October and November--2019!
Cousin Rosemary was diagnosed with type I diabetes in October. We spent some time visiting in the hospital and playing in the craft room. She is a super-trooper!
Casey and Sophie at the Olympic Oval.
Visiting Grandma Tiede at the Beehive Home where she is living now. We had recently performed as a family in our ward sacrament meeting so we brought the show on the road. I played the violin while the kids sang "I Know That my Redeemer Lives."
Baby Sean, trying out Grandma's walker.
Showing Grandma some recent photos.
Lindy turned into a "five-year-older," as she describes it, on October 12th. We started the day by opening her pile of gifts.
Then we headed over to the Holladay Fire Station for a community breakfast inside the fire station. We brought along Lindy's very best friend, Lucas Nelson. These two are always talking about being firefighters when they grow up so it was awesomely magical for them both.
Sean, sitting in the driver's seat of the big rig.
After breakfast, we took the crew over to the kids' school--Wasatch Charter-for the annual Harvest Festival where I volunteered at the candle-making booth while the kids went feral with their friends.
Zeke and Hallee both performed with their classes as part of the festivities. Zeke is on the far right end of the stage, playing his flute in the above photo.
Lindy had a special trip to the Iceberg with Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan and picked out this giant bubble gum shake.
Lindy's little pumpkin chocolate chip birthday cake, purchased at the school's bake sale earlier in the day. We topped the cake with 5 real beeswax candles that we'd crafted earlier in the day.
The Monday after Lindy's birthday, we drove up to Heber to ride the train. The night started with a faux wild-west shoot out and moved to a legitimate party in the passenger car. Singing and dancing were required of each passenger. We all had a blast!
Checking out an old caboose.
Up in the engine, getting a private tour from the engineer before our train ride.
Wild and crazy.
Casey got to go on a horse trip with his Dad and brother Sean in southern Utah for a few days at the end of October. They stayed with one of Doug's friends.
After realizing that we hadn't gotten the kids out hiking in a while, we committed to more family nature outings. This one was up Millcreek Canyon, walking above the winter gate up to Elbow Fork with a picnic lunch.
Sean, looking bookish.
Sophie individually qualified to run in the state cross-country meet, along with one other girl from her school.
Sophie with teammate, Jayce, Mr. Keenan (Wasatch Charter's Athletic Director) and her coach, Ms. Kawecki right before the state meet.
Sophie finished solidly in the middle of the pack this year. Next year she and Hallee will run together on the same team.
Hiking up Porter Fork with Grandma in November:
Sean, walking with his beloved "Grandma Grandma."
Sean and Lindy, joyfully filling the stream with rocks!
Swinging at one of the cabins in Porter Fork.
Zeke finished up the last of his fall soccer season.
We finally dug up a non-productive apple tree (one I'd gotten end of season, bargain-style, for only $10 at the IFA a few years ago) and planted an expensive peach tree from Millcreek Gardens. Digging it out took the whole of one morning and everyone's contribution. That's Zeke swinging a pick axe at the expansive, unyielding root system.
A little leprechaun, munching apples out in one of our gardens.
Hallee, working her bunny-taming magic on Buttercup.
Hallee and best friend, Anna Mae, doing their midget walk.
Another family hike up Millcreek:
Baby Sean, dressed as J.P. Sears, heading out to the annual Sullivan family Halloween party.
Zeke has been trapping rats over the past couple of months with a reward of $10 for each one that he successfully exterminates. Our neighbor's walnut tree combined with our chicken coop (where we toss mounds of kitchen scraps along with regular doses of chicken feed) has supported a growing population of them back behind our garage. Zeke bought a fancy new trap with his own money to further his trapping success. Zeke also regularly checks for any new hole that could be rat-made and then he'll excavate their tunnels and nests. One day he caught, by hand, several baby rats. He and his siblings played with them at length until I started reading all of the myriad diseases that rats carry.
Halloween was a first time for our older kids. They got to trick-or-treat without parental supervision with friends. We took the little ones around Best Avenue and Zeke went with Casey (until I got the call to swap him out partway through the night).
The brothers--Sean and Zeke--ready to go.
Sophie and Hallee both had friends join us for dinner and trick-or-treating.
Two of the cutest trick-or-treaters on the block.
A portion of the haul. Luckily, all of our kids wanted to do "switch witch" again this year, so all of this sugar got carted off to the bishop's office during the night. Now we're giving other people's kids cavities.
A couple of months ago, Zeke started reading the Book of Mormon regularly and religiously at night. Casey and I often join him. This is how you'll find him every night. It makes us happy to watch him (and our girls) pick up these habits.
Casey with Sean and Zeke at the car dealership where he bought a new work truck, after much study, deliberation, and test driving.
Casey's new work truck.
It was a gorgeous, sunny, blue-sky day out in the desert.
We topped it off with a stop in Erda for authntic Mexican food that night.
Zeke with cousin Noble--aka the 2 Nobles, just before Noble went off to boot camp.
I took the kids on a hike to Fifth Water hot springs on a day that they had off from school. There was hardly a soul there that day and the weather was perfect!
