All Day Every Day

The End of September

Bike Ride up Emigration Canyon Sept. 23

Courtney chases ball!

Chubs was a good hamster...  Chris will miss him.

Hike up Mt. Oly, Sept. 27

A Little Bit of September

Courtney and Friends are super creative and so fun!

Brothers play games together when screens get turned off for a week.

Hosting the Soccer Pasta Party

Nick lost another tooth!

 

Luke came with us to the BYU/U of U game.

Blue came with me on my Mt. Oly hike.

Happy Birthday To Me!

For my birthday, Dan and I hiked to the top of Mt. Olympus! 

Yea! We made it!

Great day!

Permission to Purge

Our recycling can is full to the brim with papers. Papers that were until yesterday filed in the file cabinets. And cupboards. And drawers. In our office. When I couldn't fit one thin piece of paper that I was hurriedly trying to file on Friday, I made time to purge.

I'm pretty good at not saving everything. But I do save lots of things. At least for a few years until it's not so sentimental anymore. Got rid of science reports and triplicate baby announcements. Threw away some drawings and some art projects--especially the ones bedazzled with bumpy beads that took up space.

Almost threw away a math paper of Chris' and then, wondering why I saved a 2nd grade math sheet anyway, I read the teacher's note at the top. After the space for "Name" my then second-grader had written: "bil." And his teacher's note was, "Good work!  But next time please put your real name at the top of your work!" Ha, ha! I remember that phase.  But it back in the keeper file.

And finally after filling 2 garbage bags with papers, I set in on the blank paper cupboards. And gave myself permission to finally throw away all the scratch paper I had accumulated when I was PTA President... 5 years ago... "The back of all these parent surveys is blank. I can't just throw them away! We'll use them for scratch paper! Look at all the Christmas Choir flyers. What a waste to just throw them away. I'll save them and use them for scratch paper!" Through that line of thinking I'd been storing reams of "scratch paper." So I gave myself permission to not feel responsible for the waste taking place and the trees that were sacrificed and tossed them into the recycling bin. 

And now everything is so clean!

And I was getting so liberated, I also threw away the stacks of The Friend magazine I'd accumulated and never thrown away because sometimes when you're doing sharing time you really need a certain picture and if you have dozens of past issues, you can usually find it!!  But I'm not the Primary President anymore and probably won't be for a very long time and The Friend keeps coming, month after month! And someday someone will categorize all those pictures and maybe we'll have a "Picture Search" on LDS.org and we'll be able to find just the right picture online. So for now...goodbye!  Aaaaahhhh.

Also this weekend, Chris went Paintballing for the first time and had a blast. They were a little nervous about how much it would hurt, but they prepared with sweatshirts and long pants and are dying to go back!

Courtney got asked to Homecoming.

Marty and Courtney went boating. The whole family had a picnic in Sugarhouse Park. Dan and Angela went to Crazy, Stupid, Love with friends. My family came over for a Sunday BBQ and to celebrate Michael's birthday. Christopher bore his testimony and said, 

"I want to bear my testimony. I know this Church is true. 

I know the prophet is called of God and I know St. John still walks the earth." 

(Primary lesson was on John's choice to remain on the earth. So glad he was listening!) 

Got ski passes at Sniagrab so everybody is ready for ski season!

Free Time on Mt. Olympus

Yesterday while I was out for my walk/jog, I found myself looking up at Mt. Olympus and thinking I'd like to climb it. And then I realized, why not?

I sent out a last-minute e-mail to friends, but nobody was available with such little advance notice.

I decided I might prefer to do it alone anyway so I could go as far or as short as I wanted.  I was a teeny bit nervous I might meet a murderer at the top who might push me off a cliff, but Dan assured me the trail was well-travelled and I'd be perfectly safe. Didn't think about snakes until Nicholas told me to take a picture if I saw one.

This morning I was so excited I woke up before my alarm went off. It's so fun to have something new to do! After I got the kids off to school I set out.

My goal was to hike for 2 hours and I made it for 2:20 before my legs were DYING and my achilles tendon was getting sore and I was afraid I'd stress it too much and compromise my future exercise plans.  The first hour was great but challenging. The second hour was very difficult and I had to stand and rest every minute of steep hiking. It is super steep!!!  

One of the best parts of the day were the people I met. It's kind of cool to think we all decided to hike Mt. Olympus today--it's kind of bonding.

One lady was about 60 and her age showed. I was so impressed she was hiking because it wasn't easy.

An Asian woman was doing Tai Chi near a tree overlooking the valley.

Two young guys came jogging down past me.

One man with hiking poles passed me on the way up and it looked like he was wearing ankle weights! I couldn't believe that someone would need the added challenge!  Then he passed me coming down as I was still going up. We chatted a minute and I asked him about his "ankle weights." He said they were actually special fabric protecting his ankles from snakes because he'd seen so many this year! (Great!)

A girl about my age hiked past as I was having lunch. I was a bit disappointed because I would have liked to talk and walk together.  She never passed me again so she must have made it to the top!

The next man was coming down as I was resting on the way up. He commented that the weather was nicer today than yesterday when he hiked up! He said he hikes Mt. Oly 50 - 70 times a year and it takes him about an hour and half. But he runs up. (He was wearing every day Adidas tennis shoes with no socks!) He stopped and chatted and told me he'd hiked Atacacuengo (best guess) in Argentina and made it to the top which is pretty rare.  We chatted for quite a while and he told me all about the second time he tried the hike in Argentina with a friend and the friend got sick so they couldn't make it.

Finally, I met Otis as I was resting on the way down. Otis walked to Mt. Olympus from West Valley. He's racing the Wasatch 100 next week so he's trying to put in a lot of miles but not have it be too rigorous. He'd started early in the morning and was planning on walking until 10:00 p.m.  It was his 18th 100 and he's done 50 - 60 marathons. Said he screwed up his life when he was younger and doesn't have a wife or kids so runs instead.

Like I said, very interesting people! (Mom, you would have loved it!)

I felt great coming down and can't wait to try it again!
You know it's going to eat at me until I get to the top!