Abe Darais – Page 37

Ammon and Clarissa playing and dinner with my mom and Jay

Today Lily and I exercised at the park nearby. It was a little warm, but we loved talking to each other. At home, Lily worked with the kids and folded laundrey while I worked at my computer and did some cleaning. Lily and the kids have been making so much progress on the kids’ reading and instruments! Lily has been spending a lot of deep time practicing instruments with the kids and doing Clarissa’s reading lessons, the kids have been focussing on practicing, and Lydia is even spending time helping Clarissa learn to read with flashcards. It’s also amazing how Ammon’s reading has taken off. He is really enjoying his Bad Guys books. Lily and I were delighted to see Ammon, Mary and Lydia peacefully reading when we walked into the living room in the morning. I’m so glad Lily being a bookworm has made its way to our children! Also, Ammon and Clarissa played a lot together today. Here are some videos they captured of their time together.

In the evening, we went to visit my mom and Jay for a 4th of July dinner together. David, Olivia and Ozzie were also there. We had a great time talking about jobs, travel disaster stories (my brother is a scream puker lol) and my mom’s new home and Hawaii property. We had a great time and on the way home we shopped for our Black Canyon trip the next day and packed and prepped food for the camping trip. I’m so excited!

Horsetail falls

In the morning, Lily and I started slowly, but then the day picked up steam as I biked and worked at my computer while Lily made huge progress on music with the kids. Lydia was at a party at Lizzie’s house most of the day and I played a game with the other three kids where we pretended I was a desperate parent trying to manage misbehaved kids.

Then we all went on a hike at horsetail falls. It was so fun! Clarissa, of course, protested a lot and Lydia did not like the bugs, but I think by the end, everyone had a great time. One funny part was when there were some bugs, and Lydia said, “this is a nightmare” and Clarissa quickly agreed, “you’re right this is a nightmare.” Lol, but again, I think in the end, everyone had a good time, aided by jelly beans and hi chews every quarter mile on the way up, due to Lily’s recent inspiration from a lady’s advice on the Steward Falls trail. Right at the end Ammon saw a rattle snake close to him, and it really rattled him (no pun intended), but he eventually calmed down and saw it as a unique and even kind of cool experience. It really scared him though. Clarissa was still mourning the In-N-Out burger she didn’t finish from the day or two before (and Lily let Ammon finish it), and we told her she could get In-N-Out if she did a good job hiking which she did. The rest of the family preferred Zupas, and we were very fortunate to find a Zuppas right next to an In-N-Out in American fork. We enjoyed our dinner and got home at 10:40. What a day! Below are pictures and videos.

Photos of Clarissa

Clarissa had fun taking pictures of herself today 🙂

We Love Basil

We are very in love with our dog Basil. Here are two videos and a picture of him from today:

Nightmare at the airport

I woke up early Monday morning to go to New York for customer meetings and I proceeded to have the worst travel experience of my life. It was noteworthy though and by the end I figured I would just chronically everything. This has been a rough sketch of my chain of events

