Month: November 2023

Today, Clark, Soren, Meera, Lily, I and the kids all went to church at the 1st Presbyterian church. There was a wonderful sermon on prayer (while the kids had a kids class) and afterwards we all had food and helped “green the church”. That meant putting up all the Christmas trees, wreaths and decorations.

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Afterwards we ate at O’Falafel, which everyone seemed to love (especially the grown-ups) and then we went home for a relaxing afternoon which included Wingspan for the grown-ups and play for the kids. It was a great day!

Today, Clark and I started went on a long run to prepare for our Thanksgiving marathon. It was so fun!

Then, Georgia, Clark, Soren, Meera, Lily, I and the kids all went to the Orem temple open house. Lily especially loved the Utah ecology represented in the paintings, and I really enjoyed walking down memory lane because of all of the beautiful experiences I had had in the temple when I used to attend.

After visiting the temple, we got burgers from In-N-Out and then spent time around the house. It has been getting pretty cold outside, but that didn’t stop the kids from playing in the backyard together, nor did it stop Basil from joining them! They all had fun warming up their toes by the fire when they were done!

Of course, Lily, Clark and I played Wingspan to finish the day. It was so fun!

Clark, Meera and Soren arrived yesterday and it has been so fun to have them in town! Today after work, Clark and I transported Lydia’s harp to Georgia’s care center, and then Lydia, Mary, Soren and Meera all gave a concert to many residents at Georgia’s care center. Georgia was not feeling well, but she listened from outside the room. She was so touched by the performance that she was moved to tears. It was such a wonderful recital. Everyone played very well. Here is the video!

After the performance, we all got sushi at Yamato, and it was one of the best sushi outings ever. Not only was the food great (we ate so much!), but they had a side room that fit our group with many children perfectly. We didn’t have to worry about kids making noise, and we just enjoyed ourselves so much as we at tons of food and conversed.

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At night, Lily, Clark and I played Wingspan. It was so fun!!

We had such a great day with Georgia, Clark, Meera and Soren today!

Lydia and Mary had their first swim competition today! I was sad to miss it because I attended a Global Entry appointment that I had scheduled months prior, but I’m so glad that Lily took videos! I’m so proud of them!

Today we had a great time at the First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake and then we went to my dad and Suzanne’s house for lunch. My dad mad an incredible spread with a salad bar, chili, borsct and split pea soup. It was all delectible and so nutritious.

We hung out for a long luxurious time there, and I also got a nap on the couch, which was nice since I still wasn’t feeling well. Lily and I had a lot of fun talking to my dad and Suzanne, and I also had fun listening to some Jim Croche music my dad shared with me. Lily and I also hung out outside with my dad while we chatted, and rested and while Ammon and Clarissa picked grapes and played. It was sunny and almost 60 degrees, so beautiful! Then David and Ozzy came over, and we all had such a blast with how cute he was being. It was also so great to catch up with David. Here are some scenes from the evening:

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Near the end of our visit, Lydia and Mary had so much fun playing cards with Suzanne (and all three of them kept begging over and over to just play one more round, which they successfully secured 4 or 5 times I think).

What a great day!

Georgia got Ammon a Lego Theater set for his birthday. Today he built it all by himself. He did an amazing job, and he had so much fun showing us all the interesting things about his creation, like how you can swap out the backgrounds on the theater stage.

I felt super unwell all day and spent most of the day in bed.

I had Veteran’s Day off of work today, so Lily and I took advantage of having a day together while the kids were in school and we had a Park City date. We dropped the kids off at school together and then went right up the canyon. Park City is one of our all-time favorite places to explore together, and today did not disappoint. We ate breakfast at Harvest (she got an omelet, and I got my usual avocado toast and fancy muesli) and then walked up and down main street, mostly focusing on art galleries.

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Lily and I loved this porcupine picture. Which one do you think is Lily and which one do you think is me?

After exploring art together and having the best time, we picked up the kids, and then Lily and I had a dinner date with our dear friends Morgan and Jessie. Lydia babysat for them while we ate so she could get community service hours. It was so fun!

Spending so much deep time with my favorite person, and topping it off with dinner with two of our favorite friends made today truly special. It was a piece of heaven.

After going to the 1st Presbyterian Scottish celebration, Lily was so inspired, that she started taking bag-pipe lessons nearby with our friend Betsy. Lily practices on a chanter, which is preparatory to playing the bagpipes. She is really putting her heart into it, and she practices a lot. She glowed when she told me that she completely crushed playing “London Bridges” in her lesson tonight, and she got praise from both the teacher and Betsy. I’m not sure what this picture is, but Lily took it during her bag pipe/chanter lesson and it reminded me to blog about her lesson tonight and all the practice she has been doing! She even plays while I’m taking too much time on my turns in Wingspan lol.

I walked at work today to decompress and thought the scenery was very theraputic:

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Also, Ammon made a very cute story about a Vampire at school:

In the evening Ammon and Clarissa performed a dance to Sia’s “Chandelier” and we really enjoyed it. Basil unexpectedly got involved and it made everyone laugh.

Here is a video from Ammon’s class:

Also, Ammon has been really into drawing waves lately and he was really excited to show them to me:

Also, earlier in the year, Clarissa made a poster about herself for school and I thought it was really cute: