Author: Abe Darais

Today was a super happy summer day. I woke up and did the budget and then I exercised with my 500 workout (more like a 276 lol). After that, Lily and I took Ammon and Clarissa to the Scera swimming pool It was a gorgeous 96 degree day that was perfect for swimming. While Lily swam laps, I took Ammon and Clarissa to the different water features, to the water slide, the lazy river and even the diving board (Ammon can do flips off of it!). I also played a fun game involving chasing a bad guy that Ammon made up. I felt good, and the whole thing was so fun, and it was delicious to get all of that sun.

At home, Lily and I showered ourselves and the kids and then tidied the house for a little bit. Then we took Ammon and Clarissa to Summerfest.

I got really woosey on the tornado (above) and was grateful the next ride (below) was a lot more mellow.

After enjoying the different rides, we got the kids corn dogs and snow cones. Within minutes, Clarissa and Ammon’s snow cones were dripping right through their cheap paper cups, making a mess and making them very hard to eat (by the end Ammon’s had a giant hole at the bottom, which I’m sure he helped create). I went back to the snow-cone stand and asked for two more cones because the liquid was leaking right through and the lady told me that she cannot give me another cone because they take inventory and they can’t give out any extras. I just walked away because I could feel myself getting unnecessarily angry. After cooling off, I brought a dripping cone with me as evidence and pleaded for more cones so my kids could actually eat them properly. Her supervisor was standing there and allowed her to give me two one cent cups. Lol. Wow. I work for Qualtrics, and we help companies provide good customer experiences. That certainly was not one, but it does make for a good chuckle when I think back on it. The lady was simply trying to do her job, so I definitely don’t fault her.

While the kids ate, we watch a super entertaining production by a group of youth singers and dancers. They even performed a song from “Newsies!”

Then Lily dropped of me, Ammon and Clarissa to walk in the Summerfest Parade to represent Arches. Because we were number 70 in the procession, we waited an hour in the heat (almost 100 degrees) waiting for our turn to get going. While waiting Ammon and Clarissa were mesmorized by some people in costumes that were representing a haunted house. The talked and talked and talked about them even the next day.

Finally when things got moving Ammon and Clarissa had so much fun walking and passing out candy to people. I face timed Lily in and she was so amused watching these adorable little kids engage with the crowds of people.

After the parade, Clarissa started to cry and said it was so fun that she didn’t want it to end. And later when I asked her if going to the parade was more fun than staying home and watching TV she said, “a little.” Lol, I guess TV is a close second to a parade and also worth crying over (which we have also witnessed).

At any rate, we ended the day at Zuppas with Lily (who picked us up), and overall we just felt super super satisfied at a day full of family, fun, and outdoors, and very few, if any, screens. What a great summer day!

Today, Lily dropped of Lydia and Mary at youth camp for the Community of Christ. It is at Red Cliffe campsite in Hunstville. Lily said the camp area was darling. I hope they have a great time!

This summer has been a lot of fun already. Today there was gardening, crafting and lego play. Hooray for summers!

OK, so this is way too much information, but I had a lot of extremely smelly gas last night at bed time. Long story short, when I woke up, Lily was in the guest room, LOL.

This has been a very hard week emotionally for both Lily and myself. But a major bright spot that has helped both of us to be happy is the gardening we have been doing. We found some gardening bins at Lowe’s that we absolutely love and we have been getting them set up and also planting in pots that we bought.

Lydia has been having a ball with her crafts. She’s in a panda phase. Aren’t they adorable!

Today I had a busy day at work and Lily worked like crazy on music with the kids, and visited her mom. After our day’s activities, we hosted Sarah and Zach and their two kids Lennon and Madeline. They are such pleasant people. We had rich conversation about faith journeys, travel, food and more. We were very impressed with their integrity, sincerity and warmth as people. We look forward to seeing them again.

Lydia had disappeared for most of the time because she was happily felting. Look at these things she made!

Also, Ammon and Clarissa got to sleep in Lydia and Mary’s room again in nests. They were so excited!

Yesterday was so busy, and Lily and I have been feeling a bit underwater, so I took today off just to be at home with the family and also get some rejuvenation. I started the day with an 80 minute bike-ride which I loved. While biking, I decided a potential dream job for me is to be one of those people who goes on rides for ifit, or Peloton and streams it to an audience. I just am so in love with biking. I’d also love to get into fixing up bikes and giving them to people like I did with the bike church in Philadelphia during college. Oh daydreams for retirement 🙂

Ammon and Clarissa played with legos a lot today which we loved to see.

Lily and I worked a lot on the house after my bike ride. Lydia and Mary helped clean the upstairs. Then we had lunch and scratched off images on the national park chart that Lily bought for the family. We only made it half way through, but while scratching them off, we all reviewed blog posts on the TV to remind us of our trips together. I loved doing that so much!

