MOLLY'S 7TH BIRTHDAY!
I still can't believe my little Molly is seven! That really does just blow my mind. She is growing so fast. She seemed to enjoy her day. We made her a very cute sign including all her favorites, snickers, rollerblading, kitties, horsies, soccer, flowers and running. She got to have crepes for breakfast and then she was celebrated at school as well. Ms. Smith had me come in to read Molly's favorite book to her class! This was pretty exciting. I read Oh Say Can You Say, the tongue twister book. She loves it- not sure how her class felt, they seemed stunned the whole time :). But super attentive, which surprised me. The entire book! It was fun to be in Molly's class. I enjoy that when I get to. She got to pass out her candy to her class while they all made cards for her! So fun! I loved this birthday idea. When she got home, we hurried off to Kangaroo Zoo for her family party. Grandpa, Jo and Nate met us down there (Nate had gone to a doctor appointment for the fluid draining out of his scalp). Grandma Hatch joined us after a while. It was a pretty fun two hours of watching the kids run around to their hearts' content. We came back home and Heidi and her kids joined us for Molly's choice of dinner- Lasagna and Snickers Salad along with some other sides and then Snickers cake and Playdoh ice cream :). Seemed like everyone enjoyed the meal and Molly sure enjoyed her presents! She was good and spoiled. She loved her RC unicorn from grandpa, old phone, fairy garden from grandma, a lot of fun gifts from Grandma Ruthie and Aunt Jen who were in Idaho at the time. It was a pretty good time! We sure love our Molly girl. We're pretty lucky to have her in our family. 9-1-22
LUNCH WITH LESLIE PEREZ
Leslie and I finally got to go to lunch. I had such a great time! I hope I didn't say too much. She and I think the same on a lot of things, but not everything :). Nice time though. 9-2-22
DATE NIGHT
We went to Blue Fin again- can't get enough of that place! And then to see Breaking. Pretty good show. I think they want us to feel bad for the guy holding up the bank, and be mad that he was killed, but it was his fault. He made the wrong choice. 9-2-22
STATE FAIR ENTRIES
We were all really excited that we talked Nate into entering some of his drawings into the State Fair this year! He could only enter two (after fudging a rule), he did the bird he drew for Erika and the shark he drew for Jack. Erika and Noah also entered a painting and drawing. I can't wait to see how they do. 9-3-22
DIANA'S SHOWER
I made it up to Dan and Adele's for the last fifteen minutes of Diana's shower and got to talk to them for a minute. It was nice. We need to take them to Blue Fin. 9-3-22
ERIKA AND THE MOVIES
Erika planned a fun movie outing with Morgan and Kate and I took them down to the theater, hurried up to Dan and Adele's, then made it back to the theater as they were coming out! Pretty awesome timing. They saw Minions- The Rise of Gru. I think they had a good time. Erika was only bummed that they didn't take cash for popcorn, so she had to settle with her treats she got at Dollar Tree on the way there. Fun times- they're growing up! 9-3-22
MINIONS RISE OF GRU
I really wanted to do something fun with the kids. We haven't done our Saturday fun in a while. It was three dollar movie day for cinemark, so I couldn't resist taking the kids to see a movie together. Even Brad, Luke and Noah joined Erika, Jack, Molly and I. So much fun!! We went to the Bountiful theater and got to watch most of the movie. Sadie still needed to use the bathroom like five times and was very restless through most of it, but not too bad. The kids seemed to like the movie. 9-3-22
FIRST TIME TEACHING SUNDAY SCHOOL
This was my first week teaching Sunday school! It was awesome! I really felt mostly good about it! We talked about Proverbs and just went through a few of them and talked about some of the possible meaning. Then we went through Proverbs 31, the verbs and what we are doing in those areas. I had had to skip my fortune cookie idea because it was fast sunday and didn't get to pass out treats either, which was a bummer. So on our walk that evening, I took around some fortune cookies and candy to everyone. I really want to be close with these kids and connect with them. So I'm just going to go full force :). I hope it's not too much. I really do love the youth so much. I can't get enough of them. Hopefully Shalane doesn't mind my forwardness. Brad said that there was more talking this week than he's ever seen! That made me happy. 9-4-22
LABOR DAY
We had a pretty nice holiday. Nothing too fancy. We went on a little picnic up the canyon with my Mom and Steve. At that rest stop in Weber Canyon. There were a million box elder bugs and some grumpy people along with some forgetful people who left their phones in the bathroom, and let's not forget the funny dog who stole some chicken and Noah's accidental phone call to 911. Molly's water fight at the end was pretty memorable. Fun that Brad would get into that with her. It was a good time! I was happy that everyone sat and chatted instead of disappearing to go fish- we'll thank all the bees for that. Fun stuff. 9-5-22
