Daniel is 9!

Happy Birthday to Daniel! 

9 years old today!! Let's light those candles.

Daniel's life has been captured here on the blog since day 1, so today on the Wride Nation chat, we shared a few favorite pics and posts. Joseph liked this one of Daniel as a little snowman on Halloween in 2017. Awww Daniel!! You're so cute!! I also remember this moment in 2020, when Ethan was sharing funny pics of Daniel with me and I cried from laughing. Oh yeah, I'm supposed to make a list of birthday links - let's see if I can keep up with this tradition... 9 posts for Daniel's 9 years with us:

1. 2016 Awake with my new baby at 1 am.
2. 2017 My two cute little boys with binky's and blankets
3. 2018 Daniel following Owen's lead with the pacifier
4. 2018 O&D are little twins
5. 2019 Mel captured Daniel doing an interpretive dance
6. 2021 Daniel doesn't want to stop skiing
7. 2021 10 stitches!
8. 2022 Daniel swallowed a penny
9. 2024 He likes free desserts

Aww, he's a good kid. Putting out the candle with his fingers. I gave him a cup of water to use to get them nice and wet.

So today the high school girls didn't have school, cause of a teacher work day (it was Parent teacher conferences this week). So since they were home, I took a long ride. Corey had his car, Abi needed the van, but I had my bike! I gave myself 2-3 hours to be away. I left at 12:30 and rode from home all the way out to Draper to the Peakview parking lot at the top of Rush. Most of the ride I was on the Bonneville Shoreline trail.

I wanted something fairly easy, low intensity. This was long but not a hard climb. 20.84 miles, 2 hours 43 minutes. And I saw the fall colors again, go me! I'm 5/5 for getting out this week!

Yesterday I did a ride up the canyon, only got to the 3rd bridge cause I had to get back home. I left early, but it was still dark. I miss the light morning hours, oh well. Fall is almost upon us. I guess that means sweater weather and warm comfort foods though, so I'm looking forward to that. Corey and I went out to India House on State street tonight for our date. Corey ordered the Lamb Tiki Masala and I got the Butter chicken, plus some peshwari naan. One butterfly came out today. I had Lily say hello to it before we let it go. 

The kids haven't been too interested in the butterflies, but that's ok. It's fun to have them care even if it's just for a moment. It's still magical. We have a lot of milkweed but today I cleared out a lot last night. It started cause I was cutting some milkweed for Daniel to use for his egg drop that was today (like Sophi's egg drop contraption in 2020, 5th pic) and as I was cutting stalks down for that, it came to my attention once again ALL the yucky gross aphids on the milkweed. We have sooo many oleander aphids, their population has totally exploded. Like huge clusters of tons of little yellow bugs all over the underside of the leaves, yuck yuck yuck, I don't like them, they look so gross. They don't wash off with the hose, and I don't want to use pesticides, cause that will hurt the monarchs, so when I see them I've just been cutting the milkweed and putting the whole thing in the garbage. But they really are all over the milkweed now, and since butterfly season is about over (I have three more chrysalides left) I decided to just clear all the plants out. Would have been good to do it before bulk clean up last week, oh well. Plus and I think some deer slept in the plants a month or so ago, and so one section of milkweed and the daisy's were squished and it just looks all trampled and messy in two spots, so I cut it all down. While I worked, Katharine played around me. Daniel was at a primary party and got his face decorated with purple patterns like a k-pop demon, and he came to work on the egg drop. As I cut him some milkweek stalks, he and K started acting out the Isabella and Mirabel scene from Encanto for some reason.

It was so cute. I was laughing, then I told them to start over so I could capture it on video. 

Yeah, she's watched Encanto a few times... I loved it when she, acting as Isabella, gasped at Daniel/Mirabel's accusation "SELFISH?!?!? I have been stuck being perfect my entire life!!" haha, that was perfect coming from Katharine! Poor princess baby of our family, she's stuck being perfect, ha! They played until it got dark, and I got the whole milkweed patch in the front cleared. The garbage is full, hopefully the aphids won't escape before the trash goes out next Wednesday. It felt good to get some yardwork done. Then we came in and I helped D with the egg drop contraption, time for bed now. Another week done, man, we're almost though September! Sometimes I want time to freeze, but I am also ok with time passing quickly, cause we're looking forward to these next few months getting over with so we can get to January when Wes comes home!

