Life is Funny & Hike #5

I love how I just posted all about how I put all this energy and time into making sure chores/school keep-up happen every day.

Because it all went to pot this week! Miriam was the only one who did any chores all week long.

The excuses are long and vast...our sprinkling system was fixed over multiple days, the Honda had an air bag recall, I sold some car seats on KSL...but mostly it's because these two had swimming lessons all week in Farmington.  So we had to be out of the house around 9:30.  Monday and Wednesday there was Archery and Chinese back to back and Tuesday and Thursday I wanted to take advantage of the fact that the boys were already wet and ready to swim (plus it was near 100 degrees all week!) to get more swimming in.  I took Soren, Miriam and one of Miriam's friends to Lagoon A Beach, and then all of us went to the Rec Center with friends on Thursday.

Plus...Byron had Cub Scout Camp all day on Tuesday. 

This didn't really interfere with anything but the massive waterslide for Mutual was fun.

Friday we hiked to Elephant Rock.  It's about 6 miles but we booked it and made it in around 2 hours 15 min or so.  Beautiful hike! 

I had promised these two if they didn't make it to nationals for History Fair I would let them make another Mega Cake as a consolation prize.  Also...Miriam wanted to take sewing and cake decoration this summer but we made her pay for her own rec classes.  She couldn't afford both and choose sewing,  her friend wanted to do cake decorating as well but didn't register in time. So they did some hands-on learning and spent about 6 hours cooking baking and frosting. I gave the girls complete access to the kitchen and let them do their thing.  

The lemon curd curded right up, the 4 vanilla cakes with sweet lemon syrup are moist and fluffy, the Italian Buttercream creamed right up....HUGE success.

The girls sweltered in our little kitchen on this 99 degree day....we had all fans going and the air conditioner doing what it could but having the stove and the oven going made things hot! Luckily the temps didn't affect the cake.

Here it is: Lemonade THE MEGA cake!

The Week + Hike #4

Byron's Archery class started this week so for the next 3 Monday's and Wednesday's we meet a bunch of neighbor friends at the park where the class is held for a picnic and playing.  Unfortunately, Miriam's sewing class overlaps on these days so she can't come.  I don't think she would want to even if she could.  She is spreading her independent wings as she rides her bike to and from her sewing class and loves being home alone for a 1/2 hour or so until we get back.  

As a family, we scooted/EZ rode the Farmington Lagoon trail up to Farmington Pond one evening.  We decided to run into Lagoon for a few rides before going home and randomly ran into my sister Sarah, her new husband Mike and ALL their boys! It was too funny!  We had already gone on 2 rides so we all went on Tidal Wave together and then parted ways.  We were starving and my rule is...if you are hungry it's time to go home:)

I figured out they were there through Madison's Instagram photo so I snapped this photo to surprise Sarah with a little clue about which ride we were going on.

The temps last week were so lovely!! We took advantage of them by encouraging (paying) the kids to get out help with yard work.  I think we have settled into a summer chore system that works for us...for now at least.  The kids have mandatory daily chores that we don't pay them for, it's just a requirement of living together in a family.  I call it "Zone Cleaning" which I know I got from a blog somewhere but now have forgotten the source. The house is broken into Zones they rotate which one they are responsible for keeping clean all week, and then a deep cleaning in that room on Saturday. On top of that they have to keep their rooms clean, and do reading, piano, math, and Chinese everyday. I don't pay them for those things either but I do pay them if they finish a math workbook, or perfect a piano song on their own.  It's still not easy, my main summer job is task time manager and cheerleader extraordinaire which takes the bulk of my energy and my day.  But I have been good about forging forward with the book "The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes" in my head.  Someday my summers will be full of crossing house projects off my list, gardening, or running errands while the kids happily do their chores without my assistance...right? right? 

Oh I dearly hope so.

I do have a separate list of extra chores that we will pay them for, weeding and lawn mowing being on top of the list.  Things like cleaning the couches, cleaning the basement, washing walls, blinds, doors, cleaning out the car.  Miriam is pretty motivated because she wants to do this zip line tour in Hawaii and get her friends gifts while we are there (her friends have this cute tradition of picking up things for each other on vacation),  Byron wants to by an archery set because of his new class and wants to get a baseball cap, and Soren wants to buy everything he sees.  He loves the action of spending money and walking away with anything remotely interesting so we try to stay away from stores with him, and have limited his viewing of vat19.com.  His latest desire is Heely's but we think he is too young for those.