FHE
Family night was kind of nonexistent this week. I think we forgot it was Monday. 9-5-22
LUNCH WITH KRISTA JOHNSON
It's been a really long time, we decided, since we last hung out. It was time!! We went to The Habit- SO YUMMY. This was a nice time, even Sadie seemed to have a good time. She still thinks it's a little crazy that I have a friend with my same name :). "Memmuh we have yunch wif you fwend Kwista! Dat so cwazy." I just love Krista. I am so excited she's in the new Stake Young Women's Presidency. 9-6-22
CROSS COUNTRY RACE
We all loaded up and went down to Murray Park, Friday, for the kids' cross country race. This was an exciting one. AND they were letting the Junior High kids (Erika) run a race as well! She's so cool to just take on a race at the last minute and she did amazing!! Her race was right when we got there. She did a few little stretches, handed me her water bottle and then took off! Didn't even really know the course. I loved seeing her one of the first four to come over the hill about the halfway point, with just a few boys ahead of her! Such a cool girl! Then crossing the finish line in about fourth place, I think we decided. So awesome! First girl for a long time. It was a two mile race for her. Then after hers we waited a bit played on the playground- it was so fun being at Murray Park again. Used to be one of our big hangout spots when we were first married. Lots of times of feeding ducks there, picnics with Lignells, Clemenses, Wendy Olsen, Who else? It's just a fun reminiscing place. So the boys' race was just as thrilling as Erika's! We were watching from up on the hill, which was actually pretty cool. You could see them running almost the whole course from up there. I loved seeing my boys come around the bend. I was shocked to see Brad when I did- he had a really good race! They stayed in their same order this time, Bradley, Noah, Luke. Pretty close together though. Fun stuff. I'm so proud of them and the hard work they put in each day (almost every day :) ). They're so awesome! I wish I could be more dedicated to something the way they are. Good race guys!! We had to grab some Carl's Jr. on the way home. 9-9-22
DATE NIGHT
After we dropped the kids off at home, we headed out for our date night. It was a little shorter this week, with just dinner, but still a much needed recharge. We went to Applebee's. Such a nice time. 9-9-22
SOCCER GAMES
We had some fun games this week! We had to split up for Noah and Molly's games, they were at the same time. But sounded like Molly's went well. She said she scored :). Noah's team won in the last few seconds of the game, very thrilling. And Erika's team did really well against a pretty evenly matched team. I thought they played really well. I think this was the first game in a couple years that Erika didn't score :), but she played awesome. Still adjusting to the new team with the older girls. She's totally at the same skill level, but I think it's a little intimidating. They still won. Didn't cream them like last week, but still won. I loved having everyone there to watch her game. We have the coolest kids- Bradley playing catch, horsie, tag, whatever else with Sadie the entire time. 9-10-22
SATURDAY FUN
We tried to make something fun at the end of the day, and the park was all we could come up with. It was a short little time at Gailey Park, but still fun! 9-10-22
SEPTEMBER 11TH
This seemed like kind of a busy Sunday. We were supposed to go up to Idaho for Miles' homecoming, but with Nate's schedule and needing to save our days off for Florida, we didn't get to go. So it was a more normal Sunday, just felt busy for some reason. I had choir and then sat and talked to Delores for about an hour about Florida, which was fun, and then it was time to run down to Murray to visit Nana! We met up with my dad and Jo and Steve and had such a good time there. We all sat down in the shade and got to talk about Nana and all our fun/funny memories of her. She was such a good friend to me. I miss her so much. I wish she was still around to go and just pop-in and visit. I miss bragging about my kids to her and being able to feel her love and validation on so many things. I wonder what she is doing right now. I just miss her so much. We ate a small bag of M&Ms, climbed on the cannon, tried to get Sadie to pee by a tree, then made our way home. Such a nice visit! When we got home we had some dinner, then went on a nice walk around the neighborhood. Erika took a candy bar to thank Cathie Nybo for her time in Young Womens and on our way home we went up to Via La Costa and stopped to play some front yard football with the Larsons. That was fun. I liked talking to Karalee. I even got a hug from LeAnn McGrath too. Love her! Such a great time! 9-11-22
