Sticky Cheeks

We have a busy day tomorrow. We gotta make Owen feel good about his birthday, then we will need to shift attention to the Open House at 7. I've been watching the weather, praying for not a lot of sun but also no rain or wind. A few things that went on around here today - Corey and I took a 7:30 am ride in Corner Canyon. We did Clarks and Rush from temple parking lot, 4.73 miles, 43:21. Got 11 achievements. It was a good hard but also quick and fun ride! I was listening to Mapache on the Rush "mario kart" part in the main canyon, I was all smiles, so fun. Short & sweet and intense. I didn't hate clarks as much today, but it's still a killer. 

Yesterday Corey and I went to Draper temple and did an endowment session. Then I had an almost 3 hour talk with Nicole as I cleaned my room and bathroom and desk. I did a little bit of reunion stuff. I've sent out info to our fb group with more of classmates that I have not yet located. A-R are done now. Just a little bit more to search then I'll call it good and consider it a well enough done effort. 

Wes sent us a video of a guitar cover he sang. It was beautiful! I uploaded it to our youtube. "How Can I Be" is by Nela Otuafi from Tonga. I was touched. It made me cry, which pleased him. He did a little fist pump saying "yes!" Katharine was also singing today, made me smile. They sang the "I love you" song from Barney over and over again. Singing it again while Sophi practices violin. I loved how K was waving and pumping her arms out to the beat. So funny. She's such a cutie. She's also cute and messy! She came up into my room carrying a slice of peanut butter and jelly - Hey, where did your legs go?

Haha, if you squint it kinda looks like she is a very short person. Awww...

Sticky cheeks... 

...cute grin.

Lily had some friends over tonight. They watched Hunt of the wilder people. I stayed upstairs for most of that social hour and read my scriptures. I left Corey downstairs watching kids and making crepes. Sorry sweetie. It's late and friends are gone but the kids are still awake (watching reels?). I should go turn off the lights. 

Days of '47 Float

Corey and I took a ride to the ruins this morning. I enjoy the time with him and in the mountains. The ride was our usual 11.22 miles, did it in 1:33:34 today. I got the 2nd bridge rocks today though, so that was exciting! That was my second time sending that this year. 

We watched the Days of '47 parade from home today. Hooray for our stake float! Our Stake's float won the "Outstanding Animation Award" - so good job people! 

This is probably the first time we've ever tuned in to the parade. Sorry to whoever I should apologize to for that... we don't mean to not support traditions or local holidays. I do think that July 24, 1847 was a very important date, and I'm grateful that the pioneers were led by God to this promised land. It's just...it's hot outside. And it's early to get our act together in time to drive all the way down there. But we did watch it on tv and saw it when our Stake's float was announced, and we cheered to see Abi and Lily. 

They LOVED it, haha

They actually didn't love it, but they were good sports. Abi was on the float when we saw her on tv. She told us later that part of the branch broke, so she stood on the float to hold it up. And now she has glitter ALL over her, in her hair, down her shirt, all over her arms, might take a few days to get it all gone haha

Looks heavy, but it was styrofoam, so she said it wasn't too bad. She was glad she got to take off the flower headband.

We saw Lily briefly too. Good job girls, way to support the stake people with the float. Joseph and Eliza slept in and are feeling rested after their long travel day yesterday. We walked over to the backyard where we are going to have the open house on Saturday, so Eliza could see things and we could talk about what is going to go where and where they'll stand to greet people. One of our neighbors who is an ER doctor was there and Joseph and him were able to visit about medical stuff. 

The houses there on the ridge were having a pool party, and invited me to bring the kids over. Which I did. CUTE KATHARINE!

Little girl, you are stinking adorable. She was excited to see her friend Becca in the pool. This pool is at Becca's house.

I think Becca was done and changing her clothes to get ready for bed when she wanted to get in again after seeing Katharine come. K wanted to take off her floaties when she saw Becca was not wearing any. These two cuties are going to be good friends. The boys all liked going down the slide. They played some train game where they tried to stop each other from going all the way down. 