We finally got in a date night at Lagoon!

So fun to introduce friends to Cannibal.

Next time I am hoping we can ride bikes there and back.

No photos, but my mom, sisters, and a few nieces came up to look for dresses to wear to Mark's wedding.  Not that we are matching, just to coordinate colors a little bit, and get ideas about what everyone is wearing.  Shopping is so exhausting, but we all got some ideas as a jumping off point and had a yummy lunch at Zupa's.

Ladies Hike #4 was a trail run in Kaysville. 

Julia and Jared came to visit and stay with us on Friday!

Jared is a BBQ expert so I had to take them to Smokin' Bones for dinner...not that I had ever been there, just because everyone raves about this local ma and pop BBQ place.  I thought it was delicious, and Jared validated that it is fantastic BBQ.  I had to laugh at myself because I called to make a reservation...just go there and you will see why that is funny.  After taking a digestion break we went to Lagoon for the rest of the evening specifically to be on the ferris wheel to see the lights.

And then we went again Saturday morning.

(These kids did the more thrilling rides, but I only took photos of the kiddie section...Tatum and Wyler are fearless).  Soren's new favorite ride is now the Hydro Luge, which he and I went on a total of 7 times...twice with Wyler. Soren also kept wanting to "do a switcheroo" which meant he wanted to ride with Julia...so cute.

We stayed until we were starving, the kids begged to go eat and come right back but we had to break up the party.  Saturday chores ya know....and J & J had shopping to finish. There were tears and gnashing of teeth but we promised to do it again another day.

Stuff + Hike #3

It was a quiet week, which I so needed after our 4th of July celebrating. I am not the partier I once was! I mean, I am still my same yellow personality, but I crave so much more alone time than I ever have in my life.

When I looked at the calendar for the week I was so happy it was fairly clear that I almost forgot about the boys field trip to Boba World and that I had volunteered to go help. A friend reminded me the day before so we made it! The kids hand made cream cheese wontons and then the owner of the restaurant fried them. It was fun, and I enjoyed them, but honestly most of the kids didn't like the hot cream cheese.

Happy Clappy! Except I really burned the roof of my mouth on hot cream cheese...BOO!

The boys are excited to roll our traditional Won Tons on New Years this year! 

Soren was SO BUGGED my his first loose tooth.  He could not stop obsessing about it, he wanted me to pull it out, but didn't want me to touch it.  I made him work on it with his tongue for a few days, by Thursday he was set on shooting it out with a nerf gun. I made him wait until Darin came home....after a few unsuccessful attempts the tooth went flying! Darin of course found the tooth...he always does when things are lost in the carpet.

Friday Hike #3 Holbrook Canyon.  Very fun, follows a stream up the canyon.  We ran into the Viewmont cross country team, and literally ate their dust.

We each get to take a turn being the huge head in the selfie.

Pleasant Valley Days

We arrived at the cabin about 3 pm with plans to do the spaghetti dinner fundraiser and Little Miss Pleasant Valley Days pageant that evening.  Tatum, as Little Miss Carbon County, was performing, and helping crown at the pageant so we convinced Miriam to enter as a good way to practice performing. It started raining about 4:30, and was a downpour by 5!  We all found whatever rain jackets we could in the cabin (love my parents army jackets) and drove down anyway.  We ate spaghetti elbow to elbow to everyone else in the little pavilion. The pageant was then sadly, rescheduled for the next afternoon.  

An adventure for sure, I feel good that we supported Pleasant Valley Days but we are use to a higher quality of food when we are at the cabin so it was kind of a sacrifice.

But so nice that no one had to cook or clean that evening...that alone might make this addition to our weekend worth it!

We played some rounds of Uno, and luckily the skies cleared up for the Miner's Memorial unveiling.  

My brother-in-law's boss from Skyline Mine did the unveiling and gave a speech about coal mining and it's impact on Utah. I couldn't help tearing up when he talked about the miners who have died, specifically the mining disaster in Scofield.  It's a really beautiful monument!

We ended the evening with a game Tatum made called "Black Hole" which is Werewolf with newly designed space themes! Werewolf is always hilarious, but this upped the ante as we were all saying...now what does Saturn do?? Who is Venus? That Tater is so artistic.

Parade the next morning after our usual huge breakfast.