STATE FAIR TRADITION
We had an awesome time at the Fair this year!! As always. We started with the Fine Arts building, saw Nate's two pieces, Erika's and Noah's- always cool- Nate got 3rd place with his bird and 6th place with his shark (I think they should be switched, but that's my opinion). We love the art. We saw the Creative Arts building- everyone always talks about wanting to enter creative arts every time we're in there :). They had some fun stuff. Sadie and Molly loved the dollhouses. I loved hearing everyone's comments about everything the whole time. We walked over to the little kid play area- hoola-hooped, took some face pics, beat on the pots and pans and laughed. Then we saw the animal houses. Right as we walked in to the goats we get the "AAAAAWWWWW"s in stereo from Sadie, Molly and Erika. Super cute. They love baby goats, cracks me up. This is the part where I just try not to breathe. My skin starts to crawl. But we saw the cows, chickens, sheep, somehow we missed the pigs. We went over to the Hands On Farm after that. This is the favorite part of the whole fair. Maybe just mine, but it's so special! One of those sacred moments in time where I can just leave reality, leave the world, and enjoy my family. The big kids join in on all the fun- I love that they make this so fun. Bradley picking out the perfect apron and Sadie deciding she did want to wear one after seeing EVERYONE else get one. Even Kelly, Luke, Noah, Erika and Jack join in! Must be cool!! Molly still appreciates this activity too, which is really fun for the rest of us. I know there's the added bonus of the free treat at the end, but these guys really seem to have fun and totally get into it. They let me take pictures of them, they feed the pigs, milk the cow, Brad gave the sheep a massage while Sadie and Molly brushed it. They rode the tractors- just Molly and Sadie still fit on them, but everyone else was right there, filling them up with gas, and just making it a fun experience. So special!! I cannot express how much I love this moment every year. It's like one of those places in life where you come back to ground. You can measure things and look back on times past. It's just so cool. I only wish Charity had been there!! She would have been just as fun I'm sure :). Such a special time for me. I got the coolest picture of everyone with the sun behind, looks really cool. Just made my week to be there with all of us and have that time together. Then we ran into the Maughans as we were checking the map for the trampoline show! They were eating ice cream and we learned that the all you can eat ice cream thing was over, which was a total bummer. We need to remember to go over there sooner next year maybe. They were selling quarts of ice cream for a dollar though, which was cool, so we grabbed two of those. Good thing they were only a dollar because we hardly touched them for some reason. We said goodbye to the Maughans, walked over by the gazebo and saw the trampoline show had just ended. That was a bummer. But after checking the schedule realized there was a magic show right then too. So we went over to the magic show, sat on the grass/dirt in the front. Adam the Great was hilarious and pretty magical. Bradley got to go be one of his volunteers on the coolest trick! And got a tic tac and a card with his signature on it. So cool! We liked the show! It got dark and it was almost time to go but we had to find the infomercial building first, walked through there, saw almost all the same things as last year, didn't buy anything, some guy scrubbed Erika's shoes and made it look worse than it did- annoying- didn't wash the other one and then just totally snubbed us! It was so strange! Not the best salesman. We had to put out the flames of Jack and Molly's hopes to go on rides this year. And then again when they wanted to buy toys. They've gotten a few traditions of their own over the last couple years. But we had a really good time. I loved it!! 9-12-22
SHOOTER
Got into a new show this week- spent WAY too much time watching it, made it through three seasons from Saturday night to Wednesday afternoon. Embarrassing, so I'm not sure why I'm documenting it, but maybe just to be real. I really liked it. I'm bummed it's over. 9-14-22
WORKING OUT
For the past week-ish Sadie has been my new workout buddy :). She's super motivating, begs me to do our workout together as soon as we get back from taking the kids to school. It's super cute. I love having her up there with me. She doesn't really stick with it the whole time and sometimes she yells at me for finishing it while she's out of the room, but we're having fun doing it together. She's such a sweet little friend right now. 9-14-22
SADIE
