Month: March 2023

Today Lydia had some friends over for a St. Patricks day party. They had fun!

I also arrived home from a trip to New York. It’s great to be home!

Today an amazing harpist gave Lydia a masterclass. We have the whole thing on video below!

Also, Lydia prepared the home for the arrival of the Leprechauns in our house in the morning. She is so festive, and loves to create magic just like her mother does!

Also, Lydia’s feet have been peeling today. Neither she nor Lily realized how the spa masks that they gave out at her birthday spa party worked. The way they work is that they make your feet softer by making all the skin peel off. Apparently the skin of Lydia’s friends’s feet has been peeling too!

Lydia, Mary and Lily have all been involved in Battle of the Books competitions lately. Today, Ammon and Clarissa were tagging along.

In the evening, Dad, Suzanne, Lydia and Mary and I all went to a Brian Regan concert. I bought the tickets for Lydia when I saw Brian Regan would be performing near her birthday. It was also so fun that today was Suzanne’s birthday! We met my dad and Suzanne the performance and I sat separately because I originally didn’t realize how much Mary would enjoy it (and I didn’t get her a ticket) so I got a 5th ticket last minute so she could come (but it was not with the group). While I was going to my seat, my dad called to inform me that the 4 tickets he, Suzanne, Lydia and Mary were using were actually for tomorrow and they weren’t letting them in. Oh now! I felt awful. I had mixed up the dates of the performance. Amazingly, and thanks be to God, despite it being a sold out show, 4 people had returned their tickets, and they were right in the front left, and they allowed my dad and the group to exchange them free of charge. Wow, crisis averted! Even though my dad and Suzanne were so nice and offered to go with Lydia and Mary the next day, it would have been a lot of extra trouble, and my ticket was for tonight, and I was going straight to the airport for an overnight flight. I’m so grateful it worked out the way it did.

Brian Regan and his warm-up act were hilarious. Here are a few highlights:

• His friend told him his plants would grow better if he said nice things to it. So he thought the reverse should be true and replaced mowing his lawn with 30 seconds of screaming and berating his lawn (you call yourself grass!) to keep it from growing.
• Pointing out that there is no need for the reversed “Ambulance” letters. The idea is that people can read it in their rear-view mirror. Brian pointed out that with the flashing lights and blaring sirens, you don’t need the additional help of the word ambulance, joking about someone seeing the flashing lights and hearing the siren, but saying to himself, “I and pulling over for no ecnalubma”.
• And my favorite joke of the night: If you want to ever feel insecure, just go to a carnival cruise photographer. My girlfriend and I walk up to get our picture taken, and the photographer says, “Ok, stand up a little straighter, straighten your spine, now lift your chin, a little straighter, shoulders back, straighter still, lift your head” Brian says, “Geeze, what did I look like when I walked up there!” And he folds over almost in half with his arms draping down, and he makes monster/ape noises. He said, they could have just not given me any instructions and gotten a picture of Bigfoot!

A love for stand-up comics is something I particularly share with Lydia, and it was so happy for me to share that moment with her around her birthday. It was also so fun to be with Suzanne on her birthday. She always so sweet and fun to be around. What a happy evening for all of us!

After the show, I jumped on a flight to New York!

Lily celebrated Pi day today (3.14) by making a lot of pies! After she dropped one of her pies off to a friend, we all ate her home-made pot-pie for dinner and then had her home-made blueberry pie for desert. I had a hard day at work today, and her food was so delicious and healing to me that I effused my joy and gratitude to Lily for her cooking. It was so lovely to be with family eating Lily’s delicious pie.

Today the kids had no school and they had a lot of fun around the house in addition to having extra time to practice their instruments.

We took a lazy slow day today because I was feeling very worn. Lily and I played Wingspan in the morning, then Georgia came over, and it was really nice to have her over. The highlight for me was when she beat me and Lydia in Chinese Checkers. Also, Lydia played the harp for her and sounded beautiful.

Then we went to my dad and Suzanne’s house for birthday celebrations, including Lydia’s. It was really fun, and I particularly enjoyed playing Seven Wonders with Charlie, his new fiancé Brooklyn, Henry, Lydia, Mary and Lily. Here are some photos and videos from the evening:

This morning, Ammon built a world in his room that he and Clarissa played in. He was so excited about it that he took a video and showed it to me and Lily. He also took all the photos below. He was so proud of it!

