Today I was very busy working and getting things in a good place before my trip with Lily tomorrow.
Lily and the kids had a play-date with Amy and her kids. For the play-date, Lily put out an incredible cheeseboard etc spread which was absolutely delicious.
I also caught a picture of Lily reading with Ammon later in the evening.
Today I slept in and blogged while Lily put major effort into cleaning the house in preparation for us to leave and my dad and Suzanne to babysit the kids here. Then I helped her while we listened to church together. Brittany Mangleson gave a great sermon lamenting the recent shooting, and inspiring me to focus on peace and what matters most this season.
Then Lily worked out while I did more odds and ends, and then we drove to my mom’s house for our Thanksgiving dinner with her. She had a wonderful spread of steelhead trout, prime rib, salad, green beans, yams, rolls and mashed potatoes with gravy. For desert she had rhubarb and peach pie with ice cream. David and Olivia were leaving as we arrived (we were running late), but it was fun to see them. It was so fun to chat with my mom, Jay, and Jere and the food was so good. We chatted about a book Jere has been reading about the era of the Spanish Armada and we also talked about how gravity does not exist (but the curvature of spacetime does), which is one of my favorite topics. We got on the topic of our old dogs Lucy and Ethel, and Jay told the story that when Ethel was put down, he was waiting with Lucy in the car, and she started to bark. When my mom arrived at the car 10-15 minutes later, Jay asked how long ago they put Ethel down and it seemed to be the exact time Lucy started barking. Those dogs were very special to me, and they also had a very special bond with each other. We also talked about the house two doors down that my mom is under contract for, their new paint in the front room that looks really nice, as well as other life updates.
One life update is that my mom just got braces! It was so fun to get a picture of her next to Lydia!
Then the house started smelling like poop. To our great dismay, we learned that Basil had found poop to roll in and it was all over his body. His rolled in poop before, but this eclipses all of his other poop rolling situations. It was all over him. We didn’t know what to do. Finally, we threw him in a shower, and I just stripped down and got in the shower with him and scrubbed him and scrubbed him and scrubbed him with 3 or 4 shampoos. Even then, I was worried if I got it all, but he smelled good at the end of it all, so it worked out.
After that, we went to visit my grandma. She is not very happy where she is staying as says they are not taking good care of her. The family is looking to move her into a new facility. But she is still doing much better than she was when she first moved in and had her UTI. It was very fun to visit with her while she at the dinner my mom brought over for her. We told stories about childhood trips Jere, David and I went on with mom, like four corners and Angels landing, and all just had a fun time chatting.
On the drive home, we listened to the Sia Christmas album which is Amazing. At home we let the kids hang candy canes on the tree, and then we all cuddled while listening to Christmas music. It was divine.
We then put the kids down, and I looked everywhere for my wallet. I hadn’t seen it in a day, and I was starting to get worried. The more I looked, the more difficult it was to not let worry creep in. I even went to target to check their lost and found. After about an hour of searching, I found it in the crack of the couch cushion. I don’t know how it got there. That couch is very mysterious. We lifted only two cushions before finding my wallet and there was also a full magazine, cards, money and other lost items. I just don’t get how it gobbles things up so mercilessly. Anyway, I’m so glad my wallet was found!
Then Lily and I decompressed over season 2 of “Yellowstone” and that was a ton of fun. I’m nervous about how heavy of a workday tomorrow is, but these last four days were heavenly.
Today started with Ammon taking a cute video of the sunrise.
Lily and I had a slow start today, but once we got rolling, we went running together again. We even did some sprinting which was a lot of fun. When we got home, we got all ready to go get our tree. We told the kids to dress warm and Clarissa put on four dresses. We changed her out of them, but it was a cute idea.
Once everyone was ready, we went to Sun River Gardens to get our Christmas tree. At home, we broke out all the decorations and got to work.
Lily put out fruit, crackers and cheese which made a delectable dinner. I couldn’t get enough of the goat cheese.
We put Ammon and Clarissa down earlier in the evening, and finished up the decorations after they went down. It was a lot of work, and afterwards all four of us relaxed on the couch and enjoyed our work while listening to Christmas music. Then I had some time with just me and Lily.
Here is a tour of our decorations that is having trouble embedding: https://youtube.com/shorts/_TMIiC5MT88
What fun to kickoff the Christmas season!
Happy Thanksgiving! Today was a truly happy day in our home. Lydia certainly caught the Thanksgiving spirit and she made a scavenger hunt for the younger kids that involved notes she had us all write that complimented others in the family, and a turkey named Turkey Tom. She made such creative magic for her siblings.
To reciprocate Lydia’s scavenger hunt, Mary also made a scavenger hunt for Lydia. It was very cute to see them trying to solve the clues.
