My writing has been so inconsistent the past several months. A lot has been going on.

At the end of August, after we got back from Yellowstone, Schpuck came to visit with her family. We had a great time with them! My kids loved seeing their cousins and playing with them, and we did fun things every day. Sawyer and Brooke still had to go to school that week, but we took the week off from doing any homeschool, which meant that we had 2 weeks off from school right at the beginning of the schoolyear. We hadn't even gotten into a good school routine yet, and we were taking school off to play, haha! Sawyer's first day of school was that week, as well, since he missed his first day of school while we were in Yellowstone. 

We had a bit of a Harry Potter themed visit with them. We went to see the Harry Potter movie exhibit that was in town that week. The kids used Brooke's Harry Potter cookbook to make us a HP themed lunch one day, that was quite fun. They made a pot pie, "wand" breadsticks, some cheesy bread, and tea. And they made a "Happee Birthdae Harry" birthday cake. They took up the whole kitchen for the whole morning into the afternoon and made a grand mess, but it was fun, and they had a great time. They also watched the first HP movie one afternoon. It was fun!

While they were here, we had a family dinner/birthday celebration. Brooke and Scottie had just had birthdays, and Brian's birthday was later in the week, so we had a birthday dinner altogether, which was fun. And later on that week, Brian met up with us at a park for his birthday, and the kids played, and we chatted and had a picnic lunch and cake. It was a nice week visiting with them.

Other things that have happened lately:

• We went on a family fall hike in September when the leaves were starting to change. We hiked around Tibble Fork Reservoir, which gets a little shady and hard to hike in parts of it. The kids loved the hike until we got to that point, and then everyone hated it. And it was made more difficult because we had brought the dog on the hike with us. The mountains were beautiful, though. The leaves were all changing, and I was loving that fall was in the air. 
• Jamie invited a bunch of friends over to watch a Halloween movie with her while Russell was out of town. Sarah and I went and we watched Practical Magic together. It was fun just to have a cozy evening in with friends.
• DeAnna and I took Sarah out for her birthday at the beginning of October. We went to get hot chocolate.
• Halloween Feast. We had lasagna (witch's brew failure) along with some of our usual things. We made monster cake pops, which was very fun and which the kids requested we do again sometime. Graveyard dip is always a must, as are "bones". And Julie sent me this fun sparkling caramel apple cider drink idea that was fun and tasty. We watched "Blackbeard's Ghost" for our movie that night, which the kids liked, but Jack especially loved. It was so funny and cute to watch him just crack up over this movie. It was a fun feast night. We did our feast over fall break, so we had plenty of time to get everything ready. The kids loved decorating for Halloween that night. They also made cute ghosts out of tissues and hung them above the table for our dinner. They all helped decorate, make food and prepare the table for the feast, which made the whole thing a little easier for me and more of a family undertaking, rather than just me doing everything. We had a good time putting it together.
• BYU family date. A few weekends ago, we did our traditional family date to BYU. It was the day of the BYU-Utah football game, so campus was a little busier than normal that day. We rode around BYU, mostly successfully, although Sawyer, being quite new on a bike, had some frustrating moments trying to bike and keep up with us the whole time. We went to the Eyring Science center, the library, the BYU bookstore, a late lunch at the Creamery on 9th, and then finished up with a little time at the Bean museum. It was a lovely day, and the weather was perfectly fall-ish and beautiful, perfect for biking around campus.
• Mom and Dad visited for several days the week of my and Camille's birthday. We had a nice visit with them. They mostly just hung out with us at home, but they did do birthday things with us as well. 
• My birthday was nice. Mom and Dad took me to this cute little cafe for breakfast, which was delicious. Then Mom and I had a nail appointment. I picked up Swig on the way back from picking up Sawyer. Then, I did a lot of relaxing while everyone else cleaned and cooked dinner. Mom made me homemade mac and cheese (it was so good, and definitely hit the spot), a delicious salad, roasted squash, and focacia bread. It was perfect! And brownies with chocolate chips and nuts for dessert. I also had more people reach out to me and wish me happy birthday than I think any of my past birthdays. It was so nice. I loved my birthday this year. The parents and the kids and Daniel also got me a bunch of nice presents! Gummy nerd clusters, champagne toast scented products (my favorite!), some earrings Camille made, a new cookbook by Chloe, and an adorable throw pillow Mom made with pumpkins on it. And Jamie brought me a bar of dark chocolate. It was lovely. 
• Halloween festivities. The kids got their Halloween costumes all picked out and bought earlier on this year. Sawyer used a ninja costume we already had, I bought Jack a Lehi City Police shirt (customized, with his name on it; he loves it and has worn it every week since it came) so that he could be a police officer, Camille used face paint and some deer antlers we already had for her costume as a deer, and Brooke was a pirate, mostly using things we already had. They were all adorable on Halloween. And mostly they were prepared early enough for them to wear their costumes to the ward Fall party. Speaking of which, I made a white chicken chili (mom's recipe) for the party, and the crockpot came home with us almost empty! I was expecting more leftovers than that. Daniel said, "Well, when you make a vegan chili, mostly people don't want to eat that, and this year, you made a chili with meat in it, so everyone ate it!" Haha! Oh well. I volunteered in Sawyer's class for their Halloween party and played Bingo with all the kids. It was fun. I love helping in class parties. It's just fun to see my kids with their class and hang out with the kids. 
• Trick-or-Treating. Aleah was in town this week. She and her kids came for a visit during their fall break. They came to have dinner with us and to go out trick-or-treating with us. Camille and Beverly are pretty good buds, so they had a great time trick-or-treating together. It was hard to find that balance between going with cousins and going with friends, though, because Camille's and Brooke's friends wanted to go trick-or-treating with them, but I didn't want the cousins to feel left out, too. I hope everyone ended up having fun. Harrison and Marcus didn't want to trick-or-treat anyway, so they mostly just walked around with us and let everyone else trick-or-treat. They're getting to that age where they're less interested in it anyway. The boys and I split off from Daniel and Aleah and the girls at one point. The girls were too fast and kind of scattered with their friends anyway. So the boys and I ended up trick-or-treating with the Winfields for the last half of the night. Those kids are cute, and I really like them. Plus, Jamie is one of my close friends now. It was fun hanging out with them. When we were heading back to the house, Ava said, "We should do this every year! Holbrooks and Winfields trick-or-treating together!" It was so cute. 