So we learned that Sadie is extremely jealous of the playgroup babies when mom is holding them. She was not okay with it at all. She couldn't even go play while I was holding them. Rachel Field's little 7 week old, Wren, and Shalane Wiberg's six month old, Kit. Kinda funny. Kind of interesting. She wouldn't even look at the babies with me or touch their cute toes. 9-15-22
RACE CATS
Molly started race cats last week. She's the only one signed up, but since Erika loves running so much, Erika has been going with her. It's been pretty fun. I'm glad Molly has something and I love that she loves running. 9-15-22
THURSDAY
Thursday was pretty crazy. Took a little juggling and splitting up to tackle everything on our schedule. These days are always a challenge, but it worked out. Race Cats, Erika Soccer practice, Grandma and Jen's surprise party, ministering visit to Mary Jo, Young Womens volleyball, Noah worked. 9-15-22
VOLLEYBALL
Erika and I were both staying home from Grandma and Jen's party, which we both felt bad about, but had responsibilities we needed to fulfill. We grabbed some Chick-fil-a because why not! Then I ran to Mary Jo's for some ministering, then raced back to take Erika to soccer. She was only going to be there for a half hour so I just sat and waited for her. We ran off to volleyball, I grabbed more young women. We had a great turnout this week. Eight girls. They did awesome. Didn't quite win, but we had fun. Slurpees after of course. It was great! 9-15-22
GRANDMA AND JEN'S SURPRISE PARTY
I've heard that this was pretty amazing. The place they went to had all kinds of cool things to do and fun stuff to play with. A golf simulator, darts? I think, corn hole, lots of chips, all the family, sounded like a really fun party. Molly was a big help with Becky's oxygen tank. Grandma almost didn't come up to the party :). We gave Jen socks and Grandma yarn. Everyone played their little hearts out. Sadie wowed her aunts with her corn hole skills. Noah, Erika and I were sad we missed it. Nate and all who went grabbed some pizza on their way home. Erika and I had made good use of the time, playing cards and watching movies only we like :). 9-15-22
CHARITY CONFERENCE TALK
I've been loving that Charity posts a conference talk on her Instagram story everyday- it's been fun to read a talk knowing she just read it. The one she had this week was from 1989 by Sis. Jack about divine nature. I loved it! I read it while I was getting my hair done Friday. Very good talk even though it is pretty old :). I love seeing what Charity is thinking about and doing regularly. 9-16-22
SCARECROW WALK WITH RICHELLE
Richelle was taking her granddaughters to the scarecrow walk over at the gardens, so we went with her! This was a lot of fun. I just wish Sadie had been more into it. She seemed a little jealous when Kaylie held my hand and then never really recovered from that. But we got to see the "crazy guy" (big blow up scarecrow flying around to draw people to the thing) and all the scarecrows. She didn't want me to take any pictures for some reason. 9-16-22
THE ROAD
Molly and Sadie had decided they wanted to go to Dollar Tree to buy a treat and toy, so we let them clean up the toys in the toy room and wash some windows for a couple dollars. They were so happy and very much needed to go right away to get their treats and toys. So we hopped in the car, picked up Erika, dropped off Kate, told Noah where we were going, then headed to Dollar Tree. Only a few minutes in to shopping I got a call from Noah telling me that there was water gushing out of the road. A texted picture later, Nate was calling the city to tell them what was going on. We wanted to hurry home to see it first hand so we rushed Molly and Sadie through their buying experience. Sure enough, water was definitely gushing out of the road. The same way it had over on Park Drive in front of the Barton's house. About the same time that we got here, a couple city guys showed up. They had not been told about the mess, just showed up incidentally. So that was kind of funny. But they were able to get the secondary water turned off and stopped the river flowing out of the cracks in the road. We stood out there talking with Emily, Marianne Barth and Terrie Tenney and eventually Lisa. We really wanted to see it collapse after, but of course it hasn't yet. Kind of a let down for all of us :). The kids were loving playing in the muddy water and Kelly and Brad even had some fun with the caution tape, cracks in the road, water, idea of it falling in. Pretty thrilling stuff. It made us a little late for our date, but mostly pretty exciting :). 9-16-22
DATE NIGHT
This week we changed it up a little and went to the movie first and then dinner :). Top Gun Maverick for the fourth time in the theater (we've watched it a couple other times at home, but it's so great in the theater, we couldn't resist), then Sushi Monster afterwards. So yummy. We like our Pandora and Mango rolls. It was a fun evening. Kinda funny to feel like we need to wait til the big kids get home and not be able to do anything til then. 9-16-22