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Then Lily and I blitz-cleaned the house in preparation for Lydia’s party.

Lydia’s party went perfectly, and it was so fun to watch it all unfold. It was spa themed and all the guests got party favors like brushes, spa robes, headbands, nail-polish etc.

First everyone did each others’ hair, including adding color.

Even Ammon got his hair colored!

Then everyone made Chex muddy buddies (so yummy!)

Then there was nail painting.

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And then everyone watched the Princess Bride while eating the yummy Chex-mix.

I left the party early to take Ammon and Clarissa to the school play. Clarissa had a major nose bleed back stage and I helped take care of that because her teacher texted when it wasn’t stopping. Clarissa had also had a major poop backstage that was hard for her to clean, and between the nose-bleed and the poop, she dramatically proclaimed this was the worst day ever. It was fun to see her backstage and I snapped this photo.

Ammon and Clarissa were very cute in the play!

When I got home, I found Lydia giddy after her party. She was showing me her gifts, and so happy for how everything pulled off. Lily and Lydia collaborated on the vision, the set-up, and Lydia really made the entire thing happen once the party started. She’s so good at adulting, and we are so glad she had such a great time!

Ammon was in Beauty and the Beast tonight for the Arches Annual Play. They did a very good job!

Today Clarissa was feeling sick, so she stayed home from school.

Georgia was also not feeling well, and she and Lily spent much of the day going to different appointments for tests.

Later in the day, Lily went to Mary’s play and Lydia’s open house for Junior High.

Ammon was also in a play (Clarissa skipped because she was sick). Lily had such a full day going from place to place, and by the end of the day she felt completely stressed out. I was still downtown hosting clients for X4 and was very sorry to hear how difficult today was for her. Lily did a lot of research to try to understand better why she feels she doesn’t have the self-control she wants when she’s triggered with stress and she made some discoveries. I finished with clients around 9:15, caught 30 minutes of the Killers concert at X4 and then came home and collapsed so I could wake up at 5:45 the next day for more client hosting.

Today Lydia turned 12. I can’t believe it! Lily kicked off her birthday with a German Pancake breakfast. Over breakfast, Lydia talked to Georgia and opened some gifts.

In the evening they had cake!

I was sad to miss Lydia’s birthday after school. I was in Salt Lake hosting clients until late. I thought of her today and what a special girl she is and wrote her the below birthday note.

Hey Sweetie,
As I now lead an enterprise sales team, I’m downtown with clients while they are all at our annual conference. I’m so sorry I won’t spend this evening with you, but I know we will have a lot of fun skiing and going to Brian Regan and so I truly hope you know how much I love you.
I could not have dreamed or wished for a better daughter. You are responsible, deeply sweet and compassionate, humble, self-aware, hard-working, smart and persistent. Most important to me though, is your ability to grow and progress. The harp is just one example of how you have started with something you didn’t know how to do, worked very hard at it, even when you disliked it extremely, and now you create sounds that are hard to believe exist (because they are so beautiful!). Mrs. Mason was so blown away she told me three or four separate times with great excitement how beautiful and amazing your harp playing was. I am so so so so proud of you.
But it’s not just the harp that progress at. you progress at everything in your life. When you determined to get good at reading, you put in the work and got good at it. When you have been less than kinds in the past, you listen humbly when you are corrected, you apologize sincerely, and then you correct your behavior. This regular pattern of self-awareness, humbly growing and improving yourself with each day has led you to become the most magnificent, golden, talented, smart, kind and capable 12-year-old I could ever imagine having.
You take care of your siblings and set an example for them of responsibility. You entertain them. You orchestrate plays and dance numbers to involve them. You play with them. You are kind in your social interactions. You love learning. you care about being good. You apologize when you are wrong. You are endlessly forgiving of me and mom when we are tired, grouchy or just aren’t being our best selves. 
You are also so fun! I love to ski with you, listen to comedy with you, play dolls with you, talk with you about the universe, and hear about your school and social life.I also love to  hike and backpack with you and the list goes on and on. I also love how much you get excited about celebrating holidays. You are so festive! You are so fun to have in our family, and our family is more loving, more beautiful, more happy and more complete with you in it.
Again, I’m so sorry to not be with you on your special day, but I hope this note lets you know how endlessly proud I am of who you are becoming and how much I love you. May this be your best year yet, and just know that mom and I are always always always here for you.
Love, Dad

We love Lydia so much!!!!!