Betsy's Birthday and My Mt. Whitney Climb

Austin Before hair cut

Austin After hair cut ( I realize now that I look at this picture, she went back in and got another inch cut off, so it is a little shorter than this.

While preparing for my mountain climb, I would do my housework wearing my hiking shoes and carrying Malachi in the hiking backpack, he would fall asleep a lot in this

For one of the games at Betsy's party, One of the guest would stand in the middle of the bulls-eye (made with sidewalk chalk) and each person would get a chance to hit the person standing in the bulls-eye with 3 wet sponges 

Austin throwing the wet sponges

Betsy opening up her presents

Betsy blowing out her candles

Malachi enjoying Betsy's birthday cake

Daddy copying Malachi

Beautiful Betsy wearing the sweater her Grandma Hardy made for her, Austin likes it too

At Texas Roadhouse, for Betsy's Birthday dinner, Malachi loves the butter!

Betsy loves her birthday dinner

Malachi loves the butter so much!

Austin with a straw mustache

Caleb talking to the people at the table behind us

Malachi's face covered in butter

Drive up to Mt. Whitney with Josh

Took this picture of the cliff, thinking it looked cool.  At the time I had no idea we were actually going to climb up it!

Looking down from the top of the cliff

Climbed up the big rock in the middle to get to our base camp

Made it to the base camp, at over 11,000 ft

At the summit, at over 14,400 ft tallest mountain in the contiguous United States.  

View from the summit

View from the summit

All of us at the summit!! (from left to right) Kyle, Misha, Dad, Me, Josh

Misha at the summit

This is a picture of the halfway point of the "chute", it was crazy, but we all made it.  

Sunrise on summit day

This is at iceberg lake, right before the "chute" 

Our entire group, after we made it back down to the trailhead. from left to right: our guide Matt, Josh, Dad, Me, Misha, Kyle, and our guide Neil.

Josh and I driving through Death Valley on our way to Las Vegas

Gas prices in death valley, $5.98 per gallon for unleaded gas....crazy....they really take advantage of you being in the middle of nowhere

Sand dunes in death valley

At the park, a little girl found Caleb and wants to hold his hand all the time

She really likes Caleb

They were so cute together

"Baby's" (chicken) hiding place for her eggs, we found after almost two weeks

Malachi loves the downward facing dog

Austin with her first self portrait she drew for art class 

Malachi hurt his hand

My stomach was hurting so I was laying down on the bed, so Malachi thought it would be fun to sit on my back, and of course, bounce.  

Malachi loves riding his little horse

While waiting in the car for the kids to come out from church activities, Samuel colored on both Caleb and Malachi with green dry erase marker with a bunch of green dots.  Caleb was not happy