Peter didn't go down the slide, he mostly just held onto the side. 

I had a nice time visiting with the adults. Then we saw someone light fireworks down in the quail hollow area, and it started a fire. Then we called 911.

I don't love fireworks. I never buy them, and disapprove of all the smoke they create. But it's a tradition. 

Delayed Flight

I was in a big funk yesterday. I vented to Corey a little bit. There's too much crap in basement. Ethan asked if he can keep his king sized bed mattress down there, ugh, no room for it. I was also doing reunion stuff yesterday, which I think puts me in a bad mood. Today I read scriptures first thing and it's been a better day. I'm also fasting this afternoon. I did some jump rope to exercise, it is harder than I thought. I hand scrubbed kitchen floor. I got off some grimey grease around the tile by oven. I moved white shelf thing into boys room and moved a desk into Natalie's room. I spray painted the top of it black, but had to go to walmart to buy more paint. 

Joseph and Eliza are on their way back from Costa Rica. They were going to leave Costa Rica this morning and have a day long layover in Dallas, and were going to spend the day with Grant and his family, but because of the delay, they ended up leaving CR at 2pm and thus only had 3.5 hours instead of the whole day. Grant and his family still went to get them and take them out to eat.

And then got them safely back on their way home to Utah. Grant and Steph are awesome.

They were glad they got something out of CR though. Joseph said that originally it didn't show anything being available until Wednesday. But then the guy helping them called and got a special code to get hem on the flight ot Dallas. Then, at 8pm Dallas time, they saw that that flight was delayed as well and they won't be landing until after 2 am. Sooo, we didn't want to stay up that late, and Abi couldn't stay up cause she's gotta get up to go to the parade tomorrow, so we took the van out there at 10:30 and left it in the parking lot with the key in a secret spot where they could get it. We sent them photos of our operation. Sorry kiddo's... you can't stay up late to see Joseph and Eliza. But they'll be here in the morning when you wake up. 

J&E's delay gave me extra time to get the basement set up for them. Go me. 

I hope they had a great time. We're excited to see them!

The House Episode 4

Ethan is trying to release all the House episodes before Park City next week, so today the 4th episode, aka The House IV, was released. There are two more. It's been really fun to watch, the kids have been enjoying seeing themselves on the tv and laughing with and at each other. The kids and I watched Episode 4 earlier this afternoon, and then we watched it again tonight with Corey. Good stuff. 

I've been in a bit of a funk today. Not sure what my deal is. I slept in until 6 (that's been happening the past few weeks) and then I just laid there not wanting to go on a ride. I think I'm a little tired of the Quarry trail. It takes like an hour to bike to the top. Once we get going it's not bad, the time passes, but I was really not feeling it this morning. 

Boys need some shelves for their bedroom so that we can use the closet for clothes again. Right now it's where they keep their legos safe from Katharine (or away from each other?) Owen was setting up all his creations in the closet yesterday...

So I rearranged things and moved the 4x4 Kallax shelf into their room for their toys, which will work better. Here's another pic from yesterday - look! I put two little braids in Katharine's hair! 

Aww Katharine! You're so cute! "Yeah, I know."

We talked to Wes today. He is doing good. Corey spent most of his Sabbath yesterday listening to and writing up rebuttals to some Anti stuff that was shared with Wes by a guy they are teaching. The guy wasn't trying to bash the church, Wes said he was legitimately trying to figure things out. Wes called today and had excitement in his voice that wasn't there last week. Corey is going to join their discussion with their friend on Wednesday, so that will be fun. 

JeNeal passed away one year ago today. We miss her and have peace in our firm belief that she lives on and we will see her again. 