Wake up at 3:45 AM to catch my Laguardia flight through Detroit.
Get to the airport and realized Jet Blue emailed me around 10PM the night before to say my flight was now 7:25 instead of 6:00 and going through Orlando instead of Detroit (I could have arrived an hour and a half later).
Flight to Orlando is delayed and I have trouble sleeping on the flight.
I arrive in Orlando and around 2PM and am told my 4PM flight to New York is delayed.
The flight keeps delaying and delaying and delaying until I’m told around 6PM that the flight is cancelled.
I wait on hold with global business traveler American Express for 30 minutes and finally get a helpful agent. We work together for 30 minutes to see if there is any way to make my lunch appointment the next day in New York.
He finds one Jet Blue flight late at night, and he puts me on it.
He calls back 30 minutes later to say the flight is full and so he was unable to get me a ticket.
He confirms there is no way to get me to my lunch appointment on time.
We explore options through Philadelphia and BWI that are getting crazier and crazier, and I didn’t find any options to get me there on time.
I finally decide it’s a lost cause and ask for the first flight back to Salt Lake.
They put me on 6:30 flight to Salt Lake that has been delayed and is now leaving at 8 so I have time to catch it. I have them put me on that flight and we will cancel the whole Delta trip.
The flight to Salt Lake is reliant on a delayed flight coming from New York.
The New York flight is more and more delayed, moving our departure time from 8, to 10, to 11, to midnight, to 1:30 AM.
The New York flight arrives at 12:30, in time for our 1:30 AM departure, but only then do the gate agents realize the pilot is over his allotted working hours if he flies to salt lake and can’t do it (same with some of the crew).
They ask us to hang tight because they are trying to recrew.
While waiting, I hear gate agents talking about a white plains flight they are getting people on. It takes a little while, but I eventually connect the dots and realize (after a google search) that that is close to Manhattan. I go to that gate to see if I can get on (even though my ticket is now for salt lake) on the off chance I can still make my on-site, but the person before me (who I assume already had a white plains ticket) took the very last seat. So I go back to the gate for the salt lake flight.
We wait an hour and a half, until about 2:00 AM, and then they announce that they were unable to recrew and the flight is cancelled.
They send us to a line for the jet blue ticketing desk where four agents are helping rebook. The line has over 100 people in it (I’m number 60 or so).
I also get on the phone with American Express (on hold) as a back up.
The line starts moving well and I’m halfway there after 30 minutes, so I hang up with American Express thinking I’m making good progress. It’s now 3:15 AM.
While in line, I get an automated message telling me the flight has been cancelled, but I can rebook online. I already tried rebooking not he app, but the app doesn’t recognize the flight has been cancelled, and then when I tried again, it freezes. The automated call tells me I can rebook online, however, when I try that, I get an error message and am unable to do it.
The line comes to a screeching halt. A half hour goes by with almost zero progress (I will later learn that at a certain point Jet Blue only had availability on flights for 3 days later on July 1st (today is June 28, early in the morning, or night of the 27th considering I still hadn’t slept)
This is about the moment the fire alarm goes off by accident, and we have an announcement and flashing strobe lights in the airport for the next hour.
With the line no longer moving someone in the line starts to gather it’s not moving because they have no good options to get people home.
It’s now almost 4AM and I ring American Express Global Business Traveler again for help and leave the line and find a place to sit. It’s now 4:23 AM waiting on hold with them trying to figure out if I stay at the airport for an early flight home with another airline, or if I grab a hotel for a later flight. I’m very confused, and very very tired.
Many people are in my situation, but worse. One family had 6 kids, some of whom were actively crying.
After 40 minutes being on hold (now 4:30 am) I get on concur myself to look at options. There is a 7:00 AM, but it’s too close to book through the concur website, so it says I need to call an agent (still on hold).
I redownload the American Express global business travel app and plead for help in the chat
I’m talking with someone within 10-15 minutes.
While chatting, I notice I’m still on hold for an agent and it has been a full hour.
While chatting, phone agent picks up.
It takes 40 minutes for agent to find and process a Southwest flight for 7 hours later (12:20). Ticket number 5267978801767 confirmation #: 4MHNTW. 2890 Orlando 12:20 through Denver at 2:10. Leaves Denver at 6:50 at gets home late around 10:30 or 11:00.
I head over to Southwest gate, getting there just before 6AM to try to get some rest.
I rest from about 6 to a little after 10. I drift off a little, but mostly stay awake and just rest lying down on a bench.
I then go through security again and catch my 12:30 flight to Denver.
I arrive in Denver without incident, spend 3 hours for my layover and catch my 6:30 flight to Salt Lake without Incident.
I arrive without incident, drive home and step in the door a little before 9PM in the exact same clothes that I left in.

Hiking the Y

Lily ran the ship solo today while I was out having a nightmare travel experience (more on that for tomorrow’s post). The highlight for her and the family today was hiking “Y” mountain as a family. Lily brought HiChews and jelly beans because on our recent Stewart Falls hike a lady suggested that giving those to the kids on a hike would make them salivate and increase their energy (or something like that). Here are photos.

A Wonderful Monday

Today was a very great day. I was very productive at work, and Lily swam in the morning. Lily was having a little harder of a day emotionally after swim, but then things turned around and she took the kids swimming, bought groceries and worked with the kids. The kids played SO well together today, including Ammon getting a very cute haircut.

