El Nido, Bacuit Bay and family parties

Right now Lily and the girls are staying with relatives at a resort in el Nido. I think they spent time during the day in Bacuit bay (according to Google Photos). They had fun both day and night!

Day:

Night:

Today started early for me. I got some waffles going for the kids, and Jenn kindly finished making them while Chris and I picked up most all of Georgia’s furniture. I’m i love with his truck which has a huge bed. We were very proud that we fit all of her furniture in it:

Afterwards, Chris, Jen and their kids left to meet up with friends and family for the day. I worked on the house and packing and while doing that, I took this picture. I think it could hold its own with any piece of modern art, but what makes it special is that it is our kids crafting table (one of them):

This picture is just to remind me of all the time I spent in this garage (which I love) loading the containers. I love listening to the CDs of my youth on our garage CD player while I work.

Below are three videos of Loki playing with Basil. It is so good for Basil to have a playmate. Unfortunately, though, Loki is way more excited to play with Basil, than Basil is to play with Loki. Basil did enjoy some play with Loki, but you can tell by the third video, Basil feels totally done, but Loki felt like he was just getting started. It’s really cute because I actually put Basil in the car so he could relax and not constantly have Loki trying to play with him. After I put Basil in the car, Loki ran upstairs looking for him, looked left, looked right, even looked up on the couch. He was visibly sad that his playmate was gone. He is a very cute dog.

After working on the house, I took the possessions of my friend Nick Barnes to mutual friends house near my mom’s house. After Nick got kicked out of his apartment here in Utah, I helped him move out and I have stored his things for him, however, I am not taking the things with me, so Dan and Anna (mutual friends) were kind enough to let me drop his things off. Nick has had his disability payments removed, is hit with medical bills when he goes to the hospital for being suicidal, was hit by a truck (so lost his car and hurt his arm), has had trouble finding employment, was fired twice, was kicked out of a friends’ house, is struggling with massive psychological issues, spent time in a homeless shelter, and the list goes on and on and on. It breaks my heart to see all that he is going through. Although I am grateful there are a number of people in his life who care about him, and who have been investing in him and trying to help him move forward.

After dropping Nick’s things off, I went to my mom’s Christmas gathering. It was a week postponed becuase she has been so sick (she had Covid and another bug on top of it). It was so nice to see everyone including Kurt and Naomi, and Victor and Melody and their families. I hadn’t seen them in a very long time! I had fun giving Christmas gifts to people, and I was delighted to see that Ozzy loved the olives that I got him so much. He was really happy about them! He also played the magnetic drawing board I got him for a long time at the party and was really into it. It was so fun to see him enjoy his gifts! We also got Kizik shoes for my mom and Jay and I got Baerskin hoodies for David and Jere, and a Cotopaxi gift card for Olivia. It was super fun to see people enjoy their gifts. I should also note that David and Olivia got us the game Animal Crossing for the Switch and I’m dying to play it with Clarissa and Ammon.

After eating at my mom’s we went to see my grandma Forsyth and got caught up on life. It was so nice to see her.

Then we went to the ski shop to get everything we needed for skiing tomorrow. Clarissa was barefoot in the shop because she left her shoes at my mom’s (lol). I had to carry her to see my grandma and have her sit on my lap or on a chair so her feet didn’t touch the ground.

At night I was truly exhausted, but it was a very very good day. I also had a really good time hanging out with Chris before going to bed.

Also, this picture and video were of Lily, Lydia and Mary at the start of their next day (still the same day in my time zone):