This morning we had a wonderful time at church meeting new people and discussing the principle of faithful disagreement.
After church, my mom treated dinner for my family and David and Olivia for my and David’s birthday. It was so wonderful catching up with everyone and connecting. We talked about David and Olivia’s baby which is due soon, Bitcoin, Netflix shows, Putin, Hawaii, skiing, mom’s business and more. We also loved the restaurant so much!
My mom brought notebooks to draw in and pens for all the kids and that kept them entertained while waiting for food (except for Lydia who was reading). The gifts were exceptionally timely since I accidentally left Clarissa’s activity book at church.
At home we all watched “Waking Ned Divine” in the spirit of St. Patrick’s day since it takes place in Ireland. It is a very adorable Irish comedy, with the typical Irish edge of dark humor. But overall, it was very feel-good and funny. We thought David Kelly was brilliant, and we especially thought the scene with him riding naked on the motorcycle was hilarious. It was so fun too snuggle and watch a show together, especially considering the inclement weather outside.
After watching the movie, Lydia continued working with the rest of the children on their Aladdin production. She has choreographed and entire show and I’m so impressed. She has kept the other kids occupied for hours this weekend as they have been practicing. At times she was exasperated trying to get the young ones to cooperate, but in the end, it all came together and I was so incredibly impressed. I’ll share the videos first and then the pictures:
Also, Lydia did her harp practice at night and I caught a video of her piece which Lily accompanies which I love so much:
Yesterday my uncle Norman passed away. Here are some words I wrote to my dad after his passing:
“He is a great man, and I’m so impressed by the combination of his heart, intellect, humor and education. My favorite memory from him is how he always advised me to take food items in odd numbers at a buffet. It’s maybe my earliest memory of him, along with his smile. I will definitely miss uncle Norm and I’m so glad I got to see him recently at the recent party Danny and Jenette hosted.”
I will definitely miss Norm and I’m so grateful some of his formal faculty (when he was Chief Editor of BYU magazine) put together a book of Normisms that is such an amazing repository of witty or wise things he said, quotes he liked, or other memories of him.
In the morning, Lily took Lydia, Mary and Ammon to Carnival of the Animals symphony/ballet production at Abbravanel Hall. They were delighted to bump into Amy and her kids there, and they all caught an organ show together afterwards.
Meanwhile, I was on a super-fun lunch date with Clarissa.
I also said hi to my dad and Suzanne after lunch at their house and then I picked up Lily and the kids and headed home to drop off Basil to stay a couple of nights at his boarding place (since we are doing a lot in Salt Lake tomorrow).
At home, I was busy cleaning, and just being around which was really nice. I also had a staring contest with Lydia.
Lily has been reading a ton, which she loves, and still nursing her pulled muscle in her back.
Also, Clarissa has still been very talkative at night (and generally). Lydia has choreographed an entire dance routine covering multiple songs from the Aladdin soundtracks (see tomorrow’s post), and here you can hear Clarissa singing “Speechless” from Aladdin in her bed (a solid 20 minutes or more after I put her down if I remember her correctly).
Lily hurt her back in yoga on Monday and I’ve had an insane week at work from a combination of end-of quarter stress and also one of my employees being out for a family emergency and me needing to put out a couple of fires for him. Thus, given the situation, it was incredibly helpful that Lydia and Mary prepared the house for St. Patrick’s day last night. I was soooo tired this morning that I lay in bed for what seemed like 40 minutes while Clarissa and Ammon ran around the house (including our bedroom) talking all about what things the Leprechauns did to our house. I finally got out of bed and videoed her and Ammon still reacting to the scene.
I had a meeting cancel today and slipped away to swim with Lily and Clarissa. It was tremendous fun. Clarissa is getting so good at swimming with her head underwater. She is a total fish, and a very energetic one at that. For forty minutes straight she was swimming, splashing, having me throw her and floating. And her cuteness is too much to handle when she wears goggles!
Here is Mary shopping with Lily. I assume she’s getting ingredients for her lunches. She’s been making her own school lunches recently, I think mostly because school lunches are not as good for her now that she is a vegetarian. She also asked me for a container for her sandwich instead of a sandwich bag the other day because it is better for the earth. I’m so proud of her.
Lydia and Mary didn’t have school today and Lydia went skiing with Eli all day. She had so much fun! With just Mary at home, Lily and I (but especially Lily) took the time to really focus in and dote on Mary. Mary went shopping with Lily.
Lily and I played Sleeping Queens with her.
Lily cuddled with Mary and watched a show with her (that was Mary’s favorite part of the whole day).
I slipped in a couple games of Race to the Treasure with Ammon and Clarissa before wrapping up my work day. Clarissa really really really loves to win and gets distressed when things aren’t going her way. The nice thing about Race to the Treasure is that everyone is on the same team trying to win together, so we didn’t need to worry about any competition drama like we did when we played Chutes and Ladders the other week.
Here’s Lydia from her awesome day of skiing, working on her splits. It was so nice of Emily to take her along skiing with Elia and Chloe.
Mary made some wonderful picture I wanted to capture.
Lily loved her day with Mary so much and has talked to me repeatedly about how much she wants to spend more time with her. I think they really bonded.
Also, Clarissa continues to be incredibly talkative lately. Here are two audio clips, I think spaced 20-25 minutes apart of her talking in her bed while I’m lying next to her trying to help her fall asleep (which is failing miserably).
To start the day on Sunday, we had breakfast again at the roadhouse and then I took Lydia, Mary, Isabel and Emerson on a wildlife tour with my dad and Suzanne, and Lily spent time in the cemetery (I think) with Ammon, Clarissa and Amy.
I loved the tour so much because the tour guide was so knowledgeable. I learned that the white stuff in pigeon poop is their pee. I learned that ravens are insanely smart and communicate with each other and can hold grudges for generations. I also learned that minks are super vicious and that they typically are very unhappy at mink farms because they are too violent to be allowed near other minks, so they are caged alone.
I loved the cooing of the pigeons in the backgroundAt the wildlife center right after the tour
We loved lunch so much yesterday that we ate again at the Best Friends cafeteria. We ate on the back porch. What a view!
We then said goodbye to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and hit the road. My dad and Suzanne hit the road and Amy followed us to Pipe Springs and Colorado City.
We were blown away by Pipe Springs. We learned that between about 1850 and 1900, Pipe Springs was a point of conflict between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Piute Native Americans and the U.S. federal government. The church was at odds with the government because of polygamy and having their prophet be their governmental leader among other things and the fort was often used as a place for polygamists to hide their wives so they wouldn’t go to prison. And the church was also at odds with the Piute Native Americans because it moved in and took over (with the fort) a spring (Pipe Springs) that the Native Americans relied on for survival. The church controlled it with their fort at Pipe Springs leading to fights and ultimately almost causing the Piutes to go extinct in that area. Also the new ranchers and farmers who moved in changed the land by planting farms and allowing their livestock to eat all of the wild grasses. Today the area looks very barren and has mostly sage brush.
Clarissa wasn’t quite as enthralled by the video as the adults.
I was amazed by the size of this bull’s horns.Some of spring was diverted into this room that was also used for making cheese, hanging meat, and churning butter etc.The springThis gentleman answered the group’s questions. Ammon was very inquisitive.Buddies!
After Pipe Springs, we drove right next to Colorado City, which Lily knows about from her study of polygamy. There are still many polygamists there and we saw a billboard advertising family services for plural families. We heard that you can often identify polygamist families by the simple, but very large houses, which we saw.
Lydia and Mary don’t often sleep in the car. They must have had a fun two days!We loved eating at sushi burrito. We really miss the one in Orem, but we were happy to find one in Ceder City!
I have to say thank you to Lily for organizing the trip. She planned every aspect. I think she is the world’s best trip planner and I enjoyed ever single second. Thank you Lily, and happy birthday Lydia!!
We started the day with a simple, but yummy breakfast at the Best Friends Roadhouse.
This is the gentleman who works at Best Friends. He is very nice and we remembered him from the last time we visited.
After breakfast, Lydia, Mary, Emerson, Isabel, Suzanne and I all volunteered at one of the cat houses at the animal sanctuary. People loved the cats.