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
More splitting up to get things done Saturday. Nate took Noah his game, then he and Sadie headed down to Taylorsville for Luke's race. I took Erika, Jack and Molly to Molly's game, then went and watched the last half of Noah's game- he played so hard as sweeper but they lost. Then we hurried back to Molly's just long enough to watch her score her 4th goal of the game :) GO MOLLY! Kelly had showed up halfway through her game as well. Then we all met up back at home for some bedroom cleaning! I am SO PLEASED with how much the kids did in their rooms and how nice they look right now! It's awesome! We're going to do a contest to see who can keep their room cleanest the longest! A dollar a day- hopefully that's not a crazy idea. Then we all (everyone except Brad and Luke) went to Erika's game. She did awesome! I missed her only goal while I was taking Sadie to the bathroom which was a totally bummer, but I'm so proud of her. She was goalie for the last half and didn't really get much action, but it was fun to watch her. We had to get Fiiz's after and with all the goals that were scored today and blocked balls, we all got a drink :). We came home to a sleeping Luke and Brad from their cross country race. It was a fun Saturday though! I got to play some games with Erika and we watched a little of Oliver and Company before heading to bed. Fun day. 9-17-22
RELEASED
Nate asked me to come early to church so we could "talk about something" and I of course knew exactly what it was. Totally bummed, but trying to be tough, I agreed to the release from Girls Camp Assistant. But as Sacrament meeting started, I thought about it a little more, and I just could not hold back the tears. It was so sad. I know it's time, I know that it's someone else's turn. I know Lindsay Cutler is going to do a great job as director. I just wish it was still my turn. I wish I could still go somehow. It bums me out so much to not be able to be part of it. I'm sure I will have my hands full this summer getting a missionary off (assuming), and I'm sure the Lord knows what He is doing :). I just wish it could be different. I am trying to be sustaining as I hold back the tears. Why can't I just have everything I want :). 9-18-22
COORDINATING CLOTHES
I spent most of the day getting things ready for our family picture. I started with Molly's cute jumper. I wanted to have that, so I needed to find something with that color. Luckily, Nate's sweater that we picked out last year for a picture jumped into my mind! His had the color of Molly's jumper and then some blues and yellows. So I went from there! I found a dark blue shirt in Brad's closet, Erika had something in every color, so it was more a matter of what I could find for everyone else. I headed to Target. Found a yellow shirt for Luke, an orange and blue plaid shirt for Noah, a blue striped shirt for Jack, a cute yellow dress for Sadie, and a really pretty orange sweater for Charity. I could not find anything for me. Kind of annoying. But then the coolest thing happened. I was looking online for a dress, from Amazon, to hopefully ship here overnight and while I was looking I saw the dress I had already bought a while ago!! I just had to pull that out of the closet and cut the bottom of it off :). It had ALL the colors (plus a reddish one, but it totally worked!) I was SO HAPPY!! Looking at all the clothes together was fun. I decided on Erika's yellow dress with jean jacket to give it some more texture. Kelly ended up using a brown shirt she had and since it was a little more brown than the color on Nate's shirt, we did Brad's brown pants to tie it all in- worked great!! I was so pleased! 9-18-22
ALREADY
I couldn't believe it when the city showed up and started working on the hole out front! I thought for sure they'd put that off til Spring when they have to turn the water back on! Lisa and I were both equally stunned by how quickly it was repaired. We sat and watched them work for a little bit before having to pick up kids. 9-19-22
BRAD'S ANKLE AND DR. WOODS
Brad's ankle has finally reached the point where he requested a doctor appointment. He kept pushing it and just couldn't take anymore. Which I was happy to take him. Kind of difficult because Dr. Tew basically told us to get a big boy doctor for Brad now that he's so big and grown up. Weird because he's not 18 yet, but whatever. No harm in getting a new family doc. We tried Dr. Woods at the IHC clinic here in Kaysville. He seemed nice. Jumped right into a prescription before even taking an x-ray which turned me off a little, but he seemed really attentive too. Gave him some exercises and PT to do on it. He did eventually send him down for an x-ray, and sent us on our way. I was glad everything was mostly okay. Some soft tissue damage and no fracture. Sprained ankle. I told Brad to just stop running on it if he wants to use it for Track season. We'll see how it heals. 9-19-22
