Author: Abe Darais

The main event of today was watching Ammon and Clarissa perform in the Arches play James and the Giant Peach. It was fanciful, creative and fun and the kids did an awesome job bringing the story to life. Ammon and Clarissa were very cute and were able to spot us in the audience and wave before the play was over. Being in kindergarten and preschool, Ammon and Clarissa had minor roles, but they seemed to really enjoy being a part of the production. Ammon did his part with gusto, and love waving at the end. And Clarissa had her five seconds of fame. At that very end when all the cast was receiving their applause, they trotted the preschoolers across the stage from one side to the other. Clarissa broke away from the pack at center stage, and kept slowly walking forward until she was the center of attention and just waved to everyone who was clapping with a dazed awestruck look on her face. The teacher who was shuttling preschoolers had to go grab her hand and pull her off the stage with the rest of the preschoolers. Lily and I were besides ourselves with laughter. To top it off, when I picked up Clarissa at the end of the play, she ran into my arms and squealed with delight, “I felt like a superstar!!”.

Clarissa has been exceptionally talkative and precocious lately. Today it felt like she woke up and started talking and didn’t stop until she finally fell asleep at 10:00 PM. Below is a video and three audio files of her talking between 9 and 10 PM. I took the three audio files while she was in her bed and she was supposed to be going to sleep. I was cuddling with her during the first two and right outside her door on the last one.

Lydia was born in 2011 and now she is 11 years old. A couple nights ago, I asked Lydia what value she wanted to affirm on her 11th birthday. Declaring a value every year starting at age 9 has become a tradition in our family. When I asked her the question, she asked me something to the affect of, “how would you describe studying, and researching and working hard to understand and learn things?” She decided that “education” was the best word to capture the concept, so now Lydia’s running list of values are determination, fun and education.

I think those three words describe Lydia perfectly. In this past year, Lydia became determined to get good at back-bending and doing the splits and now seeing her do either of those things is a regular occurrence in our home. When Lydia sets her mind to something, she absolutely follows through. She also has repeatedly made the decision to stick with learning harp and she has made major strides in doing good practices on her own initiative.

Lydia is also incredibly fun. She is always up for an outing, an adventure, karaokee or family games. She loves to organize fun for the family like our annual family Olympics. When I got all excited about taking the family on a backpacking trip, it was Lydia who was equally excited and even helped make a list of things to buy at the store to help get us ready. Lydia finds so many ways to enjoy the world around her. She sings, does ballroom dance, plays the harp, has many friends, skis, loves listening to comedy, and has a great sense of humor.

Lydia also is a great thinker and loves education. She plugs into conversations at home about current events, politics and history. She is a voracious reader, and loves listening to meaty audio books that Lily picks out on our road trips. Lydia has a massive appetite for learning about Greek Mythology, and she has a genuinely curious and active mind. She is obsessed with reading like her mom, and because of that she is always filling her mind with adventures and knowledge from books. She also continues to do well in school.

We could not be happier with Lydia and the values that she is starting to feel are her identity. It is so fun to watch her grow up and I couldn’t be more grateful to be her dad. I have so much fun with her. Skiing with her and listening to Bill Cosby’s stand-up comedy on the ride home was such a memorably good time.

As for the events of the day, Lily and I woke up early to make Lydia a special birthday breakfast. Lily made incredible lemon ricotta pancakes and then went to work on the syllabus that she is in charge of for her internship in preparation for a meeting she had today. I finished breakfast preparations by making a fruit-salad, cooking hash-browns and the pancakes, and making a fruit sauce. It was all delicious. Lydia also opened presents from her siblings and the book Lily bought for her.

After school, Lily took Lydia to Nordstrom to buy shoes and earrings. Then they went to the mall to get Cinnabuns. Meanwhile, at home I finished work early and played Sequence and Spot-it with Ammon and Clarissa until our Thai food arrived. When Lily, Lydia and Mary got home, we all ate dinner and Cinnabuns together. Then I took the kids to dance, picked them up, got Cold Stone cupcakes with them and came home.

We sang to Lydia and then ate our Coldstone cupcakes and then Lydia had calls with Emerson, Clark, Swathi, Soren and Meera, and then my dad and Suzanne. After that Lily got her wish to stay up and watch “Cheer” with me and Lily. Lydia’s true celebration will be a trip to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with my dad and Suzanne, and Amy, Emerson and Isabel, but I think and hope Lydia also felt very happy, loved and celebrated today. We love you Lydia!!

