Tanner and I were on a run after getting the other kids to school, then Weston joined us at the end, giving Winnie a walk!
Best part of making bread is punching it down! We tried kamut bread since Weston is trying to be gluten free right now. He still has his rash from last year and we're hoping to get rid of it through diet. Word of the wise, really grease your pans... kamut flour seems to stick!
Evan turned 40 and his wife threw him a surprise dinner party at Tia Rosas. It was so fun to spend the evening chatting with the Carters! We haven't seen Denyse and Ryan in forever. Good ol' Buffalo friends. We talked a lot about covid rules and how its affecting the schools and our kids. They are ultra conservative and it just doesn't seem like many people are these days.
We met Gary at the river one Saturday and it was quite the process with so many paddleboards and people. But it was fun to see Mark Tobler and Charlotte and Olive always loves playing with Gary's girls.
The men had a race at one point, pulling their children behind them. Or in Trav's case, his wife and children. He was at quite the disadvantage but held his own!
It's so strange, but there has been a butterfly influx everywhere. The roads are just covered in them and they're all over the river. One took a liking to Weston.
The QT pretzels and drinks might be the kids' favorite part about the river.
Olive and Tanner had well checks at the doctors and got the last two flavored tongue depressors in the place. Apparently their shipment is stuck on a barge off the coast of California... like everything else. Two healthy kids, which I'm grateful for. They each got a shot and were so brave!
Weston made pancakes for cooking class this week!
Tanner has missed his playdates at Grandma's house so he and Landon got invited for a special one.
Weston loves carving things, the silly kid.
My headlights are so weathered cloudy. Someone told me there is a process for making them clear again so I bought the kit and spent no less than 3 hours sanding and buffing and rubbing and I seriously don't think it made any difference.
Camilla wanted to take our paddleboards to Canyon Lake so off we went on a Monday morning. I drove and man, it's been like 20 years since I've been to Canyon Lake. We hauled everything down to the water and I thought we were just going to toodle around, but Camilla wanted to go back into the canyon. It was really windy and took a long time. Then, Weston jumped off a cliff and lost his oar so I had to paddle him back out, against the wind. I paddled with everything I had and we made no progress. I was so annoyed. I seem to have the worst luck with paddle boarding and I'm over it. I didn't even want to come in the first place. We finally made it to a dock and I told Camilla I would just walk along the highway to get to the car because I refused to paddle another inch. She seemed to think that was crazy. But I thought she was the crazy one to keep paddling against this wind. But off she went. So we bummed around on the dock for an hour until she got back with the truck. I'm telling you, me and paddle boarding don't mix.
Hang out night at McGuires one Friday. I'm so glad Collin has such good friends.
This documentary was about the company LuLaRoe. It started as a legging company that grew into an MLM run by this Mormon couple. It totally sucked me in and was super fascinating how it became a billion dollar company. I think the owners are the most charming sleezebags ever. But they didn't start that way.
Some home improvements! I love the new lights and address numbers Trav installed.
We had stake conference and you could watch from home but for some reason I felt compelled to go in person. Just seemed like we would listen better or that the kids would know it was important to us to be at stake conference. Olive wrote this during the conference and as we were getting into the car afterward, a man knocked on my window so I rolled it down. With emotion in his voice and tears in his eyes, he said, "Your daughter wrote something today that was an answer to my prayers. Thank you."
We all sat there kind of dumbfounded. I realized he had been sitting behind us, alone, and must have been able to read her paper. I was so grateful we had decided to put in the extra effort to be at stake conference that day.
Dolly broke down again. Seems to be a talent of hers.
I got an itch to redo the bathroom downstairs. Having Olive's baptism luncheon was the fire I needed under my tush. Here are the "befores". I was so proud of myself for unhooking the pedestal sink and removing it! Thank you, YouTube tutorials!
Travis is the best for helping me make this happen! This farmhouse sink vanity was expensive and heavy but he was all about getting me the one I liked best and installing it. Unfortunately, the gold arrow decals didn't come in time for the luncheon, but it was all completed the next month. I love how it turned out!
Everyone's favorite brunch... crepes. Or craps as the kids spell it. We like to give them a hard time that they love craps. It's so time consuming, I'll only make it for special occasions. Olive's birthday was our special occasion! And you must have homemade pudding to go with it.