FHE
I think we kind of wimped out this week, we watched Harry Potter for FHE. I don't think we did anything else :). Good stuff though- gotta brush up on our Harry Potter before Florida! 9-19-22
HATCH FAMILY BARBECUE
It's always nice when the Hatches are in town because we get together with everyone and hang out :). Tuesday my dad planned a barbecue. It worked out really well that we were going to do family pictures that night with Sarah too. We were awesome getting ready to go and everyone was so happy- I was so relieved! We looked great! Got up to Mueller Park and met up with Sarah. We found the spot Grandpa had reserved, talked for a bit and then went and took some pictures. It was pretty fun. I only wish we'd had a little more time to get some girls only and boys only pictures, but I can't wait to see the ones Brent and Sarah took. The barbecue was really fun! Heidi and her kids showed up. Grandpa and Jo grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone. We laughed about all the kids' funny stories while we ate, then Molly started a water fight with Grandpa and things exploded! Grandpa almost fell in the fire, everyone was soaked, Brent cut grandpa's face with my water bottle, it was insane! We did end up putting an end to the fight and played a little volleyball for a few minutes as the light was leaving. Nate had to leave for work as well. It was a really fun night though. 9-20-22
CUDDLE TIME WITH MOLLY
Not sure why, but Molly was totally in the mood to cuddle on Wednesday. She may not have been feeling 100%, but doesn't matter to me why- I just loved that she wanted to cuddle! 9-21-22
TRAMPOLINE WITH SADIE
Sadie invited me out to play on the trampoline and we had so much fun together! I loved it!! I love those little moments together. She has been such a fun little lady lately. 9-21-22
BRYCE CANYON WITH THE HATCHES
This was a much anticipated trip! We rarely plan things so far in advance, so just looking forward to it was a lot of fun! I felt a little bad because as time went on, we had more and more things coming up on this Friday/Saturday, including: Fun Run, Homecoming dinner for Brad's group, Primary activity, Homecoming dance and all week activities, Brad's escorting George, Ward chili cook off, soccer games, Jen's temple session... LOTS!! Kinda crazy how much you can schedule on one weekend. So we did end up changing the trip to Thursday/Friday rather than Friday/Saturday. This didn't seem to be too big a deal, but we were sad we didn't get to have Brad and Luke (and Charity and Kelly) with us. They were too committed to their Homecoming activities and football game, assembly etc. to miss out. Luke also had his day date Friday night. Our two Columbia kids missed out on the Fun Run, but from Jack's fist pump and Molly's disinterested response, I don't think they really cared, so that was nice :). That would not have flown with a lot of the older kids! Different kids obviously. So anyway!! The rest of us took out the back row to load up the van with all our camping gear and such for the trip, that was nice to not have to take the trailer. We decided to keep things simple, so easy food, less camping gear... it was pretty nice. Not too much work if you ask me. We got the van all loaded and ready to go by 9:00, met up with the Hatches at Pictureline in Salt Lake City. We thought it would be fun to trade some kids, so Erika went with them, and Charlie and Savannah came with us! The drive seemed pretty quick to me. Not bad at all. We stopped to get gas at a gas station in Beaver and noticed a creamery there to stop at on the way home. We got up to Bryce Canyon National Park in really good time. We were able to find two campsites right next to each other in the walk-up campsites, which I consider a huge blessing! Our only other option was an unroughed campground after that, and while I was okay with that, I wasn't thrilled with the idea. So we pulled up, got our tent set up, some of the gear out. Had lunch. It was all really fun and chill the whole time. I like that about hanging out with the Hatches. We decided to go try a hike and headed out! We got to the canyon, walked the rim and then found a pretty decent hike, 3 miles to Sunset point and Surise point. I was more than happy to do a three miler. This hike was down into the canyon and then back through the canyon and over to the other side and back up to the rim. It was beautiful! I couldn't believe the scenery! And we had been there back in 2015, but it was all snowy when we were there last time. So this was a cool new thing again. We weren't able to go down into it last time either. So pretty cool! The formations just look so much like castles :). Kinda fun. Everyone did pretty well on the hike. I was feeling kind of bad for Brent and Sarah because Aria and Izzie