Park City last week. 

This morning Corey and I rode the Quarry trail. 11.22 miles, 1510 elevation gain. 1 hour 35 min, I wasn't feeling it and ended up going pretty slow on the climb, walked a few times, got up avalanche hill and the 3rd bridge pipe and the two end obstacles, not Lisa Hill or the 2nd bridge rocks. BUT I got all of Techy today, yay.

Park City - Wrap Up

We took an early morning ride this morning. Mark's friend Kyle was up here yesterday, he works in Park City and we shared the House episodes IV & V with him last night, he and Mark were laughing pretty hard. Ethan is done with the finale, we watched it Wednesday but then noticed a few things that he had to go back and fix, like that Lily was not included in segment where each kid gave "one word to describe what it's like living in a large family" (Hyrum noticed she was missing, Ethan said "shoot, how did I miss that??") - so there's always something to go back to fix. Anyway, Kyle came up this morning, we went up Armstrong and HAM. Corey and Kyle continued up to Mid Mountain and then took Pinecone over to Puke Hill!

Then they turned around and came back - it was a 3+ hour ride for them! I came home after HAM, cause I had gotten my fill, it was my 7th ride this week, so I came back and helped pack up, since we had to be out of our room at 10. I called the front desk to see if we could get a late checkout, and they said yes, yay, so it was extended to 11. Corey was back at 10:50 and that gave him a chance to shower. Hyrum was a great leader of the helpers and we got everything out and loaded into the cars. Then we had breakfast together in Wayne's room at 10:45 (we didn't do our part of bringing a beverage, sorry! I should have grabbed that yesterday when I went for hotdog buns) and then at 11:45 we did a group pic. We're missing a big chunck of the people that were here earlier in the week, but that's ok. Ya do what you can when you can. Katharine with her captive father. 

Everyone smile!

Katharine kept Corey on a short leash most of the time up here. Walking back to the room after the pool on Wednesday night. 

He's pushed her around the halls on the luggage dolly, and sometimes mad him hold her. It wasn't bad if she'd just accept one hand to be held.

But often she wanted to be carried. And when Corey was tired of doing that, it made her sad. When she's sad, she goes off and sulks in some solitary spot on the ground (like at Joseph's wedding open house)...

Acutally, wait, no... this was not when she was sad about not being held... this was when Corey bought her a bar of Hershey's chocolate, and then he took a bite. "You take my chocolate!!! Waaah!" That is another frequent occurrence - K protesting sharing, even (especially) when it's something YOU JUST GAVE TO HER, so funny. She's a little spoiled princess, to be sure. My little brother Grant just had a baby girl this week on July 31. They are probably going to name her Daisy. She will be protected by 4 older brothers, so she'll be a princess in that house too. Katharine is no longer the baby grandchild on both Wride and Hibbert sides, she'll have to share that with Daisy now, but she will be in good princess company.

So, we're home now. After the group pic, Hyrum, Sophi and Natalie headed home in the van, which was full of most all our luggage. H was anxious to get going (we were looking for Daniel) so I told him that's fine, and if he wanted to unload upon arriving at home, I wouldn't mind. And he DID! Such a good helper. We waited a bit more until Corey found D and also found someone to unlock Ethan and Bella's room, where his phone was charging. Started to drive home, right as we were getting on I-80, Corey realized looking in the rear view mirror, that we still had one of Mark's bike locks. It wouldn't have been a big deal to keep until we saw him again, BUT it was on one of our friend's bikes, which meant we wouldn't be able to return the bike, so then we turned around at Jeremy Ranch to go back and get the key from Mark and then return his key and lock to him. Mark came down to meet us, also bringing a few things we forgot (like the Go For It game). Note to self: We brought up 8 games, and did not play ANY of them, so we are not allowed to bring them next year. We brought so much stuff, and we got to bring less next year. Since that was one thing we brought but did not use, that's off the list for next year, as well as the two saxophones, and the two bins of roller blades. We used 4 of the 7 bikes, so we also need to get the kids biking more or leave some of those home too. 

I took a nap an hour after getting home. And then Terry brought me back my chrysalides. I had 7 more left on the branch. I had a boy released this morning with 3 of Terry's females, and I had 9 male 3 females released from my monarch eggs this past week. I did not go look for eggs, I think I'm done helping the monarchs this year. It's kinda been a crazy spring/summer so far. Wedding, wedding open house, and now I gotta focus more on the reunion. I did catch up a bit helping with that today - that's the next "fire" to put out. Our 30th reunion on Aug 24th. Pretty exciting stuff. It's been a great week, a long week, I'm ready for bed, and am going to enjoy a day of rest tomorrow. 

