Bridal Veil Falls

After our ward camp out was over we decided to take a hike to the hot spring up Diamond Fork Canyon. We thought that since we were in the neighborhood we might as well take advantage of the opportunity. And while we were at it we thought we would discover the shorter route from the east side of the canyon.

Well, we found (what we believe to be) the trailhead to the hot springs! But by the time we got there the storm clouds rolling in (along with the lightning) looked pretty meanacing so we decided that our hike would need to wait for another day.

Now we had a problem. Our kids were expecting a hike. However, since they were all asleep at this point in the journey we decided upon a brillant plan "B". We just drove to Bridal Veil Falls for a much shorter hike. Our boys just knew we were driving and didn't really know which hike they were going on. So here we are at the trail head!

And off we go!
It was pretty level so the boys thought it was great.
Nothing is nearly as fascinating to our boys as any body of water where you can throw rocks. But when that water is a river...how cool is that!
I got to walk with Aleky and he wanted to hold my hand all the way! How lucky am I?
Well, that hike didn't quite last 5 minutes so the boys wanted a little more adventure. We paused at the bottom of the falls for a picture but the boys wanted to play in the cold water. Then we directed them to a "trail" just east of the water.

Let's just say that the trails is much steeper than it looks. You can just see David coming up the rock slide.The trail proved too much for Donovan and Michael and they turned around and headed back down the mountain. I can't really blame them. After all, David slid half way down the mountain until mommy saved him. Since I was already at the top with Aleky I put David in charge while I went to rescue the rest of the family (that's how I discovered that they had turned around and gone back down).
After saving my family it was time for a victory photo.
The family did make it to the top but we had to find the real trailhead which is to the east of the waterfall, just across from the bridge (from the parking area).
The sun came back during our ascent and was quite warm. Under these warmer conditions we decided to let our boys play in the water at the bottom of the falls.
Michael (trying to decide what to do next)

Throwing rocks is always a hit but it's so cool to throw big rocks into the river.(Short video clip of the rock throwing)

The boys headed back to the car after so much fun in the water.

But how do you get them to walk together? The three oldest boys are all in this picture below...can you see them?

Michelle had anticipated a little bit longer hike so she had prepared a picnic lunch. So we stopped at the nearest picnic table and had lunch in the park. It was such a fun family outing.

Ward Campout

We went on the ward camp out this weekend. With things being so crazy we weren't sure if we wanted to try and stay the night or just head up for the evening activities. In the end we decided that it would be worth the extra effort to stay the night and let the boys have another camping experience. (It was good because daddy needs a little extra camping experience...especially setting up our tent! It took me at least twice as long as it should have taken.)
We all gathered around the campfire to listen to the bishop's (active participation) stories. The weather was threatening to rain but we only had some wind and a little cloud cover. By bedtime the stars were even coming out.

(Active Participation)

Matt was on official dutch oven dessert duty.

The wind got carried away (or should I say the tent got carried away?).

Breakfast on Saturday morning. The Bishopric did a fabulous job cooking pancakes, eggs, sausage, hash browns as well as providing fresh fruit, hot chocolate and juice.

Sam's Open House

We were fortunate enough to attend Tyrel and Samantha's open house. Apparently Tyrel's mother thought a carnival setting would be great, especially with all of the little children who might be in attendance. And we are grateful for this planning and foresight.

Right off the bat Michael found the cotton candy!

And what a nice big brother, to share with Aleky.

The climbing wall was a big hit with our family. Even Grandma Petersen took a turn.

Aleky tried to climb too.

I even had the chance to scramble to the top.

Once the boys saw their cousins going all the way to the top of the wall they were hooked! They each tried going up several times (except Michael who was happy on the ground).

David and Donovan scramble up the wall.

David

Donovan

They love these inflatable slides and had to make a couple more trips before we went home.

Here are a few clips of the climbing wall...

Painting the Kitchen

We've lived in our house for over three years now and we are still planning on painting the kitchen. I think Michelle decided to get the process started. But it is tough trying to decide which color combinations fit our kitchen with the wood we already have. And then there's the flow from one room to another. Clearly there is a lot to consider. But at least we've taken the first step.

Now we just need to decide so we can proceed to step number 2!

Harvest Time

Michelle's hard work this summer is beginning to pay off. It's harvest time! It's almost overwhelming trying to keep up with the produce that our garden is producing this year. It is very exciting to know that we were able to produce all of these vegetables from our very own garden. It's also very delicious.

Take a look at these tomatoes. We tried a few growing techniques this year. The results are fabulous but we may have not try the sprawling tomato plant again next year.

The boys were excited to be drafting into service. We made them shuck their own corn for dinner. They were so excited that they shucked my corn to (while I was at work). It's great to have so many big helpers around.

