In exciting news for the family, Peter made the 9th-grade basketball team. Curtis also made a basketball team, so basketball season will soon take over much of our free time.

Over the weekend, we went out to the Tree of Life garden at Thanksgiving Point. It was really cool, but also a little cold.

We also went out to the hot springs. The Inlet Hot Springs ranks low on our list of hot springs we’ve visited, but it’s also nearby and free. Everyone enjoyed it, but everyone also needed a shower after to remove dirt.

Just a compilation of photos from Curtis’s football season I haven’t posted yet:

Game photos are taken by Greg Baird, @photogreger. He played nose guard and right tackle (I think). He’s a lineman, the biggest kid on the team, and played both ways, almost all the game.

I have zero pictures of Peter playing flag football. He’s an awesome player, his team was ranked first and lost out in a close game for the semifinals. He is a great wide receiver and also gets a ton of interceptions.

The changing of seasons came a little fast with a warm October and it is hitting me hard. Some days I feel like I can’t get warm. But still lots of time for adventures with Evie…

Joe’s took the kids to both SeaQuest and The Leonardo. (I was on vacation with Peter, and working on a volunteer project.)

Halloween was a blast this year. Nothing fancy for costumes, but good candy hauls. We also went and saw Halloween lights, visited cousins for a party, and went to the church party. Last year we got close to zero trick-or-treaters. I theorized it was because I had leftover apples on my porch and no decorations. So I decorated this year, and we got a bundle of trick-or-treaters. I gave out soda and glow sticks. Some people didn’t take much of anything, but others said it was the best house ever.

I wanted to take all my kids on solo trips during their teenage years. They can choose where to go, as long as it fits our budget. Peter decided to go to Universal Studios, Six Flags, and Knotts Berry Farm on successive days over fall break. We drove out to California and had a ton of fun.

The best park was Universal Studios, but we enjoyed all three parks. We rode nearly everything at Universal Studios, some of the rides multiple times. That’s just a really solid theme park, but it does only take one day to do everything.

Six Flags is fun, but neither of us wanted to ride the more extreme roller coaster. There’s still plenty of roller coaster. But that’s about all the park is: roller coasters. And some carnival games, Peter did a basketball one and ended up winning the bottom-tier prize.

Peter also ended up with laryngitis for two days and couldn’t talk that well. I didn’t realize how much I like to talk to people until I couldn’t have a decent conversation with anyone around me.

Knotts Berry Farm has some rides we enjoyed quite a bit, but then it got to be afternoon. We got in a long ride for a ride that was terrible, ate some lunch, and then got in a long line for a ride that shut down right before we got on it. The moral of the story is don’t go to theme parks Saturday Afternoon. Also don’t buy theme park tickets in a rush on a phone because I had to deal with two different issues and get two different refunds. Knotts Berry Farm is also tons like our local amusement park Lagoon, so it wasn’t someplace we’ll probably go back to.

After a long day of long lines, minor illnesses, and tiredness, we finally went to our hotel, only to find that the town had a random parade and we couldn’t drive to our hotel. We had to park a few blocks away and walk in. It was such a random day, I felt like I was in a Malcolm in the Middle episode, except none of my kids got in trouble.

After we got back, I took the other kids down to Cornbellys in Spanish Fork on the last day of their fall break.

We took the kids up to Buffalo Peak. And I’ve been a few other places with my sister and Evie. It’s been a beautiful fall for hiking.

And Peter had a birthday. He’s getting his learner’s permit soon! He had a big bunch of friends over for a party. He tolerates percussion and piano, but really mostly likes sports, especially basketball.

Joe mentioned a while ago that he wanted to hike Mount Timpanogos because he’d never done it before. I’ve done it twice, but not since I was a teenager. I was pretty sure I wasn’t in good enough shape to do it, but we scheduled it for a month away and went. We went up and down the Timpooneke trail.

And I wasn’t in good enough shape. I made it up to the saddle, which is close to the summit, but not all the way up the mountain. Joe made it to the peak, because he’s always in shape. It was a great hike, even if my calves are shredded and still hurt five days later.

How do you decide when you are too busy, and what do you do about it? I got it in my head that I needed to volunteer at the school more. I have a business that I would like to grow. I’m responsible for most of the cooking, cleaning, and gardening. I have responsibilities with church. And mostly, childcare. This fall, we have five sports teams, a choir, and a toddler to entertain. At times, I’ve needed four adults to get my children everywhere they need to be. I’m grateful for grandparents and carpools that help make it possible.