Kristen has wanted to go paddleboarding for months and we kept scheduling then rescheduling. Finally, we made it happen on a Friday morning that Travis wasn't working. She was pretty apprehensive about falling in and said her mother thinks the river is deadly and no one should go on it, but I wasn't worried about it. Without considering her beginner status, I stupidly took us to the top of the river. Shortly after you get in, you go down what is called pin ball alley. It's the fasted part of the river with rapids and rocks. I think of it as the "fun part" so why wouldn't we do it?! I had been coaching her on how to paddle and steer and then we hit the rapids. She started veering to the right and I shouted to her to paddle but she ended up stuck in a low hanging tree at the end of the stretch of river. I assumed she'd push through it, but she had fallen off and couldn't get out. I had already passed her and after a while, realized she was going to need help. The river level was really high that day and was moving fast. I tried paddling up to her but that was no use. I wasn't moving at all. So I stowed my board off to the side and started trying to swim to her. Just then, she broke free and floated by me, hanging off her board and shouting that she had lost her bag! Her bag that had her phone, keys, driver's license and credit card. NOOOOOO. I yelled to her to get to the side of the river and immediately thought, "I HAVE to find it" and that's what lead to the next 45 min. of hell. The current was too strong to swim against, so I made my way to the edge of the river where I grabbed ahold of brush and weeds and pulled myself along. OF COURSE I had chosen to wear flip flops instead of my water sandals so I was barefoot, wincing under all the sharp rocks and praying I didn't step on glass. A kayaker had gotten stuck in the exact same spot as Kristen and ended up ditching her kayak and floating past me along the river with a terrified look on her face. I heaved and pulled myself along until I was parallel with the spot she had crashed in. But realized the current was too strong for me to just swim directly across. I was going to have to go farther up river so that when I swam across, I would hopefully go at a diagonal and hit the crash site. I may have been a little dramatic, but I honestly stopped and considered a couple different times if I could die and was this worth it? I had gone to the gym that morning and hadn't eaten anything. Just dragging myself upriver that far had me shaking and exhausted. I was literally digging in my heels with every step, fighting the water from sweeping me away and comically thinking, "THIS is what you've trained for!" Hahaha. All those gym workouts... the tiny muscles you've built... time to use them! Now I was far enough up "pin ball alley", that swimming across was too scary. So I precariously made my way down a little farther and decided to go for it. I let go of the brush I was holding and swam as hard as I could to the tree where the bag had fallen. I almost missed it but managed to grab hold of a branch and get a good grip. I tried to bring my feet up to the tree but that made my body into a spoon and the current pushing against my stomach was crazy strong. I knew I wouldn't last, so I let my legs go and drag behind me and just pulled myself up the tree, hand over hand until I got to the thickest part and could get my legs up. I felt like I was on Ninja Warrior, river edition. I had to take a few minutes just to stop and breathe. It was abundantly clear that there was no way I was going to find the bag. The water was WAY too strong. Honestly, it was scary how powerful it was rushing past. I tried to at least get the kayak free but it was wedged so tight against the tree by the water, it was useless. I was scared to let myself down into the torrential churn but there was no way out. I slowly let myself down and let go. It was only deep for a little bit, and I was able to dodge anymore rocks until I got to where the water wasn't so strong and I could swim to my paddleboard. I called Travis, near tears and out of breath, and tried to explain what had happened. Bad idea. I should always calm down first, before calling Travis. I think I panicked him for a minute. I found Kristen a little way farther down and told her the bad news. That's when I realized I had cut my foot and toe and was bleeding pretty badly. I just have to say, Kristen is the type of person you want around in an emergency. She is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS so calm and positive. It's amazing really. She called her husband and insurance company and tried to figure out how to get her car towed. Unfortunately, they didn't have a spare set of keys! I felt SO BAD. I can't even describe the guilt. I will never take someone on the river again. I completely underestimated her ability and it was ALL my fault. I should have never taken her to the top of the river. I felt sick about it for days. WEEKS! Kristen has enough going on in her life, the last thing she needed was to lose her phone and keys and drivers license!!! Ughhhhh. Travis came with Weston and snorkling gear to see if they could find the bag a little farther down the river. There wasn't really much else to do while they looked, except keep going, so ironically, we got on our boards and finished our adventure! Without much water to drink, I'll add. Poor Kristen had PTSD, so I tried really hard to do a better job coaching her around the turns and through any fast moving spots. By the time we got to Goldfield, we actually ran into Shelley and her friends! And she had an extra water bottle! Bless her!! I don't think we'll ever forget this experience.