For dinner, Lily bought more ingredients for tin foil dinners (we were so inspired by the tin foil dinners at the Baker’s house last night!). The tin foil dinners turned out delicious and then Lily cleaned while I worked on a book project with the kids. Lydia came up with the idea that each of us would write 5 stories, and then each person would have a chance to illustrate a book from each other family member. My plan is to laminate them all and bind them all together in one summer story compendium. Lily wanted to join, but prioritized letting me join while she cleaned up dinner since I was going to leave to New York the next day and promised the kids I’d do their book project with them. That was so kind of her. After that Jordan and Tyler from the Community of Christ came over and we studied the chapters on Zion and Ordinances together. I love them and felt both spiritually and socially fed. Afterwards, I tied Lily in Wingspan (which I was happy about since she usually beats me), and then we went to bed since I was going to wake up at 3:45. Today was a great day!!

Hiking and Dinner with the Bakers

Today Lily and I took the kids hiking to Stewart Falls. It was almost 4 miles round trip and it was of much fun. It was crazy how many trees had fallen over and were blocking the path (8 or so). I assume it’s from all the snow over the winter? Before our hike, we started with a yummy lunch from Harmon’s.

I thought it was interesting how slanted the trees in the background were.

After hiking we went straight to the Baker’s and had the most wonderful time. They are such a lovely, down-to-earth family. We had tin foil dinner and had so much fun catching up because it has been a while.

Lydia is almost as tall as Lily! She’s been growing a lot lately.

Park City Birthday

There were a comedy of errors as to why I didn’t help Lily celebrate her birthday well on the actual day, but today Lily and I had a Park City date day to celebrate her birthday. First we went to Freshie’s. Lily and I both thought it was possibly the best sandwich we had ever eaten. They fly the lobster in fresh every morning. Also, they entered a worldwide competition in Portland, Main for the best lobster roll, and they won!!

Then Lily and I went to the Park City Nursery. Lily was completely enchanted. We didn’t take any pictures there, but there were cute buildings, a creek, giant wind chimes, and amazing plants everywhere. Lily also said the shop is her new favorite shop. It had amazing candles, pots, soaps and other fun items.

After the nursery, we hiked the Ontario Ridge trail. It turned a bit serious when Lily started talking about some ideas she had (which were totally practical) and I couldn’t hide my stress about money. That launched us into a very large conversation about money. At first I was nervous the conversation would ruin her birthday, but it turned into a very raw, deep and vulnerable conversation that helped us both to reframe our internal dialogues about money in a way that was more fair, positive and true. We also unpacked some of our insecurities about money, and see each other more clearly, and with deeper love. It turned out to be a very bonding conversation.

We then went to Chimayo. The food was amazing, and one of our favorite parts was the metal goblets they put our water in. Lily got duck enchiladas and I got chicken fajitas.

Then we drove home very happy and fulfilled from our day and spent time with Morgan and Jessie. We admired their new yard they just had landscaped, and covered a multiplicity of topics as we hung out inside. Lily and I had such an incredible time talking with them. At home, Lily and I played Wingspan until almost 1:00.

What an amazing day. Lily, I love you so much, and celebrating your birthday with you today was a major highlight for me. You are loving, fun, sweet, talented, crazy-smart, beautiful and deep. Thank you for being mine, for giving me your love, and for having such a special day with me!

Spa Day, Qualtrics Party and Family Photos

Today we got the photos from our family photo shoot back in May. Here are some highlights!

Also, today was the Qualtrics party. I took the kids while Lily enjoyed an evening at the Spa getting a facial and hot stone massage for her birthday. The highlight of the party was at the end when we got to dance to music while people threw chalk in the air. It was too loud for Clarissa so she sat on the side with Mary while Ammon, Lydia and I participated. I had a great time dancing, and Ammon was in heaven (see video’s below). My favorite video is of Ammon making chalk angels, lol!

Also, while I worked at home, Lily visited Jessie and Morgan and had one of the most fulfilling conversations she’s ever had in her life. She was so inspired by everything they shared with her and she came home and told me all about it!