I was proud of everyone for being willing to help with even the least glamorous tasks.I sent this picture to Amy as her kid’s attempt to beg with their puppy dog faces. They were begging to bring the cat home for a sleep-over. We later learned that it would be too logistically complicated to do any cat sleepovers, so no kids took cats back for the evening. We did learn, however, that if you stay in the cabins that you can have pig sleepovers. Mary has already decided she wants to do that for her birthday, and we will plan around it so that logistics wont be an issue.
After the cleaning, everyone got a chance to walk a cat. Lydia chose this cat who had been sick, so he was sneezing and he had goopey eyes. I think his name was Aragorn.I think Emerson’s cat may have been called Sparkle-berry, but I’m not sure.
While we were cleaning, Amy worked on the book she is writing about the Doctrine and Covenants, and Lily took Basil for a walk while my dad kept an eye on the kids. Then Lily and my dad visited the pet cemetery. We all met up at 11:30 and had lunch at the Best Friends cafeteria. We loved it! Not only did we get to eat outside in the fresh air, but the food was all vegan and it was so healthy and delicious.
Then we all went to the pet cemetery. Basil barked at this statue as though it we a real dog.
Clarissa fell in love with the wind-chimes and turned the below gazebo into her music shop, where you can pay her money and she will play songs for you on the wind-chimes. Meanwhile, Emerson started crying because she felt the loss of all the animals in the cemetery so deeply. We joked that while Emerson’s tender heart was break, Clarissa was turning a profit on the wind-chimes for the deceased animals.
Money please!Here is Mary spending time with the deceased pigs.The graves, dirt and overall palate of the landscape were all so beautiful. People wrote tender inscriptions to their pets, and added pretty stones and pebbles to the tops of graves for decoration and memorializing. I love how much love and respect for animals is expressed here.
After our stop at the cemetery, we all went to Pink Choral Sand-dunes State Park. Lily and I both agreed that it was our favorite time ever going. There was no wind, we had the right equipment, it was beautiful weather (almost 60 degrees and sunny) and we thoroughly enjoyed all the people we shared the experience with.
We rented sleds that worked way better than the ones we brought last time.Clarissa was brave and did a great job sledding down the hill!
I had trouble staying straight on my sled, but got better as the day went on. My dad did great!
Suzanne decided to give the sled a whirl right before we all left and she had an awesome run!
Ammon dictated a variation on James and the Gian Peach. It was fun to watch his imagination at work.
Clarissa’s digging reminded me of Basil and the holes he has put in our back-yard.
After the amazing time at the Dunes we ate all together at the Peak-a-boo cafe, which is our favorite place to eat in Kanab. It is only a block away from the Best Friends Road House where we were all staying. We loved it!
After dinner, we took Basil to the dog park, where I think the kids had even more fun than Basil did. There were big murals the kids posed in front of, and they played and played until it was time to go.
Back at home, everyone got clean, and I was amused by how much Ammon and Clarissa love TV.
While I was hanging out with Ammon and Clarissa, Lydia was having a party with my dad, Suzanne, Amy, Emerson, and Isabel. They all had gifts for Lydia to open which was beyond sweet.
Emerson and Isabel gave Lydia a stuffed avocado. My dad and Suzanne gave her some awesome new shoes.
I loved today so much and I really think Lydia and all the party did too. I think it is a day all of us would repeat in a heart-beat.
Lyida asked for a trip to Kanab to volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with family and a friend for her birthday. Today Lily and I finished our respective crazy days around 4:15 and loaded the car with kids. Lily has been extra busy and stressed starting up the internship program she is directing which involves setting up accounts, sending out acceptance letters, making sure everyone got them and replied and knows next steps etc. I think Lily and I were both ready for a get away.
Joining us on the trip was my dad and Suzanne and our friend Amy and two of her kids, Emerson and Isabel. Lily and I were running a little behind, but we were all able to leave from our house around 4:45. Emerson spent the entire trip in our car, and it was a joy to have her.
Today Lydia wore her new earrings that Lily got her for her birthday. I think they look great on her!
Also, after school, Mary spent a lot of time with Ammon making him a very fancy superhero custom with accessories. Ammon was over the moon with the outfit, and loved acting like a superhero, and he was so sad when it was time to change his outfit so he could perform again in the Arches play.
