Author: Abe Darais

I had Veteran’s Day off of work today, so Lily and I took advantage of having a day together while the kids were in school and we had a Park City date. We dropped the kids off at school together and then went right up the canyon. Park City is one of our all-time favorite places to explore together, and today did not disappoint. We ate breakfast at Harvest (she got an omelet, and I got my usual avocado toast and fancy muesli) and then walked up and down main street, mostly focusing on art galleries.

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Lily and I loved this porcupine picture. Which one do you think is Lily and which one do you think is me?

After exploring art together and having the best time, we picked up the kids, and then Lily and I had a dinner date with our dear friends Morgan and Jessie. Lydia babysat for them while we ate so she could get community service hours. It was so fun!

Spending so much deep time with my favorite person, and topping it off with dinner with two of our favorite friends made today truly special. It was a piece of heaven.

After going to the 1st Presbyterian Scottish celebration, Lily was so inspired, that she started taking bag-pipe lessons nearby with our friend Betsy. Lily practices on a chanter, which is preparatory to playing the bagpipes. She is really putting her heart into it, and she practices a lot. She glowed when she told me that she completely crushed playing “London Bridges” in her lesson tonight, and she got praise from both the teacher and Betsy. I’m not sure what this picture is, but Lily took it during her bag pipe/chanter lesson and it reminded me to blog about her lesson tonight and all the practice she has been doing! She even plays while I’m taking too much time on my turns in Wingspan lol.

I walked at work today to decompress and thought the scenery was very theraputic:

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Also, Ammon made a very cute story about a Vampire at school:

In the evening Ammon and Clarissa performed a dance to Sia’s “Chandelier” and we really enjoyed it. Basil unexpectedly got involved and it made everyone laugh.

Here is a video from Ammon’s class:

Also, Ammon has been really into drawing waves lately and he was really excited to show them to me:

Also, earlier in the year, Clarissa made a poster about herself for school and I thought it was really cute:

Today my mom hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner because she will be in Hawaii during Thanksgiving. It was such a delight to have my brother, Jere, in town, and also my Aunt Bonnie, my cousin Jason and his son Giles. I had not seen Bonnie and Aaron for a long time and it made me so happy to see them, and it was so fun to get to know Giles (he is crazy about monster trucks!). It was also so nice to catch up with my mom and Jay.

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After a delicious turkey dinner, we visited my grandma in her care facility. She was in good spirits and so fun to talk to. We learned about a wave frequency therapy she is doing and caught up generally. She’s had multiple roommates pass away and one be very mean to her, but she’s had a good attitude about everything, and she recently moved into a new room with a new roommate.

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Lately Clarissa has been crafting a lot, and she has especially been enjoying the glue gun, even though recently she accidentally burned herself with it.

She calls her most recent creation a Chick Stick. Essentially, it is a bunch of popsicle sticks glued together with a piece of yard glued to it. She made a game that is a blend of hide and seek and tag. The person with the Chick Stick has to count to ten with her/his eyes closed while the other person hides. Then the person with the Chick Stick looks for the other person. When that other person is found, s/he has the opportunity to run away and is only caught if the Chick Stick holder can touches her/him with the yarn on the Chick Stick. If the person without the Chick Stick is tagged, s/he then has the Chick Stick and counts to ten while the other person hides and so on.

Mary played this game A LOT with Clarissa and it was fun to hear them having so much fun together laughing as they ran around the house. Before putting Clarissa to bed tonight, I played it with her for 15 minutes and it was the highlight of my day. She is so fun!

In other news, while Lily continues to go very deep on learning about the conflict between Israel and Palestine and is expressing her thoughts through letters and conversation (including at the fun dinner with had with Lucas and Kim at the Lakehouse tonight), we also have another activist in our midst. It’s Mary! She started to feel strongly about the situation of girls chatting at recess having to walk too far to get to their favorite chatting spot, and also about them getting hit with soccer balls while chatting. Here is the letter she wrote to have her school address the situation:

On the topic of Mary, Lily took her to the eye doctor today, I think to get both new glasses (her old ones broke) and contacts in the same visit. Afterwards, they went to lunch with Georgia, which was lovely for all. Here is Mary in her new contacts with her lovely Nana:

Also, I had a major RFP presentation today (virtually) and it was a major relief to be done with it and on to my weekend.

Today Lily spent time with our good friend Betsy Croft. Betsy has gotten really good at making fancy coffees lately with her new kitchen gadget, and Lily loved the creation Betsy made for her (and I’m sure these cups were made by Betsy too!). Lily said she so loved her visit with Betsy. It really made her happy.

Today was very fun. All of the kids enjoyed going to school in their costumes.

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After school, Lily brought the kids to Qualtrics where I took them around for trick-or-treating around the office.

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Then the kids got to show Nana their costumes.

Then we went to trick-or-treat in downtown Provo. I forgot to take pictures!

Then Lydia and Mary went to their friend’s houses where they trick-or-treated with their friends. I took Ammon and Clarissa around our neighborhood with Todd and his son Casey for a while, and then Lily joined us as we went to the scary garage-converted-into-haunted house, that Ammon and Clarissa love as well as Morgan and Jessie’s house, and our favorite skeleton house and surrounding area.

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It was a very fun Halloween overall for everyone. Perhaps the most amusing part is how happy the younger kids are about their candy. I have memories as a kid just reveling in my candy haul and sorting it and trading it meticulously with siblings. And that is exactly what Clarissa, Ammon and Mary did. Clarissa has her candy sorted all over the dining room table (and plead that we let her keep it there), and Ammon’s room has now turned into a trading floor for he and Mary.

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I had a very intense day at work today so I came home and rested when I was finished. And then it was so fun to switch gears and carve pumpkins with the family while we listened to Taylor Swift (our new musical obsession).

Here are the results!

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This morning we got up early to go to the 1st Presbyterian Scottish Celebration per the recommendation of our dear friends the Gruwells. It was so wonderful to see them, and the service blew our minds.

The service especially touched Lily who grew up going to a Presbyterian church. So many aspects of the service today (such as the building, the message in the sermon etc) reminded Lily of her childhood experience. She felt like she was home, and she was touched by the entire experience. We may attend much more based on how wonderful the experience was. I couldn’t help myself in grabbing these two videos. The music was so beautiful.

The sermon was about how we need God’s help to change us, and the pastor told the story of a very rude and bad child in the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series who turned into a dragon from his greed. He was not able to shed his own scales but needed Aslan to rip them off for him. The process hurt but made him a new creature, and we were invited to step into God’s grace and become new. It was beautiful

Then we went to lunch with the Gruwells and had such a great time talking with them. A highlight for me was learning about Ammon’s transition to veganism for environmental sustainability and how well it is working for him. Also, there were very few people at “O my Falafel” which worked out great given all the kids that we had with us (8 total!).

At home, I delivered on my promise to Ammon to help him build his birthday Millenium Falcon. It was one of my favorite father-son experiences that I have ever had. At first it was especially nice because we could methodically build each section together. Then, as we realized it was a five hour project or more, I spent the last hour and a half myself finishing it up. Ammon was so thrilled to build it with me (and I was having so much fun with him) and his mind was blown by the result. I have to admit that it is the most amazing and thoughtfully designed Lego set I’ve ever built. I was also very impressed with all the details. To top it all off, we watched Star Wars Episode IV (the first one ever made) so Ammon could get an appreciation for the Millenium Falcon. I was over the moon sharing that movie with the family and Ammon really got into it.

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What a special day!