The House: Episode 3

Ethan released episode 3 of his "House" series. Yesterday at 4:47 pm, via the Wride Nation fb messenger chat, Ethan let us know that this is his last offering to us all: "Hi Wride family, I just want to be very clear, not that you’re wondering, but I just want to document this for myself and others to hold me accountable: is I will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever do this again. This project is driving me nuts. It just takes so LONG... You have no idea. You have no idea. It’s driving me, I can never do this again. This is my last. This is my gift to humanity, to your posterity mom and dad. I’m never doing this again and not that you asked me to do this but like I’m just annoyed right now. But yeah, I'm never doing this again. When I get very discouraged and wanted to stop because it’s annoying me, I keep doing it because I think of posterity. I think of Owen and Daniel watching it as adults and it motivates me but that’s literally the only reason I’m doing this, is for them." 

(He meant you too, Peter!)

So we will enjoy and savor them as they are released, and we'll try to show Ethan proper thanks for his sacrifice of time in making these for us.  

Click below to watch Episode 3!

He did such a good job. What a treasure for our family. 

We have been having a good Sunday. At Church I got emotional during the closing hymn, Come Come Ye Saints. Joseph sent some photos of their Sunday in Costa Rica. They went to our branch that we attended when we lived in Costa Rica! The building is larger now. They saw some familiar faces, like Magaly and Esteban!

and Neida and Jose Pina!

So fun. 

For a little bit of scriptures tonight, we talked about "Creation - Fall - Atonement" which Corey and I learn a lot about as we listen to podcasts (mostly Bro Halverson's) on our bike rides. This pattern is also shown in the Dunning Kruger Effect. One other graph that showed this had the phases as: Child's Hill, Insecure Canyon, Gown up Mountain. 

So we had a little family lesson on that tonight. Corey is a master teacher and a wonderful father to our kids. 

They are all so lucky to have him as their father and mentor!

Float Preview

Yesterday I got a flyer from a lady in our neighborhood letting me know about a "Days of '47 Parade" float preview thing that was going on today. It was free and something "new" that we haven't done before, so we decided to go. Plus our Stake provided/submitted/was assigned to make/is in charge of one of the floats, so it would be good to go and show our support. After the last of the teenagers were awake, we loaded into the cars and went down to see the floats. As Relief Society secretary, I sent out a few emails encouraging sisters to go donate their time, but alas I did not help with that at all. But Abi and Lily are going to be in the parade. They are going to be Sunflowers walking along side it, so we'll let that count as our family's contribution. So good job us, we gave moral support and we also left the house today. Corey was like "Peter needs to get out of his pajamas..." My reply "Oh, he's going to be gone at full day kindergarten soon enough, let me keep him for a few more weeks" Peter is a home body, but I think he'll be just fine at school. It's not that he doesn't like to leave, it's just that he's content to stay and play here, which I'm grateful for. Family pic at the expo center.

Some of the floats had activities for the littles. Katharine digging through rubber wood chips for prizes. 

I didn't vote for our stake's float, cause there were others that I liked better. I had to be honest. I thikn I did have Katharine vote for our stake though (is that honest?) Visually I was most impressed with this ice cream and root beer one. 

Back at home, we had another female and also one male emerge today. 

A few pics from yesterday. K copying me with the magnifying glass, haha. We are butterfly scientists. 

I made myself some beets with sauerkraut and Katharine said she wanted some, so I gave her a bite, and she ate it...

...and even smiled after! Katharine, are your for real? You really like my old person food? What a peculiar little creature you are.

Yesterday, while Natalie was killing time before going to day camp, she spent a lot of time, once again,  searching for an finding the legos to the mini story books. She got Ariel's kingdom done. Amazing. 

And the 4 princess castle, and a Frozen one. 

Yesterday Natalie, Owen and Daniel all went with their Activity Day groups to Camp Tracy. Natalie with her girl group, and Owen and Daniel together with the boys. The girls group sent me a pic, so here's Natalie shooting an arrow. 

Good job Natalie. They left for the camp at 2:30 and spent the rest of the day there, until 9pm. 

Joseph and Eliza have are still having fun in Costa Rica. They sent some pics yesterday. 

So after the wedding in Idaho, they drove to Ohio to get settled into their apartment. Then to Costa Rica. 

