Month: July 2021

On Tuesday Abe and I got up early (very early–around 5am!) for an early morning swim, which was magical. Afterward, we packed, cleaned up the house, fed people breakfast and did a bunch of laundry. I like imagining the relief Airbnb hosts might feel when they see that their house is still intact and clean after our family of six departs. So I laundered a bunch of their towels, wiped down surfaces, swept, etc.

We pulled out at 10 am, and originally we were going to head to the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, but we thought we would miss the Kennedy Space Center entirely if we did, so we started driving to Orlando. (In retrospect we should have done the Gardens because the Kennedy Space Center is an all-day event, but we did not realize that.)

On the way we stopped by at a state park by the beach to picnic on our leftover salads and cookies from dinner.

After our picnic we arrived (after some wrong turns) at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, but it was already almost 4pm and the center closes at 5. We quickly realized that was not nearly enough time to cover everything and decided to return on Saturday.

Then we drove to our Disney hotel, called the Art of Imagination Resort. When we pulled in the kids’ excitement level was through the roof. Ammon and Clarissa were not physically capable of walking anymore–they ran and jumped and skipped everywhere, and the older girls were equally excited (though seemed somewhat capable of regularly-paced locomotion).

After dinner we got settled into our room, and then Abe took the kids to the hotel arcade for two hours because it was pouring rain outside. I spent that time showering and then trying to book dining for our park days. I did not realize I should have done that months ago because finding an open restaurant for dinner in Epcot and the Magic Kingdom was impossible, and all the other meals were nearly impossible. If we ever come back I hope I remember to book meals at the time I book the tickets!

Everyone came back from the arcade smiling and/or jumping for joy. Lydia was thrilled with the pictures from the picture booth she took and the other kids were so, so happy. Abe was happy because he loves arcades and somehow didn’t seem stressed at all from having managed four kids at an arcade for two hours. I was happy because I didn’t have to do that!

Abe had to work Tuesday, so I had planned to spend the morning at the botanical gardens with the kids. When I googled directions, my phone accidentally pulled up the Miami Botanical Gardens, which were closed on Tuesday, and I didn’t realize they were the wrong gardens (we wanted to go the Fairchild Gardens–which were actually open), so I came up with plan B.

We went to Vizcaya, the mansion John Deering built for himself. I am so glad we did! The kids loved seeing and learning about it (we did the audio tour on my phone), and as a bonus we got to see so many girls doing their quincenera photos on the grounds. Clarissa and Ammon thought they were princesses, and I made zero effort to disabuse them of this assumption. It was too cute to see Clarissa stare at them open-mouthed, and Ammon would call to each one, “You are so, so, So beautiful! You are a beautiful princess!” I also enjoyed watching the girls react to his compliments.

On the way home the older girls and I discussed the morality (or lack thereof) involved in building a mansion like that, and we also discussed the Gilded Age, the pros and cons of American capitalism, and the exploitation of workers under the ultra-rich Gilded Age business owners. I asked the girls to explain whether they thought the system was fair and moral, and both Lydia and Mary made excellent points.

Lydia said that people have played by the rules of their time throughout history, and the rules have sometimes been good and sometimes been bad. Mary pointed out that there is no need for one person to own a home like the one we’d just seen. I said that from clues throughout the house I assumed John Deering might have had narcissistic tendencies. That his bedroom was styled after Napoleon’s uniform was a leading clue–but the house itself was another.

After all of this serious discussion, we decided to spend the rest of the day playing in the Airbnb pool. Mary and Lydia took breaks for math and the little kids took a television break in the middle. I get worried that they are swallowing too much water–especially Clarissa, who often swallows instead of blowing bubbles while swimming. But her swimming is so amazing in spite of that! She can swim the width of the pool without help, and if she got her way she would never have taken a break from the pool at all. She has always been obsessed with water, and seeing her swim brings me so much joy. This summer I resolved that the kids would all learn to swim to the point where I felt very comfortable alone with them in pools, and my dream came true. It felt so good to spend a day enjoying the fruit of everyone’s swim-lesson labor and just have fun together in the water.

I also enjoyed a wonderful float/nap on the inflatable raft while the little kids took their break. It was a magical afternoon.

After we were done swimming, everyone got in their pajamas and we ordered salads from some local salad place and cookies from Milk Bar for dessert. We ate together on the couch while watching National Geographic specials on shark attacks, most of which seemed to happen in Florida. Abe raised some mild objections when some images were gory, but I countered that this was local culture content and had educational value. (Mostly I am interested in deterring Ammon from marching into the ocean behind my back at a beach.)

To this end, the videos were exceptionally useful. Afterward someone jokingly suggested we go to a beach and Ammon actually started crying at the thought. I’m sure purposefully planting fears in one’s children is the definition of bad parenting, but at the same time I have a vested interest in keeping Ammon–who seems programmed for self-destruction–alive. And I found National Geographic shark videos an excellent aid in that endeavor.

On Sunday I got up before 5am so that we could be on the road early for a full day in Key West. I am taking my phentermine again and one side effect is that I don’t sleep much the first week before my body adjusts, so those early morning wake times are much easier. We piled the kids in the car before the sun came up and then I drove to Key West, during which drive we listened to an Ernest Hemingway short story and also started The Old Man and the Sea. Then we arrived and had breakfast around 9:30am at a cute Key West restaurant called the Banana Cafe.

After breakfast we headed to Hemingway’s house to take the tour, but it is cash only and our debit card expired two weeks ago without us realizing. So there was no way for us to take a tour. That was disappointing, but the kids loved petting all of the cats in his garden. (They are descendants of Hemingway’s pet cat, Snowball.) I also peeked at his pool when various children had potty needs.

