Month: October 2020

On Saturday before the Harbucks left we had a quick recital in the basketball court. Nat and Kina played the violin, Toone played the cello, Lydia played the harp, Lydia and Nat played Long Long Ago together, and then Mary played for us through an open window. I loved this recital so much. Each child was so fun to watch and listen to.

Then we rushed to say goodbye to the Harbucks and go off to church for Mary’s baptism. Her baptism was so sweet. Tom and Suzanne gave talks, Andrea and Ammon gave the sweetest prayers, and the Freestone girls were darling witnesses. Mary was the cutest thing ever and seemed so happy.

I was really proud of Mary for doing something she thinks is good and right. And this baptism was a sweet coming together for the family and for the neighbors that attended. I could really see the positive side of this religious ceremony and enjoyed the whole thing. And most importantly, Mary was so, so happy. Mary, I love you!

After the baptism, Ammon opened presents from Baps and Bapa in the parking lot:

After that, Abe and I drove home intending to pack and drive to our cabin by Bryce, but we ended up falling asleep for two hours while the kids played. We then packed and cleaned for three hours before finally heading out to our cabins in Tropic, Utah, at 9pm. We arrived around midnight and the stars were incredible. It was a beautiful end to a beautiful day!

When we realized the Harbucks would be in town, we put two and two together and realized it was the perfect opportunity for Ammon to have a safe birthday party during Covid! The girls wrapped his presents the night before so Ammon woke up to a surprise birthday. The following video is of him waking up to his presents.

Then Paula, our wonderful neighbor, gave all of the kids a dance class and taught them the Moana dance. They were so good that she couldn’t believe it–she was prepared for having to reign kids in or do some type of disciplining because there were a fair number of kids, but instead all of the kids were perfectly behaved and followed all of her instructions. Ammon was especially excited to help teach the Moana dance to everyone.

Then we had two separate fondue tables for lunch.

Then we had two cakes!

After lunch we chatted with the Harbucks. I was so thrilled to have time with Preethi, whose blog I read all the time. Her blogs about diverse home libraries and her global children’s book club over the summer influenced me so much and I just was so thrilled to have time to talk with her in person!!

The time flew and before we knew it it was time to go to the pumpkin patch.

At the pumpkin patch I spent a long time staring at the beautiful corn kernels on the ground. Their color is so spectacular, and they could actually flood the peripheral vision so all I could see was pure corn. I made Abe try out staring at the kernels, and during that moment we lost Ammon. Unbeknownst to us he ran into the corn maze. Thankfully a good family ran after him and retrieved him, and after about ten or fifteen minutes of frantic searching, a woman with a bullhorn in one hand and Ammon in the other found us.

After we’d lost and found Ammon, done the corn maze, and let the kids do the slides a million times, we disinfected everyone, picked up dinner and headed home for bed.

That evening we stayed up late talking with Dan and Preethi. They are so fun to talk to and were so nice to stay up so late with us. We just loved our time with them so much and hope they come back soon!!

I have been trying for about a year (maybe more) to finally get out and mountain bike with Kade. I finally made it happen this morning, thanks to Trace, on my team, who lent me his beautiful $3,000 full-suspension mountain bike. It was so fun to catch up with Kade. He is such a great friend and such a good person. He’s recovering from breaking his back, so it was so great to be able to be out on a bike with him. The ride was absolutely gorgeous!

Here are some cute pictures of Ammon and Clarissa

At night, Lily and I put the finishing touches on prepping for Ammon’s Birthday. Lydia and Mary both wrapped all the presents which was such a help!! We decided to celebrate tomorrow since we will be in Arizona on Ammon’s actual birthday.

Today, Lily and the kids spent time with Courtney and their kids. They went to the Dutch Hallow trail and to a family mill for the family who settled Midway.

Also Mary made a book about herself at school, I assume for her birthday, and it is so adorable! I love that child!

The kids have been playing together so wonderfully lately, and here Lily got some videos of them explaining their games:

On Tuesday after school Mary picked her new glasses. She went to the doctor’s office thinking she already knew which pair to get; she, Abe, and I all loved a pair of red glasses similar to the ones she currently has. But when she got there she saw a pair she hadn’t tried on last time, and they spoke to her. I think she picked the most perfect pair for her!

Also, Lily put up some new fall decorations today!

On Monday we knew we did not want to show up at any more family gatherings without negative test results in hand, so we tried to get our whole family tested up in Salt Lake before Grandma Miner’s funeral. It took longer than expected so we missed the funeral, but we did find out that everyone in our family is all negative.

Then we drove home for a quick lunch before Abe, Lydia, Ammon, and Clarissa went to the burial in Manti. Mary was still not feeling her best and did not want to spend four hours in the car, so she opted to stay home. While we were home I researched our upcoming fall break trip and Mary, as she always does, quietly entertained herself with coloring, piano practice, and playing with Ammon’s toys. On occasion she would come to the couch and cuddle with me. We also chatted with my mom, and I think both my mom and Mary liked having some more personal time chatting with each other without the distraction of other kids around.

Meanwhile in Manti the Miners had the most beautiful, perfect day for a funeral and burial. It is amazing to think everyone there was a product of Doris and all the good she did. Abe said it was a beautiful dedication.

After the funeral the Miners opened up their historic Manti home for people to explore, and the kids fed the horses in their yard. They fed them apples from an apple tree that Ammon wanted to climb, but Abe, perhaps recalling Ammon’s last attempt at tree climbing (which ended in an ER visit), wisely restrained him.

When the kids came home everyone ate dinner and played outside until bedtime.

On Sunday I cleaned in the morning while the kids played. Abe and the girls watched part of General Conference during the morning too, but the girls both ended up wandering off. At one point we peeked out and saw that Ammon and Mary had dumped the balls out of the outdoor basket and turned it into a picnic table. They’d dragged their little rockers to it and were eating bao buns in the sunshine. Abe and I melted.

Meanwhile Lydia was dressing Clarissa up in different dresses and parading her around the house for a fashion show. Clarissa would waltz down the stairs daintily holding up her skirts while Lydia smiled proudly behind her. On their way back up the stairs Lydia would bend over and crook her elbow so she could offer her arm to Clarissa, who graciously took it. So funny and cute.

In the evening we went Salt Lake. We stopped by Larry Perkins who used to live in our old G Street house but sold that to move into the most beautiful home in the Avenues just a block away. The kids played on his lawn while Abe went in to do some business with Larry. Then we drove to the viewing for Grandma Miner. She looked beautiful, and in Ammon’s words, “peaceful and happy.”

After we got home the kids played until Mary announced that she was feeling sick. I started googling Covid in children and then she threw up. At that point we all got extremely scared that we had Covid and had given it to the people at the viewing. I don’t think Abe or I slept well thinking about what our lax attitudes towards the disease could have potentially done to others, and we were so glad to get our negative Covid tests the next morning.

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!!!