Author: Abe Darais

Lydia and Mary had their first swim competition today! I was sad to miss it because I attended a Global Entry appointment that I had scheduled months prior, but I’m so glad that Lily took videos! I’m so proud of them!

Today we had a great time at the First Presbyterian Church in Salt Lake and then we went to my dad and Suzanne’s house for lunch. My dad mad an incredible spread with a salad bar, chili, borsct and split pea soup. It was all delectible and so nutritious.

We hung out for a long luxurious time there, and I also got a nap on the couch, which was nice since I still wasn’t feeling well. Lily and I had a lot of fun talking to my dad and Suzanne, and I also had fun listening to some Jim Croche music my dad shared with me. Lily and I also hung out outside with my dad while we chatted, and rested and while Ammon and Clarissa picked grapes and played. It was sunny and almost 60 degrees, so beautiful! Then David and Ozzy came over, and we all had such a blast with how cute he was being. It was also so great to catch up with David. Here are some scenes from the evening:

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Near the end of our visit, Lydia and Mary had so much fun playing cards with Suzanne (and all three of them kept begging over and over to just play one more round, which they successfully secured 4 or 5 times I think).

What a great day!

Georgia got Ammon a Lego Theater set for his birthday. Today he built it all by himself. He did an amazing job, and he had so much fun showing us all the interesting things about his creation, like how you can swap out the backgrounds on the theater stage.

I felt super unwell all day and spent most of the day in bed.

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.