After this outing, I was sweating from the heat and Clarissa was melting down. Just as we were about to get into our car and drive to a different part of the keys to find a beach, a woman started talking to us and convinced us to take a snorkeling tour. Abe jumped out of the car and arranged for an afternoon on a boat, which turned out to be wonderfully fun.

We saw so many dolphins! They swam right up to the boat and we could see mother-baby (or auntie baby–after the first year the baby dolphins graduate from their mom to an auntie) pairs swimming together. It was mating season so the dolphins were in very affectionate moods. I asked if we could swim with them and the captain said that would be a terrible idea because dolphins don’t distinguish between species and you don’t want it mistaking you for a fellow dolphin during mating season.

Snorkeling was a little tricky because none of the kids had done it before. Abe took charge of Clarissa and I took charge of Ammon, and I kept positioning the mouthpiece incorrectly in his mouth in the water. Finally he said he was tired of the water and wanted to be done, right around the time both Mary and Clarissa also wanted to be done. So the four of us snorkeled for maybe…five minutes? Lydia lasted much longer, and Abe was the second to last person on the boat. So we learned that now that the kids can swim, they need to practice with snorkeling masks so that the next time we do this everyone can snorkel!

After the boat tour it was time for dinner. We drove to Mallory Square. It was very hot and humid, so we ate at the first restaurant we saw. I forget its name, but Abe said the fish sandwich was the best he had ever had.

Then we headed over to Kermit’s key lime pie shop for the best key lime pie we have ever tasted. I thought that all key lime pie was basically the same, but I got a coconut key lime pie with such a light and airy curd, and the crust was not too buttery or too hard–it was a Goldilocks kind of “just right.” Soooooo yummy. Ammon and Clarissa got chocolate coated key lime pie on a stick, Mary got key lime jelly beans, Lydia got key lime fudge, and Abe got plain key lime pie. Everyone was thrilled.

After dessert we headed over to Fort Zachery Taylor State Park to swim, play in the sand, and watch the sunset.

Then everyone watched a magical sunset over the Atlantic while listening to Taps from the nearby army base.

After we finished Old Man and the Sea on our drive back to Miami. It felt like an epic finish to an incredible day.

I am back blogging and we are about to go to Disney, so I am just going to throw these pictures up and blog later. This was a monster day.

Today we all jumped on a plane and arrived in Florida. I really loved the pig painting in Mary’s room. She LOOVES pigs, so it was perfect!

I’m not sure what happened today as I write this three weeks later, but here is a cute picture of Mary and Basil:

Today, Lily and the girls treated Georgia to lunch at Block restaurant. Lily told me the whole thing was so enjoyable, that it was a life highlight for her. It seems like everyone had a truly delightful time. Happy belated birthday Georgia! We love you!!

After the lunch, Lily took the girls on a mommy-daughter date to Sephora.

At home, Clarissa was dressed up very cutely.

And she and Ammon danced adorably to John Denver’s, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”:

This morning, we woke up the sleepy kids early so that we could hike early and be on the road by about 9:00. This was both so my dad and I could get back to our work days and also so that we could leave Goblin Valley before it got insanely hot.

Before leaving the yurt site, we got to see a neat sunrise.

The morning was perfect weather and the valley of the goblins was not crowded at all. We had such a good time!

We climbed the green mountain.

And climbed and walked on the dragon’s back.

Goblin Valley has become such a prominent getaway spot for our family and it was so so fun to share it with my dad and Suzanne. We are so grateful they came to make the trip extra special!

Here is a family pic from the car ride home!

In the morning, I took the kids to church and we had a picnic on the lawn with our friends in the congregation.

After church, I visited with my cousin Alexander and played basketball with him. He beat me in horse every time. It was so fun to get to know him more. He’s really thinking deeply about his life and what he wants to do with it. I was very impressed with his maturity, introspection and desire to make progress in his life. He has a lot of valuable life experience to lean on at such a young age and it was fun just to get to know him more. While we played basketball, the kids played in the yard, including Clarissa, who built this house out of random objects.

After spending time with Alexander, the kids and I went shopping at Smith’s and then we went to my dad and Suzanne’s house where I made tin-foil dinners. The last ones I made with Todd turned out super well, and I was excited to do it again. No meat, just chopped vegetables, olive oil and seasoning. Then we all left, picked up Lily in Orem, and made our way to Goblin Valley. I was thrilled that we visited the San Rafael Swell on the way. It is one of my all time favorite landmarks. Look at the drama and motion!

When we arrived at our yurts, the kids played while the grown-ups set-up and watched the kids and I cooked.

The tinfoil dinners turned out delicious!

Today we woke up at 4:30 so we could have time to hike to avalanche lake as a family before driving home. Lily was so in awe the first time she went and she really wanted the family to see it. I’m so glad we did!

Clarissa led is in a jog for a fair portion of the trail:

On the trail back to the car, Lydia pondered how beautiful everything was and felt a depth of emotion wondering if she would ever see it again.

After the incredible hike to and from Avalanche Lake (It was like a fairy forest just as Lily promised), we went to the visitor’s center where there was a bike trail that was about 4 miles round trip. I biked with the kids sans Clarissa while Clarissa napped in the car with Lily. When Clarissa woke up, Lily took her to the path to scooter. Clarissa talked to Lily about her birthday while scootering on the path:

I had an amazing time biking with the kids on such a beautiful path.

When the kids and I met up with Lily close to the car, I gave her my bike so she could experience the path. We picked her up at the end of the path.

It was a lot to pack in before noon……….

Then we got Huckleberry shakes and fast food and drove home and got in late.