 Jack and Camille playing Simon says with Alexa app 

Sawyer being so excited about doing school lessons and wanting to practice reading

Sawyer so excited when I come to pick him up from school

Sawyer wanting to share his apple with me, such a sweet little boy

Favorite things of the week: 

• I printed off a bunch of the same coloring page of a Pegasus for Camille, and she's been coloring them in different shades and styles. She'll color one red with orange and red and dark red mane and tail, or another one she'll do in shades of blue and green. She's having a great time doing different colors and schemes. And she gives them names, like "earth", "wind," "fire."
• Jack said such a nice prayer the other day, praying for specific things, things that were happening that day or week. It was very sweet, and I can't even remember what he played for. 

General Conference Weekend

Our conference weekend was very chill and so nice. We stayed home all weekend. Made and ate food. Worked on pillowcases while listening to conference. The kids played with Lego, did jewel paintings, and colored.

Friday night, I went out with my friends. We went out for Sarah's birthday date (only a month late this year, haha). We took her to Brookers for hot chocolate floats, which we delicious, but almost too sweet for me. We stayed and talked at that table for over 3 hours! At 10:45, I finally looked at my phone and gasped. It was already so late! We had planned to go to Cornbelly's after getting chocolate, but that obviously didn't happen. Plus, it started raining at one point, so it's probably better we didn't go. And it was just nice to be with my friends. I love them. 

We watched all 5 sessions and tried to listen as best we could. At some point, Sawyer got tired of being quiet and finding things to keep himself occupied, and started bugging everyone and being really loud. So it was harder to listen after that. The boys brought down their stuffies and blankets and pillows for most sessions and built little nests on the couch for themselves, which really took up most of the couch. 

Saturday morning, before conference started, I went downstairs to workout, feeling very much like I didn't want to workout. And right at the beginning, I landed on my foot wrong, on the toe I think I'd already broken before, and really hurt it again. Badly. It was swollen and bruised over the weekend, and hurt like the dickens. I'm pretty sure I broke it again, and I need to go get it checked out this time. It put a bit of a damper on the weekend. 

After getting kids to bed on Saturday, Daniel and I watched part of 3 movies. 😆 We finished Twisters, which he had started on Friday while I was out; we watched the beginning 40 minutes of Knight and Day, because we love it; and we started Top Gun: Maverick, because Daniel said I have to see it. 

All in all, it was nice to have a pretty lazy weekend. 

Things I'm loving about Brooke right now: 

• She plays with her siblings a lot. She's 13 now, but she still involves herself in their play sometimes, and in the play she used to be more interested in. She still plays the Lego game, she played dolls with Jack and Camille a couple of weeks ago when they pulled the dollhouse out of the storage room, she played pirates with the other kids this week. It warms my heart to see. Also, last week or so, she's been doing more one- on- one play time with her brothers, which is so cute. She offers to play with them, and they love that. It's kind of like what I do with mommy time... only I'm sure she's much better at playing than I am. 😆
• She's taking steps to be more responsible. In particular, she has been setting her alarm for a little earlier, maybe half of the week or more (depending on the week), and she'll get up and get ready and take Tucker for a walk. And then jump right into doing her school work. It's so amazing! Some days she doesn't. Like, last night she went out for ice cream with Daniel and Camille, and they didn't get back until quite late, definitely past their bedtime. So they slept in today. But she's been doing so good about waking up earlier on her own. ❤️
• She started using duolingo to practice her French, which she has been loving. It was the first language she learned in her world languages class. It's fun to see her trying to learn a language and to get so excited about it. 

Things I'm loving about Camille right now: 

• Now that were a few weeks into a good school routine, she is very organized and self motivated. The prize box helps. 😆 The kids have sticker sheets, and they earn stickers for their sheets with how well they do school: did they have a good attitude, did they complain a lot, did they work quickly or slack off a lot, etc. And once their sheet is full of stickers, they get a few prizes out of the box. It's been working really great, actually. They love it, and I think it helps them. Camille is doing pretty well, though, in staying on track and getting her stuff done earlier. Today, I think she finished around 2pm, which is so great for her. 
• She started reading "The Doll Shop Downstairs" and she has been delighted with it. Yesterday, she had to look up doll tea sets (something from her book), and just melted at all the pretty tiny tea sets. She's so funny. 
• Her friends set up a text thread together, and they included Camille using my phone number. 🙄🙄 Which I don't love. But she's always asking to see if her friends messaged or to text her friends back. 

Pirates

 My kids did something adorable today. We didn't do school today, because the school district had this day off from school. And we usually follow the school schedule. Camille went to this really cool 5th grade field trip for homeschoolers with Annie Norris called Biztown, where they pretend to be grownups and have grownup jobs, where they get paid, and they go shopping and have bank accounts... Anyway. She had a great time. The rest of the kids mostly played all day. And I did mommy time with Brooke and Sawyer. 

But after Camille came home, and after my mommy time with Brooke, the kids played "pirates" together. They sat down and made treasure maps together, and they dressed in some piratey clothes (mostly bandanas around their heads and swords made out of sticks at their waists), and they put the "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack on outside. They pretended that the deck was a pirate ship, and they acted like the crew with Jack as the captain. They danced out on the lawn, swinging their swords in pretend fighting and fell down like they were dead. It was the cutest pretend play I've seen them do in a long while. I loved it. I wish I'd gotten a picture to share here. But we took videos. 