Malachi's green dots

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The past month has been busy.  Betsy is 10 years old now!  She had a birthday party with a couple of friends from school, and had a blast playing lots of different games and eating yummy food.  I can't believe I now have three children in the double-digits!  After Betsy's birthday it was a whirlwind of activity trying to get ready to leave for California.  I was shopping, and packing, and planning, and preparing the kids and Travis for five days without me.  I made videos on the computer for Caleb and Malachi, and made a book for Caleb explaining where I was, and what he could do while I was gone.  Finally the day arrived.  The kids dropped me off at the airport on the 27th right before school.  Samuel did not want me to leave, he told me he was going to hide in my suitcase (hiking backpack) and come with me.  It was so weird traveling without all my children.  Okay, maybe peaceful is the better word.  I actually got to relax, and read.  In my first flight I ended up sitting next to a young man on his to the MTC in the Philippians.  We had some good conversation, and afterward he told me, that he had been really worried about that first flight alone, and that I was heaven sent.  I walked with him until he had met up with the rest of the missionaries he was traveling with in the Salt Lake City airport, and we said goodbye.  Josh picked me up from the Las Vegas airport after my second flight, and we drove another 4 1/2 hours to lone pine, CA.  It was fun to travel with my brother, and get to know a little more about his life.  We arrived at the campground, near the trail head, and right away, were told by my dad, Misha, and Kyle, that the bears were a big problem, and we had to be really careful to keep food, and anything scented in the bear proof containers, and to not even lay our packs down for a second, or the bears would snatch them up.  We had dinner, smores, and played cribbage (I'm pretty sure my Dad creamed us).  We got up early the next morning, and took down our campsite and drove down to Lone Pine for a pack check, and to meet our guides.  They had us take everything out of our packs, and separate our things into "go" and "no go" piles.  We had to get rid of any changes of clothing, deodorant, personal items, and extra snacks. (we realized we were going to get very stinky, wearing the same clothes for three days with no deodorant).  We headed back up to the trail head and "bear proofed" the cars,  Then we started our hike.  The first mile of so was pretty normal hiking, but then the guides stopped us for a moment, and told us that was just the "highway" and the real trail was about to begin.  There was lots of steep hiking, climbing, bouldering, and stream crossing.  We climbed one area called the "ledges" that was like climbing up a cliff.  We would stop for a break about every hour, and eat and drink, and have a potty break if need be.  The guides told us, if we weren't hiking we needed to be eating.  Everybody seemed to be able to keep a good pace, except for my Dad, he struggled to keep up, and would frequently fall behind, so we would stop and wait for him.  We still made good time and made to our base camp at 11,000 ft in the early afternoon, so we were able to enjoy the lake nearby, and relaxing in our campsite.  Our guides made a dinner, that was a little on the spicy side for me, but we had to keep eating it, because we couldn't waste any food, and we couldn't have any leftovers.  We went to bed early, and woke up at 3am to continue our climb up to the summit.  We had to eat as much oatmeal as we could for breakfast before heading out, I really didn't want any oatmeal that early in the morning, and it made me feel a little sick to eat it all.  We had my Dad go first once we started hiking, so that he wouldn't fall behind again.  We started out hiking with our headlamps since it was still dark.  My headlamp wasn't very bright, so I hiked right behind Kyle, since he had the brightest headlamp.  The sunrise was beautiful!!  We made it to an area with another lake, and had to put on our harnesses and helmets, to go up the "chute", and left our trekking poles behind, to get on the way back.  You can see a picture of the "chute" above, it was pretty crazy.  We were climbing up, using our hands most of the way, and trying not to knock loose rock onto everyone.  We made it up that area and then had to tie together to our guide with a rope for the next part.  I tied together with Kyle and Josh, and we rock climbed up to the very top of the summit.  It was awesome!!  We all made it!! We took some time to sign the register and take pictures, We climbed to the top of the highest mountain in the 48 contiguous United States!!  Now the part that made me really nervous, going down!!  I'm used to rappelling down, once I have climbed up something, so this part was a little tricky, but once again we all made it safely down.  Once we got down the "chute" I had to pee so bad, I thought I would burst, I practically ran to the closet rock to pee behind, once I got my pack and harness off.  It made my stomach hurt for a while, but then I was fine.  We made it back down to our base camp in the late afternoon, so we had been hiking/climbing for about 12 hours.  That was a tiring day, but was also awesome!  I was having a little trouble, because for some reason, even though I had weaned Malachi from breastfeeding completely before I left, my milk decided to come back in once I got up to the base camp, and made me very uncomfortable.  That night, it got a little windy, and I kept thinking a bear or critter was getting into my pack near the tent, so between that and my discomfort I didn't sleep well.  But we got up the next morning, forced down our oatmeal, and packed up the camp.  We hiked/climbed down the rest of the mountain, when we got to the ledges area again, it made me really nervous, I almost slipped once, because my pack kept throwing my balance off, but I was able to catch myself.  I was praying a lot! Towards the end of our hike my legs were getting so tired, that whenever we stopped for a break, my legs would start shaking.  We made it all the way down, took a picture by the sign at the beginning of the trail, stating how difficult the trail is, and then weighed our packs to see how much we had been carrying.  Mine was 27 lbs at the bottom, which is of course after having drunk all the water, and eaten the food.  Dad, Misha, Kyle, and Josh and I went to a souvenir shop and my Dad bought us all T-shirts that say we climbed Mt. Whitney.  Then we drove back to Lone Pine and ate at a diner, some real food, it was delicious.  Josh and I drove back to Las Vegas, going through Death Valley, which was kind of fun, going from the highest point in the U.S. to the lowest point.  We checked into a hotel in Las Vegas, and got to take a wonderfully, blissful hot shower.  It felt so good to be clean.  We were both so sore and tired, we just ordered pizza, and watched a movie in our hotel room.  It was awesome to sleep in a real bed again.  The next morning, we ate a real breakfast, at the hotel, and then Josh left to drive home.  I took a shuttle to the airport a while later, and flew home.  Travis had texted me before I left for the airport that he was at the hospital with Malachi, he had split his chin open while taking a bath.  I was so worried about my little baby, I couldn't get home soon enough.  It was nice to come home, and be with my family again.  I think they all missed me, Malachi and Caleb in particular wanted me to hold them a lot.   Travis did a great job taking care of the kids while I was gone, and I had such a wonderful time with my Dad and siblings.
Austin started her online school right after I got back, and it has taken us a while to get used to it.  It has taken a lot more time then I thought it would, but she has been a really good about doing her school work even into the evening to get it all done.  She really enjoys her art, and french classes.  Malachi gets into all sorts of trouble.  He walks all over the place, and climbs up everything.  A lot of the time I have to put him in my hiking backpack, just so I can get some cleaning done.
Samuel has started violin club, and Betsy has started yearbook club.
I started watching a little girl in our ward, whose Mom is a single solider in the morning starting at 5 am, and then I take her to school and drop her off with Betsy and Samuel.  It has made me more productive in the mornings, but I am much more tired at night.  But she gets along well with our family, and in return she watches our kids once a month on a Saturday so that Travis and I can go to the temple.  We went yesterday to the temple and it was really nice.  We also had a day retreat on Friday at a resort here in town, and had a good time at that, and picked up the kids after school was out, and came back to the resort and swam in their pool for about 3 hours, it was a lot of fun.

Chicken's killed, Malachi's birthday, 14th wedding anniversary, and a retreat to Estes Park

Betsy on her first day of school

Sam on his first day of school

Malachi is playing with the xbox remote, and thinks it's pretty funny

chewing on a toy he got for his birthday

The boys all fascinated by one of Malachi's birthday toys

Malachi and Daddy with his birthday cake

Malachi likes cake

still stuffing it in

After searching the entire house and outside for Caleb, finally found him asleep in this red bin in the living room

Travis trying on a fake hair hat in a shop in Estes Park on our Anniversary date.

This is part of the high ropes course that Travis and I did at the Glen Eyrie Retreat on Friday

This is what the wall looked like that we climbed at the Glen Eyrie Retreat

My view of Glen Eyrie on my hike in the afternoon

my first "selfie", of my view of Garden of the Gods on my hike

A rainbow above our house

Beautiful sunset

Our glowing roses in the sunset

Daddy and Caleb

On our seven bridges hike 

Got everyone in the picture, was not easy

Caleb loving the hike

Betsy enjoying the hike too

Austin, Betsy, and Travis headed off for their Daddy/Daughter Dance at the stake center

The past two weeks have been full of fun and celebrations.  Betsy and Samuel have been going to school since Aug. 4th, they are enjoying the classes, and like riding their bikes to school.  We haven't used our bikes every day, but try to most days.  I pull Caleb and Malachi in the trailer behind my bike, and it is quite the workout pulling them up the hills.  It is downhill all the way to school, but uphill all the way back, and 1 mile each way.  So I end up with a 4 mile bike ride each day pulling a heavy load, it's a good thing they are both pretty light, or I probably would be walking my bike a lot more.  Tuesday the 5th, no one remembered to close the chicken coop that night, although at first Joseph told me he did.  We think racoons must have gotten in our fenced yard, and killed 4 of our chickens during the night.  After we had dropped Betsy and Samuel off at school, we were going to check on the chickens and found them dead in our backyard, it was an upsetting sight, and we went inside and cried for a little while.  After a while, Joseph and I went back in the backyard, and were able to put the dead chickens in garbage bags, and get rid of the bodies.  Joseph will no longer eat chicken, and everyone was upset for a while.  After we told Betsy and Samuel when we picked them up from school, they were crying and upset too, We figured out the Travis', Austin, Betsy, and Samuel's chickens were all killed.  I guess we certainly learned a good lesson about taking better care of our chickens.  We have four left, and hope to keep them alive and well.
Malachi turned one on August 6th.  He is such a cute little boy, he is taking some steps here and there, but mostly still crawling.  The kids all got him some toys from a clothing swap we went to, and piled them in the middle of the room, and when he woke up in the morning, had him come down and play with them.  He loved playing with them and had a fun morning.  That evening Travis had bible study, so we all went with him, and brought a big sheet cake, and had everyone sing happy birthday to him.  We love our sweet little baby, I can't believe he is 1 already.
Travis had planned a marriage retreat for the weekend at Estes Park, CO at YMCA of the Rockies.  We left Friday morning for the retreat, and drove the 3 1/2 hours it took to get up there.  Travis did a great job at this retreat, instead of spending the whole time in the classroom, he was able to make it so everything was hands on, and we got to spend a lot of time outdoors enjoying the venue.  We went on a hike up to "Bible point" and once we were at the top interviewed each other from a sheet of 99 questions.  We really enjoyed talking and finding out more about each other.  Also I enjoyed the hike, I carried a big backpack with several lunches and things to make it heavy, and got a nice workout.  We also got to play miniature golf together, and for a date night we got to go explore the downtown area, it was our 14th wedding anniversary, and we had a great time.  The kids all did well in childcare, Joseph and Austin hung out with an older group of kids and just went off on their own and enjoyed the different activities, and just checked in with us via cellphone.  Apparently though Caleb doesn't digest Cheetos well, because he ate them, and then he started pooping a lot and it was "hot poop" (his term), it burned his bum, and made him really sore.  In fact when we picked him up, he was so sore, that he wouldn't walk, and the only way I could carry him was by holding his head/neck with one arm and his knees in the other arm, and made sure I didn't touch him bum at all, it made it awkward trying to carry him, and I'm sure it looked really weird, we got him back to our room, and bathed him in backing soda and Travis and I bought some diaper cream and more diapers (the daycare used them, all 15 of them).  Caleb felt much better after that, and we convinced him to no longer eat Cheetos (the same thing happened about a week before after eating Cheetos).  Anyway overall it turned out to be a great weekend.
This week I've been really trying to get into better shape and get ready for my trip to California to climb Mt. Whitney with my Dad and siblings.  I've been exercising a lot more, doing a workout video, and riding bikes to the kids school, and I went on two hikes, one on Friday, one on Saturday.  On Friday Travis had a retreat at Glen Eyrie, (Just during school hours).  During the morning we did the ropes course, it was fun as usual.  During the afternoon, while Travis was  teaching the classroom portion, and the kids were in childcare, I did a hike up overlooking the Garden of the Gods.  I didn't have a pack this time, but the increase in elevation made it a good workout.  I was a little nervous being out there by myself, but I just kept praying that no mountain lions or rattlesnakes would get me, and I gradually felt more at peace, but I kept a brisk pace anyway.  It was hot outside, and the way back was not very clearly marked, so I did a lot of backtracking, but I eventually made it back to the classroom dripping in sweat.  It was a gorgeous view, and well worth the effort.  Saturday morning we all went and did the seven bridges hike.  I carried my pack and wore my new hiking shoes this time.  Travis carried the baby in the hiking backpack this time, so that I could get used to wearing my pack.  After the first quarter mile Caleb said he couldn't go anymore.  I was carrying him in my arms but that got tiring quickly, so I told Travis to put Caleb inside my hiking pack.  I already had about 10-15 pounds in there, so once Travis put Caleb in my pack it weighed about 40 pounds.  Let me tell you, carrying that much weight was not easy.  We finally made it to the top (elevation gain of 1100ft) past the seven bridges, we did have to stop several times for me to catch my breath, and I admit I was not moving very fast, but we made it.  We had some snacks at the top, and let the kids play a bit, then we went back down, Caleb started out hiking down, but I guess his hiking boots were hurting his feet (he ended up with a couple blisters) and I carried him in my pack the rest of the way down.
I've been teaching a lot of piano lessons starting this month, I have ten students right now.  Teaching piano was crazy the first week, but the basement was finished while we were in Estes Park, so things have gone better this last week, since I can send the kids to the basement while I teach piano.

