Author: Abe Darais

Today we had dinner with our new friends from the Community of Christ, LeGrand, Rebecca and Tyler. Food was delicious and the company was so rich. They travel a lot for Tyler’s job. He runs a non-profit that builds and stocks libraries around the world. They just spent a month in Nepal. LeGrand is one of their friends who stays with them. We love them all so much and our kids had such a good time playing together as well:

Lately Clarissa has been waking up at night and transferring herself to the daybed. She is very cute in our daybed 🙂

Also, Mary has been attending Chemistry camp with her friend Isabel. Here is a video and some pictures from that experience:

https://youtube.com/shorts/hidU3mO5ejI?feature=share

After work, Lily and I celebrated her birthday at Grappa.

I got spaghetti (home-made noodles) and meatballs and Lily got eggplant parmesan. We sat outside and the weather was superb. Lily has been feeling fatigued from her sickness, but she rallied for our date and we had such a wonderful time together. We chatted a lot about different trips and family experiences we have shared.

After dinner, we walked up and down main street, and stopped into a bookstore where we browsed books for an hour and bought some as well.

I was so looking forward to the evening to get me away from work and have immersive time with my soul mate, and the evening was wonderful and nourishing for both of us. Happy Birthday Lily!

It is hard to describe how happy of a day today was for me, but I will try. I envision Father’s day months in advance and look forward to it with anticipation. Lily and the family are so amazing to always accommodate my desires on this special day for me.

First, I went on a bike-ride up South Fork canyon, and had a great time both on the easy parts, and pushing hard up the hill (especially sprinting at the end to try to get up under 20 minutes).

Then I went fly fishing. I didn’t catch anything, but I talked to Jay afterwards and learned a few principles about splitshot and nymphing that will come in handy next time.

Both fishing and biking were so amazing. The weather was perfect and I saw birds, rabbit, and deer. It does my soul so much good to be in nature. I was over the moon.

While I was doing those things, Lily walked Basil and met a new friend who showed her his yard. Here are a couple of pictures she took.

Here is a video I took while fishing: https://youtube.com/shorts/XgJ4xO1DWX4?feature=share

Then I took the car to the car wash and also vacuumed it out. Then I went home and cleaned the garage. Lily was working double-time to clean the house and make it nice for the family. We both made amazing progress on the home.

Then Lily and I spent almost two hours prepping for a Cobb salad that I have been craving for months. It was so fun to cook with her and everything came out PERFECTLY.

It was SO fun and hearthy to be surrounded by Lily, the kids, my dad and Suzanne, Georgia and Clark on fathers day. Conversation flowed, and it was so wonderful to talk and all be together. Everyone gorged themselves because of how delicious everything was.

Then we gorged ourselves again with frozen yogurt cake from Menchies (I ate so much).

Then my dad read Harry Potter to all of us. I have incredible memories with my dad reading to me when I was a kid (we read Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, Princess Bride, books from Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe series etc). It was so fun to all sit together while my dad read. It was super nostalgic and meaningful for me to relive that memory and of course Harry Potter is always just so fun to listen to.

After everyone left, Lily and I helped the kids get to bed, we cleaned up and chatted a lot with Clark. We learned about how well his job is going, and the really smart people he has on his team. They are building data systems and models to help the State of Washington manage their investments. He’s really doing a great job there, I can tell.

Also, at night, the kids gave me the sweetest (and biggest!) Father’s day card ever. I was so touched!

I honestly can’t imagine a better day. It’s really a testament to my family, that I could have such a happy day today. They not only support my alone time fishing and biking, but they filled my heart with joy all the time I was around them. I was so great to add Dad, Suzanne, Clark and Georgia to the mix and I’m especially grateful for Lily and all the work she did today to make it all happen.

I am so blessed!

Today I woke up early to finish work, do the budget and exercise. I then walked Basil with Ammon which was so fun. After that, Lily and I worked in the garden for 3-4 hours and got so many things planted. We both loved gardening together so much!

Also, Lily made the most incredible eggplant rollatini. It was so satisfying to eat it, and all together as a family. It tasted delicious and really hit the spot after all the gardening work.

After that, I showered and ran some errands. I took Ammon’s bike to the shop to have a new tire tube put on it, I bought nymnpths for fishing tomorrw, went to Harmons for Cobb salad ingredients and went to Menchies for ice-cream cakes. Lydia was with me the whole time and it was really fun to pal around with her.

At home, I helped put the little kids down and then I stayed up until almost 1AM packing for our upcoming Uinta trip (Mary dropped off around 10, and Lydia around 11). It was a great day of getting things done and also being with family.

Also, the kids played a lot together today. Here are some pictures and videos of them.