didn't seem to like the hike as much as some of the other kids. They seemed like they had their hands full. Which was a bummer. But they are so indcredibly patient and handle things like that so well, I was really impressed. The hike took about two hours, so I really thought we'd added to the original three miles or something and it was now longer, but nope- just three :). Kinda funny. The last little bit of it was INSANELY hard. Felt straight up, switch backs, but straight up, not sure how. It was so hard!! I totally did it though! And so did everyone else. We did so good! Nate had Sadie on his shoulders even! It was so much fun though! I really loved it! I loved mine and Erika's run up one of the switches. I also loved all the time I got to spend with the kids. This was a different group, having only Noah on down, a totally different dynamic, so that was actually kind of cool to experience. We'd always rather have everyone, but we were appreciating the fact that it was new and unusual. I got to talk with everyone as we hiked. That was a lot of fun. We got back to camp, had our hotdogs, chips and queso, fruit and chips and then explored and talked until the sun went down. It was a nice evening! The morning was just as great. We weren't in any hurry to get up, had Brent's hot chocolate, talked and talked- Sarah and I don't need to live close to have things to talk about- we learned that back when they were dating and we were in Alaska :). I really enjoyed the morning chat. We needed to be out of the campground by 11:30 and nobody was needing to go on any more hikes or anything, so we just got packed up and on the road. We let them take Molly and we got Charlie and Alvin on the way home. We stopped at the Beaver Creamery for some ice cream and lunch (in that order :) ) and then got back on the road. I really didn't mind that drive either way. We were a little anxious to get home and get started on our weekend plans, but overall, the drive was very nice. We sure miss the Hatches. It's always so fun to get together with them. I so wish we could do it more often! We stopped at the Flying J to trade kids and said our goodbyes. 9-22-22--9-23-22
HOMECOMING DINNER PREP/DATE NIGHT
We needed to empty the trailer before we could go get the tables and chairs from the church, so Nate and I decided to make that part of our Friday date night. Unfortunately, we just ended up driving the full trailer everywhere, we couldn't find a single place taking stuff at the moment. So that was lame. We did make our Costco run, getting all the last minute food for the next day. We sure love doing these dinners for the kids! I think this is our 4th? I could be wrong. So we did squeeze in a dinner at Zupas when we got done. That was nice. We got home and Nate slaved over the pork for a bit and then we were off to bed. In the morning, Nate got up early to go take the trailer load up to the dump. Then we met up at the church with Brad and Brandon and even Noah and Erika came along to help. We got six round tables and 50 chairs! This is probably the hardest part of hosting dinner. Not my favorite part, but we do love it so much that it's worth it. We raced off to soccer games while Nate was pulling pork. Then spent the rest of the morning setting up and cleaning up the backyard. We were able to go to Erika's soccer game before dropping the Primary kids and Noah and Erika to help, at the Primary activity at the church and then heading right out for Jen's temple session and then quickly came back home for all the finishing touches to get things ready for the 7:00 start time for dinner! It was a crazy, crazy day!! Mad dash for sure. But so much fun! The kids are always so grateful and so fun to have here. We loved that Gary stopped working outside for us! Just not before we said the prayer :). It turned out so perfectly! Brandon's parents were fun to stay and chat the whole time and then even helped with getting the tables and chairs back to the church! So nice of them!! They had made the potatoes as well, which was a huge help. I felt bad that they made so many. But saved us a lot of time and work. We were all done and ready to go to bed by 9:00 which was miraculous! I was pretty happy with how the evening went. Brad and Luke both had a great time at the dance. Luke's group had had dinner at the Caldwell's, also Nate's meat, but some other foods as well. He was funny about how nobody ate any dessert! I would have been shoving it down people's throats if I was Jami :). But he sounded like he had fun. This was his first guys choice dance. I was so proud of him for braving it! He even tore his shirt he had gotten so into the moshing :). Brad had a great time too! He was exhausted when he got home. So much fun!! 9-23-22--9-24-22
STAKE YOUTH CHOIR
Noah and Erika went to the Stake Youth Choir this week. I love that Diane makes Erika feel so loved! I think this will be a cool experience for them. 9-25-22
