Author: Abe Darais

Thursday morning we woke up and went straight to Manhattan via the Newark airport shuttle, the airport air-train, and the rail-link to Penn-station.

All the kid played so sweetly while we waited for the rail-link.

https://youtube.com/shorts/FcFqs7R5w3s?feature=share

When we got out at Penn Station, I realized we were close to the SAP Hudson yard office where I just worked two weeks ago when I was in New York. I emailed the receptionist to see if I could take my family to the 52nd floor observation deck, and she immediately arranged it. I was so grateful. It was an incredible view and also free!

We then walked to our boat tour of New York. I helped Clarissa who still has a hard time walking long distances, well actually short distances sometimes too. Someday she might be too big for me to be carrying her……well, ok, maybe that day has already happened….but I’m still doing it……

The boat tour was amazing. I think we were most amazed by how beautiful the statue of liberty is. It’s so big, and the green is just stunning. We also loved the French connection since we were to leave to France the next day and the French gave the statue to the United States as a gift.

I also loved getting a great view of the One World Trace Center building. The tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (though I feel like it’s cheating a bit with that massive spire). It’s so neat that it’s height is 1,776 feet.

After the boat tour we ate pizza and rainbow cake at Carlo’s bakery. Then Lily got us tickets to the Rise exhibit and ride all about New York. we learned so much and the ride was soooo fun. The kids reported that the Rise ride was their favorite thing for the whole New York day.

After Rise, we went to Central Park and rented bicycles. We biked all around Central Park as a family. That was my favorite part of the whole day. At first, Clarissa was really scared and uncomfortable on the bike and refused to pedal (she just clutched the handle-bars tightly and said she was scared). But you will see in the videos below that she soon warmed up to the whole idea.

We got sweaty, thirsty and hungry from our ride so we had dinner at Pret-a-manger and then got ice cream from a street vendor.

We then made it to the airport to catch our red eye flight. It boarded later than expected and we spent a long time waiting in line. The kids dropped like flies.

But we eventually made it on and slept (some more deeply than others) our way to Paris.

Today we arrived to the airport on time to catch our plane to New York. Dad and Suzanne agreed to pick up our car from short-term parking to take it to their house for free parking (thank you!!).

We were in Newark by around 5:30, and to our hotel by 6:30. I swam with Ammon, Clarissa and Lydia until almost 8 while Lily and Mary had a dinner date together, and then I ate food Lily ordered in the hotel with the kid who swam. I ate sooooo much pizza and a delirious salad.

Lily is one of the most knowledgeable people I know, and it is because she is always pouring education into her mind. For the past several day (including today) she has been listening to Sam Harris podcasts on two-speed. She’s been sharing some with me to, and I also quite love him. We got our Covid tests today (preparatory to the trip) and listened to Sam Harris in the car to and from the tests. I focused on getting my work wrapped up by 6ish (which I did), and then Lily and I packed until late to get everything ready to go. Lily did the lion share of EVERYTHING. I mostly packed myself, cleared the car our, loaded luggage, and handled the electronics. Lily did literally everything else, and packed everyone’s clothes, got all our tickets and itinerary details together and not to mention she planned the whole trip and made all the reservations (which is a ton of work). I’m soooo grateful for all Lily has done to make this trip a reality. Thank you Lily!

Today Amy and her kids came over for a play-date and dinner. I worked until late at night, but came up for an hour and a half to eat with people, chat and help clean a little. It was such a welcome break! Lily made the most incredible veggie lasagna. I also had so much fun talking with Lily and and Amy. I felt thoroughly refreshed as I went back to the basement to continue getting my work in a good spot to leave for Europe.

Also, we had watermelon with our dinner and Ammon and Mary took great care to make sure it got home safe (see below):

Today I worked until 12:30 PM and then I joined Lily in the efforts to prepare for home-church in the afternoon. Lily invited a lot of friends to attend and offered to have anyone over for dinner afterwards. Attendance was amazing (probably around 12 adults and about the same amount of kids). The lesson was on the Trinity and it evolved into a discussion about how different people understand God. It was a beautiful and enriching discussion. For dinner, Lily made the most wonderful lasagna.

After church, people stayed, ate and chatted until almost 8. We had such a good time. I feel so happy when I’m around our beloved friends, and I’ve also noticed Lily being extra happy lately with all the hosting.