These Days are Precious

Corey stayed home to work today, so that meant I had a car! (Abi had the van at school today and most every Wednesday cause she has Lyceum after). With a car at my disposal, I was able to run an errand to the post office to send Wesley a package. I bought a puzzle at Costco for him, cause they had one for Roswell, which was one of the areas where he served. I also sent him some Lara bars (choc chip) and a few Dubai Chocolates (individually wrapped ones, also from Costco). I also thought a puzzle would be good cause he got into doing puzzles while he was serving in Odessa. I'm not sure if he still is doing them, but if not, he can bring it home in January and we'll all do it together while he tells us stories about Roswell. So after K and I went there, I told her we were going to go see the leaves. I headed up the canyon so it would be close. I thought about at the 1st bridge but kept driving... Grit Mill? No, kept driving... Lisa Falls, no.... We finally turned into White Pine. This is were we had family pictures taken in Feb 2014. The leaves weren't a glorious gold yet, but I knew it would still be pretty. This time, instead of taking the usual trail right/west, I followed Katharine's lead and we explored some forrest stairs. I took a dozen cute pictures of Katharine today, but this one takes the cake. 

Oh my gosh I love this little girl. I took that pic right as we started on the trail and after looking at it I threw my head back in laughter. She is too cute. She started off doing her usual knee pop - 

and I told her to drop her dress and just smile normal, but she can't seem to help but to be a modeling princess. So so so cute, the shoulders, the slightly turned head, I'm dying SHE IS SO ADORABLE. She is my favorite. So she and I went to the White Pine trail but instead of going toward Gloria Falls we went east along a trail that follows the creek toward Snowbird. The trees were lovely, and the mountains that came into view were amazing. 

It was fun to be in a magical forest again. 

We sang and hummed Frozen 2 songs as we walked and talked. 

I especially loved these lyrics from Some Things Never Change:

The winds are restless, could that be why I'm hearing this call?
Is something coming? I'm not sure I want things to change at all
These days are precious, can't let them slip away
I can't freeze this moment, but I can still go out and seize this day! 

Katharine did great and walked the whole time. I asked a few times if she was done or wanted to go back to the car. "No, not yet" and "In a minute" as she kept walking. We went until we reached one of the ski runs for Baby Thunder that had such a view of the mountains, wow! 

Sigh, yeah I don't want things to change at all. Katharine, can you just stay little?? I have two more years with her before she starts kindergarten. These days are precious. I won't let them slip away. I can't freeze time, but I can seize this day. I love you Katharine!!!

Once we reached the big rock, then she was done. I carried her for a little bit on the way back to the car, cause it was steep in a few places and the sand would slide under our feet. We looked for "stairs" and talked about how the roots were our stairs, and then I said "Roots from the trees help us not slip." 

As I said that, I felt there was some symbolism in it. When we're on the path of life, and esp when things are steep, the roots are there usually exposed and they can help us. The roots, the traditions, teachings and faith of our fathers, they've been there in the past, they are deep and strong, they are the  stable roots that can help us not slip. Rocks too! Christ is my rock - his words, each is a rock that I can step on to be firm. When we were almost back at the car, Katharine said "I forgot the little rocks!" and she started to pick up the dirt. 

She likes to shake out the sand so all that is left is a small handful of little rocks, then she does it again. She's cute.

So I was just soaking up happy time with K today. We went by Smith's after to get ice cream for Daniel's birthday on Friday, and treats for him to take to his class (Ding Dongs). Then came home, gave K some mint choc chip ice cream and then secured the rest of it until Friday with a note to not eat it. Then K and I made a tent on the grass outside using the hockey goal and some rakes for our tent frame.

I thought maybe we could take a nap but it was much to fun for K and she couldn't hold still.

She liked hiding in the tent though. So that was my day. I love being a stay at home mom (Thank you Corey!!) Pretty pic of the canyon wall as we waited at a light - there's some single lanes and construction going on. 

Lily got asked to Homecoming on Monday. Tonight she answered by making a cake and decorating it like the cover of the album that the guy referenced (The Secret of Us by Gracie Abrams). 