Getting ready for school

Caleb playing at the playground at the school

Joseph is excited about painting the basement

Travis left early Monday morning to go out to the field, so he wasn't home until the weekend, we missed him, and were very glad to get him back.  We fed the sister missionaries that night.  It was nice to have other adults who like my food, (my kids are stinkers about eating dinners) they said they love my healthy cooking, and even took the leftovers home.  Both Monday and Tuesday we had the air conditioning people here installing the air conditioning unit, it took them forever, and the kept having to call in more guys to help them figure it out.  They ended up completely redoing our furnace, and ended up messing up our doorbell, and were unable to turn the furnace back on, so they had to keep on trying to fix things.  Finally on Thursday, an electrician was able to come out and fix everything, and now the a/c people are coming back tomorrow to start the system up again.
On Tuesday I took the Betsy and Samuel to do some school testing at their new school, I thought it might be 20-30 minutes at the most, but after waiting for an hour and a half, I asked how much longer it was going to be.  They told me it would still be a while, so I told them I was taking the rest of the kids to the library real quick and would be back, they said that was fine.  When we got back to the school, they still weren't done, but they told me that Samuel had gone MIA right after I left.  Apparently he didn't want to take any more tests, because he took off and left the school, the teacher was able to find and catch him, and get him to finish his tests, but I guess they were worried for a little while.  It figures the minute I leave is when Samuel takes off, oh well, at least they know what they're getting into with Samuel.  We were still there for another hour before they both finished.  
On Thursday we went to Betsy and Samuel's new school to buy their uniforms.  I couldn't believe how much money it cost.  Last year I spent $150 on clothes for all the kids combined, and this year I spent $400 on uniforms for just Betsy and Samuel.  That evening we went back to the school for orientation, and ended up waiting in the required registration line for almost 2 hours, just to have them verify I had turned in all paperwork, and gave me the parent/student handbook and carpool number.  I had to break up a big fight between Samuel and Caleb, and had to send them outside with Austin to play on the playground, while I waiting in line.  I barely even heard the orientation presentation, because Caleb and Malachi were so whinny. I even had to leave and take Joseph to scouts and then come back and get in line.
Friday, after having everyone do their chores, I ended up needing to spend the rest of the day, organizing all my papers, and bills.  I ended up losing our insurance check for the basement, and had to spend hours looking for it, and I still haven't found it.Yesterday we went to golden corral for Malachi's birthday breakfast (they only have breakfast on the weekends) even though his birthday isn't until Wednesday.  Malachi loved eating the food there, he especially loves the broth from soups.
After breakfast we went to a chapel on post to get some free backpacks and school supplies for the kids.  We waiting in line for about an hour, and were then able to get the supplies, the kids loved getting them, and Caleb was able to get one, and really wants to got to pre-school this year.  I told Caleb that he had to be potty trained if he wanted to go to school, and he has been doing much better, with potty training. Malachi has been walking a lot more, and is starting to get the hand of it. Austin started having a terrible headache in the afternoon and evening, and ended up throwing up in the evening too.  Caleb started having diarrhea, and Betsy complained about her stomach hurting, but never threw up.  I ended up staying home from church with the sick ones, until primary, then Travis and I switched, and he came home, so I could go and play piano for primary.