Abe Darais – Page 45

Happy Birthday Georgia!

Happy Birthday Georgia! Today, we celebrated Georgia’s 78th birthday! We had a wonderful time having her over today. Lily made a fancy German Pancake Breakfast, and then Georgia spent time with the family. I came up from work around noon to help finish the Cobb salad Lily made and grill the chicken. The BQQ chicken Cobb salad is one of my all time favorite dishes and it was so fun to share it with Georgia. Lily also marinated the chicken deliciously, and we had some yummy spicy sauce for those interested.

Georgia, we love you and we are so grateful we could share this day with you. You have faced your challenges with grace and courage, and you continue to bless our family with love, kindness and your smile. Happy Birthday!

When I took Georgia home, I was delighted to find that Legacy Village (her care center) had won the “Best of State” award, and it made me very happy to feel affirmed that Georgia is in a good place. I also loved how the people at the front desk exploded with happy birthday wishes when I walked in with Georgia, and when she got back to her area, they had cake already for her and every sang happy birthday and she blew out candles. I got it on camera.

Also, in the evening, Ammon built a magnetite creation that he was very proud of.

This is the Place, Mercantile, Cascade Springs

Today I took the day off of work and spent time with the family in Salt Lake. We also had Lizzie along which was so fun! First we ate Spitz together in Sugarhouse Park.

Then we all went to “This is the Place Park”. We checked out the monument first and then all the kids panned for gold and searched for gemstone in the fake sand while Lily and I relaxed.

Then, for a date, Lily and I went to the Mercantile restaurant in Heber. We had a difficult time emotionally together and I think it is because of all of the stress we have both been under. We walked around Cascade Springs and the beauty was wonderful. We were both feeling better the next day, but this night was quite difficult for us.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Today I made an oatmeal breakfast for everyone and then we broke camp and saw Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was a remarkable canyon and is the most remarkable canyon in the US when one takes into considerations narrowness, steepness and depth.

We were blown away by the views and excited to get another National Park checked off the list. That was the last remaining park we hadn’t seen that was within 10 hours of our home. We then drove the 6 hours to make home in time to watch fireworks. And there were so many fireworks all around us! There were neighbors setting off fireworks and a lot of public shows we could see near the lake from our view. I stood outside with the Lydia and Ammon (the usual firework lovers) and chatted with neighbors while enjoying the show for a good 45 minutes. The weather was perfect as we watched fireworks (as it was the whole time in Black Canyon of the Gunnison) and it was a really pleasant 4th of July evening. Lily even made a peach cobbler to boot!

Heaven on Earth (ie camping)

One of my favorite things on earth is camping with my family. It doesn’t make much sense why it makes me so happy, especially when one considers how much work is involved, but still, for some reason I can’t explain, I love every second of being in nature, and camping with my family. Everyone enjoyed today, but most especially Basil :).

We started driving at the end of my work day and made it to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim campground around 7PM. We had plenty of day light to put up the tent, set up sleeping bags and mats and cook dinner. I really enjoy cooking while camping, and Lily did such an amazing job on the tinfoil dinners (she used halloumi cheese, it was so good!). After dinner, we ate banana boats. After dinner, I hung out by the fire alone for a while just to be with nature, my thoughts and the campfire (while everyone else went to bed) and it was very peaceful and good for my soul.

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.