I felt very fatigued and stressed today. But my view from work was amazing, and I absolutely loved playing basketball with Lydia and Mary in the evening. Lily has also been cooking a lot this week. The food has been delicious and I have really enjoyed having family dinners.
Today we woke up in Malibu. It was magical. We slept right on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. In the morning, Ammon and Clarissa played on the beach, even though it was cold.
We then went to the Beach Cafe at Paradise Cove after having eaten there yesterday. I was feeling sick. I wasn’t sure if it was from the seafood dinner the day before, getting sick (after being cold in Universal studios), or a combination of the two, so I didn’t eat much, but everyone had a really good time. Everyone loved the noodles straws they gave us, and the kids actually at them. While we were waiting for our food, I took Ammon and Clarissa to the doc to occupy them and give myself some air.
We then went to the Getty Villa. It was likely the highlight of Lily’s whole trip. The Getty is already her favorite museum, and she has never been to the Getty Villa. The story is that Mr. Getty was the united state’s first billionaire. He got his money from oil and he was devoted to the arts. He was especially interested in ancient collectables and so he built his villa to store his art collection. When he died, he made a stipulation in his trust that 4.7% of it had to go to advancing the arts every year. Eventually his trust got to be worth over 7 billion, and so the amounts of money that had to be contributed to the arts got to be very large (100s of millions). The trust couldn’t just purchase art with all that money (they would have actually disrupted the art market), so they used the money to build the Getty museum for which they transported beautiful travertine stone from Italy. Once the new Getty museum opened, the Villa shut down. But then they made improvements to the Villa and reopened it. Also, during Covid, so many museums were on hard times since people couldn’t visit them, and the Getty trust gave out a ton of money to different museums to help keep them afloat.
The villa is super thoughtful. It was built to represent an excavation site because much of it is meant to be a replica of one of the residences of the father in law of Julius Caesar, Piso (villa of Papyri) which was excavated during the life of Paul Getty. Paul modeled the buildings and the gardens after the villa of Papyri. As you walk up to the Getty, you approach it from the top, looking down into it as though it is an excavation site. I think the weeping stones in the fountain below creating the wet wall also represent the moisture in excavation sites. The plants in the gardens, the statues, even the buildings are all modeled after that villa which was located in Pompeii. The whole tour was so fascinating. We had a garden tour and Lydia and Mary entertained the little kids so Lily and I could really hone in on what was being said.
The beauty of the gardens reminded me and Lily of Vilandry.
After the garden tour, Lily and the two oldest girls had a tour involving sculptures and Greek mythology. Since I wasn’t feeling well, I hung out by the pond with Ammon and Clarissa.
Ammon and Clarissa were completely over the moon with the fish pond. The tour guide explained that in Ancient Rome, there were no fish in the pond, but some goldfish got in the Getty Villa pond at some point and then they grew into coy. Ammon and Clarissa spent a solid hour petting them, naming them, and telling anyone who would listen all about them (getting other visitors to pet them too). I was feeling ill and was zoning out on a nearby bench, but I couldn’t help, but to be delighted by the scene. Some of the fish names I think I remember are Goldy, Brownie, Princess Peach.
We had such a great time at the Getty Villa!
Then we had a long drive to San Carlos to stay with Jere. I think it was 6 hours or so. We didn’t bring devices on this trip and for the most part, we never gave the kids our phones. I’m very proud of how they entertained each other and themselves in the car. For example, here is Ammon turning his apple into a skeleton.
Today, Lily planned an outing for us to go to the La Brea tar pits. I had never heard of them, and the experience magical (one of kids and my favorite things from this trip). The La Brea tar pits are the only active urban tarpit excavation area in the world (they are in the middle of LA!). The tar pits are not actually tar. They are asphalt, a component of crude oil that was forced to the surface from cracks in the earth’s crust from deeper-lying oil reserves. About 10,000 years ago, these tarpits were the cause of death to thousands of animals. Scientists theorize that a mammoth or sloth would get stuck in the tar, and then predators could resist the temptation and would go to eat the mammoth or sloth and then get stuck themselves. So they have found a lot of predators (see the gallery of 400 dire wolf heads below). There aren’t any dinosaurs that were found because these fossils (well preserved in the asphalt) are more like 10,000-12,000 years old, but there are mammoths, mastodons, teratorns, huge sloths (some 20 feet tall), dire wolves, saber tooth tigers (twice the size of lions) and more. The museum came about when the oil tycoon who owned the fields in the 1800s donated the land to the government for scientific exploration and education when he discovered the fossils. What an amazing thing to do. It was fascinating! Also, we started our visit by watching an incredible video about the ice age and about global climate change generally. We learned that the last ice age ended around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago and that during the ice age, the planet was 16 degrees cooler Fahrenheit (on average). The earth has historically gone through ice ages and then come out of ice ages on a cycle. Human activity has now become part of the pattern of change.