Looks like they are still having fun! After they are done in CR, they will fly to Utah for the open house next week. One week, yay. I only have one more week of wedding planning/stress, then we're done with wedding stuff for the year. (Pretty sure... I guess it's possible that Mel could pull a fast one on us before year's end, but I doubt it. (I mean "You better not!!!")) 

What To Do For Refreshments?

I've been trying to nail down the desserts that we'll serve at Joseph's open house next Saturday. I tried to narrow down the options by focusing on food colors. If we do pink, red, pruple and gree, we could do: 

• Drinks: cut up grape fruits and lemons in water
• Fruit: Red grapes and watermelon
• Veggies: Bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamata olives, celery, carrots, roasted hummus or trader joe hummus:
• Treats: Vanilla ice cream with berries. 

Do we do that and dessert bars from BYU catering?? Ugh, I'm having a hard time making a decision...

Blondie Bar - 1/2 Sheet $35.99

Cheesecake Bar - 1/2 Sheet 34.99

Lemon Bar - 1/2 Sheet $31.49

Raspberry Bar - 1/2 Sheet $33.49

7 Layer Bar - 1/2 Sheet $41.99

Of course I remember what the Whatever Works catering lady said: The more variety we have, the more we'll need to order cause people will want to try everything. I gotta keep it simple. Just dessert bars? Corey wanted to see more options... so I've been looking at BYU food to go again, and if we just want to throw money at it, these are more options:

• Mint Brownie - 1/2 Sheet $32.98
• Mint Brownie with Nuts - 1/2 Sheet $32.98
• Mint Brownie - Gluten Friendly - 1/2 Sheet $49.98
• Frosted Brownie - 1/2 Sheet $32.98
• Frosted Brownie with Nuts - 1/2 Sheet $32.98
• Sugar Cookies are $6.99 a dozen
• Cookie Tray - 7dz $59.99 On 18" tray with pair of tongs
• Lemon - Lemon cookie with powdered sugar on top
• Mudslide Cookies - Chocolate fudge cookie with powdered sugar sprinkled on top 
• White Chocolate Chip and Craisin Cookies - Chewie Cookie made with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cranberries

Ugh. I texted Nicole for help yesterday. Today she replied with helpful advice: "1 table, 5 choices, displayed well, water/drinks on separate table. Theme: Dessert Bar - Blondie, Cheesecake, Raspberry, 7 Layer, Lemon"

Sigh, thank you Nicole! I'll do that. Done. Now I'll go try to breath and watch butterflies. Our first one emerged today! A female.

Playing with the butterfly outside.

Giving Daniel a turn.

Now my turn. Pretty lady.

The kids are excited with the first few when it's a new event. They probably won't be as interested as the summer goes on. The kids at scriptures tonight. I'm glad that they are close! 

The House: Episode 2

I'm up late again. Been working on finding "lost eagles" from our Senior class of 1994. I finished going through all the A-C Mon - Tues, today I did D-G. There are a lot of H's missing, so I'll wait on that one until tomorrow. Actually I have a lot of other stuff to do, I should prob wait on reunion stuff until after the open house. I can do it at Park City maybe.  I need to order the food for the open house... I'm struggling making a decision, there are too many options, I need someone with a strong opinion to help me! So that's what I did and didn't do today. And Sophi and Natalie had violin lessons. Daniel, Peter and Katharine came along too. Not much else to report, other than a new family video treasure is done, the first of five.  Last year Ethan decided to make a sequel to "The House" video he made of our family experience during covid. For this sequel, he filmed a lot over Christmas break, but as his creative juices started flowing, he added on several weekends of filming, and pushed his self imposed deadline to our anniversary. But he wasn't quite satisfied with the finished product at that point, so he kept filming and editing and thought it could be a birthday gift to me, then mothers day... He had a world premier in June, and NOW the wait is finally over. It is really finished. It has turned into an 8 month labor of love, thanks for this treasure Ethan! Link here (Ughh... I was able view it on my phone but but my laptop computer won't let me see it for some dumb reason, I can't take it off of restricted mode... ok, now I'm down at the family desktop, got the code to embed the video, ok got it...) enjoy ~ Episode 2 (1 of 5)

