House O' Sullivans

Diamond Fork Hot Springs.  A 1.5 hour drive from Salt Lake followed by a 2.5 mile hike (each way) to some sweet hot springs and waterfalls, enjoyable in any season.  I'd only been there once before, several years ago when I was still single, by the light of the moon and in the middle of winter, so I've been wanting to re-visit this old friend.  The idea surfaced in my mind a couple of weeks ago when I realized that my kids were old enough to do this and enjoy it.  Casey was busy (read: "fire by Christmas") and I thought this was an adventure that I could handle solo, but my sister Mary and her entourage and my mom ended up joining us too. I knew that the girls would be fine hiking five miles, but I brought the carrier for the ride I knew Zeke would inevitably suck out of me.  He actually did fairly well, hiking nearly half of the way to the springs and more than half of the way back to the trailhead, but that guy weighs a ton.  I'm serious.  At leas...

Casey and I have decided to be more deliberate in making time to spend with each of our children individually.  Last week on Thursday, Sophie went to her Liberty Girl's Club (a group of girls her age who read historical fiction then gather to discuss and do projects and activities related to the time period that they're studying) and Zeke had a man-play-date with his friend Issac, so Hallee and I planned our OWN extravaganza.  We packed a lunch and loaded it into a backpack, then rode our bikes to a local park to explore an untamed section.  This park has a tiny stream that runs through part of it that is grown over with willows and extends for quite a ways.  I'd never explored the whole thing, so we brought our magnifying glasses and went for it. Hallee by the stream Enjoying our picnic, hidden in the willows The view from our picnic blanket Hallee took this picture.  :) Hal was loving every minute and kept asking me to take more pi...

Yesterday, while I was busy working on something, Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke, stole into the front yard and harvested these flowers, wanting to surprise me with their elegant arrangements, lovingly placed on the kitchen table.  I can't believe that we still had this many flowers in the gardens after the recent freezes.  Wow! Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke's masterpieces Yesterday I spent the morning fiddling with Mary in Kaysville.  We did that once a week for about a year, then took a break for summer, but we are back at it again.  She pulled up her garden this week and gifted me with a 5-gallon bucket full of tomatillos and peppers, which I promptly morphed into tomatillo salsa.  It is the GOODS!! Homemade tomatillo salsa!! Mary also gifted us with four of her rogue chickens last week.  They'd been eating their eggs and she wasn't entirely sure who the culprits were (although she did videotape the coop for a while and positively identify one of the eg...

On Monday evening we drove out to the west desert near Horseshoe Springs for a chance to observe the annual Draconid meteor shower--named after the constellation Draco the dragon (the radiant point).  Our friend, Carlynn, and her two boys (Matthew and Luke) joined us for the festivities.  The kids were so excited because we'd been talking about it for weeks.  The plan was to spread out a giant tarp, get into our sleeping bags, eat lots of treats, and search the night sky for meteors.  Historically, the Draconid meteor shower is a sleeper, but there have been several years when the dragon woke up and spewed forth THOUSANDS of meteors in an hour.  During our drive to the desert, we noted the thick, high cloud cover.  Hallee said three prayers during that drive that we'd be able to see the sky that night and by the time we had the tents set up and were situated on the giant blue tarp we had a perfect window into the heavens right above us (although the rest o...

October is the month of harvest activities at our house.  We always do lots of fruit picking (apples, pears, plums, grapes) and canning and eat lots of produce from the garden (green beans, tomatoes, squash, kale, spinach, cantaloupe, watermelons, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, and cauliflower abound--although, sadly, it looks like the temperatures dropped low enough a couple of days ago to kill some of our plants).  A favorite October Sullivan tradition is making carmel apples.  A few days ago we pillaged Grace's tree with our neighbor's, the Johnsons, so we had plenty of fresh apples for our project.  Friday, right before our usual family movie night, we made these amazing treats: Hallee and her apple Soph had a great technique--plaster your apple with as much of the good stuff as you have available surface area This is the little beast that I made for Casey, since he was busily working from home that day and wanted to write one more proposa...

On Tuesday, the Sullivan School took to the hills.  We drove to the top of Millcreek Canyon, armed with our magnifying glasses and lunch.  It was in the 70's in the valley that day, and I knew it would be one of the last warm days in the mountains and we had nowhere to be.  I love the days that we can fully immerse ourselves with no rush or pressure to be anywhere.  It is so relaxing--truly the optimal state for learning.  Total flow.  We started up the Big Water trail around 11:30, surrounded by dancing butterflies. Hal Soph Zeke It is amazing to watch my children in nature.  They are immediately taken in by their surroundings and start observing, collecting, and "sciencing" on their own.   Their enthusiasm makes ME feel more alive and awake to the incredibly beautiful creations that are everywhere around us. Our first butterflty identification on Tuesday: A Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa We hiked up the trail not very ...