Crafts and Stuff

Two more days of partying in Park City are over and this week has gone by fast. We head home tomorrow. The kids have enjoyed doing crafts this week. Mel went by Wayne's house before we came up here, and gathered up a bunch of JeNeal's old boxes of crafts - beads, paints, wires, glue, tape and popsicle sticks, etc. The kids were all in the zone yesterday, intently painting.

They were painting different ceramic things, mostly mermaids and butterflies. Peter working on a robot, Daniel making a marble drop machine. 

The paints was out within toddler reach all day (yikes) yet luckily we didn't get any on the carpet or couches, and we were able to get it all wiped off of the tables and chairs, even without a magic eraser on hand.

The toddlers have been having fun. Katharine is everyone's favorite. Cousin Rhyan gave K a makeover - touched up her eyebrows and did mascara and lipstick.

K is feeling pretty, blowing me a kiss!

We've been having our dinners in Wayne's room every night. I'm glad kids are ok about just eating on the floor.

For my bike rides yesterday and today: yesterday morning I took a ride alone. I went up Spiro, my first time climbing that (used to be downhill but after last year was changed to uphill only). It was pretty brutal, like harder than Clarks I think cause I had to get off and walk. Or maybe I just haven't been letting my legs rest up cause I'm trying to go everyday. I actually wanted to go morning and evening, but I wasn't able to get away for an evening ride except for one time last night. Yesterday I went to the gym with Hyrum and he was going to go on the exercise bike but instead he said he'd do a ride with us, so we went Corey, Hyrum and I on an evening ride up Jenni's and down Loose Moose. Hyrum was sweating hard, but he had an ebike, which are heavy bikes. It would have been helped him if we had it fully charged, but we didn't so it died half way and then was super heavy for him. Corey said the ride felt like nothing for him, and I was ok considering it was my second ride. Since Corey had a nothing ride yesterday, we did a big ride this morning with Nancy. Getting the bikes ready - pumping the tires and greasing the chains...

We had a really great parking spot - #148, which on floor 0 was right by the elevator which led right to our room #7374. So Corey didn't take the car anywhere cause we were protecting that spot, haha. So Nancy rode the fully charged ebike this morning, so that was good. We went up the same as last night with Hyrum, but we kept going, followed Jenni's to Mid Mountain, around took that a while until we could see the Montage...

...then turned around for ride back down. It was prob a bit long for Nancy to take her first ride in a few years, 2 hours and 5 min, 11.89 miles! 

Yesterday on my solo morning ride and later with Hyrum, I was listening to Illapu "Vuelvo para Vivir" and was feeling the feels and so grateful for mi pais, for Utah, these lovely mountains <3 it was a moment, I was feeling the feels, I love biking and getting up in these gorgeous mountains. After our ride this morning, Corey left for home with Abi and Mel so they could pack for their trip - they are going to Vienna again, I think mostly for fun to play in little concerts with their teacher April Clayton. They packed up and ran errands and then Corey took them to the airport around 6:30, they flew out at 9pm. 

Ethan's still been working on the house, and asked for a bit more advice tonight: 

Ethan - Hey wride nation. Should I keep all of our cousins names in the house?
Corey - No, would only include people who are in the show. I was going tot suggest that before you asked
Ethan - Ok. Why though?
Corey - Why did you include them in the first place?
Ethan - Idk To be inclusive. And have stuff in the credits
Corey - that is what I assumed - but I wouldn't do it. not everyone may want their name following a pretty strong gospel endorsement
Ethan - True. How about I message everyone individually and ask them if they have a testimony. And include those that do. Joking haha 

That made me laugh. So while Corey was gone all day, I let the kids do whatever, and I spent most of my day at the computer here, cause I realized this morning "shoot, it's August!" and I didn't get out our ward Relief Society newsletter yesterday. So I did that all day and got it sent at 8:25 pm. We had a bbq tonight for dinner, which I didn't have our assigned food for, and I didn't have my wallet or license up here either, so we borrowed Bella's car and Hyrum drove it and he bought hotdogs and hamburger patties and buns, and then the kids were set. I just need to venmo Hyrum back. $20 for parking at Jordanelle the other day, and $27 for food tonight. The thing I've missed the most this week is my Burts Bees chapstick in my wallet!! :( Excited to have my chapstick again tomorrow (I've borrowed H's a few times, real chapstick brand which doesn't work as good as Burts Bees in my opionion). It's been a good week, thank you Wayne and JeNeal for this wonderful tradition!