After work today, I met up with Lydia and Mary for our final post-lesson ski outing this season. I was feeling good, and loved spending time with the girls. I also was in heaven because I had some skiing breakthroughs. I landed the jump twice, and I also finally started skiing with my weight truly forward. I had so much more control and it felt like a whole new experience to actually have my weight over my feet and not behind them. We all had a great time. Lydia and Mary had Kit Kats in the car, and Ovalteen at home.

At home Lily told me all about what she’s been learning about democracy, and how we can’t take it for granted. She’s been reading and learning a ton recently. She just finished the two books below.

I woke up feeling very drained today, but a little after 8, I dragged myself out of bed to take Basil on a walk. It was a gift really. It was snowing, and for most of the time there wasn’t another soul on the nearby track, so I was able to walk Basil extensively without a leash. While walking I was able to ponder and pray and have some much needed time to myself and God. Everything was so beautiful and white. It was a treat. My biggest takeaway from walking was to try to be more receptive to the gifts in life, and to be more appreciative and grateful. It felt like a meaningful insight.

Basil got lots of running in and accumulated some rather impressive snow-balls on his paws that Lily and I had to clean off when I got home.

Then Lily took Lydia to the puppy store as we are starting to celebrate her birthday week. Here are some pictures from their adventure:

At home I listened to church while Clarissa colored on my lap. Then I rested a bit. After catching my breath, I got the kids in their snow-gear and I met up with Matt, Courtney and Heidi to go sledding. The kids had so much fun sledding. It might be my favorite sledding place I’ve yet been to. Here are some videos of the sledding action.

Matt and Courtney even brought donuts and hot chocolate to share with everyone.

At home, I put dinner together for everyone while Lily had a call with Cammy for her refugee non-profit that she volunteers for.

Both while I was making dinner and after we ate, Mary, Ammon and Clarissa built and played in a fort. Mary has been playing with her younger siblings throughout the day. You can see Ammon holding his handcuffs from a prisoner game they were playing earlier in the day.

After we all ate, Lily came upstairs and gifted me with a quiet evening to myself while she put all the kids down. I played guitar, cleaned my office, assembled a new exercise-ball chair and got ready for the week (and blogged).

Lily and Lydia have both been reading like crazy. Lily is reading all about Russia and Lydia is reading a fantasy book.

Today I woke up feeling completely dead. I rested until after 9 until I finally got up to do the budget. Lily was also super tired. I then met with my financial advisor Dave Cotrell to get conversations going about a life insurance policy that is also an in investment vehicle. That was fun, but also mentally taxing. Afterwards, I finished the budget, had lunch and just rested.

While working on the budget, Ammon and Clarissa colored in my office.

Lydia and Mary played Bananagrams in the morning. I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that last night Lily and I played bananagrams with Lydia and Mary. It was so much fun!

When I finally felt some energy, I did my 500 workout (though, more like 300, since I only did 6 repetitions). Ammon was dressed like a ninja, and he was busy exercising with me and trying to be stealthy like a ninja all around me while I exercised. I was grateful for the chance to incorporate him into my exercise so I could both spend time with him and get my workout.

Then I cleaned the dog poop in the yard, and then showered and got ready for the day. After being ready for the day (at the bright and early hour of 4:30 PM lol) I wanted to both make dinner and also play with the kids. I got an idea to turn dinner into a restaurant and involve the kids in running the restaurant. Ammon and Clarissa helped choose the restaurant’s name: Agua Ninja Sidekick Princess Restaurant. I made and printed menus and Ammon and Clarissa colored them. Mary put price labels on everything. Lily and Lydia were having a girl’s night out at the bookstore and other place and the idea was that they would come home to the restaurant. Clarissa helped dry the lettuce, and Ammon and Clarissa toasted the hamburger buns. Ammon helped set the table, and Mary helped train Ammon and Clarissa on how to run the service aspect of a restaurant. It was so fun! Mary even made a menu for Basil and put Basil in a tie for the occasion. When Lily and Lydia came home, it all came together (see video below).

This was a particularly intense work week so it was really nice that Kim and a few of the managers that report to her all had a ski activity in the afternoon today. I really like working for Kim, and it was fun to meet her husband too. Trevor and Sara also skied with us. Group pictures are on Kim’s phone, but here is one I shot of myself.

