Month: September 2023

Today was a nice day. Lily and I played pickle ball in the morning and did some walking and jogging together. Then I did a long run to prepare for my half marathon. Unfortunately, my IT band flared up, and that cut my run short (even though I was wearing a new IT band leg strap I just purchased). After the run, I bought some stakes and twine at Lowe’s and straightened some trees in our yard. While I was doing all these things, Lily worked with the kids and on the house. Then we all went to my dad and Suzanne’s house for dinner and birthday celebrations.

Dinner was amazing. There was a roast, watermelon, pineapple, zucchini, cheesy potatoes, and a very ornate salad. David, Olivia and Ozzy were also at dinner and it was fun to hear about their adventures at the kite festival in the Pacific Northwest.

Then Loralee arrived with Henry and they brought a really fun game called ransom notes. Basically, you need to write notes using only your random assortment of words, and then a judge chooses the best one. Lydia wrote some really great ones. One was a tag line for a new Guy Fiere cooking show and she wrote, “Murder animal. Obtain juicy limb.” Also, here is one she wrote for the prompt, “the weirdest dream you’ve ever had.”

After games, we sang and gave gifts to Mary and Olivia, and then we all ate desert. Everyone had a really good time! Also, Ammon and Clarissa got a little wild, and they got a lecture in the car afterwards.

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After we got home, I tuned Clarissa’s harp and put on 3 new strings. She is just starting up again and it is exciting!

Today, Lydia and I left by 7:40 to take her to her harp competition. When we arrived, I tuned the harp, and then she played in her practice room until it was time for her to perform. At 9:35, she performed beautifully!

Then Lydia and I had 3 hours to kill until the awards ceremony. We had so much fun together! First we went to the farmer’s market to look around at everything. Then we went to the Greek festival and enjoyed some really great food. We learned that Lydia likes dolmathes! Our Gyros were so good too! Then we went back to the Farmer’s market and got a bunch of things. Lydia got slime, earrings, gelato and a gift for a friend. I got a candle and a necklace for Lily, and we also bought produce, a gifts for family members and wands for Mary’s upcoming Harry Potter party. The weather was perfect, and Lydia and I had such a fun time walking around together, talking and shopping. She is such a joy to pal around with.

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We made it back to the awards ceremony just in time, and we learned that Lydia tied for 3rd. Great job Lydia!!

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Then Lydia I headed home from Salt Lake, but first we took a slight detour so I could show Lydia a house that she lived in when she was very little:

While Lydia and I were at the competition, market and festival, Lydia was having a great day with the kids and her mom as well. She did a fun outing with Georgia, took Ammon to a Harry Potter Birthday party, and took the kids to the library. Lily had a particularly good time with her mom, and so everyone had a really good first part of the day.

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We took it relatively easy in the afternoon, and then had a family movie night. We watched the new live action Little Mermaid as well as Superpets. The Little Mermaid was well done and a great show, but I think Superpets was everyone’s favorite. It was absolutely hilarious and had a very beautiful message. More than anything, it was just so fun to snuggle and share something as a family for so long.

Also, here is a really cute picture that Clarissa drew:

Today was my first full day home after being in New York and I loved it. I was up until midnight getting my work done, but that was largely due to the fact that I was so involved with the family after 3:20.

I picked up Mary and Lydia from school and got home just a little after 4:00. At that point I ate dinner and played store for a little bit with Ammon, Mary and Clarissa. I ended up buying lots of great things from their stores!

Then I took Mary to swim practice, and while she was at swim practice, Clarissa, Ammon, Basil and I went 4 minutes away to the house of Todd Jaramillo. He is a friend and podiatrist, and he agreed to see me at his house on almost no notice because my right foot was in so much pain that I could not walk on the ball off my foot without intense pain. The problem was a combination of the prickles that got stuck in my foot from the Lake Powell fiasco (when I ran bare foot to another houseboat to hitch a ride to our houseboat where Lily and the kids were) and all the running I’ve been doing to prepare for the upcoming half marathon. Todd removed a pus pocket that formed deep inside my foot, and after he removed/drained it, my foot felt amazing. Thank you Todd! After picking up Mary from swimming we returned home, and then Mary put Ammon and Clarissa down while I got my work done.

All evening, Lily and Lydia were gone to Salt Lake for a meeting about Lydia’s harp competition the very next day:

Today Clarissa had a hike with her Arches people:

Today I left to New York. I caught my flight by 12 seconds, and I need to stop cutting it so closely! Back at the house, Lydia was preparing for her harp competition. She is sounding great!

Today I woke up and did the 500 workout (7 reps), and Lily and Mary went to the store for groceries. Back at home, Mary made the most delicious pancakes, which I gobbled up ecstatically after my workout. They were perfectly tasting protein pancakes and I loved putting bananas and fresh peaches from our trees on them. Our little trees made a lot of peaches this year!

After breakfast, we all went to the park and I ran a mile with Lydia and Mary. We timed their mile at 13 minutes and 6 seconds! I then ran a mile on my own at 6:36. We ran Basil a lot in the process, and also Ammon and Clarissa were riding their bikes around the track the whole time. It was a little hot, but a wonderful, glorious family outdoor experience. Then Lydia and Mary walked the littles and Basil home while Lily and I lingered and played some Pickleball. It was so fun!

Then we all went to church. The lesson was about loving those around us, and my biggest takeaway came from a comment Lily made. Her comment caused me to reflect that if we truly knew what every person was going through, and saw their lives from beginning to end and all the toil, pain and hardships that occur, we would want nothing other than to cheer them on and be happy for them during the good times, and we’d be much less inclined to be jealous, tear down, and fault find. I love that insight.

After church we all visited Georgia which was so fun:

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She didn’t join us for Olive Garden because she was very tired, but we enjoyed playing the card games she gave us while waiting for our table and for our food.

Back at home we played more of the card games she gave us (War, GoFish, Old Maid etc) and then we watched Elemental all cuddling as a family. Today was a truly happy day.

Today I did a long run in the morning and the kids had some fun watching Saturday morning cartoons:

Then we all went to lunch at Seven Brothers. We got these cute pictures of Lydia and Mary at the Riverwoods:

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Back at home, Lily and I did a lot of work on the house, especially in the garage. We put away messes that ended up in the garage from all of our summer trips. It took several hours to get the garage back in order! I loved listening to the CDs from my youth on our garage CD player while we cleaned. Mary also helped. It was fun encountering different things while I cleaned like this beautifully loose composition from Mary:

In the eventing, Suzanne came over and it was tremendously fun to catch up with her and tell her all about our Lake Powell adventures.

Lily and I visited Zion’s Bank and Mountain America Credit Union to check out their HELOC products. Afterwords we ate Pho. It was so fun to be on a date together! I’ve been working like crazy, and Lily has been cranking hard on cleaning the house and it was really nice to get out together.