We were impressed with Josh on sax playing with the Carbon High Band and, loved seeing Tatum on the Carbon County royalty float. So fun to have people to cheer for!

Lots of water sprayed at this parade! I noticed water squirting is banned at the parades here at home, I love that this parade is a rowdier affair! But then again...I don't do my hair at the cabin so I don't mind getting wet.  

We returned to the cabin for lunch, then drove back down to the park for the pageant and took advantage of the free climbing wall.  Both boys made it to the top and rang the bell! 

The boys were sweet to come watch, maybe not their favorite thing to do during the weekend.

Miriam was SO NERVOUS, which was why I was pushing her to do it.  We didn't care whether she won or not,  it was a good opportunity to practice sining on stage in a non-threatening public place.  She sang "All For You" from Seussical Jr. and was fantastic! So expressive and vibrant it was fun to watch.  Tatum performed her award winning solo to "Red Balloon" by Mindy Gledhill...one of my favorite dancers dancing to one of my favorite songs.

So fun that Tatum got to crown Miriam.

And geeze Miriam is tall.

I finally snagged a photo of the Miner's Monument.

We all took turns riding or getting rides on the new yellow 4-wheelers for the rest of the afternoon.  I haven't driven a 4-wheeler in awhile, it was so much fun!

My mom and Jared made amazing BBQ rib and potatoes dutch oven dinner. Julia, Darin and I took the kids on an after dinner hike to the bear cave.

We went through enough to be satisfied that there were no bears.

For some reason, Bub and Soren hiked back with their sleeves tied behind their backs...whatever floats your boat!

We came back to find a butterfly with a broken wing.

So sad...not much we could do for her since she couldn't fly so we took photos and let nature take care of itself. 

She sure was fun for a moment...hopefully a bird got a good meal and the circle of life will roll along.

Now for the frustrating part. We waited for about 1.5 hours for fireworks to start.  They finally went off about 11:45 when we were back at the cabin and all the kids were asleep.  They said the firework truck was delayed in the canyon...."not cool Robert Frost!" Hopefully the firework people learned what the rest of us have known for years...don't try to go through a canyon on a holiday weekend without giving yourself lots of time.  

Against our better judgement we let the kids sleep on the upper deck as they requested.  It gets chilly at night, so we pilled them high with blankets. 

Miracles of miracles...most of them slept soundly all night long.  The midnight fireworks didn't even disturb them.

The next day Uncle Jared got their little 4-wheeler running so Wyler, Tatum, Byron and Soren got some driving, instead of just riding time!  They loved it!! Jared and Julia are the best to share their toys with us!

We celebrated Grandpa's birthday with a caramel apple pie and Miriam's America Flag poke cake!

Love to celebrate this great dad/grandpa of ours!!

We played 2 last rounds of "Black Hole" before we left...and a humming bird flew into the cabin!! Luckily this humming bird was pretty smart and flew right out again when we opened the door. 

We were home on the 4th so we woke up walked down to main street for the Centerville city parade.  Luckily some neighbors let us sit with them in a shady spot...and they had extra chairs....and gave our kids capri suns. People are nice.  We waved, laughed, cheered and caught candy then walked back home.  Another neighbor invited us to a BBQ that afternoon so the kids and I went.  They have a magical backyard that has the Parrish Canyon spring running through it. 2 bridges crossing over the stream, a playhouse, slide, playground thing AND trampoline. 

I wasn't motivated to take many photos this day...I took it off for the 4th, but I want a trampoline in our sloped back yard so I snapped this photo for a reference. 

After lunch they gave us a ride in their Prowler (Ranger? Razor?..I can't keep track of what they are called) up to the ATV area above Centerville.  It has a name but I have already forgotten what it is.  It was one wild ride which included some tears from Soren and my sunglasses flying off. But mostly just squeals of delight.

Then a nap!! A glorious nap to celebrate this great country of ours! The most fabulous way to celebrate in my opinion. 

The kids put together a Lemon Aid Stand that afternoon:

Soren gave a free folded paper towel rose with every purchase, and Bub offered free water balloons.

Soren told me he was "freakishly excited about selling lemon aid!" 

Again...people are so nice to humor these kids. 

We lit sparklers and threw pop its in our yard with a cute little neighbor boy and his family, then watched fireworks across the valley from our deck.

Another 4th of July in the books.

Happy Birthday America!!