I was exhausted today mostly from how hard I’ve been pushing at work and life in general. Ammon was still sick today with super strange symptoms. Yesterday his head hurt so bad he was wailing. He said his brain hurt, his eyes hurt, his neck hurt and his stomach hurt. Also, one of his eyes was having trouble aligning. Yesterday, we took him to the doctor who thought it was a virus. Today the symptoms were better than yesterday, but they were still persisting. We felt very concerned because the symptoms seemed so atypical to us of what a normal sickness would be. We consulted Swathi and took him in to our doctor’s office again. At the end of all of it, we felt reassured that it likely is a virus. The doctor we say said this is the worst year he has ever seen in his life for viruses in Utah, and that something is going around right now causing headaches and vomiting. We’ll keep an eye on symptoms, but if they get worse instead of better, we are definitely taking Ammon to the ER. The doctor also put our minds at ease about the possibilities of tumor or meningitis which was really helpful.

Lily was a superstar and was by Ammon’s side for hours upon hours today, doting on him, giving him attention and taking care of him. Here are some cute pictures of our little Ammon!

Lily is also learning tons about Russia and the Ukraine and it is so great learning new things from her.

After taking Ammon to the doctor, I dropped the girls off at dance, picked up Nick, helped him fax some documents to Utah Legal Services for his SSA cases, picked up the girls, took Nick to Walmart, got burger king (impossible whoppers are amazing!), got donuts, dropped Nick off and went home. I was chuckling to Lily as I told her how charmed Clarissa’s life is. Clarissa went to ballroom, chatted it up with Nick, at a burger, had a donut and then within minutes her eyes were heavy and she passed out to sleep.

Also, today was my grandma Darais’ birthday. I loved her and continue to love her so much and was so touched watching this video my aunt Andrea sent out that my cousin Adam made a while ago.

Today I woke up around 7:30 to Ammon yelling that he peed his bed and he needed help taking care of the wet sheets. Once I was up, I decided to work on our taxes. Then I had a call with my beloved AXB group. After that, I showered and got ready for the day and listened to some church. The scripture for the day was the transfiguration of Christ, and my favorite part of the lesson was contemplating transformation in our own lives using the example of caterpillars transforming to Monarch butterflies. I learned that in a cocoon, caterpillars literally digest themselves so that all that is left inside the cacoon is a soupy goop made up of cells with the exception of some imaginal discs which are starter components for the butterfly that survive digestion, and organize the soupy goop of cells to build off of the imaginal discs into parts of a butterfly until it is a complete creature. So fascinating. Nature blows me away.

After church, I helped Lily clean the basement before fishing. Lily has been doing so much of the cleaning and laundry (I’ve barely pitched in lately in that area), so I was really grateful to actually do something to help with the house. Then Ammon showed me the lego creations that he and Clarissa had been busy building:

Then I went fishing with Mary. It was so fun. Mary has decided to be a vegetarian and she has lasted over a week. After buying our wax worms, I took her to get an Impossible Whopper at Burger King and we both loved our burgers so much. Mary almost finisher hers and that is a huge sandwich!

At the lake, the ice was so thin that we didn’t even need an auger. We just used it to butt through the ice that was about as thick as cardboard. We had our fishfinder and could tell hardly and fish were in our area, but we didn’t have tons of time or options for fishing spots due to the thin ice, so we stayed put. I just love the way time slows down when I fish, and I loved being with Mary, and we also called and chatted with my dad which I loved.

After a delightful time fishing, I took Mary to home-church at Whitney’s house. As always I found it to be deeply nourishing.

At home, the Giles came over to listen to our kids play their instruments. They are so fun, engaging, and affirming that our kids could not get enough of them. People were literally fighting for their attention. They were so sweet and indulgent to listen to everyone clamoring to talk to them. Clarissa especially was talkative and had them look at her crab walk 2 or 3 times. We all had so much fund being with them and Lily and I sent them (and then received) gushy texts afterwards because of how grateful we were for how they lit up our evening.

Then Lily had book club while I worked more on homework with Ammon and I put the kids down.

Then Lily and I just hung out for an hour and talked about the Ukraine and Russia war that is going on. We are so inspired by how the Ukrainian president and people are showing so much bravery right now by not backing down. They are standing up to Russia in ways that will likely get them killed, but watching a leader especially take that kind of risk for his people is incredibly inspiring. Lily and I tried to donate to the Ukrainian cause, but the payment wouldn’t go through on the website.