Unproductive

Hello hello. Trying to get stuff done around here. I'm doing probably a below average job on my own (C- grade) although last night we had a great FHE in my opinion. We did what I wanted for my birthday and mother's day and every Saturday of my life - we cleaned the basement together! Cleaning basement together = quality time = my love language. I said it was family service, and they played with legos while I tried to clear off tables and Corey put away ski stuff. Kids were totally fine with it, and we were able to talk as we cleaned, and Corey didn't have to hold Katharine. We made significant progress in 1 hour together, enough that it would have taken me two days on my own, and now you can actually move around down there freely. Today I put away the blow up mattress that we still had out for the college kids, cause they aren't going to be here for atleast a week, and I hate pulling our bikes around it in the mornings. Better to move it out of the way and let the college kids blow it up again when they get here. Joseph and Eliza left yesterday morning for their honeymoon in Costa Rica. Melodie is in South Korea with a BYU music group, Hyrum is at FSY in Provo. I'm up a bit late trying to catch up on life cause I'm busy all day, and now I'm wasting time, but I found this instagram reel that made me laugh...

Yesterday and today Corey was at home all day... Corey has said that when he stays home to work or gets a late start leaving here, that it's usually not a good day for him. And I told him it's the same for me - like I can't relax when he is here even if he's in his office, cause kids might hear him and go bug him, so I have to keep them away... I tend to be in a funk after a day like that (although I might relax a bit too much when he's gone, haha.) So I thought it was funny that her facial expression and words expressed what might be happening here: I want to be unproductive in peace! lol. 

Today I went to lunch with my sister Jersh, which I've never done, it was nice! (I texted Corey in his office to let him know that Natalie was in charge). We had some Vietnamese food from a restaurant that is close to the office where she works. It was quite good! Pho - I want to learn how to make that. I was inspired, going to try and give some rice bowls a go, after I go shopping. I still haven't gone to Costco, it's been like 4 weeks! We're still trying to use up some of our food storage, and I'm making a good list of stuff to get. I'll be going maybe this week, definitely before the open house next Saturday, and Park City the day after that. A big to do that I meant to do today but still didn't finish was to order food for wedding open house. I'm having trouble making a decision, too many options. I've also been working too much on our 30 year reunion stuff, working on finding classmates. I've told my kids to never run for senior class office. Too late for Ethan, but I can save the rest of my kids from this obligation. And now a text just came from Ethan (it's 11:50 pm) saying that the House 2 is uploading, set to premier at midnight! I'll prob watch for a little bit and stretch, but I should go to bed.... but at night I finally get to be unproductive in peace, haha. Funny that I tell myself that I'm finally going to get to my list of tasks, but I've just been wasting time. Ok, goodnight. 

N&K, Korea, Honeymoon

Hi. It's April 2, 2025. I'm determined to finish blogging July 2024. I think I got so behind because it was a wedding month, and then we were in Park City and stuff. When I get this behind, I have to do detective work, and from what I can learn from my calendar and Whatsapp messages, there was not much happing on Sunday July 14, except for it being a regular day at church, and these photos of Natalie playing with Katharine. 

In my bedroom at 10oo pm. So here you go. 

Ok, I did a bit more searching and I did find some stuff on our fb messenger chat "Wride nation" where I recorded that Peter was asking deep questions as he ate his lunch:

    “Why do we have imaginations?”

    “Mom, what makes you cry?”

    “Why is alcohol in some foods?”

    “How do babies talk to how we talk when they grow up?”

Ooh, also a pic of Mel, who was in Korea with a BYU music group. 

Joseph and Eliza were in Costa Rica on their honeymoon.

Going golfing!

Lovebirds in paradise. 

Ok! Not bad for being over 8 months late. I'll call it good.