Month: May 2023

I’m out of town and missing home. Today Lydia recorded “Watching the Wheat”. I assume she is preparing for her honors recital this Saturday.

Today was a more low key day which was nice given the pace of yesterday. Lily and I played Wingspan in the morning and then the family went for a 1-mile run for Runday Sunday. After the family run, I did my own run while Lily monitored Ammon, Clarissa and Mary playing on the playground. Lydia wasn’t in the mood to play on the playground so she sat on the car and took pictures of Basil.

Back at home, Lily and I had a long and deep conversation about Lily’s life story which I loved and I gained beautiful new insights about her. Then Lily and I played Wingspan, and did a quick blitz clean of the house with the kids. Then I took Ammon and Clarissa to the movie theater to watch the Mario movie while Lily stayed home with the older girls to watch “I Love Lucy”. It was a very nice day today!

Also, during the day, Lydia built a giant Jenga tower, and Ammon was beyond thrilled with it and took this video:

Today was a very full and very fun day. Lily and I played Wingspan in the morning and then Georgia and Suzanne came over for lunch while Lily was at lunch with Michaelann. We all had a great time with Georgia and Suzanne. First Lydia and Mary played music for them and then we had a great time chatting over lunch. Then Ammon showed Georgia his Tocaworld game for a long time while Mary and I taught Suzanne how to play Wingspan. That was also the time when Lily got back and took Lydia to her harp festival.

Lydia performed with the highest marks, “Superior” and now she will be performing in the honors recital next week. Amazing work Lydia! With all her hard work (and Lily’s incredible support) she has truly turned into a something special with her harp music. Well done!

When Lydia and Lily got back from the festival, I corralled everyone for our Cycling Saturday bike ride. Last week we had the idea to have family wellness weekends and do cycling Saturday and Sunday Sunday. I was in a bad mood and didn’t respond well when not everyone wanted to go, but everyone ended up going and I apologized later for my mini-tantrum. I’ve honestly let work stress get to me and I wasn’t quite myself today. In the end people enjoyed the bike ride and it was great to see Clarissa making such great progress!

After the bike ride, Lily and I went to see the Opera/Libretta “Revolution of Steve Jobs” with our friends Daniel and Amanda Olsen. Lily and I had to give up our tickets that we had for Monday since I was going to be out of town, and we were so thrilled to be invited by Daniel and Amanda tonight and still have a chance to go, and even better to get to go with them! Lily and I even each wore our black turtlenecks! We had so much fun chatting in the car with Daniel and Amanda, and the Opera was truly profound. It spoke to me especially as I was in such a cloud of work stress. The Libretta showed how Steve Jobs started out way too focussed on his work ambitions evolved to put work more in perspective, and place more value on people and living life in the present with appreciation, love and joy. But so much of his evolution was to the credit of his wife Laurene, who rounded him out and made him his best self. I related so much to the role Lily plays in my life and how she helps me live more fully, see beyond my work, and focus on people and the life that is all around me. It was a beautiful experience and we even got to attend a QA from the author and composer who were present for tonight (opening night). What a wonderful treat it was!

This evening we hosted Valerie Kind for dinner. She is our contact for our donor relationship with the National Parks and she is one of our favorite people ever. Like us, she is obsessed with the parks. She even wore her Arches socks! She is so genuinely interested in people and give all of us so much of her love, time and attention. We all talked about our favorite National Parks and the kids played their instruments for her. We also learned about her recent adventures, and the things the National Parks are doing in and around Selma Alabama. She also showed us a video that her ring camera took of three bears in her backyard while she was away!

She even brought gifts for the kids, new National Parks passport books, stickers and a National Parks Jenga set. The kids (especially Ammon and Clarissa) couldn’t get enough of her because of the way she really leaned in and cared about what they were sharing. Valerie lit up our whole home tonight and we are grateful for her spirit and visit!

Today I got off of work early in order to go biking with my friend Austin Heath. I loved every second of it. When I finished, I rode my bike directly to Windsor park where Lily and the kids and Amy and her kids were just finishing up with tennis practice. Lily had prepared a picnic, and I grilled veggie burgers on coals and we all had a great time conversing and eating in the perfect weather. It was a truly wonderful experience.

The event did end with some drama. Mary killed a spider and Ammon lost his mind saying that spiders have a right to live. He was screaming and yelling for 30 minutes and completely hysterical. I was biking en route to Qualtrics when it all went down and Lily explained that it seemed Ammon was having an existential crisis. I suspect some heat exhaustion may have also been at play given Ammon tends to break down mentally, emotionally and physically when he overheats. When Lily met me at Qualtrics to drop off Clarissa for more bike practice, Ammon was on the tail end of his crisis, and he soon calmed down (aided by Qualtrics lemonade and Oreos).

Then I worked more with Clarissa on her bike. The plan was to work on turning, but she started turning wonderfully immediately, so we really just spent time with me jogging next to her while she got more and more comfortable on her bike, and then practicing braking when it was time for her to stop. I busted my buttons with joy when she did one of her last stops perfectly (see last video below). I’m now convinced Clarissa is well on her way. We also caught some videos and Facetimed with Lily and family and they were all thrilled and praised Clarissa as well. She was rewarded with lemonade and Oreos in the car. It was very cute listening to her little “gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp” in the backseat 🙂 Very well done Clarissa!