Then Lily and I went to Michaels to restock the craft-room. After that we went to Lowe’s to look for some plants. While there, we found some steel tubs that are perfect for garden boxes. We made the splurge, and sprang for it as we both love gardening so much and Lily has been hoping to get more into gardening. It was a bit funny because I had to make 4 more trips to Lowes just to get all the bins, dirt, gravel (to level the area), and other items home (times like this I think a truck would be nice). While I was making all the trips to Lowe’s Lily spent time with Amy while the kids all played together. I wasn’t done until after 8, so Lily also put down all the kids.

Lily and I are soooo excited about our garden bins!!!

Also, Ammon lost a tooth today!

The girls made a nest for Mary to sleep in.

Today we all got out the door on time and made it to Sunday school as well as sacrament meeting at the Community of Christ. Afterwards my dad called with some huge news. He and Suzanne were under contract for a new home! He invited us to come walk through it with them especially because they were still in their process of making their final decision and they were interested in our thoughts on it. First we ate lunch at Ikea and then we went to see the house. It was beautiful!!! And it’s about twice the size of their current home.

I chatted a bunch with my dad and Lily chatted a bunch with Suzanne. They are both under a lot of stress with Suzanne’s new promotion to library director for the law school at the U of U, and all of the craziness my dad has had to navigate getting under contract for the home (it’s a ridiculous market right now. Bidding wars are common, and average time for a home to be on the market is about 6 days). It was so nice to see them and be a part of this major decision they are going through. We love them!

After that stop, we visited Georgia. Ammon was asleep in the car, but everyone else got to see her. She is still in a sling and will see a doctor on Thursday. She’s in a lot of pain, but her spirit is beautiful and bright and it was very nice to see her.

Back at home Lydia worked on her animal picture. All of the kids have been crafting a lot lately and loving our crafting station so much.

For dinner we had MichaelAnne and her new boyfriend Matt over for dinner. We were completely charmed by Matt and we think he is wonderful for MichaelAnne. He is interesting (currently on a potato only diet), well traveled (he’s been bouncing around places for fun, loves to ski and was about to leave for San Francisco, but meeting MichaelAnne kept him in Utah, and he is kind (he was so polite and full of positive energy). We felt grateful that MichaelAnne wanted us to meet him. It was a super fun night. The conversation flowed freely and we all had a great time.

Today Lily was so sweet to support me going on a long bike ride around the Alpine loop with my good friend Daniel Olsen. I’m out of shape and had to stop to rest or walk 8 or so times, but I made it and loved every second of it. I also feel newly inspired to get my conditioning up! After my bike-ride, I grabbed a Whopper burder (Burger King), visited Georgia, went shopping and took our vacuum to the repair shop. Lily ran the ship at home.

Also, Clarissa’s preschool teacher shared a bunch of pictures and a video about Clarissa’s preschool year.

Also, Ammon has started to really love basketball. Today he made his first ever basket, and he loved it so much that he kept on going until he had made about 17. I played with him a little which was fun, and then I fixed his bike tire which had a hole in it.

Here is Ammon and Clarissa talking about about their favorite things. So cute!

Also, toward the end of the day, Lily was having a really hard time emotionally. We spent the evening together talking and being together. About a week ago, I felt some depression, though not as severely as Lily was feeling it. Whether it is me that is feeling down, or Lily, it is surely such a gift to be in a companionship and to have someone to go through things with. Lily was doing much better by the end of the night.

Today we learned that Georgia broke her arm while in the bathroom. She was in so much pain and Lily left to take her to the emergency room. The kids were self-sufficient while I worked. We feel so sad for Georgia, especially knowing how much pain she is in.

Also, Lily has been extremely tired since she hasn’t slept much recently. She was mostly recovering from her trip and lack of sleep today after she helped take care of Georgia.

Here is a picture of Lydia, and a video of Ammon dancing, and one of Clarissa being cute.

Today was the last day in Illinois for Lily, Lydia and Mary. The weather was perfect again and they spent their time in Chicago. Lily did not sleep much last night so she didn’t feel super well, but otherwise, it was a completely perfect day.

I feel like they’ve bean here before…..

Lily effused to me about how amazing this play park was. It was only recently built.

Then they went to a museum about writing, and loved it!

Lily told me that Lydia and Mary were completely enthralled by the type-writer. They couldn’t get enough of it, and typed a lot.

Then they saw an exhibit about the environment and energy etc. I assume this was at a new museum.

There was also a neat dancing feature that reminded Lily of one at the Nashville museum of African-American music.

Taking the “L” to the airport.

And now I’m about to go pick them up!!

Also, today Mary’s teacher, Shannon Hyatt, shared photos from throughout the school-year with us. I put a few here in the blog. To me it’s a poetic way to end this entry. Mary loved school and her classmates so much that she was super upset when she learned that she’d miss the last couple days of school because of the Chicago trip. She even said she’d rather not go to Chicago! Of course, I’m positive she’s now glad she went! I think she was just crushed int he moment.