January 2023 – Page 3

Fun with Dolls and Friends

The kids have been so interested in dolls lately, that I decided to take advantage of that and prioritize playing dolls with them. They beat be to it, because while I was working out, they already started playing with their dolls and packing their suitcases for a girls trip. I showed up just in time to put the dolls in their dresses with the kids, and participate in their snack party. Lily joined too. It was a riot! Highlights were Lydia’s valley girl impersonation, Lily’s hilarious comments from CJ, and of course, Kendall’s antics.

Lily read another book today and I worked on the house and finished taking down the Christmas decorations that Lily already started taking down. Lily really worked hard on the house and laundry and her exercise this week and she hasn’t been sleeping a ton, so she was a little more tired today.

Then we all went to Matt and Courtney’s new house, and also met up with Heidi, who came too. We enjoyed taco salad, salmon (deliciously cooked on Matt’s Traeger), and very fun and fulfilling conversation. We caught up on each other’s lives, which included a crazy story of a property line dispute that Matt and Courtney had to deal with right after buying their house. We had a tremendously good time as we really enjoy them. I also loved sledding with the kids in their backyard!

The kids had a lot of fun coloring and playing with the other kids while the grown-ups chatted.

When we got home, Lily and I put the kids down and played the new chocolatier version of Azul that she bought at Blickenstaff’s and that we learned the previous night with the Olsens. We had so much fun playing together and played until after midnight!

Fun with Friends

I felt tired today, but otherwise I had a good day at the office. Lily had a marathon day. She woke up early to do Yoga, met up with her good friends Julie, and had a playdate with Amy and her kids in the afternoon.

Lily also went to Blickenstaff’s to buy some games and Ammon and Clarissa hid and wanted Lily to take a picture of them.

When I got home, the family ate delicious pasta dinner that Lily made.

Then Lily and I played Pickelball, and then we played games with our friends the Olsen’s until after 11.

We played San Juan and also learned the new Chocolatier Azule game that Lily bought at Blickenstaff’s. It was so fun! Major thank-you to Lydia and Mary who helped get the younger kids down so Lily and I could be with our friends and play games. Thank you kiddos!

What a fun-filled day!

Bye, Bye

This morning Lily read an article about how the Great Salt Lake will likely be gone in 5 years if we don’t take drastic action. The article can be found here.

She has been truly mourning, and I came upstairs to find her listening to Bye Bye by Mariah Carey on repeat. It’s a sad topic and I certainly hope things turn around ecologically in this state we love so much.

Lily continues to listen to audiobooks while she words on getting the house in shape after the holiday chaos. I finished work around 5 and then took Lydia and Mary to Sundance to get their skis fitted. At home, I helped Mary with a school project which was to make a travel brochure about visiting Malala. It was fun!

Clarissa rested in Mary’s bed tonight while Mary worked on her project. When Clarissa went to her own bed, Basil slept with Mary and that made Mary very happy. Mary was feeling jealous that Basil seemed to only want to sleep on Lydia’s bed lately so it was very nice that she could get her wish. We all love our fluff buster.

Park City Date, Blood Draw and Via 313

Today Lily and I got up around 7:30 and rushed to get the kids ready so that Lydia and Mary wouldn’t be too late to ballroom practice at Foothill. We then dropped off Ammon and Clarissa at Arches and went to the gym to exercise.

We then went to see our therapist Vhari. It was the first time we’ve ever gone together and it was super fun. We discussed our different views on what to do next year for the kid’s schooling and Vhari was a great resource to help us think through the topic together.

After our counseling session, we went to our favorite date place, Park City! When Lily said she wanted to go to Park City, I was inwardly hoping we would eat at Harvest, but I was guessing that Lily would want to try something new. When Lily said she wanted to eat at Harvest, I got really happy. We both love their food so much! Also, the people we sat next to told us of Willow Creek Park in Park City which has a 2 mile walking trail and a dog park. We can’t wait to visit with the family!

After brunch, Lily and I bought candles at the Park City Museum, wandered through art galleries, including the gallery of our favorite photographer, Jared McMillen. Can you believe the below picture is a non-doctored photo that was taken on film (not digital)? It was on a foggy and snowy day. This is one of my favorite photos I have ever seen.

Lily and I also went to the bookstore where Lily bought a Smitten Kitchen cookbook that she is excited to cook through. We loved hanging out together in Park City!

Then we picked up the kids from school and took Lily to Dr. Simmons so he could check on her infected finger. It’s taking longer than expected to heal (even after two rounds of antibiotics) so he prescribed some lab blood testing for Lydia.

Lydia and Mary turned their hair into awesome mustaches while waiting for the doctor.

We went straight to the lab for Lydia’s bloodwork. The kids and I played with Basil outside while we waited. Lydia got really pale and nauseous (she gets that from me), but she was a champ and the person drawing Lydia’s blood commented repeatedly on Lydia’s great behavior.

We then let Lydia choose a dinner spot after her uncomfortable experience. I’m so glad she chose Via 313. It’s one of my favorite dinner spots. I just feel so happy there!

