Month: January 2021

Today, Ammon made a really cute robot costume.

Also, Lydia and Mary have been doing a great job running a mile which is the exercise requirement for the home-school curriculum Lily set for them.

Today, I helped Lydia with her Rube-Goldberg machine for school. I was so tired, and so grumpy. I made the kids clean the basement with me before I helped, and I found myself constantly getting after Lydia (and Mary) for making messes, or doing things wrong, or playing when they should be focusing, or quiet. I was definitely not in “fun dad” mode as I was feeling tired and stressed. But, they put up with me, and honestly, I was super thrilled about the product, and the whole thing turned out to be a huge bright spot in my day. Here is the video of our machine. I love those girls!

Here is a cute video of Clarissa telling a story, and Clarissa and Ammon sharing about cute things they made.

While I was biking in the morning Clarissa came down and actively snuggled and played with the two blankets I crocheted and sewed for her while on bedrest. I don’t think she knows they are blankets I made for her, but I was so thrilled, delighted, and touched to see her playing with them. She is the cutest.

After I was done I read her fifteen books before getting ready for the day. I just wanted an excuse to cuddle her. She’s so, so cute!!!!!

Abe and I went on a long walk in the evening and Lydia joined us too. She has been having a hard time sleeping so we figured the exercise would help her. She talked and talked and was darling to listen to. She got a little freaked out by the news today. The Trump supporters stormed the capitol carrying American, Confederate, Nazi, and a Book of Mormon flag called “the Title of Liberty”–and I probably ranted too much about them, so Lydia had a lot to process.

Also, one cute anecdote from the day occurred at bath time. Clarissa was in the bath when I told Ammon he needed to jump in too. Clarissa protested, saying she didn’t want to take a bath with him. When I said it wasn’t up for negotiation, the minute he stepped in she screamed, “NO, AMMON!! I DON’T WANT TO TAKE A BATH WITH YOU ‘CAUSE YOU SOOOOOOO SMELLY!!!!!!” –and broke down sobbing.

I coaxed her out of the bath and comforted her while laughing so hard inside.

On Sunday after Zoom church (which was amazing, as usual) we took the kids to the start of the Provo River Trail. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately there was a duck hunter there shooting ducks right next to us, and when we turned to go he turned to go too. When we went back because he appeared to be leaving, he turned around also. I was already on high, high alert and very stressed at the sight of a man in camo smoking, wielding an oversize gun, and eyeing my children and me (he looked like every picture of a stereotypical Trump supporter I’ve ever seen), but when he turned around as we did for the second time, I about lost it. We went straight back to the car.

Abe was not alarmed at all and thought he was just a friendly duck hunter and suggested calling out to him (with Clarissa on his shoulders) to ask him politely not to shoot us while we walked. I don’t know if Abe was crazy or I was crazy, but we had vastly different ideas about what was safe in that moment.

After coming home Abe and I talked it out and figured out we have no idea what the right thing to do was, but since we still wanted a walk we took the kids to one of our favorite river walks near the Qualtrics building. We walked for over an hour and the kids had a great time while I slowly felt my heart go from code red back to green.

On Saturday we went to Utah Lake State Park to see if we could find the start of the Provo River Trail, but instead we saw a lot of people playing and ice fishing on the frozen lake. We spent the next couple hours playing on the lake. Here are some videos!

The kids all loved drawing on the ice with sticks. Here is one of Abe’s drawings.

On New Year’s Abe spent the morning and early afternoon skiing with his friend, Randy Blosil, while the kids and I played a memory game at home…and did three straight hours of karaoke. And when we finally put the machine away, the kids were still begging to do more! I am thrilled the machine is such a hit. Mary always sings the same song (Enya’s Orinoco Flow), and the rest of the kids cycle between Disney songs, Broadway musicals–and 21 pilots.

(Abe and I joke that 21 Pilots has given the kids a teenage angsty side. Ammon got a head start on tackling an existential crisis because after watching Fantastic Fungi and realizing his ultimate destiny is to “turn to earth!!” he spent the next morning lying contemplatively in bed and listening to 21 pilots. But even the knowledge of certain death can’t keep a five-year-old down for long. He processed the grief and was up and playing Avengers in short order.)

Here is a video of Ammon, Mary and Lydia acting out a story using the cactus costumes they got for Christmas:

In the evening we all watched Avengers movies. The kids loved dressing up like characters, and holding Avengers action figures. Thanks to Clark and Swathi who gave Ammon the Avenger dress-ups!