After visiting the tar pits, we picked up aunt Geri and ate at Goldilocks, a Philippine restaurant, with her. It was so wonderful to visit with her and catch up on her life.
Afterwards we all visited the grave sites of Ben Llamzon, Lily’s dad, and his sister, Aunt V. We FaceTimed with Georgia so she could be part of the experience and we also talked about Ben and Aunt V. and their lives.
We then drove to Malibu and ate dinner at the Beach Cafe at Paradise Cove. Lily and I had a hard time deciding if we should splurge or not on the full seafood spread. Kids were chanting “lobster, lobster” and we took the plunge. It felt right given the moment, and our desire to create experiences together and the food was delicious and memorable. The cafe is very famous and has signed pictures on the wall of all sorts of celebrities.
We stayed the night at a home on stilts on a beach in Malibu. What a day!
Today Lily attended some end of year festivities at Foothill for Mary and Lydia. Mary was in a square dance:
And Lydia did Tinkling
Also, Clarissa had a tea party with her school friends, and it was the cutest thing ever. I’m so grateful Lily got these pictures when she picked her up!
Today Clarissa took a page out of the Harold and the Purple Crayon book and made her own adventure with a crayon. Here is a video of her telling us all about it:
Ammon and Clarissa played nicely together so much today. They built and played in a fort:
They also built and played in what Ammon called a “sleeper train””
They have such great imaginations and play so beautifully together!
Today was Lydia’s 6th grade graduation. I was feeling very crunched at work and did not go, but I am so glad that Lily got photos and a video. I am so proud of Lydia and who she is becoming. Just today a mother of one of her friends effused to Lily about how good of a friend Lydia is for her daughter. She has grown up right in every way and we couldn’t be more proud. It is also really fun to see Lydia’s classmates. Her friends at school have been very important to her and have been a huge part of her life this year. There are such wonderful people in her class and her teacher, Mrs. Mason is truly fantastic. Here’s to new adventures for Lydia!
Today we took Anooj to Arches National Park. We left our house by 9:30. The kids were enchanted with Anooj and his gentle and joking personality (he told Ammon that his name was also Ammon). Lily and I had a great time talking to Anooj on the way to Arches. We arrived around 1:50, which was just in time for our reservation. On the way down and in the park we were blown away by the mega bloom of orange flowers. We’ve never noticed the orange flowers before, and that is because there has never been so many of them when we visited. I’m sure the bloom was due to all the moisture Utah got over the winter and into the spring.
First we went to Park Avenue for a quick viewpoint. Then we went to the Windows and Double Arch. The kids had such a blast climbing all around the rocks, especially at Double Arch. Here is video of Ammon giving me a tour of their cave house (which has a slide):
While we were at Double Arch, a lady I met effused at Ammon and Clarissa’s imaginative play. She gushed and told me that watching them be so excited and imaginative with nature was a highlight of her entire trip to Arches. That sweet comment was a very nice counterpoint to man who only 3 minutes earlier yelled at Ammon and Clarissa to be quiet (which they didn’t hear because they were loudly absorbed in their play).
After Double Arch, we saw some viewpoints, including the lower viewpoint for Delicate Arch (so that Anooj could see the Arch that is on Utah’s license plates).
Then we went to Pasta Jays, and it was so delicious as always (and they were extra fast and friendly this time!). Then we got ice cream and drove home. We hope this day left an impression in Anooj’s heart for the natural beauty and warmth that we have found so inspirational in Southern Utah. He was the most gracious guest and a true joy to have with us for the day. The kids were also very well-behaved for our guest and we were so grateful for that. They were also very well behaved for pictures yesterday, and we are feeling especially grateful for all of them lately! We got in around midnight after dropping Anooj off in Salt Lake. What a great day!
Today we all went biking on the Provo River trail near Utah Lake. Clarissa continues to progress with biking!
We then had a Subway picnic at a pavilion at Utah Lake. Lily had her bird app and it was very fun to see the App tell us what birds were chirping, and we got a really good look at a beautiful Grackle. Lydia and Mary were very unhappy with the big situation, but otherwise it was a good time.
I then planted a tree while Lily did some last minute shopping with Lydia and Mary for our family photos, and then I worked on the computer, and everyone got ready for family photos (with lots of help from Lily, thank you babe!)
We had family photos at Little Dell Reservoir. Suzanne organized everything, and it was such a beautiful location. All of the kids cooperated (even Ozzy) and we all had such a good time being together in the beautiful weather. The photographer was great too! We continued the party at Spitz where we ate together. Lily and I felt very happy at the end of the day with how enjoyable everything was.