Clark arrived today to help be a support during this time when Georgia is going through surgery. It is so wonderful to have him in town. It was especially good timing because Lily was feeling sick today and needed rest. Lily dropped Georgia off for surgery super early in the morning (around 5:30) and then picked Clark up from the aiport. Then Clark arrived when Georgia’s surgery was finished and stayed with her until she was discharged and then had dinner with her at Kneaders and took her home.

I helped around the house and walked Basil until around noon and then I got really focussed on work and didn’t finish until after midnight (I’m still waking up early tomorrow to do some more). Lily took their kids to swimming at 11 and also made incredibly delicious potato leak soup. I loved it so much! She also got some much needed rest given she’s feeling sick.

I’m so glad that Georgia’s surgery was successful, and also for Clark’s support at this time. Thank you Swathi for lending him to us for the weekend!

Also, early in the day after our piano tuner left, I admired how Ammon was expressing emotions, stories, and things he was imagining through the piano. I took a video:

Lily was gone for much of this morning taking Georgia to the doctor’s office, and while I was working Lydia and Mary entertained Ammon and Clarissa by making cupcakes with them. Lily helped them with the frosting when she got home.

Later in the day, the kids had a lot of fun doing dog piles

Ammon also showed me the tent that he made:

We have really been enjoying some fun family moments this summer. Tonight we all reviewed past national park trips together from the blog while scratching them off the national parks mini-poster Lily bought. Also, Lily and I read a shortened version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. What a charming play!

Ammon and Clarissa fell asleep while we read (making them very easy to put to bed!).

Later in the night I took a video of Basil because I noticed the poor fellow had the hiccups:

Today my aunt Andrea came and spent time with the kids while Lily and I disappeared and worked on her resume. Lily is thinking of getting a job. Amazingly we found an old resume file (which helped so much!) and it was really fun to update it together.

When we were done, we saw the chalk drawings and hopscotch games that Andrea did with the kids. It was super fun visiting with her afterwards too. Thank you Andrea!

Work has been unusually stressful lately. I was already having what was looking to be one of the worst quarters of my career, and I got two new bits of bad news today. On top of that, a lot of our money is tied up in Qualtrics stock, and given the tech market has crashed, and I’m not making much commission, and I’m concerned about my career, we are feeling the stress.

This is not to be an alarmist. We are doing fine and certainly making ends meet. It is just extra challenging right now, and I’m working hard to stay positive and optimistic. I’ve been in sales long enough to know that things go up and down. Things will turn around. To help my stress, I took a walk on my break at work and enjoyed the rose gardens. Aren’t they lovely!

Back at home, the kids are having a perfect summer. Lydia made sock puppets for everyone, and they had a riot enjoying them.

Mary and Lily made delicious home-made applesauce.

Ammon and Clarissa instituted a calming closet (see video for details)

And I have to acknowledge that Lily worked insanely hard today. She folded a ton of laundry, reading practice with Ammon and Clarissa, ensured music practice happened, cleaned the house, including floors. I think she also exercised and did a lot more that I’m forgetting, but I just know she was constantly going. Thank you Lily for all you do to keep our home and family going!

Today was a super happy day for me. The day started with picking up Lydia and Mary from youth camp. I was delighted to learn that they had a great time and they want to go back in July for the reunion that whole families are invited to. I can’t wait!

When we got home, Lily and I worked on the house and then we hosted home-church.

I led a discussion about scripture, what it means to each person, how it manifests to each person, and what recent scripture people had been touched by. The discussion was so rich, including a folk-lore expert who explained that scripture often does not need to be written, because historically scripture/myth/folklore was communicated verbally, and once it is written, it’s frozen in time and future generations often can’t relate to it as well, not being connected to the time in which it was written. I thought that was fascinating. We explored the negative aspects to scripture (trying to control people), and the positive aspects to scripture (guiding during difficult times, comforting, inspiring) and what scripture means to each person. People shared that scripture could come from a therapist, a tv show, a friend, traditional scripture or even our own thoughts or words (reminding me of one of Lily’s poems). And I loved hearing about the recent things that inspired people lately. I had such a good time, and the group lingered almost an hour afterwards just chatting and bonding. I REALLY love my community of Christ people.

After church, we had Carla, who is our Pastor, and her husband Cuzma (spelling?), and their two kids over for dinner. It was so amazing to get to know them more. Carla has been a member of the Community of Christ her whole life and has been all over the world working for the church. Cuzma’s father was the first person in the Ukraine to join the community of Christ, and now there are 5 congregations there. Cuzma and Carla met in Missouri while going to the Community of Christ temple. Cuzma also had incredible perspectives on the war in Ukraine especially since he has parents who have been affected twice by the conflict (first in 2014 and now again in 2022).

After a delightful dinner, Lily and I crashed on the couch. I got up to get all my tomato cages and fertilizer set up and put the kids to bed, and Lily helped clean the kitchen and tuck kids in as well.

What a happy happy day!