Other notable things today: 

• I went mountain biking with some friends today. It was invigorating and scary and fun. And the leaves are changing, so it was so pretty in the hills today. 
• Having a day off of school was so great. I love slow days. I'm really feeling a pull lately to live a simpler life. 
• I'm taking a break this week from audiobooks and TV shows, in preparation for general conference this weekend. I already feel a difference just from today. I'm less distracted and irritable with my kids. I have less "buzz" in my head and I felt more peace. I may need to take these breaks more often. I may extend the break for another week or 2 afterwards. And I may need to include social media to my break. It's also making me think that I should do my reading goal a little differently next year, and have a number to STAY UNDER. Meaning, I can't read more than the number of books I've set as my goal. I think I will. 😊
• President Nelson passed away a couple of nights ago, and I cried when I found out. I was assigned to do the spiritual thought for ward council this past Sunday, and on Saturday night, I prayed about what I should speak about. The thought came immediately to mind, "Share a quote from President Nelson." And I thought, "In preparation for general conference! What a great idea! Thanks!" And I went happily to bed. The next morning, I saw in my family's text thread a text from Drew that President Nelson had passed away that night. And I cried. But also thought, how cool of a prompting I got in my prayer the night before, undoubtedly from God through the Holy Ghost. How appropriate a message to share a quote from President Nelson. Just a good reminder that I needed, that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, that He's aware of us and loves us. Just another love note from Father in Heaven. 

Yellowstone

We went to Yellowstone on a family trip 2 weeks ago. It was tiring and very fun. We camped for 5 days in the park, which was nice because then we were already in the park each day and could go explore easily. 

Mom and Dad Holbrook came with us. They rented a camper van, so that they could camp more comfortably. Dad LOVES Yellowstone. I mean, LOVES IT. He grew up going to Yellowstone every year as a kid, and then many, many times as an adult. So, he knows basically everything about it, which was kind of nice. He taught us so much about Yellowstone. 

We started our trip going to Idaho, to go to dinner with my aunts at Applebee's, and also to visit with Hannah's family on Sunday. We went to church with them and hung out with them basically all day. We had a lovely time with them. And then the rest of our trip went like this: 

Monday

• Got up, packed up the airbnb, and drove the rest of the way to Yellowstone, stopping a couple of times for wood, gas and to get the kids their Jr ranger packets at the visitors center in West Yellowstone. We also spotted at some souvenir shops in West Yellowstone before driving into the park. 
• Drove to our first stopping point, to hike to Harlequin Lake. It was a nice short, easy hike through a forest of little baby pine trees to a lake covered in lily pads. It was lovely, the perfect hike for the kids. 
• Stopped for a picnic before heading to the campsite. On the way, we stopped at a little shaded picnic spot for lunch. Just sandwiches and fruit and veggies, which is what we had for lunch for the whole week, much to the despair of the children. 😂 They started complaining halfway through the week, and I was like, "tough luck."
• We drove the rest of the way to our campsite, not stopping to see anything. We had to drive through Hayden Valley on the way to our campsite, and we saw a big herd of bison. They were right there on the side of the road and crossing several cars in front or behind us. 
• Set up camp. This took us basically the rest of the day. We got there in the late afternoon and just emptied the van, set up tents and chairs and Hammocks. The boys played happily in the dirt in between moments of helping, and when we were finished, we did tin foil dinners over the fire. There wasn't much time for anything else most nights. We tried to get to bed at a decent hour every night, which was rather hard. The girls usually didn't get into bed until after dark, and some nights, the boys, too. 

Tuesday 

• Drove part of the lower loop. We mainly went to see a bunch of hot springs. We went first to the West Thumb area to see the hot springs there. They were so cool! They were all different colors, some of them very bright and beautiful. It was all right next to the lake, and it was a nice walk around to see them all. Dad taught us so many things while we walked. 
• Went to see Old Faithful. We made it just 15 or so minutes before it was predicted to go off, so we just sat on the side of the path and waited. It was pretty cool to watch. We hit the visitors center while we were there. Jack was very anxious to go do some shopping. Unfortunately, the shops were closed that day, of all days. But we walked through the museum part, and Daniel got the kids fishing licenses. 
• Another picnic at another picnic spot by Old Faithful. 
• Grand Prismatic Spring. Our last stop was this walk that stopped by a few more hot springs, including the Grand Prismatic. It was quite hot by that time of day, but the pools were lovely. It was crazy to walk past them, though, because it was hotter right next to them. This spot was also particularly beautiful because it was right next to this big beautiful river. 
• Star gazing at Yellowstone was incredible. Our campsite had some awesome trees around it, one of the only ones with good trees, which was so great. It was the only thing to get in the way of a great view of the sky, because the rest of the campground was basically a sage brush dessert. We happened to be there during a new moon, and so it was completely dark, and we could see so many stars. It was amazing! I did a little star gazing every night we were there, and one night, when we let the girls stay up, we put a picnic blanket on the ground and laid down to see them better. So pretty! 

Wednesday 

• First thing after getting up, breakfast, packing a lunch and heading out, we drove the other direction on the lower loop and went to Fishing Bridge, which is apparently tradition. We walked across the bridge and tried to see fish, but there weren't any. That is, we couldn't see any, until we went under the bridge, right on the banks of the river, and then we saw hundreds of little tiny baby fish. 
• Mud Volcanoes! We walked a couple of trails and boardwalks to see a bunch of them, and they were cool. It was very smelly over there, especially near specific mud pots. Brooke really struggled with the smell and opted to stay in the camper van with Gramma for part of the walks around. She also declined going to see the stinkiest of the mud pots. 
• Waterfalls. We went to 4 different viewing spots for 2 waterfalls, which was a little overkill. It was beautiful to see them, but Daniel and I would've been happy to go to one overlook. I also really loved when we hiked down to the top of the lower falls. It was a pretty steep downhill hike, with lots of switchbacks. But the view was so beautiful. 
• Shopping. On the way back to our campsite from the water falls, we stopped at a shopping center to look for souvenirs. There was a visitors center and a few little cafes and souvenir shops. We stopped at a few shops to look for souvenirs. We did a little shopping at other spots along the way of our driving throughout the week. All the kids were pretty anxious to get some fun things, particularly our Jack. Things are kind of his thing. 😂 By the end of the trip, everyone had something. Mom and dad bought each of us a souvenir, Daniel and I got each of the kids a souvenir, and then some of them bought something with their own money. And everyone was *mostly* happy... the boys wanted me things than was reasonable, obviously. So they had to make due with what was offered, haha. 
• Dinners were fun on this trip. Daniel had bought some pie irons for using in the fire, and we did a fair amount of experimenting with them. We did pizzas over the fire, fruit pies, and some other things. We also did tin foil chicken quesadillas and hot dogs. We ate pretty well. Unless, of course, you got tired of sandwiches for lunch. 😂

