Lily and I woke up and played wingspan and then we were invited to a delicious tea party that Lydia and the other kids put together!
In the afternoon, we got the kids items for their fairy gardens, and in the afternoon, I worked in the garden and then played with the kids on the trampoline. We played a super fun game that Lydia created where someone called out a scenario we had to act out on the trampoline one by one, and then that person would judge his/her favorite. It was so much fun!
Charlie and Brooklyn Miner got married today! Lily and I had a great time at the reception, and we particularly loved an engaging conversation about politics with Brad and Megan Miner. It was also super nice to see my dad, Suzanne and a lot of extended family we hadn’t seen in a while.
Today the kids played school together. It was very cute!
In the late afternoon, I went on a bike ride and fell in love with the majestic of Provo Canyon. The river was gushing from all the water we’ve gotten (it rained earlier today), and the waterfalls were amazing too. Amazing views were everywhere and I caught some pictures (including pictures of the flooded trail).
In the evening I hung out with Josh and Katie Jackson and learned about their growing slime business while Lily took the younger kids to the library while Lydia was at Parker’s party. I picked up Lydia on the way home.
Lily has been on a roll cooking a lot of amazing food lately. Today she made a delicious chicken dish, with an amazing salad of asparagus, radishes and dates. I ate so much! It appears she involved Clarissa in the cooking process too!
After having fun playing Boggle at the Olsen’s, Lily bought it for the family and Lydia, Mary, Lily and I have been having a lot of fun playing together!
I was in Chicago for a customer meeting today. I opted to walk to my appointment in the morning and I captured these great waterfront pictures.
Ozzy took his first steps recently and David sent me this adorable video!
Today we did a family bike ride by the Provo River trail and then we ate Subway in the park together.
After eating in the park, the Lydia wanted to walk home and practice being more independent, so she and Mary walked Basil home together. They took this cute video in the process.
Everyone, but me got a haircut today at Seasons and everyone looks great!
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.