Below are the clues and compliments (that scavenger hunters would find) from the activities this morning:
After that, Lydia choreographed an entire dance routine with Mary and Ammon! See below! They would later perform this dance for our Thanksgiving guests.
Meanwhile Lily was hard at work preparing for Thanksgiving. For some of the items, she started preparing yesterday. And today she was a true soldier, making dish after dish, happily. Even though it was a lot of work, she was enjoying herself, and she loved listening to Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield while she cooked. I spent the day helping her with preparations.
And here are the results of what she made! Only the turkey gravy, stuffing and green bean casserole were from Harmon’s. Everything else was made from scratch!
For desert we had pumpkin pie from Costco (our favorite! Thanks dad and Suzanne!), chocolate cake from Magleby’s (So good! Thanks Georgia!), pecan pie from harmons, and a beautiful apple pie that Lily and Mary made yesterday. We had ice cream to go with the deserts.s
We had such a good time with our guests. Present were David, Olivia and Oslo, my dad and Suzanne, Jere and Georgia. Conversation and laughter flowed, and a really good time was had by all. It was fun learning about everyone’s life updates and we got some good laughs hearing about the old children’s songbook that David is playing songs from on their piano. Back in the days, not all kid’s songs were very kid friendly, lol.
After David and Olivia left, Suzanne and my dad played Apples to Apples with the kids.
Then Mary, Lydia and Ammon played music pieces for everyone.
We chatted until late. It was hard to say good-bye to everyone on this truly happy day.
Lily said this might have been her favorite Thanksgiving ever. Also, I drove Georgia home, and she was glowing, and spontaneously mentioned how happy she felt. She almost didn’t think she would make it, but a medicine she took helped her to feel better, and then she spent 5 hours with us feeling good. We all had such a great time. Lily, thank you for hosting such magic as you always do, and guests, thank you for coming and bringing your magic to our home. It was a great, great time!
I am daily getting more and more burnt out from work, but I was delighted to learn today that our friend Dean Richardson was not only in town, but also available for dinner. He picked up Georgia and we had the most wonderful time together. We shared fun stories and updates about our lives and families. The food was delicious, and we all enjoyed Mary’s brownies for desert. It was also so nice to see Georgia. It was just the pick-me-up I needed after feeling buried in work and stress.
After dinner, I helped Lily clean up and then went to Harmon’s for a turkey. Lily worked on an apple pie with Mary and Ammon and Lydia had fun dancing. I’ll be working late, but I can’t wait to be done so I can enjoy Thanksgiving break!
Lately, Clarissa has enjoyed going in Basil’s crate:
Also, Lily hosted her last TSOS internship meeting of the semester tonight. I only catch snippets through the door to the office, and hear her debrief afterwords, but I can tell that she has really made something special out of this internship. She has built a syllabus (when there was none), coordinated guest speakers, managed selection of interns, managed coordination with interns, and led the weekly meetings. She’s has repeatedly received feedback from both interns and leadership of TSOS that the program is impactful, inspiring, and well-run. Before she jumped in, the internship program looked nothing like what it looks like today. I am so proud of the work Lily has done.
Work is starting to get very stressful for me, and it was such a joy to pull out of work stresses at 5PM and join the Friendsgiving that Lily put on for us to have with Amy and her family. We have such a good time with them always, and Lily’s food was incredible.
While Lily did final preparations, Amy read A Cranberry Thanksgiving to all of the kids. They all look very engaged.
Not only did Lily bake two loaves of cranberry bread from the recipe from the book Amy read, but she also made the following from scratch: fresh cranberry topping, sweet-potato with marshmallow, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, Brussel sprouts, and an apple pie. I’m sure I’m forgetting something that she made, but it was all delicious. The stuffing and green bean casserole from Harmons and the Tofurkey loaf from Trader Joe’s were also very good.
For desert we had Lily’s apple pie, a pecan pie from the store and brownies that Mary made. The brownies were a complete hit, and there were repeated requests for seconds, thirds and beyond.
We had such a good time with Amy and her family. Conversation flowed, the kids had a great time and it was a very happy evening.
The big headline for today is that Ammon lost his second of his two front teeth today!
Today was a very sluggish, but sweet day. Lily started out strong and ran with Basil, and I slept in which was delicious. Then I finished blogging for our trip while Lily worked in the kitchen preparing for our Friendsgiving with the Flakes tomorrow. I came up around 11:00 from my computer and then we listened to church. The sermon was about trying to be cairns (rock piles) for people in this world, meaning guides that make peoples lives better. There was a business meeting after the sermon and a new pastor, Brittany Mangelson, was nominated and voted in. We love Brittany and are very excited. It’s bitter/sweet because we also adore our old pastor Carla and we are sad that she is leaving in May.