Lily was laughing at how hard it was to do, but also laughing cause she felt that she did a good job considering! haha. She gathered some of her siblings and a few friends from the neighborhood to help her deliver it. They went through the costume bins trying to find masks... Abi drove them out and took this pic. 

I think here we have Sophi, Jane, Jules, Lily, Daniel, Esti, and Natalie, aka Mandalorian, Iron man, Green Lego Ninja, Hulk, Kylo Ren, Hippi Esti, and Wesley from Princess Bride. Quite a group of characters there!

See The Leaves!

I wanted to escape for a ride yesterday, but wasn't able to, so I announced to Corey during the hike my intention to go on a ride today as soon as Abi was back with the car. After she was back from her flute lesson, I was dressed, I put my bike in the back of the van, and having previously announced my plans to Corey, I left with no guilt. I turned and drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon over Guardsman pass. It was lovely. The leaves aren't changing much in the valley or up LCC on the trail, so I wanted to get away and higher. I knew if I got up a bit higher in elevation, it would be magical. I parked at Park City, and headed up Armstrong to HAM.

Breathing it in and pausing to grab leaves that screamed at me with their vibrant color. I was surprised that even with stopping for several photos and picking up leaves, I still got a PR for the Armstrong HAM Seldom seen loop, go me!

I listened to my "autumn biking" playlist as I took in the scenery. My favorite song that was on repeat today was a new one that I added last week after Corey shared it with us - Cody Fry's Pictures of Mountains. 

I thought that I knew what a mountain was like
'Til I stood in the valley and looked up at the sky
And I felt my heart beating faster
That feeling I'd been chasing after
Is something that no one can capture 
In pictures of mountains

I'm grateful that today I wasn't looking at pictures of mountains, but I was able to be there. 

Cause pictures are nice, but they don't do them justice.

A few other songs on that playlist that I loved listening to today:

1. Sleepwalker (abridged) - The Killers
2. When I Die - Kyle Hume
3. Vuelvo Para Vivir - Illapu
4. Beethoven's 5 Secrets - The Piano Guys
5. Gethsemane - Paul Cardall feat. Nathan Pacheco
6. Baptism Hymn - Jon Schmidt
7. Someone You Loved - The Piano Guys
8. Great You Are - Jordan Smith

I have a few rides I want to do before the leaves changing is over. One is to redo Maple Hollow and see if I can capture the beauty that was there last year. I looked up that photo and the time it was taken, it was at 5:20 pm on Sept 30, so I'm going to shoot to do that on Saturday Sept 27 so Corey can come with me, aiming to be on the trail at 4:30. :) It was great to be out today. I'm going to go out every day this week! I'll pretend I'm on vacation and I've only got two weeks, which is what we have for fall color. This is the time to go "out and see the leaves!" - Sleepwalker 

FHE Fall Walk

We went on a walk tonight for FHE. The mountains demanded it. At the end of our hike we took a pic before turning to head back to the car. Everyone smile ~

And I thought "Katharine you silly! What are you doing with your legs there??" They look messed up like an AI photo that didn't get joints correct (this ballet ai thing, wow!) So I said "Ok, now everyone strike a pose like Katharine..." Yep, pop the leg, hit the hip out, yep!

I'm glad we got outside together. It helped me breathe. We have probably a month of fall colors. It's time to carpe diem! I was totally itching to get out of here earlier today as soon as the girls got home from school. The mountains were calling. But Corey needed me to go do an ATM withdrawl and deposit, so I changed my original plan (to go to Park City) and decided I'd go to Corner Canyon after going by the bank. I was dressed in my biking shorts, with my helmet, gloves and bike in the back of the van, but as I was leaving the bank and turning south to go to Corner Canyon, Corey asked me to check on kids when I got home and to make sure they were doing their stuff and not dinking around online. (Abi ratted out Lily for being on instagram on the computer) I asked if I could escape for an hour, he asked me again to go home, ughh.... so I went home and spent the next 2 hours basically pacing the floors and feeling quite restless. I did get the laundry room clean, so yay. But I was sad and a bit sharp with the kids. I was totally ticked when I found Natalie downstairs (I thought she was playing legos with Katharine) but I was taking a pile of clutter down there and caught her watching the series Wednesday on her freaking school chrome book!! Like how the heck is she getting access to movies on her school device?! "On an app...." Ugh. "DELETE IT." I commanded. Natalie didn't talk much the rest of the evening, sorry I was so upset, but WHY are you guys wasting time?!?! You know the stuff we want you to do! You know the stuff you are NOT allowed to do (aka be on instagram, watch movies, etc), so I was just mad. Going on the hike helped. The drive was a bit long to Peakview, but I thought the hike would be shorter, but didn't really know cause I hadn't ever hiked over there. I thought we'd do Bell Canyon, but the sun was shining and the kids voted for shade, so then I changed plans and we drove all the way out to the Peakview parking lot and did Hoof and Boot. After all our times biking in corner canyon, I've never been on that trail. It was really really pretty. Trees were like the rest of the canyon, but the trail was a bit more narrow from not having bikers, so it was nice. Katharine has watched Frozen 2 a few times, so she kept talking about how we were in Elsa's enchanted forest. She liked seeing the leaves.