Even Aleky wanted to be a part of the process and he shucked his corn too.

It's A Boy (Consolation Prize)

The Simmons are some of the best neighbors we've ever had. Since they know we are expecting our next baby they have been almost as eager as we are to find out what we are having. As good neighbor the even knew when our doctor's visit was.

As soon as we arrived home Elisa managed to get the information from David that we we're having a baby boy. Now Elisa knows I've been hoping for a girl so she must have assumed that we were somewhat disappointed by the news that we are having another boy, not a girl. That night she brought over a couple of consolation prizes to lift our spirits. (I don't think Elisa knew that Michelle was excited to find out that we were having another boy.)

The first present was for the new baby boy. It was a cute onesie. Our boys were excited to help open the present to see what was inside.

The second present was for Michelle. I suppose it was to lift her (already elated) spirits.

However, Michelle graciously shared her present with the rest of the boys!

I am excited about another boy. It was a bitter pill to swallow when I first heard the news that we were not having a girl (and I still would like to have daughter). But I love my boys. They are awesome and another boy will be great. I may have to get a second job once the boys hit their growth spurts and start eating us out of house and home, not to mention camping gear, guns & ammo, gas to all sorts of high adventure opportunities...It's gonna be great! I hope Michelle can keep up with us boys!

Oh Boy...It's a Boy!

Yesterday Michelle went in to see her doctor. This is a different doctor than we have seen for Michelle's previous pregnancies. So we were surprised to discover that through out this pregnancy we will have 3 ultrasounds performed! (We're used to just a single ultrasound at 20 weeks.)

The good news is...the baby seems to be growing and developing just fine, about 1 week ahead of schedule.

The bad news is...there is no bad news! However, I would be lying if I didn't admit I was a little bit disappointed to discover that we are having baby BOY #5. I really did have my heart set of finally having my little princess. And I thought I had provided enough body guards to get her through those rough years. But it seems I'm destined to supply the church's missionary force single-handedly.

Michelle was very excited at the news of another boy. She loves our 4 boys and feels very comfortable raising boys. A girl hasn't appealed to her as strongly as it has appealed to me. So Michelle was gloating the rest of the evening that she had been right (in her guess that we were having a boy) all along.

We're all very excited about the arrival of this new child. The boys are excited and can't wait to play with their new brother. I don't think they realize that it might take a few months before he'll really be able to run, play, slide down the slide, etc. But we have a few more months to help them get mentally and emotionally prepared (after all, every single boy will be a big brother!).

Our biggest challenge with having another boy is finding another boy name. Michelle has come up with Quintin Khayyam. She was thrilled when our sister-in-law (Tosha) also came up with that name. What other names might work for our 5th boy?

S.H.M. Customer Appreciation Party

Security Home Mortgage hosted their semi-annual customer appreciation party. They provided dinner and entertainment. The dinner was hot dogs, nachos and popcorn (not exactly the healthiest meal) and they had a "live" band. At least sometimes it was live and other times is was more like Karaoke. But they did a good job.

However, my boys were most excited about the inflatable toys! They were so distracted by the toys that they couldn't focus on anything quite as mundane as eating! And off they went. They had a blast running around to each of the three inflatables and sliding, jumping and running everywhere. Aleky tried his best to keep up but there were just too many big kids there. Aleky did make it down the big slide and the little slide once.

The disappointment of the evening happened when we decided to go home at 8:30 pm before they let us into the water park. We wanted to go swimming but as the sun went down we decided it was best to go home. The boys all threw tantrums! At that point we knew we had made the right choice. Our boys don't do well after 8:00 pm. So we'll have to go swimming another day.

Here are some highlights of the boys playing on the inflatables...

Hike to the Y

It's hard to believe that I started this blog 1 year ago with our family hike to the Y. And here we are again, with another family hike to the Y. This has certainly been an incredible year for our family with lots of memories and experiences. The great part is that a lot of those experiences have been now been written down.

This hike to the Y wasn't anything super spectacular but it was an enjoyable trip. David has been looking forward to it since the end of school. His kindergarten teacher gave him some summer homework which included things like "go to the park", "go camping" and "hike to the Y". So he's been asking us when we were going to go hiking to the Y. So we decided that Saturday was the day.

Donovan was excited for this hike because he wanted to carry the water backpack. David was pretty certain that he didn't want to carry the water backpack on this trip. And since he knew where he was going it was pretty hard to keep him contained. We had to give David specific instructions to not get too far ahead of the rest of the family. Had we not given him these directions he probably would have run to the Y and back before we made it to turn 2.