Thursday 

• The upper loop. We drove the upper loop Thursday, to see another waterfall and have ice cream at a shop and go to mammoth springs.
• Mammoth hot springs was underwhelming. It was super hot and the boardwalks were all directly in the sun, no shade. The springs were mostly dried up, and all of the kids were over it almost immediately. Unfortunately, we took the longest hike around possible, spurred on by the fact that dad wanted us to see it all. It was probably the least favorite part of the trip, for all of us, and if it were me, I'd have skipped the whole thing and just driven by to say, "Wow, that's cool." 
• Sheepeater cliff for very late picnic. We stopped here on the way back from Mammoth. The kids were starving and just done with hikes for the day, so we stayed for a while, the boys climbed up the cliffs and we all played and walked around in the river there. It was nice to take the rest of the afternoon a little easier, and it was everyone's favorite part of the day. 
• All the kids and Grampa were sad to miss Norris geyser basin. But we needed to get back. We did stop at yet another waterfall spot, after driving a very pretty and secluded one way road. It was beautiful, though. It was called... Virginia Cascade? Maybe? Well, something Cascade.
• We also went on a little nature walk, Pelican nature reserve, right by the lake, and stopped by the lake to play and take pictures. The girls walked into the lake with Gramma and Grampa and had a great time. Daniel and I took the boys back first, so that we could get them ready for bed and start dinner. On our way into the campground, we saw a bunch of elk grazing in the grasses. We stopped and pulled over to take picture and admire. Then we saw 2 more right at the entrance to camp, right by the side of the road. And when we were driving up to our campsite, there was this huge bull elk in the campground. It was so amazing!!
• Another day, can't remember which, we saw a fox! The kids were so thrilled about it. I was taking Jack to the bathroom at camp, and waiting outside for him and I saw it stalking something and just strutting through the campground. We also saw a lot of deer, and one buck, which was so beautiful and cool looking. 

Friday

• Brooke's 13th birthday! 
• We started off the day by 1) going back to Pelican nature reserve because Camille left her bag by the lake (we found it, thankfully); and 2) going to the nearest visitor's center so the kids could do a ranger program and get their Jr ranger badges. It was adorable seeing all of them say the pledge and get their badges. In times past, it's only been Jack, or Jack and Sawyer, doing the program. This might be the only time all 4 of them do it. The girls will grow out of it pretty soon. 
• My favorite part of the day, and possibly of the whole trip, was our hike out to Shoshone Lake. It's a 6 mile round trip hike, pretty easy, not much incline and a beautiful hike through woods and meadows and streams. It was so peaceful out there, the hike was so nice. I was worried that the kids wouldn't make it... that's quite a lot of miles for little kids. But luckily it was an easy hike, and at the end of the trail is the lake, so it broke up the hike into two 3-mile hikes. We stopped when we got to the lake and played in the water for a while. The lake was cold, but not awful. Of course, I can say that because I didn't get all the way in the water. 😂 I didn't bring a swimsuit, so I just waded in to about my knees. But it was so serene and peaceful at the lake, and so pretty. If it hadn't been for the biting flies, it would've been perfect, and I could've stayed to relax all day. 
• That night, we celebrated Brooke's birthday with fire pizzas and s'mores and chocolate chip cookies. Michael showed up about 9pm with Damon and McKenzie. He had flown a tiny plane himself in the afternoon and then rented a car and driven in to camp overnight with us. 🤷🏽‍♀️ They left before I was even up the next morning, haha.  

Saturday

• Packed up camp
• Drove home. We drove through the Tetons on the way home, which was the long way home. But the drive was so pretty, the mountains were super amazing, and we drove the rest of the way through some of the prettiest rural parts of Wyoming. My whole view of Wyoming changed with this trip, because all the parts of Wyoming that I saw were beautiful and lovely. 
• We got home very late at night, and we were all cranky and exhausted, having played a little too hard and sleepy a little too little. I also developed a bit of a cold the last few days of the trip, which I was quite annoyed about. But it was pretty mild and only really lasted about 5 days. I missed Damon's homecoming talk the next day, though, because I didn't want to get anyone sick. 

It was a pretty amazing trip, and we had a great time. 

Brooke had her first day of middle school yesterday. I dropped her off mid-morning, when her band class was starting (her schedule is a tiny bit complicated, with her going only on A days in the afternoon, after lunch; but Wednesday is an early out day, so the schedule is a bit different those days). I walked her into the office area, because the doors were locked, and then I left, and let her figure it out. I started at the office door and watched her walk out into the school and start talking to someone. She seemed so nervous, even despite her 7th grade orientation day. And I had a hard time holding back the tears. I'm sure some of the adults could tell I was feeling it, but I managed to hold back just until I walked out the front doors. I cried from nervousness for her and because she's so big, and where has the time gone? She's in middle school, and in a few years, high school, and a few years after that, she'll just be gone. And I can't handle that line of thinking. 

I took Sawyer in for kindergarten testing after dropping Brooke off and running a quick errand. He did pretty well, but didn't remember all his letters and the sounds. I'm sure he forgot a lot over the summer. I was still proud of him for what he remembered and could do. 

We've been getting a ton of peaches from our tree. They're pretty good, and we've been eating a lot of peaches, and have had to be creative in the eating. Brooke made a peach pie on Sunday and I made peach cobbler with Sawyer last night. And we've been having cut peaches with honey and milk. And eating them plain. It's delicious. 

This week has been crazy. I feel so busy and am trying not to feel overwhelmed and anxious. But I'm doing school with the kids, and getting last minute public school prep done (stuff for Brooke and Sawyer's kindergarten testing, last minute shopping, etc), and also trying to get the house cleaned up because Schpuck's family is coming right after Yellowstone, and also trying to get ready for Yellowstone, and also there are some things for Relief society that are coming up soon that need to be addressed, which is made more complicated because I'm gone for a week and then have family here for a week... Needless to say, this is a busy week, which them extends into a busy month. 