But mostly she liked picking up the dirt.

I wanted to make it to Ghost Falls for our dessert picnic, but the little ones were too slow. The sun was setting and I knew we wouldn't make it there in time. I did bring along flash lights, so we could have, but the teens were asking to be done. Corey said let's quit while it's still fun, so we took a pic, ate a half a donut each, and then we started back to the car. Asking Peter to pose for a pic - we love being in the mountains!

I know that I saw more of the colors on that walk than I would have seen on a ride, cause on a ride you're gaze is at the trail most of the time. So the walk was really nice. I brought along 6 donuts left over from the treats I bought for Owen's game on Saturday, and that was our treat. Natalie still feeling sad cause I got after her, or guilt/shame for getting caught, or lazy cause she wasted time watching a movie when she could have been being productive doing homework or practicing music.

Lily and Sophi being silly.

Ok, give me back my phone.

Beautiful sunset and the Draper temple shining.

K got a ride on Corey, I stayed behind with Peter, who came along slowly but surely. He did great walking and not much murmuring. 

I'm going to try and get up into the mountains every day this week and every day until the leaves all "rust and fall, leave the mountainside cold and bare" (- Sleepwalker) I love autumn!

When we got home there was a poster on the door step. Lily got asked to Homecoming. 

He gifted her some TruFru frozen chocolate fruits going along with lyrics from a song by Gracie Abrams "The Secret of Us" - cute. She's excited. Her sisters cheered for her, and then asked for some of her treats. :)

Granite Ridge

Today was our last day with our neighborhood LDS ward, the Granite Ridge Ward. We had a "linger longer" after church, and then after that we all gathered together on the west side of the church to get a group photo. I'll share that if/when I get it. I did get a photo as people were gathering for the group pic. 

That is our historic granite wall of our chapel. The Christofferson's were in our ward for a while, and often when I look at the Granite wall from the other side, aka inside the building during sacrament meeting, I remember sister Christofferson saying how she would be aware of the passage of time when she would notice that his hair color changed next to the wall. When they first moved in, Elder C's hair was darker than it, then  for years it blended in with it, until lastly it became whiter than the gray stone. 

So last Sunday, there was a special stake meeting, where they told us they were going to announce the ward boundary changes. There we learned that our ward was going to be discontinued! Our ward members would be moved to two different wards, depending on where we all were in the neighborhood. Most of us are going to the Granite ward, and those further west on the ridge are going to the Granite View Ward. We knew we'd meet together one more time before the change (today) and so we planned for a "linger longer" after church for people to stay and visit and say goodbye and "see ya around" to friends. We had an hour visiting at the pavilion (where the 4th of July breakfast is). Kids on the grass (Peter and Owen in this pic) -

After eating and visiting, we took the big ward photo with everyone. Also, for the past year plus, the youth in our ward have played their musical instruments during fast and testimony meeting. It's become a wonderful tradition to bring in the spirit. We had fast and testimony meeting last week, and the kids all played, but since today was our last meeting as a ward, they played again today. A few of the mom's took pictures of them performing at this last special meeting. 

Some adults joined in too.