Don't let 'em fool you. This was the closest we were to David until we reached the Y. The other boys started strong, trying to keep up with David but their legs aren't quite as long as David's and they eventually decided that hiking with mom and dad was a better hiking strategy.

I hiked with Aleky in the child backpack so that we could move a little faster. But it was still hot (mid 90's) and we were excited to sit down on the Y and have some water while we rested and prepared for the return journey.

(It took us just over an hour from our house to the top of the Y.)

It's almost hard to believe that the Y isn't perfectly smooth. It looks so good from nearly everywhere in Utah County. And the cement is cracking, paint is peeling, etc. But that didn't stop us from enjoying the trip. They boys had to go up and down to check it out. However, we had to put an end to the rock throwing (our boys favorite pastime).


We knew it was time to go when the boys starting exploring other parts of the mountain. They were pretty proud of themselves when to got on top of this metal bunker/storage thing near the Y.

The boys decided they didn't need to wait for us on the way down. Michelle thinks we've officially become the slow-poke parents. The boys made it to the bottom and Michelle and I were still up around turn 2! My legs were getting tired from that descent. But it only took us about 20 minutes to walk down the mountain.

At the parking lot we had a chance to offer a little bit of service. A fellow set of hikers were unable to get their truck started. Fortunately their truck has a standard transmission so we were able to push the truck back and then roll it down the hill to help them get it started. However, after we loaded up the boys in our car and headed down the hill we passed them again, pulled over on the side of the road. Oh well, we tried.

David got home and went straight to his summer homework paper that we have posted on the wall. He got his marker out and checked off another homework assignment. We gave the kids quick baths and threw them in bed. We didn't have to fight them to go to sleep! They seemed quite content to go to sleep all on their own.

Hot Dogs and Snickerdoodles

I received a phone call from Michelle while at work. "Do you have plans for tonight?" she innocently asks. Since my plans had been rescheduled I didn't have anything set, just some ideas in my head. "Well, I sort of made plans for us..." she continued. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I could reconstruct the events that lead to our evening with our friends but I'm certainly glad the forces of fate combined to create such serendipitous circumstances.

Unfortunately the plans were all to commence prior to my arrival at my own party! Michelle tried to assure me that it was okay. When I finally was able to make it home I found my boys trimming the hedges? You can see Donovan in action!

Michelle had started the fire all by herself and Kyle was splitting some wood to add to the fire. The Simmons came over as the fire was getting started. The Johnsons would show up shortly after that.

We didn't waste anytime getting the hot dogs roasted. Everyone was hungry and we couldn't come up with a good reason for waiting. I helped to roast the younger boys hot dogs but David and Donovan felt like they needed to roast their own hot dogs. They did just great, with a little coaching from the sidelines.

The irony of the eating situation was that the kids all needed to sit at the big (adult) table and the adults were forced to use the small (kids) table.


It was an enjoyable dinner with splendid company. But we couldn't wait until 8:00 pm to put the boys to bed. They still struggle with the concept of bed time before the sun goes down but we persist in trying to help them understand this concept. I'll be excited for daylight savings time when it will be dark at bedtime.

It took us nearly 45 minutes to get the boys in bed! Obviously they were having too much fun to stop for something as trivial as bedtime. But, in the end, they went to bed. The Johnsons put Zachary to bed in our room and we set up a monitor in the hallway to keep an ear on them while we went next door to the Simmons for some games.

The Simmons had a game called Imaginiff

That was quite an interesting game. You use all the players and random people (if you're playing with less than 8 players). Then each round you read a question about someone different and you get points based on the what the majority of the players feel is the best answer. It leads to some funny descriptions about the people playing because you are trying to guess what the other people are going to guess.

After that game we had to play a few rounds of "jungle" Uno. We had a little trouble trying to decide which "house rules" we were going to use. The biggest dispute was about the "match/play" rule. One version of "match" is that you simply get to play your card anytime you can exactly match the last played card and play picks up from you. The "match/play" rule says that you can go anytime you can play your card and exactly match the last card played and, if your quick enough, play any other playable card. Maybe we were just too tired to fully enjoy the "match/play" rule but we threw it out after one round.

Regardless of who could "match/play" or who drew the most cards we had fun time. Michelle had made some snickerdoodles for Elisa as a visiting teaching treat. I hope she actually got to eat one because the rest of us certainly did! Actually, Michelle felt bad that we had eaten all of Elisa's snickerdoodles and so she ran back to the house to grab some more to replace them. I have to say we are fortunate to have such wonderful friends. We went home around 11:00 pm and the kids were all sound asleep!

(When we woke up this morning the three oldest boys were being sooo quiet, playing the computer downstairs. So we didn't realize they were all awake and they let us sleep in!)