The girls found a cute tutorial to make emoji soaps.
We used Hobby Lobby coupons so that it wouldn't cost a fortune. I think they turned out so cute.
I have always loved greek yogurt because it doesn't taste as sweet as regular yogurt and it makes me feel great after I eat it. This is Chobani's new "flip" line. Each cup comes with a little side of goodies that you "flip" into your yogurt. This flavor has peach yogurt with a side of pistachio's and dark chocolate bits. I have tried a few of the flavors and have loved every one. They have 13g of protein and around 200 calories in each cup. The consistency is also thinner then some greek yogurts so if you aren't a fan of the thick kind- try this kind.
Our garden has been a little neglected. However the plants are doing great- even in all this heat.
For our date this month we went to the Anniversary Inn. I had saved this one to use for Jeff's birthday. We couldn't go that week so we went the week after and counted it for Father's Day too. We stayed in the Bridal Veil Falls Suite. We stayed in this same room almost 15 years ago for one of our very first anniversaries. It was as charming and romantic as we remembered.
The shower is the best part. It's a waterfall that comes off the top of the rocks.
It was a seriously needed time away and together.
Ethan has been working on his State report for school the past month. They had to make a float to represent their state. Here is his creation.
Ashtyn had the amazing opportunity to go on trek this week with our Stake. There were over 600 participants that went. This is sadly the only picture I got. This is when I dropped her off to catch the bus. Here she is with two girls from our ward. Maddie and Lydia. Ashtyn wanted to go on trek but also had a lot of reservations about it too. She had several melt downs the week before from anxiety. I think what worried her the most was being put in a family with people she wouldn't know. Thankfully the night before we found out that three of her best friend's were in the same company as her. Not her family- but at least they would be traveling together. This made her feel a lot better so she woke up all smiles. She was in the light green group. Her parents ended up being Tuiono and Milika Malakai. There were nine kids in her family and one of them was Kyle Nance our old bishops son. So she at least knew one person.
Each person chose someone to walk for on trek and she chose her fourth great grandmother Mary Ann Eccles Robinson who crossed the plains with the Martin Handcart Company when she was just five years old. I told her to think of Mary Ann doing it so young whenever things got too hard. It was really hard and she ended up getting dehydrated the first day and got sick in the middle of the night. She threw up the next morning but then she was fine. They walked 11 miles the first day. The only other incident she had was the last night when she went to tried to go to the bathroom she couldn't get her lid off her bucket to get her flashlight so she had to try and find it in the pitch dark. She never found it and ended up peeing her pants. It turns out she was ten steps from it. Luckily she was in her pajamas so she didn't have to trek in peed clothes the next day. She also had a spare pair of pants that she could change into. She was so embarrassed when her family asked why she changed clothes so she told them that she had spilled water on herself. I'm sure she will laugh about that in the future. HA HA. She came home so so tired but happy. She said she was glad she went.
For Father's Day Jeff wanted to go on a hike. This was a great idea because we hadn't been hiking as a family all year. We have been so busy that our favorite past time had been all but forgotten. Unfortunately this tale takes a turn for the worse....
We decided to go right after church. When we got home though it was really hot and we still needed to stop by and see his Dad for Father's Day. So we decided to forgo the hike. Then a few hours later Jeff was looking at his hiking app we use and he found a new hike that we hadn't tried that was close by. He thought if we hurried over to his Dad's house we could still make the hike and be back for dinner. A special dinner that I had been planning all week for him.
When we finally left his parents house it was 3:30. Which meant that the temperatures that day had almost peaked. We were going up in the mountains where it is usually ten degrees cooler so we thought it would be hot but do able.
We got there and put sunscreen on everyone- so now it is about 4:15. We started down the trail and it was slightly up hill. It was also pretty rocky in parts. After only a few feet I couldn't even breath. It takes me a while to adjust to higher altitude and it was hard to do so in the intense heat.
I was really worried about how Ashtyn would do since she just got home from Trek and it wore her out. Whitney always complains a bit on our hikes. She is the athlete in the family- but you'd never know it by how much she whines on a hike.
Jeff took this picture of us right before the total melt down.
The views were pretty darn amazing and it was a beautiful trail. About a half a mile into it- Whitney was crying that her head hurt. My head was also starting to hurt. I was sweating profusely. If you know me- you know that I LOVE heat. I love to feel warm and it usually doesn't make me sweat hardly at all. But for some reason I was dripping this time. I still could barely breath. The app told us that it was 1.5 miles to a beautiful waterfall- which we later found out was inaccurate and it was actually closer to 2 miles to the top. Since we hadn't gone very far and two of us weren't doing well- I decided that Whitney and I were going to turn back. I don't usually shy away from a challenge but I knew with the way I was feeling that if we kept going it would only get worse.
Ashtyn surprisingly was doing great and not complaining one bit.
Jeff was pretty annoyed that I wanted to go back to the car. He thought I was beeing a wimp and letting Whitney be one too. I told him he could do whatever he wanted and that we would wait at the trail head. So he kept going with Ashtyn and Ethan and we went back down. Of course then I started stewing and worrying about the other kids getting sick too. Jeff is a hard core hiker. He goes fast and is always ahead of the group. So I kept thinking that he would push Ashtyn and Ethan too hard. I started imagining all the horrible scenarios that could happen to them or to us being alone. So by the time we got back to the car I was so so mad.
We were parked in the shade and there was a small breeze but we were still super hot. I didn't want to run the air conditioner the whole time so we just layed there. I ended up getting an itchy heat rash on my leg. Every few minutes a bee would fly in the car and Whitney would get hysterical. We ended up having to wait for them for nearly two hours. I made Whitney read chapters in the Book of Mormon to keep her mind off of things. Every one had their Camelbaks so I didn't worry about them having water- but I had packed all the snacks in mine so Jeff and the other two kids didn't have any food. This of course made me worry even more.
When they got back I was so glad to see them that I wasn't mad anymore. They were fine. Ashtyn's water was completely gone. They never made it to the top. They ran into a woman that told them it was further than we had thought. It was getting so late and past dinner time that Jeff had decided to turn around and come back. That made me sad. We normally love hiking so much and he was disappointed that we didn't get to our destination. We got packed up and headed home.
We didn't get home until after seven. By then I had a HUGE headache and I was starving. We had eaten a few snacks but it wasn't enough to keep my blood sugar up. I am hypoglycemic and I lose my mind when it's past when I need to eat. My back hurt on top of everything else so I was a total cranky mess. I told Jeff that I couldn't make the special dinner any more because it would take over an hour. That made him upset because he said that was the one reason they turned back so that we could still have dinner. Whitney got mad about this too and I just lost it. I started yelling at them and swearing and stomped off to my room.
I came back out a few minutes later to get something to eat and that made Jeff think I was going to make dinner. He told me I didn't have to do it to which I replied "I wasn't planning on it" and stomped back off. After I ate and took some Advil. I started to feel better. Then I realized how awful I had been acting and felt horrible that I treated Jeff that way on Father's Day. I went out and apologized and told him I would make the dinner- but by then it was late- so he didn't want me to. He was super kind about the whole thing and not mad at all. I think after being married to me for so long he is use to these little outburst I have when I don't feel well. This is why I love him so much. He is such a great guy at heart. I'm lucky to have him as the Father of our children.
So even though things didn't turn out like we planned at least we did get to be together and try a new trail. Which we will try again another time.
As you can see Ashtyn and Ethan were fine.