It was a really special day and a wonderful ending to this chapter of time in the Granite Ridge Ward. Last week, Hyrum said he feel sorry for his younger siblings who will not grow up in the Granite Ridge Ward, but it will still be wonderful for them. Not everyone was able to grow up in the 80s and 90s either like Corey and I did, but we trust that they can still have good childhoods ;)

So everyone was released in mass from their callings. I'm done as RS Secretary after a year and a half, and Corey is done after only a few months as Elder's Quorum president. The ward will be larger now, and I'm excited for that, cause sometimes it feels like we are all doing a lot, or we feel bad asking people for help cause we know that they are doing a lot already. Like Corey, last week, biked down to do a crops garden assignment, and yesterday he was in charge of a service project out in Magna. He didn't get a lot of people to sign up for the Hometown thing yesterday, so he took ALSN with him, which they weren't too thrilled with to have to wake up early on a Saturday morning, but they went to help and we're grateful that we have kids to boost the number of helping hands when we need them! Anyway, it will be good to be able to meet knew people and be blessed by them and learn from them, and we hope to be a blessing to them too in this stake of Zion. 

After church I took a long nap (I have not been taking naps at all this past few weeks, I think all the supplements are helping my anemia) but I let myself take one today. I started reading until I felt tired and then took a nap. BUT, I totally forgot about my 4 butterflies! I knew there were 4 eclosing today, and they were all black before church, but I didn’t check on them after we got home. I didn’t even remember them until after 5pm! I have NOT been a very good butterfly caretaker this year… When I went in, they were all off of their chrysalides but they weren't hanging on. I stepped carefully and looked around, I was able to find three of them pretty quickly, and these babies were anxious and ready to get going outside and live their life.

Natalie came and helped and she was the one that found it. but it took us about 15 minutes. It was in one of the white shelf bins. I have 5 chrysalides left and one that will prob be in a jhook tomorrow. I haven't kept good monarch stats, and I've given more than half of my eggs and caterpillars away, but it feels like it's been a pretty good year. 

Lego Area in the Basement

Well, I wanted to go climbing tonight, but around 9:30 I looked at the clock and realized I'd lost track of time and I missed my chance. Good news is that it was a good day, I worked hard on lots of things, we have a new lego area in the basement, and Ariel's castle is done! (pic at the end of this post). With that  done I'm feeling ready to move on, which will be good. I spent a good chunk of the day in the basement. I needed help though figuring out what to do. I talked about Lily about it first - about the pros and cons for different areas in the house (I really wish we had a loft area like Grant and Steph did at their house (last pic), or their upstairs family area where we made a mess with pearler beads) but alas, our options were: master bedroom, kids bedrooms, front room, side room, music room, Corey's office, finished basement area, or unfinished basement. While I liked the main floor (front room, side room, music room, Corey's office) areas for the space they had and natural light, the main reason they wouldn't work is because they are being used for other things and cause of the air vents in the floor. Also Corey's office is really hot. So main floor is out. Bedrooms I also liked for the natural light, but they are just too crowded. It's been a hassle this week to have to move bins everytime Sophi and Natalie needed to use their clothes closet, so annoying! (j/k) And the finished side of the basement was good for carpet type, no floor vents, but I just don't like how dark it is and it would make me sad to think K was playing down there in a dark unnaturally lit place. So, the unfinished side of the basement. Lily said that she felt that it was Wride right of passage to spend time down there. She has spent many hours and days of her childhood down there. I also laughed when she said she felt it was good for her to come across a spider now and then. Like it keeps kids sobered up as to their own mortality, haha, ok, so I liked that. The main thing that I hate about the unfinished side is the lack of a real carpet and finished walls, which means I'm cleaning up legos from the corners and crack of the unfinished wall, and it's annoying trying to get all the legos up from there. BUT, if we can train the kids to NOT DUMP LEGOS ALL OVER THE FLOOR... then this could work. So then I called Sophi down. She was on board and I'm sure happy and eager to get her bedroom back. Sophi helped me figure out the arrangement - first step - clean the carpet so we can move Owen's lego mine over, so we can then move that short table to the brown carpet to put the princess castles on. Sophi helped me clean the carpet, then Natalie came and helped me with tables. Natalie changed the arrangement. She wanted two long folding tables together to make a very long princess city. Trouble with that was then it was blocking off the room. I didn't want them flush against the wall, cause I wanted them to be able to play from both sides of the table. So a bit of back and forth, and then we moved Owen's stuff again - onto a different table so we could take his short table. Now I can walk past the princess city tables. We did put two tables flush against the walls, but those are for sorting only, not for building. And I've put several big empty bins there, and shown the kids that when they are looking for a lego, they dump the bin they are searching in into the empty bin and NOT on the floor. I think it will be good if we can keep the legos off of the floor. Peter and Katharine enjoying the new set up. 