SUNDAY
Kelly showed up with a few friends on Sunday a couple times, we got to sit and visit with them and the kids all enjoyed their attention and Kelly's face/hand painting. Lots of fun. 9-25-22
PRESIDENT ERIKA
Erika got set apart as the new President in the younger Young Women class. She's pretty excited and finally set apart so now she can get going on it! 9-25-22
MONDAY/SICK
Monday was another hectic day at our house. Well out and about really. Didn't help that I was feeling really sick that day. I still don't know why I felt so crappy. No pun intended. Kelly had her appointment with Dr. Smith at 10:45. We got his thoughts on her food sensitivity tests, she's going to go off wheat completely and try to avoid cow's milk, egg whites, almonds, celery, watermelon and pineapple to see if she can calm down any inflammation in her body. I am hopeful and anxious to see how this goes. He doesn't want to look into her hormones yet. They were so backed up that they didn't get us in and out in very good time. So Kelly and Sadie ended up coming with me to take my friend Summer out to lunch for her birthday. We went out to pick her up in Salt lake and then down to 4500 South for the Paradise Buffet :). This was a lot of fun. I really enjoy being with Summer. Especially hearing how she's doing right now. Sounds like things are really looking up. I couldn't be happier for her. So then we were supposed to take Kelly back up to Logan, but the time was just not going to work, so we switched cars with Nate and she took the Prius back up. She was planning on coming back down the next day and getting a ride with Kalli back up to Logan, but just needed to be up there Monday night for FHE. This worked out pretty well. We needed to leave here at 5:00 for dinner with Beth before she had to take off. It was fun to see her as well as spending time with Ruth, Jared and Paulette, Mark and Nancy. I wish I'd just been feeling a little better at the moment. Although, I did get the potato bacon soup at Culvers and that was pretty yummy! We had a nice drive back home. Big day! 9-26-22
VISIT FROM LOREEN AND MERRIT
I got a nice little visit from Loreen and Merrit Tuesday morning. They are so nice and a lot of fun to talk to. Sweet of them to take the time to do that. 9-27-22
PICKLEBALL AT BARBARA'S
This was our first game night at Barbara's. Leslie Perez, Shalane Wiberg, Karen Richardson and I all went to play Tuesday night. I loved it! I wasn't any good, but I loved it! 9-27-22
POOR ERIKA
Erika has been suffering with a tooth ache for a good four or five days now. We finally got her in to see Dr. Morgan. Unfortunately he thinks she's going to need a root canal and referred her to an Endontist. She went there on Wednesday and ended up needing a root canal. Poor girl. She will have to go back in a month to refill her cavity, but for now, I think she's feeling better at least! 9-28-22
LUNCH DAY
I loved lunch day this week with Luke and Brad. Nate, Sadie and I grabbed some Jimmy Johns, got home just in time. The boys came and talked the entire time!! So fun!! I loved it! And then, since Brad has home release the rest of the day, he stayed and chatted with me and Nate for at least an hour! Asking about our honeymoon and stuff. So much fun!! I loved it! He had to go at 2:30 for the xc race, which he can't run in, but we sure loved having him for lunch. Good times. 9-28-22
MOLLY'S FIRST RACE
Molly did great at her first race of the season! We were all there to cheer her on and she ran her little heart out! We were all very proud of her. She didn't seem too thrilled with her 10th place ribbon she was handed when she crossed the finish line, but it's actually really impressive with how many others were there. Good job Mollz!! We got Arctic Circle ice cream cones to celebrate. 9-29-22
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
I finally made it back up to the stake center after Young Women's Volleyball for the older women's volleyball time. It was really fun. Totally took me out of my comfort zone. It helped that Meredith Bird, Shalane Wiberg, Leslie Perez, and Lichelle Perry were there. It was emotionally draining and I was exhausted emotionally when I got done. But I did like it and I would like to go back next week :). 9-29-22
DATE NIGHT
We had a nice day together all day Friday, Costco run for the conference snacks and then vegging on the couch because we had NOTHING on the schedule all day. We were still very heppy to go on our date that night. We went to The Habit and then to see the movie See How They Run, a comedy/mystery/whodunit with British humor. I like that stuff. Not always my favorite thing to watch, but I did like it! We came home to a broken kitchen faucet- Noah just doesn't know his strength sometimes. We got to extend our date to go up to Home Depot talking to Charity on the way about her date with Ty, and picked out a new faucet. It was a fun evening. 9-30-22