Brooke had her 7th grade orientation day, where she went to the school and went to her classes to learn the lay of things. Sawyer also had his kindergarten bus day, where he practiced getting on and off the bus. They took the little kindergarteners to the school for about 20 minutes, and then brought them back home on the bus. All of that went well. And then in the evening, Brooke and I did some last minute shopping for her. 

But my favorite things the last couple of days have been: 

• Camille, doing some internet research on her favorite book series that she's been really into, the warriors series. She's been getting a ton of those books from the library.
• Watching Jack do his funny little dancing strut to the music we listen to while we do after dinner chores. It's possibly the cutest silly dance I've ever seen. 
• Sawyer, loving and asking to do school lessons with me. We are working from the pre-kindergarten good and beautiful book, and he loves it. 
• Going on a little mommy date with Brooke to do shopping. We got swig afterwards. 
• Reading from a kids Yellowstone book and learning all kinds of cool things about the national park
• Seeing Mrs Anderson at back to school night on Monday. Jack was so so so excited to see her, and we a little sad that night, thinking about how he wouldn't be at the school anymore to see her. She retired last school year, but she has volunteered with the pta, and so she's still going to be doing things at the school. We loved her as a teacher, and I think Jack and I both loved seeing her and were a little sad that we're not in her life anymore. 
• Walking through Sawyer's kindergarten classroom on back to school night. He seemed to feel okay about going to school after that. He's been telling me for weeks that he doesn't want to go to school, he'd rather stay home and homeschool with us. I hope this is a good decision I'm making for him. I honestly would love to have all my kids home this year, but since the other kids all went to kindergarten, I felt like I needed to do that for him too. 
• Being with my kids all day at home. ❤️ my favorite place to be. 
• Reading and learning with my kids. We started a little hearts and hands science unit about weather. It's been fun so far. 

Camping in Strawberry

This weekend we went on a camping trip with our friends on Strawberry Reservoir. It was quite the eventful trip, and we experienced some bad luck: 

• The wind was so strong when we got there Thursday afternoon, so setting up the tent was ridiculous. The camp hostess came and helped me get it all staked down, but the wind was so strong it ripped the lining of the rain fly on one side. We eventually got it up, and the wind died way down at nights, which was very good. But there were times in the afternoons when it was really windy, and the tent sort of collapsed in on itself, and I'd have to go tighten the stake and open the windows to let the wind through. 
• I scratched up my hand really good while helping DeAnna chop wood into kindling. I should've been wearing gloves, but I wasn't, and I bled pretty good from those little scratches. 
• Our tin foil dinners took forever to cook Thursday night. Daniel is much better at cooking tin foil dinners. 
• I somehow hurt my shoulder really bad and couldn't move it in certain positions without feeling a lot of pain. I was worried I'd done something really bad to my rotator cuff, because it hurt quite badly. But it started feeling better the evening we got home. 
• Daniel brought our new canopy that we bought, and the wind bent one of the poles, so we'll be returning that. 
• When we went to the lake Saturday, Daniel pulled out the kite to play with with the kids, and he let Jack fly it while he was dealing with the canopy blowing over, and Jack let the kite go and it flew into the lake and we lost it. 

But, we had a lot of fun, too. The kids loved playing with their friends all weekend long, exploring in the wilderness and playing in the back of the Freis new truck, playing games together and hanging out. 

We went to the lake Friday and Saturday to kayak and wade in the water and play on the beach. We had campfires and ate good food and treats and s'mores, sang songs by the fire while Brooke played guitar. The weather was pretty nice. It was really sunny, and there was hardly any shade at the campsites, so we all got a little burnt and quite a lot of sun. And we didn't use enough sunscreen. 😬

The Freis, Christensens and Norrises went with us, so everyone had plenty of friends to play with. Daniel came late Friday night, so he missed most of camping, but it was nice to have him help clean up camp and make food Saturday morning for everyone, especially with my shoulder hurting

. 

Starting School

I decided to start school early this year. We are going to Yellowstone in a couple of weeks, for an entire week, and so I wanted to get a jump start. Plus, now that we've started, I think it's been good for Brooke to get going on homeschool work before she starts having to go to school every other day. 

I spent Monday of this week getting some last minute things done, and trying to clean up the house so we didn't start school with a messy house. I don't know why that would make any difference, because I knew the house would get messy again soon anyway. But it just didn't feel right to start the school year all messy. 

I also had to take Brooke to the middle school that afternoon so that we could get her student ID and her Chromebook that she apparently needs for school. We talked to her counselor about her schedule, because they had her in a full time at school schedule, so we changed things around. Now, she's going every A day for a few hours after lunch, and then she'll be riding home on the bus. I think that's the best case scenario for what we wanted to do this year, because I can drop her off at school and then pick Sawyer up from kindergarten about the same time. 

We did our back to school dinner that night. I just ordered Thai food takeout because I was not prepared nor did I have much time to make dinner. But the kids loved it. Daniel did father's back to school blessings for family home evening and we talked about our school theme this year: I am good, I am kind, I am important. It was a good night. 

Our first day of school was Tuesday, August 5th. But it was a weird first day. We went on an outing with mom and dad Holbrook. Dad's company was putting on a family activity. They took us to see How to Train Your Dragon, the new live-action one, and then we went to his office to have lunch. We had a great time! My kids loved the movie. 

On our way home we stopped at the park to say hi to the Riches, who were here for some appointments. It was nice to visit with them. 🥰

So we started school after our activity and visit. I didn't ask my kids to get everything done. We did our normal starting routine (tidy basement, devotional which mainly consisted of me talking about how the school year would look, and read our book -- we're reading The Ordinary Princess, and it's delightful), and then I asked them to get one main subject done, and that was it, really. Kind of a soft start of school. 

But everyone was excited to start and enthusiastic about the school plan. I'm doing a few things differently this year. I bought some sticker incentive charts at Smiths when we were doing back-to-school shopping, so the kids can earn stickers, and once their charts are full of stickers, they can turn it in for prizes. I way overbought on prizes, haha. My prize box is overflowing, and I have bags of candy on the side that wouldn't fit. But the kids were excited about this little change.