And that is the part of the basement that I worked on all day. If you look at the other side behind them here....

...that is what I'll hopefully be tackling this week, since I do feel ready to move on from legos (if K will let me). Hopefully, with Katharine having a place to play, she'll have fun and be content with me in the room with her. I'm hoping to get a lot of this crap organized but preferably cleared out, as I remember one of my clutter books saying you can't organize clutter, you just gotta get rid of it. I've got a few piles of stuff to take to the DI already, I just need to get it into the car and get it out of here. Also Monday is bulk clean up, but I didn't do anything this time. No pine needles cleaned up, no branches trimmed back, nada. Oh well. But, Ariel's castle it built. Go me. Not that impressive, considering that while I was still getting up and going this morning, Christian was finishing running a marathon! 

Mel was there to support him, and his mom and little sister. They came back to our house a little after 10 and cleaned up, then Corey took them to the airport - they had a flight to Los Angeles for a concert. I was surprised Corey was back at 10:30 - he took Abi Lily and Sophi with him to a Hometown Day of Service thing out in Magna. They left for that at 7:30 am, and I went to Smiths to get treats for Owen's game (he wanted donuts) then Hyrum left for Idaho ~

Owen's coach was able to bring him home, cause I had to leave to come back home to get Peter to his game. First had to pull him away from legos. Natalie was home to watch K while I took O and P to their games. I was laughing at the story line - the lego princesses were ready for a party, and the party wouldn't get messed up this time by the naughty twins Pink and Zink, cause thankfully Elsa froze them so they're stuck, so now the princesses just needed to clean the streets so they could have their party. 

Natalie is such a good sister. Ok, she'll take care of Katharine, Peter let's go to your game! This was my first time watching him play, and it's pretty cute, but Owen's are a bit more enjoyable since those players know what they are doing. So for Peter's games I just need to go in with zero soccer expectation, and just let myself smile at cute 6 year olds. They were just running all around (video here). They lost like 10 to 1, and that was hard for Peter. He was frustrated and was mad at one teammate who was just playing with the net when he was the goalkeeper. Peter said "This is why I don't like versing other teams!" Peter had a turn as keep too and did a good job. They only scored on him twice. His team is mostly 1st graders, the other team looked like they were 2nd graders. And a year makes a big difference when you've only got 6 or 7 years of life under your belt. So it was sad, but he got a donut at the end. 

One time when he got scored on, the coach came and gave him a pep talk, and I could tell he would be crying if he was with me, but instead he did some deep breaths, and held his hands up as if he was ready to block a shot, and it seemed like he was trying to psyche himself up for a few more minutes of the game. I gave him a big hug after the game and hope that that was enough to help him get through, cause I was not buying him a frosty. 

Corey got back from the airport, I got home with Peter after his game, and the main thing I needed to do today was get food. I took Sophi and Natalie with me to Costco. It was busy. 

I spent $800 bucks, doh! Came home and unloaded the car, then Corey took Owen and Daniel on a ride to Corner Canyon. They parked at Peakview parking lot and all went down Canyon Hollow to the bike park. Then Corey left O&D there and he biked up Clarks to get the car. Back at home, I worked more in the basement, and that's where I ended up spending the rest of the evening, and I didn't go climbing. :( The kids wanted to do date night, cause they didn't watch a movie last night (also didn't have pizza, but I haven't been getting pizza for over a month cause nobody is doing their chores). Abi and Lily were at friends houses near Skyline tonight, Sophi and Natalie were at Jane's, and so I turned on a movie at 9:45pm for the boys and Katharine - Incredibles 2. I heard them laughing hard from the basement so I came and joined them for the last half of the movie. It is a cute show. And now, I've recorded the day's events, yay, and I'm happy Ariel's lego castle is done. Here's the front - 

and here's the inside. 

Aren't you so proud of me and so impressed? I hope K is able to play next week without me and that I can start being a homemaker again, but if not, I guess I'll redo Aurora's castle, cause we need to do that with the instructions!