AND, side note, since I'm actually writing this in February... Kristen actually got a message on Instagram a few months later, from someone telling her they had her driver's license and car keys!! Sadly, not her phone though. The bag must have washed up on the river banks and they tracked her down. She was really happy to get her license back because it was her original. I'm really lucky to have such forgiving friends.
I didn't get home until 3pm and Cohen was having his birthday party at Chuckie Cheese that night at 5pm. I had enough time to finally eat and shower and hobble to the party. Collin had a flag football game at 6pm, so Travis and he left early and I was going to meet him there later. Except that when I went out to the car with the rest of the kids, the car wouldn't start. SERIOUSLY?! Can this day just be over?? Thankfully, my parents were still there and had driven separate cars so my dad was nice enough to let me borrow his. We transferred the car seat and all the things and headed home. I was so nervous driving home that something else bad would happen. I made no stops. Straight home to go to bed and start a new day. I ended up calling a tow company to take Dolly to the car mechanic on Baseline and Recker. This was the last straw. I'm done. I'm ready for a car that doesn't constantly break down.
Olive has been begging for years to get her ears pierced. She can be quite dramatic and I remember my ears getting infected a lot when I was young, so I just didn't want to deal with it yet. I always told her she could when she was 9. Then, right before her baptism, I caved. It seemed like a fun thing to commemorate her baptism with, so I told her we were going on a special date and took her to Target. She was so happy to be on a date with me, but confused about what we were doing. Once inside, we found the place where they do the piercings (it's just on the weekends in the little girl's clothing section) and I pointed it out to her. Her face was PRICELESS. It's one thing she has in common with Collin. BIG reactions. She squealed and jumped up and down and generally freaked out. Her friend's mom had previously reached out to me about having Olive and her daughter get their ears pierced together so they met us there. Then for the extra surprise... I was going to get mine pierced too! Well, double pierced. I've wanted mine double pierced for as long as I can remember. But as a teenager, Pres. Hinkley came out with a statement about church members only having one piercing. I was so so disappointed. And up until recently, never considered doing it anyway. I can't really pinpoint a specific situation or experience, but just in general, my feeling is, that I don't think it matters. Of ALL the things. Does God really care or is disappointed in me for having two pairs of earrings? Maybe some would say yes, and that's totally fine. But for me, I think it's so low on the totem pole of issues. I mean, I don't even think it's on the totem pole at all. The girls were super nervous so I went first. I expected a little sting and was surprised when I felt nothing at all. It was so weird! They've really updated the gun or something! Olive went next. Mia was in tears just watching... she was so scared. Olive was a champ and didn't freak out or flinch. She agreed... it didn't hurt at all! So Mia was able to do it too. The girls were giddy. As was I! I love my double piercings. I didn't tell Travis what I was doing... I thought it would be fun to surprise him. He didn't have much of a reaction. Maybe he thinks his wife is headed for trouble... who knows. ;) We ended up taking Mia home with us for a playdate but first they picked out a chapstick keychain for fun and we got some frozen yogurt at Menchies. I'd call the afternoon a success!
We had scheduled a family sealing session when the temple opened back up but the Goodmans bailed and Marcie and Austin got sick. It turned out really enjoyable with just the 6 of us though. I noticed my dad got emotional during some family names. And it was nice to see my parents together under these circumstances. We were going to take a picture outside and were waiting for someone to walk by to ask to take it when I saw Olive's school teacher, Mrs. Wakefield! Such a fun coincidence! Olive absolutely ADORES her teacher. I knew she would think it was so cool that I got a picture with her.
We got back up to our normal numbers for dinner when Craig and Jefferson met us afterward at BRIO. We topped it off at Frost for dessert. All of it was yummy and so fun to be together! I love my family!
Gluten free muffins for cooking class this week!
Tanner has made a friend named Tyde, in preschool. I love seeing the pictures his teacher posts!
Still going strong doing Olive's hair most days. Wish I was better about taking pictures and documenting.
The Goodmans invited us to the lake on their new boat and I can't believe I didn't take more pictures! We went to Saguaro lake in the afternoon and Grandpa and Grandma came too. I tried wake surfing again and did a little better once I got on a lighter board. Collin and Weston tried it too and Collin got the hang of it! Olive loved kneeboarding and all the kids did the banana boat with Grandma! We had a lot of fun and stayed til dark. Then we made the horrible mistake to get dinner at Chilis. Seemed like a good place to go when you're damp and smelly. Which is exactly the ambiance of that restaurant.