With Halloween out of the way, I finally decided to chop off Sean's curly locks. He looked like a new man:
I've realized over the past couple of months how many more adventures I took my older three kids on when they were little compared with Lindy and Sean. With all of the older kids' activities and driving them to and from school, Lindy and Sean and I are usually around the house engaged in mundane domestic affairs. I decided that I need to mindfully take them out more often. Hence this trip on the UTA downtown to the Salt Lake Temple and the Church History Museum:
Riding the bus. For the first half of the ride downtown, Sean insisted on sitting by himself.
Sean is much more interested in the snow this year compared with last year. He'll actually go out and stay out for a while after I take the time to bundle him all up.
The snow man built by the kids and their friends in our backyard.
All of our kids love to climb. They can't help it. They are descended from climbers. Lindy is always asking me to lift her up into our trees but my default response is always, "You can get up in that tree when you are able to climb it yourself." Well, somehow she figured out how to climb our giant maple tree and so did her best buddy, Lucas. It's high enough that a fall could break a few bones or worse, so it makes me extremely nervous.
We went out to the Lakeside Range in the west desert with Mary and a couple of her kids and Grandma White and found a place made completely of fossils for rock hounding, exploring, rocket launching, and general red-necking.
Casey, Sean and I hiked up to this ridge.
The textures were varied and fabulous.
Casey let the kids take turns shooting his rifle.
Rocket launching with Grandma.
A few days later, Grandma showed up with a bottle of hydrochloric acid so we could clean up our fossils.
"Sciencing" with Grandma White.
Even Baby Sean was fascinated.
Instead of attending the school's Lantern Walk, we staged our own this year, silently walking through our neighborhood streets (and Scott Avenue Park) with our lanterns lit, symbolic of the light that we can bring to an ever-darkening world.
The kids made each of these lanterns and they were beautiful. During our walk, several of the candles went out at various times, so we traded lanterns, re-lit lanterns, and shared lanterns. Absolutely symbolic.
Zeke with his first rat using his new trap.
The forecast called for loads of snow, so we were especially grateful for Casey's new truck. (Our minivan would have been useless where we were headed since it snowed at least 2 new feet while we were there.) We skied and hiked in on Thanksgiving morning, pulling two large haul sleds full of gear and food in addition to what we carried on our backs. I had pre-cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast the day previous so that we could jut re-heat it when we got up to the yurt in the afternoon, knowing that the day would be far spent and that we would be equally spent after the trek into the yurt.
Tight-packed into the truck on the way to Wyoming.
I don't think that I even took any pictures on the trek into the yurt, with good reason. It was snowing and cold and I wanted to get my two littlest ones to the yurt as soon as possible. The 2 mile trek in took about three hours due to little people, constantly tipping haul sleds, and accumulating deep snow. Our plan was to let Sean ride on top of one of the haul sleds, alternating with a bit of walking to keep him warm. Thing is, he wouldn't stay on the haul sleds. After he'd been tipped off once, he wanted nothing to do with them, so I ended up carrying him in my arms. The entire way. Not kidding. My arms and back were spasming after those three hours. We did not bring his backpack carrier along so this was our only crappy option.
Preparing (reheating) our Thanksgiving yurt feast.
Sean, playing in the wooden bunks at the yurt.
The kids had so much fun playing Uno and Pass the Pigs. Even Sean got in on the games, loving to play especially in the "high beds" (the top bunks).
Ready to feast!
Celebrating Thanksgiving on the east fork of the Bear River in the high Uintas backcountry.
It dumped the whole time that we were up there, magical, fluffy snow and tons of it! The kids spent time exploring and making sledding runs on the hills opposite the yurt.
We tried to put this giant puzzle together, but the stress of keeping Sean out of it eventually led to the complete collapse of this grand idea.
Games on the top bunks.
Casey and I took a walk down to the cut-off where the new Beulah Vista yurt was set up last season. It was a quiet morning and the first that we'd seen the sun during our three days up there.
A magic morning in the East Fork yurt.
I was so thankful for the sunshine on our trek out because it was bitterly cold that day--in the single digits and teens--and yes, I carried Sean nearly the entire way out until he decided to walk (about a quarter of a mile from the trailhead).
The snow covered bridge near the trailhead and a sure sign that we're nearly there.
Sean finally decided that he could walk near the end on our way out. A trail groomer had just turned this section into a perfect carpet for his little feet.
The older kids were total troopers, hauling the sled and helping with the little people.
Almost there! Casey during the final stretch.
When we finally reached the trailhead, Lindy and I headed over to the Bear River Lodge and payed for a permit to cut a Christmas tree. This was all part of our master plan, since we usually get a tree the Friday after Thanksgiving, and we love harvesting our own in the Uintas. By this time it was about 4:30 PM and the sun was already getting low in the sky and when we saw a huge line of stuck 4x4 trucks on the snow-covered road that led to the legal harvest area, we bagged that idea and just drove back to Salt Lake. We all agreed that seeing the setting sun over the landscape made it worth it.
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