The first couple of days this week have been really good. We're slowing getting into a solid routine, and the kids have been motivated to do their school stuff, which is good. A nice start. I know it'll wane after a few weeks. But this is a good place to be for now. 

Our Last Week of Summer

 We had a most delightful final week of summer. It was pretty busy. We tried to cram a few more things from our summer bucket list into the week as we could.

I went mountain biking with Jamie Monday morning, early. And the trail we did was so fun! And I could feel myself getting stronger and more fit and better at biking. It was a good ride. I've really been enjoying biking this summer. It helps that I've found a good group to go with. I find myself looking forward to Monday rides. 😊

Monday, we built an epic fort in the basement. I had bought a few supplies earlier on in the summer, knowing we would eventually do this. So we put some hooks on the walls in the basement, tied a rope between them and hung flat sheets across it, and then went from there in our building. We used clamps and clothes pins to connect sheets together and stretch the sheets to make the walls. We used the weights to keep them in place and poles to prop up the sheets. It was pretty awesome really. 

When we were done, we read our book for a little bit, inside the fort, of course, and then watched Swiss Family Robinson, also in the fort. Obviously. And it was so cool to watch that movie in the fort, because the Swiss Family had to live in forts for a while. The kids loved the movie, as I knew they would. Jack especially loved all the inventions and the pirates.

Tuesday, we spent some time at the library and back-to-school shopping. For our first science/history project, I'm having the kids do a project about Yellowstone -- either an animal found there, or the history of it, or any of the geological structures. So we went to the library for books. Then to the Good and Beautiful store, where I always come out with way more than I needed. We only went in for Space Science unit and accessories; but I came out with an additional science course book for Camille to do some personal study, a new book series for Camille, a series of fact books for littles, a new drawing book, and the creative writing book series for Brooke. It's quite the problem. I basically want to buy up the whole store. 

We also did clothes shopping at Target and Old Navy, which was okay, but always takes longer than I want it to. But the kids all got new things and seemed satisfied. 

Jack was thrilled that I got him this jean jacket. He wanted to match me and Brooke. 😍 I did not spring for the hat, though. He said it made him look like a cowboy. 

That night, Daniel and Brooke went for a bike team thing, and so the boys and I had a boys and mommy night. They just wanted to watch Bluey for a long while in the fort, so that's what we did. None too exciting, but they really enjoyed it. 

I got a 3 day pass to the local gym so that I could go to Annette Perkins Body Pump class with Jamie and Sarah. We went Wednesday morning. It was so hard! It was basically doing one exercise, like a squat or lunge, for an entire 3 or 4 minute song! I lift weights 4 times a week every week. I feel strong, and I am starting to see a little muscle definition... but DUDE! I felt so weak in that class! And the next day, my whole upper body was sore. But it was so fun, and tempted me so bad to get a gym membership so that I could go to her class more often. 

Thursday, we spent the day with the Winfields. We had invited them to go do the Bridal Veil Falls hike with us, and they wanted to make it a whole day in Provo. So we joined them. Aside from the hike, and playing in the water by the falls, we went to the duck pond at BYU, had lunch and ice cream at the Creamery, and explored the Bean Museum for a bit before going home. It was such a fun, and also exhausting day. It was Johnny's birthday that day (Sawyer's little Bestie), and I felt honored that they would want to spend his birthday with us. 

Friday morning, since I still had my 3 day pass at VASA, Sarah and I went to a High Fitness class, which was so much fun. And I was, again, tempted to get a gym membership. We stopped at Smiths afterwards to get snacks for our girls night. Then, it was rushing home to get the kids ready to go to the pool. We met up with the McMurtreys at the Lehi outdoor pool, and swam with them for, like, three and a half hours. The kids had an absolute blast with those kids. They really get along well with them. It was Calvin's birthday that day, so we were honored that they wanted to spend his birthday with us. 

After getting home, I made a quick dinner for the kids, and then left for my girls night with DeAnna and Sarah. We went to Highland Glen Park to kayak and chat and eat junk food. It was the most delightful and needed evening. We had so much fun together, and it was so peaceful out there and such a nice night. We kayaked on the water, slowly making our way back and forth across the pond and circling around each other, chatting and laughing. When the sun was going down, we headed back to the shore, sat on the grass and ate our snacks. We had one funny encounter with this single dad who came over to hang out with us and just started spilling his crazy and shocking life history and complaining about all the people in his life. It was kind of funny. And then, around 10 or 10:30, the cops came to kick us out of the park, because it was closed. We still had to track down and load up the kayaks and paddleboard, haha. I felt bad they had to wait for us, but actually, the cop we talked to was really nice and didn't seem to mind at all.

It was just so good to hang out with people who know me well and still love me. They are just friends that are good for the soul. 

Saturday morning, Mary Beth Christensen, Sarah and I met up at a piano store warehouse to play music together, which was so fun and also made me feel so nervous and self conscious. I haven't played in front of people for so long, and I'm so out of practice. But it was probably good for my ego, knocking me down several pegs. Haha. We had fun. I'd like to do it again sometime. 

That afternoon, I paid the kids to do some deep cleaning chores, which they were very willing to help with. And afterwards, we had our family water fight, which everyone was so excited for and thrilled to do. Jack said that it was his favorite thing we did all summer. It's always a good time, even though someone always ends up crying and the boys always drop out sooner than everyone else. But actually, the boys played happily for a lot longer than previous years. And there were a lot less tears than usual.

That night, Brooke went to a big kids summer party at Harvey's house. She hung out with all the big kid friends in our neighborhood and ward. When did she get so big? Doing all this big kid stuff?

I can't believe July is almost over. It has seriously flown by, and we've done a lot of really fun things. It's been a fun summer, but, as usual, much too short. 

This last week was spent in mainly getting ready for starting school with the kids soon. We spent more time at home this week, the kids just playing with each other, the girls reading a bunch, and me researching school curricula and ordering books and things. We went school supplies shopping one day and got almost everything we needed. We'll finish our school shopping this week. 

Tucker had his neutering appointment on Wednesday, and we watched a friend's dog for the weekend (bad timing, with the neutering). Tucker seemed totally fine after his surgery, maybe a little too fine, since we've had to force him to take it easy and not play too hard. 

