Red Lake Hike

We invited my mom along and went hiking on Saturday to a little lake called Red Lake in Payson Canyon. It was breathtaking. The colors were so pretty. The kids did really well. We were a littel disappointed when we got to the lake. It's pretty droughty here this year and the lake was mostly dried up. But the hike and the colors were totally worth the 3.5 miles. I'm so sore post hike, even two days later. There were a lot more hills than I expected. I do wish staying in shape wasn't so hard to keep. Every time I take a week off it seems like I've fallen way back, and it's always so much effort to get back into shape. Ah well. Worth it. 

You can see the tiny bit of water in the middle of the picture. It was minute. 

I finished Spencer's paint by number butterfly. I needs to be wrapped around a frame still. That's why it's got the extra tails for the part that will fold over. 

I'm helping my dear friend finish a quilt her mom started for her. It's a HARD pattern and is going to take a goodly long time to finish, but it's a treasured item for her and I'm happy I can help her get it finished.

 

Mountains and hot springs

 We had a great weekend. We spent some time with family Friday afternoon. We went up to Lava Hot Springs on Saturday. And yesterday we drove the Alpine Loop, including a stop at Cascade Springs. It was really a lovely weekend. This last ten days Spencer has been out of school have been so stressful, but he's back in school today and I signed Chloe up for a second preschool, so she's able to go every day now instead of just two days. I'm thrilled. She's thrilled. I think it's going to be so great all around. I really didn't feel like two days was enough for her, so I'm so glad I found a good little preschool for her to attend. 

Aaron giving Chloe a ride on my grandpa's old tricycle

Lunch while we were at Lava Hot Springs

Post marinating in some seriously amazing hot springs 

I made a peach pie from the last peaches from the tree in the backyard. It is so good. 

Cascade Springs. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Chloe's collection of leaves

Hiking and sewing

We had a slow week this week. Spencer got a cold, I'm quite certain that was triggered by the 40-degree drop in temps and high wind that happened on Monday. But because of all the precautions he has to stay home from school for ten days or until he gets a negative Covid-19 test. So we went and got him tested on Wednesday but are still waiting for the results. I'm not a huge fan of him being out of school for so long when he's not sick at all anymore, but I get the caution and I support it. I just wish it didn't take so long for Covid test results to come back. I guess it takes 72 hours, but that doesn't include weekends. So hopefully we will get them back today. 

As a result of the crazy weather and smoky days, plus Spencer being sick and Bill catching it, we didn't do a lot this week. We thought about going down to Arches National Park but didn't even think to plan it while it was so chaotic. We'll do that another weekend. So instead on Saturday we did a quick hike up in the Draper foothills. We were supposed to do Ghost Falls, but the road was closed and we got out so late in the day that we didn't want to add two miles to the hike to see it. We'll do that another day. Instead we did this little hike right by the Draper Temple. We climbed a little mountain, then came back down and hiked along the hill until we were basically on top of the temple, and then retraced our steps. It wasn't an amazing hike, but it still felt great to get out after we'd been indoors for basically the whole week. 

I did a bunch of quilting this weekend. I finished all but one quilt top from the batch I did summer 2018. This is the one I quilted and bound over the weekend. It's the first one I've made for me. I have one that is very similar that I'll do this week and is for Bill. I actually have the beginnings of two quilts for us that I started right before we left Washington so that we can have matching quilts on our bed during the summer when it's too warm for our super warm duvet. So I'll probably do those soon too and after this huge quilting jag I'll end up with a new quilt for each kid and two each for me and Bill. We're not hurting in the quilt department, hahaha. 

I also made this superhero cape for my sister last night at her request for Super Hero Day at her school later this month. I'm ridiculously pleased with it. It had sat on my to-do list for like ten days to do and I was concerned about getting a pattern for it and what not. I found a free one last night and made it all in the same night and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. So fun. 

Baptism Weekend

Happy baptism day, Genevieve! It was a truly lovely day filled with family and good fun and fun. We had the unique opportunity to have a double baptism for Genevieve and her cousin. That wouldn't have been possible if we weren't in Utah right now, so I'll take it as a silver lining for our huge life change that is still ongoing. We had grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins all in attendance and it was a very special day. 

I finished the machine quilting on several quilts this week as well and I love how they turned out. I haven't gotten around to binding them yet. That's my least favorite part, but my kids are happily anticipating each getting a new quilt of their own. My mother-in-law has a long-arm quilter in her basement, so I was able to do the quilting on all of them myself without paying someone else to do it. 

Chloe is getting in the Halloween spirit a little bit. 

She also started preschool this week and is thrilled. Look at the size of her smile!

And some days when she's home while the rest of the kids are at school she gets the deluxe setup of playing the tablet on my bed. She's got it good.