We had some time to kill at home, so we all played Moose in the House as well as Lost Cities. That is, all of us except Mary. Mary had a school project deadline coming up and she said she wanted to do quality work and not rush so she was going to focus on her project. We were so proud of her!

Cross-Country Skiing, Outing with Georgia, Reading, Playing with Clarissa and Walking Basil.

Today Lily and I got up before 8 and Lily got the kids ready for school and took them while I caught up on the blog. Then Lily took Clarissa and Georgia on some outings while I went cross-country skiing with Daniel.

Skiing was soooo fun. I’m not as in shape as Daniel, so I ended a little before he did (and I had a hard time keeping up before that), but it was magical. Daniel is such a good and pleasant friend, the weather and scenery were divine, and it was such an incredible workout. I loved every second of it. It was also cool to know that where were skiing (Soldier Hollow) is where the cross-country skiing happened in the Olympics. We came to Soldier Hollow because Sundance was shut down from getting too much snow. It was really fun to explore a new place! Here are some pictures and a video I caught of Daniel:

After skiing, I got a haircut and then met up with Lily, and Clarissa at home. I caught Lily playing dolls with Clarissa and I got a video:

I then joined the fun. Our dolls read Poetry, did math, ate cake, went to Central Park, rode the merry-go-round, rode bikes and saw a puppet show. It was so fun, but what was most fun about it was how happy we could tell it made Clarissa.

Then I ate lunch and took a bath while Lily picked up the kids from school. I then took Basil on a walk while Lily read and Lydia did her harp practice. On the walk, Basil LOVED being off-leash. He was playing in the snow and he kept running and then plopping down to torpedo in the snow. I thought it was cute and got a video:

When I got home, I took Mary, Lydia and Ammon to Sundance to get their skis fitted for ski school. We made it all the way to Sundance to realize that the downhill area (not just the Nordic Center) was also completely shut down and they were not doing the ski fittings. We then left and made it ten minutes early to Mary and Ammon’s piano lesson.

When we got home from the lesson, we had a delicious gyro dinner waiting for us that Lily made. Lily also made an incredible salad.

Then we put all the kids to bed. It sure has been sweet to take time away from work and spend extra time with family and friends. One more day of bliss awaits me tomorrow!

Fun with games, water, snow, dolls and legos!

It has been so fun to have time off from work and just play with the family. In the morning we all played Carcassonne and everyone loved it! Then Lily and I went to the pool and had an amazing workout together swimming. Towards the end, we raced each other, and we are a perfect match for each other as we traded victories.

Back at home, I built a snow fort with the kids. The snow was not great for rolling snow balls to make snow people (hence the size of Ammon’s snow. man), but the snow did turn out to work just fine for fort building, and we had a great time building a fort!

Then we all had a delicious lasagna, pizza and sushi dinner. After dinner, I played dolls with the kids. I took a few videos (to Lydia’s chagrin) because it just felt so special to have all the kids at an age to enjoy dolls together. We had a lot of fun, and we plan to have more doll play in the coming week. Lydia really had the other kids laughing with the antics of her 7-year old genius, hyper, troublemaker doll Kendall.

Also, it was adorable how into her dolls Clarissa was. She spent a lot of time getting her doll’s house perfectly set up and when guests came over and were rowdy, she started crying because she cared so much about her setup. Once the party was over and I said it was bed time, she completely yelled down and said, “I just barely put my doll to bed, and I don’t even get a next day, I didn’t even get four seconds!” Then she stormed out of the room with very exaggerated steps. It was both sad and adorable. I could tell how much she loved playing dolls with everyone and I plan to have more doll play soon.

After dolls with the kids, I played legos with Ammon. This story line involved the mean rhino character breaking out of jail and causing havoc with his villain friends until finally getting thrown back in jail (from a cliffside) with the help of a lot of the police man’s allies, including the Hulk, Spiderman and Poopers the Penguin (and his flatulence). Videos below:

What a fun family day!!!!

Breakfast in Bed Reciprocated, A LOT of fun playing games, Gingerbread Decorating, and New Year’s resolutions!

Lily has a very big heart, and even though we were up late last night for New Year’s Eve, she was determined to wake up at 7:30 and make breakfast in bed for our kids to reciprocate their kind act from yesterday and also to let them start the new year with some magic. I was exhausted, but followed her lead and in the end was so glad for what we did. The kids loved it!

Then we all played a TON of family games. The pictures below don’t do justice to all the games we played. We played San Juan, Lost Cities, Chutes & Ladders, Sleeping Queens, Barrel of Monkeys & Race to the Treasure. It’s was sooooo fun! Lily commented, “this is why we had kids, to have this much fun with them!”

After playing games as a family, I played legos with Ammon. We had a ton of fun acting out a scenario involving a bad guy in a rhino suit that was crushing cars and stealing things. Once the policeman and his allies locked the bad guy away, he celebrated by going to the market, buying some things, and decorating for Halloween.

Then we all had fun with the gingerbread kits that my mom gave everyone for Christmas. Everyone had houses to assemble and decorate, except for Ammon, who actually got to mix and bake his ninja gingerbread cookies before decorating them. It was a lot of fun! Thanks mom!