After church, Lily and I took turns, working in the kitchen, feeling tired and taking baths. The kids had their share of screens today, which we didn’t mind since we had confiscated the devices for months prior to this weekend.
Lily worked in the kitchen more and also helped Mary bake brownies while I went to Harmons for groceries. We had rotisserie chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and leftovers for dinner as well as an incredible fruit crumble that Lily made (with vanilla ice-cream). It was a feast.
In the evening, Lily, Lydia and I finished this amazing puzzle that we got from Suzanne. We loved it!
The older girls also helped me clean the upstairs. I also cleaned the kitchen. Lily went to bed early because she was tired and not feeling the best from all her labors of the day (see below) as well as the fact that she thinks she overdid it a bit on her exercise this week and it’s catching up to her. It was a good day!
We were all not really thinking about the Petrified forest after yesterday’s scare, but Lily researched the roads, and the safest way home was going right by the forest, so we kept our original plan to see the forest. And I’m so glad we did!
We started in the visitor’s center, and the kids had a great time digging for dinosaur bones in a display they had.
After the visitor’s center, we walked along a path just outside of it.
Then we all saw an amazing video that taught us about the park and in the gift shop, Lily bought a silver ring with petrified wood, and each of the kids got a piece of petrified wood. Then we explored the park further. We hiked a path called the Crystal Forest. One of my favorite parts was jogging on it with Lydia and Mary. We also got some amazing pictures.
Also, there was this amazing sign at the end of the trail that succinctly described how the wood petrifying process happens. So interesting!
Then we took a scenic drive on what was (I think) called the blue mesa trail loop. Here are some pictures:
We then drove to the Painted Desert and ate in the car in a parking lot (since it was cold and windy outside). Thank goodness for Lily’s foresight to buy lunch in advance from Whole Foods!
On the way out, we saw a famous Route 66 Inn that was refurbished and then we hit the I-40 (used to be Route 66) and headed East to 191. Once we hit 191, it was miles and miles and miles of this until about an hour before hitting the Utah/Arizona boarder:
Lily and processed the near disaster more together. I thought of going over the Price Canyon pass so we could get home at a decent time, and Lily was upset that I considered that without researching it first given what we had just experienced the day before (and the fact that she suggested that we always research passes going forward). She was right and I felt awful. I had not fully internalized the lessons I needed to learn from yesterday. I did a lot of thinking on the ride home and later codified some new family rules to help us be safe in the winter.
North of home October through April, and south of home November through March:
1. No overnight trips will be planned
2. No summits will be crossed unless specific summit is explicitly researched and it is confirmed that driving conditions are predicted to be good at time of driving. (I later played around with the UDOT app that makes it really easy to research Summits, and it is awesome.)
3. No highways without stoplights or interstates will be traveled unless it is reasonable to believe skies and roads will be clear.
Lily did research the pass and found that it was OK, so we went over it, but not before stopping at (arguably) our all-time favorite family restaurant, Pasta Jays!!
We also enjoyed listening to Stardust in the car and I pulled into our house right around midnight.
We were very very very grateful to be home safe and sound.
Saturday morning was blissful. The kids spent their final time with the bunnies before it was time for me to return them.
Lily did yoga while I ate breakfast with the kids and my dad and Suzanne.
Then Mary joined my dad and Suzanne for the Grand Sanctuary tour where they were driven around in a shuttle for 90 minutes and told all about the sanctuary. Mary said multiple times that experience with Baps and Bappa was one of her favorite parts of her birthday Kanab trip.
After Mary left with Baps and Bappa, I returned the bunny and dropped of Lily, Lydia and Clarissa to join Mary, Baps and Bappa for the pig and goat tour. I then went back to the hotel to load everything in the car, and joined the end of the tour with Ammon. That worked out because Ammon seemed to get sickest after he’s on his feet and exerts too much. Mary loved the pigs. Here are some pictures and a video!
These are potbelly pigs related to Vietnamese potbelly pigs (I guess it’s hard to be sure of any purebred Vietnamese pigs anymore so they just call them potbellies). They used to allow pig sleepovers, but the pigs caused too much damage. Pigs need an acre or so to roam around and be active, and if they are indoors, their hyper-activity turns to destroying things. They are so cute!
We also enjoyed the goats!
Then we all had a delicious vegan lunch at the sanctuary. It was so fun to chat, and my dad was amazed by the jack-fruit in the Mexican-themed lunch. We all love that lunch so much and our bodies just feel good afterwards from all the vegetables. My dad and Suzanne brought gifts for Ammon for his birthday too, and he loved them!
And thus concluded the heaven portion of our day.