The kids have seemed very happy too (see Mary’s video below). It has just been a really happy summer.

I was so tired after hosting that I lay passed out on the couch while Lily was productive and cleaned and facilitated the kid watching fireworks. I eventually roused myself to help her. What a great day. It completely took me away from the stresses of work, and I felt kinship with other people who understand God as a mystery, but have deep desires include God in their lives.

Today I woke up and got a little work done in the morning and then I took the kids to the Darais pool party. I LOVE the Darais pool party at my cousin Christina’s house. They have a great pool and I get to catch up with so many lovely family members that I haven’t seen in a little while. The kids had a blast seeing family and doing dives off the diving boards (except Clarissa who was too scared).

We spent 5 hours and 45 minutes at the party. We had a lot of fun, ate great food and had a lot of sun. Everyone except Mary slept on the ride home.

At home, I set up our basement oven so that Lily could cook the lasagnas for the dinner we are hosting tomorrow. While I was at the pool party with the kids, Lily was home cooking like crazy to get prepared.

Then I took Mary to a work activity at the Qualtrics suite at the Real Salt Lake game.

It was so fun to spend the evening with Mary. There was great conversation with my work colleagues, a fun soccer game to watch, fun food for Mary to eat (I already was full), and an awesome fire-work show at the end. Here are the fireworks we saw:

At home, Lily had a wonderful time sitting on our front steps and watching fireworks with the other kids. Happy early 24th of July!!

Today all the kids had swim lessons. Except Clarissa did not want to get in the water because it would mean that she needed to take off her new wings from Claire’s lol. Lily obliged. I love this picture so much LOL.

I was able to pull away from work at 4:15 and bike South Fork canyon with my good friend Daniel Olsen. I needed the ride so much and loved every second of it. I also almost ran into a wild turkey that struggled to get out of my way in time (thank goodness for brakes!).

In the evening Lydia babysat (thank you so much Lydia!!) and Lily and I went to Block restaurant with Daniel and Amanda. We love hanging out with them so much and after dinner we went to their house for brownies that Daniel made.

When we came home, we saw that Lydia had cleaned the kitchen. She did it while listening to How to Train Your Dragon. She is such a gem!

I promised Lydia and Mary a trip to Build-a-Bear based on some good behavior about a month ago. Today it was time for me to deliver. When we arrived at Build-a-Bear, we noticed that it closed early due to staffing shortages. Instead, Lily was satisfied to go to Claire’s.

Clarissa loved Claire’s with every fiber of her being. For ten minutes she ran around excitedly saying things like, “I want this Tiara! No wait, I want to find the thing I love the very most!” “Look at this Elsa braid! No wait, I want to find the thing I love the very most!” etc etc. She was absolutely in heaven. She had such a hard time picking her “thing she loved the very most” that she even switched out her selection when I was in line to pay. She eventually settled on a kit containing fairy wings, a wand and a tiara. She was over the moon and wore her wings immediately after purchase. They broke ten minutes later while waiting for Lily to pick us up, and she cried. When I said we would return them, she ran with great energy back to Claire’s. I was exhausted and trailed her a good 30 paces calling out to her where to turn (she had no idea where she was going).

She then picked out a different set of wings and a wand that she loved even more. It was sooooooo cute.

Lily cleaned the car while we had our adventure. Thank you Lily!

Today Lily and the kids had a really fun play-date with Sarah and her kids.

I was in the office today for QBRs with my team. I loved having everyone together! I’m really high on my team right now. I think they will do great things this year, and they are super fun to hang out with. After our QBRs, we all went to Smoking Apple and then we went paintballing.

The group was mixed on desire to paintball, but most of the group stayed for it. Most people ended up having a really good time, and everyone got a good laugh when Ryan (who suggested paintball) got hit in the privates really hard with a paintball at the end. He reacted very dramatically (he was in a lot of pain) and everyone felt very sorry for him, but we were also laughing our heads off. It’s great to have a good belly-laugh!

We had the most wonderful picnic for dinner with Carly and Nathaniel Hall at Big Springs park. We haven’t seen them in a very long time (maybe since before we moved) and we instantly connected like old times. We love them so much and we were astounded to see their daughter Olivia do a double-back hand-spring.