My work pace last week was unusually intense, and I finished the work week completely out of gas. Lily has also been super exhausted, and we both slept and rested very late. I did not get out of bed until 10:30 and It’s hard to describe how nourishing that felt.

After I got up, Lily and I watched a Clarissa fashion show (Lydia and Mary loved dressing her up), combined with dance routines from various kids. We caught some videos.

After I showered and got ready for the day, I took the kids to Cook’s to pick out a bunch of trees for our yard. This quarter, it is my number one home project I’m hoping to get done. The kids were very energetic, but Cook’s was almost empty and picking out trees was an outdoor activity, so it was fine having the kids be active. They all got lollipops at the end.

We then all went to Aubergine to eat. Clarissa smelled bad because she had poo in her underwear so I had to creatively figure out how to handle that in the bathroom, and then we had a really nice dinner together (with only one tipped cup). I love Aubergine!

I feel I’ve rediscovered frozen yogurt, and I’ve been daydreaming about it again. There was a Yogurtland right next to Aubergine and I took the kids there after dinner. Then we all got groceries at Sprouts and went home.

While we were gone, Lily watched some Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and then frantically worked on the house and laundry. The house looked really good when we got home.

I did a little homework with Ammon before we got the kids to bed, and then Lily took a long bath while I played a lot of guitar. Guitar was so nourishing for me.

Today was Ammon’s 100 day at school, so he got to wear the shirt he and I made yesterday with 100 legos on it. He was so excited, and he later told me everyone at school (except Phoenix who is not nice to him) circled around him to admire his shirt (If I understood Ammon correctly).

I had one of the most intense work days I’ve had in a long time. By the end of the day, I was almost in an exertion shock, but it was fun feeling so engaged and moving the needle on my territory. Lily was also super busy on her end. She did the whole morning routine since my day started with a 7:30 meeting, and then she dropped off Ammon at school, then dropped off Mary at school, then dropped off Clarissa at Ballet, then took Lydia to the dentist to have a cavity filled, then picked up her mom, picked up Clarissa from Ballet, dropped off Lydia at school, then brought Georgia home to hang out, then later drove Georgia home and picked up all the kids from school. I was very plugged into work, but it was a delight to see Georgia briefly when I came upstairs quickly for some food.

I worked until just before 6 which is about when Lily left to have dinner with her friends Charity and Mikayla. She loves them! I picked up Lydia from ballroom dance, and then took all the kids out to eat. We were trying to decide where to go when Clarissa announced she had to pee and started making squealing noises like she was about to burst that stressed the heck out of me. I’ve had her make those noises and then wet her pants, and I’ve also had her make those noises and then either declare she doesn’t have to go, or forget she has to go once she gets home, or try to go and nothing comes out. It’s a highly unreliable signal, but it sure gets my cortisol up.

If nothing else, Clarissa’s squealing did help us make a dinner decision. Ihop was super close so we went there to eat and let Clarissa use a bathroom. She did not seem in a hurry to go once we walked in the restaurant.

The kids were totally crazy at Ihop, and I didn’t like what I ordered much, but I still had a good time. The kids were not bad, or rude, they just had immense amounts of happy energy that was hard for them to contain, and I kept shushing them especially since everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be whispering as though we were in a library. The food took a very long time to come, and so we made up ways to pass the time. When Lydia went to the bathroom, I said if the food wasn’t on the table when she got back, I would stand on my head. When Mary went in the bathroom, I said if the food wasn’t there when she got back, I would tell Lily I changed my name to pineapple. The girls got a serious kick out of this, and since the food wasn’t on the table in either case, I delivered on both promises when I got home, much to the girls delight. The outing culminated with Lydia and Ammon being energetic and knocking over Lydia’s gravy which got all over the floor. I cleaned most of it, and apologized to the waitress. At that moment, I announced that the donuts we were all looking forward to were no longer happening because they were too wild in the restaurant.

At home, the kids all got in their pj and brushed their teeth and we danced. Lydia also had a great time petting Basil’s belly. Do you think he’s enjoying it?

Then Erika came over. She’s a BYU student harpist who we just hired to help train Clarissa and Lydia. I played legos with the other kids during Clarissa’s lesson, and then put Clarissa to bed, chatted with Lily and finished up tasks at my desk. Here is a video of what Clarissa worked on during her practice:

Also, there is currently a lot of sadness and concern all around about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.