One night, Pippin, the dog we were watching, was outside when the Smiths started shooting off fireworks in their backyard. He must've been terrified, and we went to bring him inside, like 5 or 10 minutes later, and he was completely gone. The girls and I searched for him for probably half an hour, in the backyard, and then I put them to bed. I kept looking for him and stayed up later, to keep an eye out for him, but he never came back. I said a very fervent prayer for his safety that night, and that we'd find him. And then I went to bed. The next morning, he still wasn't around, so I got dressed for my workout and then walked over to our neighbor's house, to see if he'd gone home, and there he was, on the porch, whining and howling. I was so grateful. I think the Holy Ghost whispered to me to check at their house that morning, probably right at the moment when he was there (Daniel had checked the house much earlier in the morning on his way out to a hike, and Pippin wasn't there). I'm so thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost! It was quite an adventure. 

Daniel hiked Lone Peak on Saturday. He got up at like 3:30 in the morning and went with a couple of coworkers. He was gone until mid afternoon, and he said he was absolutely beat, that it was a really hard hike. 

The kids and I did our own hike, out to the Bear Canyon Suspension Bridge. There was a lot of whining and complaining on the way up (which annoyed me greatly, and I admit to being somewhat unkind about it), and then they were totally fine after we hit the bridge and started heading down. 2 miles, a little over an hour. It was fun! 

Then we headed home for a little bit of chores, and showering. And then! We had an unbirthday party! It's one of the things we had on our summer bucket list. It was so fun! When we were out shopping this week, we got some supplies for it. We played "don't eat Pete," played keepy uppy with balloons, danced, opened presents that we'd gotten for each other, ate cake, sang "a very merry unbirthday to you," and watched Alice in Wonderland. It was a wonderful unbirthday party! 

Last night we did a fire and tinfoil dinners, which is always a hit at our house. We also did s'mores and roasted marshmallows. I also talked to my dad for an hour yesterday afternoon. 

July has been a good month, a nice little break for my calling. I still did some visits and self reliance stuff. But I liked not having meetings. And yesterday I declared it a real day of rest, even from visits and calling stuff. I took a nap and ate and hung out with my kids and Daniel and read my scriptures. It was lovely. 

I've been playing outside in the evenings with the kids, throwing balls around and pushing Sawyer on the swing. The evenings have been warm, but so nice. 

I went to the temple one day. Finally. I feel like it's been a couple months since I went to the temple. It was very nice to be there. 

We had a movie day with our friends and watched IF. It was cute, but the younger kids were less interested. It was definitely a bigger kid movie. We had fun, though. 

Holbrook Family Reunion

Honestly, there isn't much to write about the Holbrook Family Reunion. We went to the pool every day. Sawyer was always so anxious to go and threw fits whenever we didn't go right when he wanted. He enjoyed testing his new swimming skills and practicing swimming across lengths of the pool. Jack also really loved going to the pool. The girls enjoyed playing and hanging out with their cousins and Aunts. Jennie had agreed with a bunch of the girls that they would make bracelets and exchange them at the Family Reunion, and it was a big thing for this reunion. One afternoon the girls all got together with their cousins and aunts with all their respective bracelets supplies and made bracelets together. 

We had dinners together, we went to the kids activity center, we drove out to Cascade Springs for a hike. Cascade Springs was so pretty, and so unique.

On Friday we had our lake day. It was one of the best lake days we have ever had. The beach was perfect, not too muddy. And everyone played happily, and the water was cold, but not so cold that we couldn't swim. We had dinner there and just had a good time together.

Daniel worked part of the time while we were there. But he did get to go on bike rides in the morning and came swimming with us a few times. The kids were bummed that he had to work, but he got to spend some of it with us. And that's better than what I thought it would be. 

Daniel and I had walks almost every night after putting the kids to bed. We just walked around outside of the resort, but it was nice to spend that time together. We also went on an 8-mile hike together one morning. It was so fun. It was cool and overcast, and we started hiking just outside the resort. We hiked much longer than I thought we would. Daniel's been sort of training himself to hike a bunch of peaks this year, and he wanted to do a longish hike to prepare. It was beautiful up there in the mountains, so pretty. We talked a lot, and kept on hiking. On the way back down, we ran a portion, on and off, of the trail. It felt good to just run. 

The next morning, Daniel took me for a bike ride. I was certainly not much in the mood. He took me on a pretty simple loop, but I got really frustrated about the curves in the downhill. We took another loop, because I felt like I should -- to get in more practice. The second loop was a better run. Daniel taught me some good skills. I just wish I was in better shape for biking up mountains, and also that I had more skills. All in good time, I suppose.

We had a great reunion! Most people left by the end of Friday, but we stayed until Saturday evening, going to the pool one more time, playing games at the Kids Center, going on the gondola, and going to a fun candy and soda shop and taste testing a bunch of candy and root beers. It was a nice family day we spent together, and with Dad and Jennie. 

 This week has been fun. We took Tucker to see Sammy a couple of times this week so that they could get used to each other. Daniel had asked Emily to watch Tucker for part of the time we are going to be in Park City, and she said that she didn't feel comfortable doing that because Tucker and Sammy hadn't been socialized enough. So we met them a couple of days at a dog park close to Emily's apartment and let them play together and be together for a bit before taking them back to Emily's apartments to continue the efforts. They did really well together, so Emily agreed to take Tucker for a few days next week. The Freis are taking for the beginning of the week. The kids loved seeing the dogs play together, though. It was pretty fun to watch them interact. 

I went mountain biking with some women in my ward. I texted them a week or 2 ago to see if anyone would be interested, and they were. So on Monday, Brittani Jacobs picked us up in her truck and chose a trail to go on. We had a really good time! The trail wasn't too difficult, though there were some scary curves on the downhill that I didn't handle very well. I fell into some trees at one point and bruised up my legs pretty good. But it was still fun. We made plans to go a couple more Mondays this month.

The kids and I went to the Lindon Aquatic Center with a bunch of our friends. They had a great time. But Sawyer monopolized all my time, wanting to go around the lazy river a million times, so I didn't get much chance to hang out with my friends. We had to leave early anyway, because Jack and Brooke had dentist appointments.

