Mapleton Outings

I tried to get the kids out everyday for an outing.  Utah County has some of my favorite outings, we didn't make it to all of them, but I got to relive some of my favorite Provo memories with the babies and make new ones with the older kids, and that was what I wanted.

We walked our favorite duck pond path and played with the river and waterfalls.  I never leave enough time for this outing, I always plan an hour or two - but we could honestly take 4.  It is so beautiful and relaxing and there is so much to do with all the rocks and waterfalls to climb on.

Another day wae went to  the Bean Museum.  Dane loved all the animals.

And we found Eve's first stuffed animal.  This is Anna the wolf.  She loves her.

We played in the Mapleton splash pad.  The best splash pad I have ever found, especially for young kids.

Then, my failure of an outing.  My number one thing I wanted to do was go on a "temple tour" while we were in Utah.  We couldn't go in any of the temples, but I wanted to go to the grounds and just hang out.  Last time we were there we went on a Sunday evening and they were all closed.  So we went Saturday afternoon.  And... the gates were already closed!  This wasn't because of Covid, they just closed early on Saturday.  I was so bummed.  The kids were troopers, they didn't complain... much. They were pretty annoyed I drug them all over Provo to closed temples and still made them get out to take pictures.  Once I bought them crounuts - so I guess that made up for it.

We walked around campus a little bit, we went to the book store and the creamery.

Those were our big outings.  We didn't make it to Bridal Veil Falls or Sundance.  The kids had me drop them off a few times at the Springville Library where upon they discovered a new passion, library Tourism.  My kids LOVE going to the library for hours and now they have found out that each library is different and now they love to go to each towns library.  It's pretty funny.  I also dropped them off at Springville's Main Street to check out the shops (hoping it would be like Estes Park... it wasn't.  They were thoroughly disappointed.)

 

Utah: hanging around Grandma and Grandpa Herbert's house

Our vacations ended up being back to back this summer.  We went on our camping trip and then 2 days later left for a 2 week trip to Utah.  It wasn't supposed to be that way, we were supposed to have like 5 days.  But we moved things up.

About a month before our trip we found out that Jason's dad has cancer.  He hadn't been feeling well for over a year, and to root cause was finally discovered.  Everyone in the family is processing it their own way.  One way many of them show love is by showing up.  So when the news was announced Kasey and John flew to Utah the next day to help with home projects.  Matt and his family were moving back from South Korea and had already planned on staying there for 2 weeks.  We decided to go out 3 days early so that our trip overlapped for about 15 hours with Jon's so that Jason and his brother's could give their dad a Priesthood blessing.

We got to stay in Mapleton with Matt, Janina, Aaron and Liliana.  This is the first time we had met Liliana (who is just a few months younger than Dane).  It was so fun to have new cousins to play with.

Things around the house were pretty tense and stressful, so unless I was taking the kids on an outing we mostly kept them downstairs playing video games, not really what I wanted for them, but it was what was best for everyone else, and THEY LOVED IT.  So it was a win, win.

Every evening I sent them on a walk with some ice cream and a few nights they played night games in the front yard.  Brock also went running in the mornings with Aaron and Janina and Jason and I took evening walks.  

There were a lot of house projects that Randy and Debby were working on when they got the news of Randy's cancer.  Jason and the boys helped load wood in to the truck to take to the dump.

I got up and studied my scriptures in the morning as usual and it led to some wonderful discussions with Matt and Janina.  I often feel like all my studying doesn't benefit anyone but me and my little family - so it is nice every once in a while to use it to help/bless other people.

We had a great time hanging out with the Herbert's.  It was a sweet and tender vacation that we will always remember.

 

Kasey, Matt and Miles

We got a last minute trip from Jason's sister and her family.  It was DELIGHTFUL.  Kasey has a little boy, Miles, who is 4.  He is so cute and he and Dane got along wonderfully.  Kasey and I went on outings with them and had a great time.

Here we are at Belview Park.

The winner of the trip was Madison.  Miles LOVED her and she was so great with him.  Madison has a wonderful talent for seeing what people need and being that person.  She meets people where they are at.   I hope she can keep this gift her whole life.  

I was so sad to discover I didn't take ANY pictures of Dane and Miles playing at the house.  Probably becasue they were playing so good together that Kasey and I just ended up chatting the whole time.  So on their last day Kasey took these at Brock's baseball game.

Spring Days

This is another old draft that never got published.  The only reason I know it is early spring is because of the way my plants look.  Usually I have a happy little gardening post every spring/summer but not this year.  I have had almost zero time to garden.  I have done the bare minimum to just keep up maintenance let alone DO anything.  It feels like a wasted year.  I had plans to do/change something every year so that in a few years it is just how I want it.  I went to a nursery once but they didn't have what I wanted and then I never made it back.  Now it is too hot.   Even though it isn't BEAUTIFUL and (even though it is probably my only hobby) I haven't spent much time on it - we use the garden everyday.  A hundreed times a day we are in the front playing in the sand box, garden, porch, fairy garden etc.  Now that I am wrting this I realize I don't have many pictures of it, so that will be my goal over the next few weeks.  

So these pictures show us playing in it before it is beautiful.

And Dane loves being a big brother to Evee.