After saying good-bye to my dad and Suzanne, we hit the road where we had a hotel booked in Flagstaff. The plan was to stay the night there and then swing through the Petrified Forest on the way home the next day.
I haven’t mentioned this yet, but it was very cold in Kanab. Highs were in the 40s and at night I think it was in the 20s or lower. Temperatures were similar as we were driving south to Flagstaff. We hit very light snow at a couple of points, but nothing that stuck. Then, about 10 miles south of the Utah-Arizona boarder we started climbing a summit. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it might be marble canyon.
The whole way up the roads were clear, except near the very top, I started to see a couple of snow-patches. It was not actively snowing. I slowed the car to be safe, but did not expect at all what was waiting for me around the next bend. Just after crossing the summit, I turned a corner, probably going 35, and right in front of me was 100 feet of snowy ice. There was a truck pulling a horse trailer 50 feet to the left and in front of me that was stuck on the side of the road. I gently hit the brakes so I wouldn’t break into a skid, and gradually pressed them more firmly to try to control my stop. While I was doing that, I started sliding directly towards the truck. I did the mental math and calculated that we would hit the truck. No one wold get hurt. I’d probably hit it going 3-5 miles an hour and we’d both have some body damage that I would be responsible for. As we slowly slid towards the truck, the car jolted to a stop a foot and a half from the truck. I couldn’t believe it. What a blessing! Since we were now in the middle of the road, and not sure how we would drive without sliding right into the truck, I got out of the car, also telling our kids to get out of the car. Then the near nightmare happened.
At this point, I had stepped out of the car and Lily was still in the car and we looked behind us (Lily using the mirrors). Coming at us at about 30-40 miles per hour was an 18-wheeler I had recently passed. It had hit the ice and was sliding towards us. The whole trailer was diagonal and taking up the whole road as it slid towards us. Lily and I processed what was happening in the exact same way. Our mental math told us that the truck would not stop in time, that it would ram straight into our beautiful family and that this was the end. We started screaming at the kids to stay in the car thinking that if they were in the process of exiting, that would be much more dangerous than if they were in their seats when they got hit. Then, the truck came sliding to a stop and stopped about 8 feet from our car. I don’t know if the trailer going diagonal helped the truck slide to stop, especially since the back of it seemed to be catching on a snowbank. I don’t know if the driver was particularly skilled and he navigated the situation with expert precision. All I know is Lily and I though our kids were all going to die, and us with them, and it was the scariest moment of both of our lives, without any competition.
Both of the truck drivers were exceptionally kind. Our kids sat in the heated truck pulling the horse trailer while we figured out what to do. We couldn’t go back (even though that is what we wanted to do because we were so scared and shook up) because we’d have to turn around and try to go up the ice sheet and also, the semi was completely blocking the road. The people with us (who barely fit between our car and the truck pulling the horse trailer) helped push our care away from the truck pulling the horse trailer while I slowly put on the gas. This aimed us correctly and we finished going down the canyon at a very, very slow pace.
We heard that the road was soon shut down. Multiple people were stuck up there. It was a complete mess. Lily and I were both dealing with it in our own way. Lily was balling and highly traumatized. She was also upset at me for not being more assertive about our family’s safety and her anger was warranted. She is the beating heart of our family, and she had almost just witnessed putting her treasures through horrific pain, and losing everything. Also, she had mentioned concerns about driving to Flagstaff because she knew there could be snow there and I didn’t feel worried.
I was focused on just getting us to Flagstaff, and frankly not processing much else in the moment. Lily studied a map, and we had no better, safer alternative than to just follow our original plan. I was very, very quiet on the way to Flagstaff and just laser focused on getting the family there safely. When we finally got into our hotel and we got the kids down, I broke down. I talked with Lily, but I also spent a lot of time alone. I processed all the emotions of almost putting my kids and Lily through tremendous pain and death, of almost losing them all. Of the fact that I just didn’t take the risks of winter driving seriously enough and how that was my fault. It all hurt tremendously, and yet, the gratitude and relief I felt was also immense. It was a very emotional night. I thought very hard about what lesson I could take away from this. I concluded that planning trips in winter months is just a bad idea. It takes so much effort to organize and plan everything that even if weather is bad, it will be too tempting to try to go, even if weather is bad, and in winter is too often bad. So I concluded that south of our home, we will not plan any overnight driving trips November-March, and North of our home, we will not plan any overnight driving trips October-April. We might do something last-minute if we confirm the roads are perfect, but we are done with planning winter-driving trips in advance. After time alone, I joined Lily for bed.
This is a video I took at a dinner restaurant in Flagstaff called Wildflower Bread Company. I was just feeling so shook up and grateful that the kids were alive and I just started videoing them while we waited for food.