I went to a dumb improv show with a friend in my ward. It was her birthday and she wanted to get out and do something fun. I was really more in the mood to be home that night, but I went with her anyway. I think she needed to do something and hang out with a friend. The improv show wasn't spectacular, and we were super late anyway, so we missed half of it. But one of the performers was a friend I went to high school with, Adam Broud, so it was fun to see him. 

Daniel and I went on a fun date that I planned. We've been doing these fling dates where we assume a different character and pretend we're on a first date (or a client meeting, or whatever). I was supposed to be this hippy lady; I wore a bright flowy dress and feather clips in my hair. Daniel was supposed to be this nerdy tax accountant (ha!), and when he walked out in his outfit, I struggled not to laugh and break character. He was wearing shorts, tube socks all the way up his legs, tennis shoes, a polo shirt buttoned all the way up, and glasses with tape around the middle. And his hair was parted in the middle and slicked down. It was so funny. I was dying inside. We picked up Cubby's for dinner and then drove out to this park over by Utah Lake for a picnic. It was a beautiful day, not terribly hot, though a little more windy than I would've liked. Then we walked down a walking path to some hot springs right by the lake. We just waded into the hot springs, but it was lovely. I'd like to take the kids back there one of these days. 

Tonight, the girls and I watched Wicked together while Daniel took the boys on a little bike ride. I think they had fun together, and then he put them to bed when they got home. Wicked is quite a long movie, but we watched the whole thing! The girls LOVED it! And Brooke was very upset that we have to wait for the second half of the story. I've been wanting to watch it with them for a while. But I never did anything about it until Camille was invited to a birthday party where they would be watching Wicked. And I said, "Ooooh, no. She is not watching it for the first time with FRIENDS! We must watch it together before that!" It was very fun watching with them. And I love it, too, so I wasn't mad about having to see it. 

I woke up today with a song from one of the Tinker Bells movies in my head, and it made me indescribably sad. It made me remember the good times when my little girls were tiny and into watching Tinker Bell movies. I cried for the first quarter of my walk this morning, like 15 minutes, and felt better after that, but more determined to enjoy my kids in every stage. 

We had a Tucker and Sammy play date today. I drove the kids and the dog down to a dog park near Emily's apartment to hang out with them. They did really well together, even after we went back to Emily's apartment to see how Sammy would react to having Tucker in her space. It was pretty fun, watching the dogs interact and hanging out with Emily. 

We started and finished painting the girls bookshelf this week and got it back in their room. And also put up the wall art, finally. Their room is looking so cute... when it's cleaned up, haha. And Brooke has more ideas about making it look nicer, which we'll probably do in coming months. I'm coming along slowly but surely with all my summer projects! It's exciting and feels good. I hope I'll be all done with them by the time I start school with the kids, because at that point, I'll have no extra time for stuff like that. 

A texted-on-my-phone conversation I had with Brooke today: 

Me: Should we do a girls night tonight? You and me and Camille? Or are you too tired?

Brooke: I want to, but I am a little tired. ........Let's do it!

Me:  We can do it another night... I was thinking I could put the boys to bed a little earlier than usual, we can paint nails and eat popcorn and watch the live action snow white.

Brooke: Okay! Sounds good! Also, if you didn't notice, my nails are completely destroyed! 😃

Me: Hopefully if I put the boys to bed early, then you won't be too late to bed after the movie.

Brooke: Got it!

We ended up watching "Mirror, Mirror" instead, and Brooke ran out of time to paint her nails. But we had a fun night anyway.

The Week of the Fourth

We had a delightful 4th of July. I got up and walked with my friends and worked out and got ready and made good. Then the Christensens and the Freis came over for a lunch BBQ. Everyone brought different meats to grill and sides to share. We had steak and chicken and smoked sausage and shrimp, and a bunch of sides. There was so much food! We ate a lot, and the friends stayed for most of the afternoon until we all had to leave for our next events. 😆 

In the evening, we went to David's house for his annual BBQ + fireworks night, which is always a delightful time. I felt kind of sleepy and not at all hungry for dinner. So I just had salad and Dan's salsa and watermelon for dinner, which was more than enough. The fireworks were fun, and my kids all loved it. 

Other things we did this week: 

• The boys had swim lessons. Sawyer hated them until the end, and then he was sad to be done and wanted to keep going. He resisted almost everything Thomas was trying to have him do, but Thomas was tough with him and still made him do stuff. It was really good for Sawyer, I think.

• We went on a hike with Sammy and her kids. We did about a half mile hike up to a waterfall, and the kids had a lot of fun, both hiking and playing in the stream at the end. 

• The kids and I had a "read-a-thon" one afternoon. The kids got all their blankets and pillows and some stuffies and arranged these little "reading nests" for themselves. We started by reading our book together (we're in the middle of the 3rd "Wild Robot" book). And then everyone got out their own books and read quietly to themselves, altogether. Sawyer even got some Berenstain Bears books to look at while everyone was reading. It was so quiet in the basement. I don't think the house has ever been that quiet in the middle of the day when people have actually been there. 😂 I was pretty sleepy, so I just snoozed on the couch with the kids for 20 minutes before I started reading my own book. It was quite a lovely activity, though. Someone (I believe it was Camille) put it on our summer bucket list. And had been asking for weeks when we could do it. It was pretty fun. 

• I hosted book club one evening. I got ice cream to serve for the occasion, which I thought was a great idea for a middle-of-the-summer book club. We sat and talked outside. It wasn't too hot, and it was actually a really lovely evening. 
• The kids played with their friends, and the Davises came over one day to play. We went up the mountain to have a picnic with the Winfields and the Frei girls. The kids played in the stream and had so much fun with their friends. 
• Yesterday, I met Sammy and Brian and Melanie at a new park in Provo to let the kids play. Daniel and Brooke are on a bike ride with their friends. The park was fun, but it was pretty hot. And Camille was kind of bored with no one there her age to play with. She kind of wandered over to hang out with the adults off and on the whole morning. 
• Daniel took Camille on a daddy- daughter date to the Lehi pool. They had a great time!