Recent adventures: We went to Curiosity Farms, the new Family Park, and Timpanogos Cave.

My husband asked me at one point, When do we cut back? It’s a hard question because mostly it’s the fact that I have a lot of kids that’s the problem, not that any one child is too busy. Henry just has choir and piano lessons, Zack is just doing soccer, and Curtis is just doing tackle football. The exception is Peter, who is doing piano, flag football, basketball, and soccer, and has a job as a ref. But he loves everything he does and is still usually keeping up with school and has free time. So I continue to drive around a lot and stay busy, and luckily many of the activities are seasonal and will end. (Soccer is over and that is wonderful because it always was the worst times and farthest driving distances.)

Some things do fail. My business is fledging, and I choose to not spend lots of time on it. Chores get done, but often not well. Sometimes dinner is mac and cheese or cereal. You can’t do everything, so I can choose to fail at some things right now and that’s fine.

I recently decided I wanted to take more photos from daily life, so here is a collection of images I have taken. Mostly just normal adventures, plus tubing on the Provo River with cousins.

I feel I am very blessed in life. I have a garden that is exploding with produce. I have children that have lots of good things to do. For a while, I felt like I didn’t have that many friends, and then I started to find more people to be friends with. And I’ve been working on actually making my dreams a reality with my career.

I stay busy, in the best way, or at least in ways I am choosing to love. I’ve been experimenting with freeze-drying. I also attend a large amount of football and soccer games for my kids. I’ve been hiking quite a bit, which is one of my favorite things to do. (Even if it is so slow because I’m bringing along Evie who is not fast.) And there’s the constant work of laundry, meal prep, gardening, and cleaning…it’s not exciting, but it is meaningful.

The summer break has ended and now I’m working on keeping kids caught up on school, driving to sports practices, and figuring out what to do with my time when I’m home during the day with Evie. Zack started all-day kindergarten, and he loves that there are two recesses. Everyone is adapting pretty well to school.

Adventure-wise, we went to Tracy Aviary, Hill Aerospace Museum, and the lower falls in Adam’s Canyon. Zack had a birthday too!

Day 1: We stopped by the Salt Flats and played whiffle ball. At this point Peter decided to play whiffle ball everywhere we went. We drove near Lake Tahoe and camped. We made it to the lake later in the evening to play around. Mostly driving this day.

Day 2: This was Sunday. We drove to church in Yuba City, and walked around the temple there. Had a picnic at a park, and then drove to Humboldt Redwood State Park where we camped.

Day 3: Explored Humboldt Redwoods. We hike the Children’s Grove, Big Tree Area, and Founder’s Grove. Stopped by the visitor’s center in the middle of that, and had a picnic. The evening was spent getting a little lost, and finally finding a good place to play and swim at the Eel River.

Day 4: Drove to the coast. We hiked to Trillium Falls, and then went to to tourist version of the redwoods at the Trees of Mystery. (It was actually rather fun, even if it was expensive.) Stopped by a beach briefly, and also did a short hike on the Boy Scout Tree trail. Finished the day at Harris Beach State Park to camp.

Day 5: Explored Harris Beach State Park. It sounds relaxing, but there was lots of walking. Played sports on the beach, got in the water, and found lots of cool creatures. Also did laundry, and ate pizza at a restaurant.

Day 6: Drove to Cape Blanco to see a lighthouse, and then headed inland again. We hiked Fall Creek Falls. That was a hot hike, but luckily a good pool to play in at the waterfall. The area we drove across for the next couple of days had a lot of smoke due to wildfires, and many areas were closed. We camped at Crater Lake. We briefly got a view of Crater Lake, but mostly it was too smoky to enjoy.

Day 7: Lots of driving across BLM land, and the most random stop at Crack in the Ground. My kids kept asking me why we were stopping here, and my response was that my sister said it was cool. It was cool. Stayed at a hotel that night, after six nights of camping.

Day 8: Stopped at Twin Falls for lunch at the 2nd South Market, and then went and saw Shoshone Falls, and a BASE jumper off the bridge. Then we drove home.

Great vacation. We had to deal with kids throwing up twice, one dead car battery, lost keys twice, a sleeping bag that was left behind at a campground, one broken air mattress, and toddler tantrums. But all the problems were fixed quite quickly.

Also, my husband made a find the kid game, here’s the game, and here’s the answer key.