Darais Days

On Saturday morning Abe came up to find Mary practicing in her unicorn onesie pajamas. She adores these and wears them all.the.time. And she is the cutest thing ever in them, so of course Abe took a picture.

Then we drove to get my mom’s car serviced. Since we were not far from our favorite trail, Lydia and I rode our bikes for over an hour while Abe walked the trail with the other kids:

Lydia and I had the most wonderful, fun time. We tried speaking German the whole time, which was really hard. At one point I told her (playfully) in German that she always says, “later” to everything I ask her to do, and then she told me in German that I always speak the “spaeter Sprache” too. She just made that up–“spaeter Sprache” means the “later language”–and it is such a cute, accurate term for a language Lydia and I both speak all the time! I laughed so hard when she said that.

She also said a lot of other funny things that I can’t remember now, but I do recall that it was such a fun time and I wish we could bike together like that every day. It was just so, so sweet to be together on a beautiful trail and just chat.

After that Lydia had her online German class and I think we just hung out at home. I assume Abe and I cleaned at some point, but my memory fails me. The best part of the day was the trail for sure.

Here is a video of Lydial learning to sing a very fast song about the elements.

The best part of Friday was catching Ammon dancing soooooooo beautifully in his room. Now that he knows some elements of dance, his dancing has become so varied and expressive. I caught it on video and Abe will upload that when he gets a chance. Ammon dances so beautifully and expressively and by the end I was in tears! He is such a beautiful, sweet, good-all-the-way-through boy, and I love him so much.

On Thursday I thought the girls both picked such cute outfits and looked adorable so I took a picture before running out the door on our way to school.

Mary must have changed after school because when she was trying on glasses at her eye doctor, Abe took the picture below. Mary has worn the same glasses for five years!!!

On Wednesday Abe and I celebrated his end of quarter by going on a really memorable date. First we went mountain biking in Wasatch State Park and then biked around Midway a little. Biking on paved trails was positively magical, but the mountain biking had its perks. For example, it made me thankful that Abe and I had not done this while we were dating because I would have incorrectly concluded that we were totally incompatible. While Abe is going “Whee!” I am of the very strong opinion that death is imminent; mountain biking is just not my idea of fun.

On the other hand, once we started biking on a paved bike trail in Midway, I was in love with everyone and everything. On the right were beautiful houses on the left were huge expanses of fields and mountains–and an enormous moon was rising over everything!

Afterward we went to the Midway Mercantile for dinner and participated in one of my most favorite activities, eating. We had fondue (it was so good that when we ran out of things to dip I was shamelessly eating it straight!), shepherd’s pie, trout, strawberry rhubarb crisp, and sorbet. I also tried some of their mixed drinks and red wine and ended up having some slight difficulty walking straight after, much to Abe’s amusement.

Due to the drink consumption I do not remember the specifics of what we discussed, but it was probably the usual: religion, spirituality, Utah’s perks and quirks, our hopes, our kids, politics, and the state of our health (or lack thereof, depending on which one of us is talking). What I most definitely do remember is that the whole evening felt so amazing. I felt so lucky to be married to Abe and to have time to do fun things together–even when we have different definitions of fun.

On Monday morning my Thrive friends came over for brunch. I was so glad to see them because I have been missing all of their get togethers and also didn’t go on the boat trip they planned this month. I get really sea sick and was scared I would beach everyone if I went, so this was a great chance to spend quality time with these beloved friends. We polo each other all the time and are used to seeing each other on a screen so it’s almost surreal to see each other in person.

Trader Joe’s helped me so much with this brunch. I didn’t cook a thing and all of this was done in one hour:

Then Jess stayed with us for the night before her flight back home to Colorado. We played a lot of Otrio with her and also had a fun night eating gummy snacks together and laughing about silly stuff.

Here are some videos of the kids dancing:

Mary turned 8 today!! She is such a sweet, kind, caring, loving child. Abe captured this sweet moment of Nana wishing her a happy birthday. They have such a sweet relationship, and we credit Nana for so much of Mary’s sweetness. They spent a lot of time together before my mom’s move, and we are all certain Nana’s sweet, calm disposition rubbed off on Mary, who is similarly dispositioned.

This was a pretty low key birthday. We celebrated Mary by telling her her birth story, sharing our favorite memories with her, and just telling her all day how much she means to all of us. She started the day by opening her presents and spent the rest of the day playing with them. She got Legos, a new pair of unicorn pajamas, a bathrobe, a paint kit, face paints, a new piggy bank, and a beautiful picture drawn by Ammon especially for Mary.

She walked around all day with a happy smile and nothing makes us happier than seeing our kids feel affirmed. It was a beautiful day for everyone.

In the morning I took Ammon to his soccer game while Abe dropped off the van for maintenance and took the kids to the park. It was a beautiful day with so many beautiful flowers in bloom.

After the kids found a tablecloth and made themselves a picnic lunch.

Then Abe and the girls practiced the new art technique Andrea taught them.

In the evening Liberty came to babysit and Abe and I went on a date with the Tiemans. We met them in Big Springs Canyon and had a picnic together. After months of distancing, it felt amazing to be with real live friends again–for two nights in a row. Wow! Being outside helped us feel safe and we sat at opposite ends of the table, and it felt like the best of all worlds. They are such good, kind, easy people to be with and by the end we were discussing future camping trips together. I hope it happens!

On Friday evening we met the Bakers at Midway Mercantile for a date. We ate at one of their outdoor tables and discussed so many things. The food was amazing and the Bakers were so fun. Afterward we went to their house for homemade ice cream. I fell in love with their dog who was some breed I’d never heard of and can’t remember–but so hilariously friendly! It felt strange doing social things again but also so incredibly nice to be with people we love.

I had one of the heaviest days at work today that I have had in a long time. I went straight from 7:30 to 5:00 with no breaks. It involved 12 or 13 meetings and a call review, and by 5:00 I was toast. Lily was so sweet to support me blowing off some steam with a bike ride, and then I came back to the most incredible beef and mashed potato dinner. It felt like a five star dinner. After putting the kids down, I did yoga (to blow off more steam) while Lily had book club.

Here are some adorable pictures of Clarissa: