My Grandfather Edmondson recently passed away, and also my Grandma Forsyth is about to turn 80 so my mom was planning to go to Denver this weekend and my family and my brother, Jere, decided to join her.
We decided to all eat (with Jay too) at the Original Pancake House in the morning before hitting the road. David dropped Jere off and also hung out with us for a bit. It was so fun to see everyone, and also was unreasonably happy about the idea of all eating at the original pancake house together. Also, in the parking lot, my mom snapped one of my all-time favorite pictures of Clarissa.
And wow, did the Original Pancake House deliver! I had fruit crepes which were so so so good!
Then we hit the road. The kids (except Clarissa) had fun taking turns in Grandma’s gorgeous Porsche.
The kids were outstanding in the car (they are such good travelers!) and we stopped in Little America in Wyoming for ice-cream. My mom used to stop there to get me and my brothers ice-cream on our Denver road trips when I was a kid. At the gift shop, we also bought a ton of activity books for the kids since they didn’t have much (errr or anything?) to occupy them for the previous 3 hours.
This is me setting the kids up on their activity books. Ammon had a complex color by numbers book that took a fair amount of explaining, but he got the hang of it and created an AMAZING picture.
For dinner we found a delicious Italian restaurant in Laramie.
We arrived relatively late in Denver and went straight to bed.
Lily and I loved day 2 in Scottsdale. One of the things I first noticed about being with Lily is that I can be completely myself with her, and she can be completely her self, and we just enjoy being together. I feel so blessed that hasn’t changed after 11 years. If anything, we are only better pals. Today was our adventure day to go and explore Scottsdale. But we still slipped in some fun resort time. Isn’t the resort beautiful! It’s a Hilton resort called “The Boulders and Scottsdale” or something like that. Lily kept saying she felt like she was in the Good Place (for those of you that have seen that show, and thanks mom for the amazing recommendation, it’s one of my favorite shows of all time). We agreed the desert beauty was as wonderful as any landscape we had seen.
Breakfast was incredible. I had a delicious sunrise egg sandwich.
Lily had an omelette which she absolutely loved.
While Lily was walking she saw a wild pig and her baby! Apparently they can charge and injure people especially when they are with their babies. I’m so glad Lily didn’t get hurt!
We spent some time at the pool which was AMAZING and relaxing and I was able to get a massage while Lily spent more time at the pool. Thank you Lily for encouraging the massage, it was amazing!
Then we went to the butterfly museum, which I absolutely loved. I took a ton of pictures but whittled it down to these:
After the butterfly museum, we went to SumoMaya, and absolutely amazing fusion restaurant that Lily and I would recommend to anyone. Here are some pictures of what we ordered.
Lily, this has been the best 11 years of my life. I owe it to you, and I thank you for the laughter, the safety, the companionship, and the gift of our children. I love you!
Lily and I decided to celebrate our anniversary a week early in Scottsdale, Arizona this year! I think a new tradition is starting in which we explore a new city together on our anniversary. Clark, my mom and Lexi (our nanny) all helped make this possible, so THANK YOU to them! We’ve never used Lexi on a regular schedule, but after calling her up for help with this weekend we made the decision to start using her a couple of hours every day, and we are very excited about the help!
Here is a picture of us going to the parking bus to ride to the airport:
And a picture of our late night Mexican dinner at the resort:
Clark came in town to spend some time with Georgia and it was so fun to see him and the kids!
Here are some scenes from the day from when Lily took all the kids to a park and afterwards. I think Lily’s heart must have skipped a beat when Ammon decided to jump off the rope beam:
Today felt special to me. Over the weekend, I felt God guiding me to a place of understanding that I have lost balance, focuses too much on work and allowed my stress levels to get too high. I’ve been trying to reorient myself to better balance, and today seemed to be evidence that I am headed in the right direction, because I found a lot of happiness today despite my lingering stress, fatigue and anxiety.
I had a wonderful workout this morning with my little fluffball, Basil. I call it the Dogout workout. I have an irrational amount of joy thinking of all the various meanings found in the name of the work out.
Dugout (baseball reference) = Our workout involves running around baseball diamonds (which have dugouts)
Dog – Out = Getting the dog out
Okay, I guess its just too meanings, haha, but it still feels clever. The workout is a roughly one mile jog to a pullup bar, and then as many pullups as I can muster five times in a row, with a quarter mile run around the baseball diamonds between each set (4 total) either sprinting or striding (ideally) and then jogging home (but of course Basil runs and pulls me the last 3/4 miles because he’s excited to get home.) I had a lot of thoughts on my run, many of which I hope to write more about in my scripture journal tomorrow like trusting God, means trusting that everything will be OK if I live my values without compromise, and how feeling the Holy Ghost comes by living my values without compromise, and how in so many ways what I feel God is, is what I feel my inner most values to be.
At home I chatted with Lily a bit before my workday, which was nice. I then met with my dad, who is also my real estate agent for selling the home, and we made a ton of progress. We lined up a stager, a photographer, and made other plans. Work was very busy. I was very sharp in the morning, but got tired towards the end of the day. Around lunch time, I swam with the family which was so fun, and also very productive. Lily told me yesterday that her number one goal for the summer is to get all the kids swimming. Lily and I took turns working with the different kids and I think they mad progress (Lydia was at school). Lily and I also agree that Clarissa is unbelievably cute in goggles.
I caught up on blogging later in my work day because I was too tired to do Qualtrics work, but I eventually got a second wind and got more work done.
After work, Ammon and Clarissa got in a lot of trouble for something naughty they did, and Lily and I were super stern with them, but then we spent a lot of time hugging, and affirming them. I also snapped this picture of Ammon in his room. I’ve been wanting to capture how captivated he has been lately by coloring and sticker book art. It is really quite magnificent.
I also listened to Mary play the piano and I was blown away by her progress. I also got to listen to these beautiful duets from Lydia and Lily.
After putting the kids down, I folded laundry while Lily played the piano for me. She offered to fold clothes also, but I told her I’d way rather listen to her play piano while I folded, and it was so beautiful to hear her play Beethoven. Then we walked together in the perfect spring air.
It was a truly beautiful day. Thank you God for helping me smell the roses and find my balance again and thank you family for being patient with me when I allow work to swallow me.
After church today, we went to the Provo River trail right where it starts at Utah lake. Lily and the kids (sans Clarissa) biked. I walked with Basil and Clarissa (who was on a scooter).
We were delighted and surprised to see horses and goats on the trail
Then we grabbed subway and ate in the car on our way to Mt. Timponogos park right at the mouth of Provo Canyon. I biked with Ammon while Lily and the girls were at the dog park with Basil. Then we all went to the playground. We laughed when the static from going down the slide and the wind made Clarissa’s hair look very funny.
Afterwords we visited Georgia and Lydia and Mary got to see her room. They were so excited to see her place and have fun sitting in her chair that reclines electronically.
Lily and I both had incredibly intense weeks last week. Thursday night, I was on the verge of collapse emotionally and mentally, and Lily is pushing really hard to help the kids in improve in music and a variety of other things. It’s crazy to see their progress in music, reading, math and more. We both started the day extremely tired. I also went to Basil at 3 in the morning because he’s been having diarrhea due to a food change. We were so wiped out that we didn’t leave the house until 2:00 at which point we took care of some things at yard of the rental property to help prepare to sell it.
Afterwards, we ordered pizza and got together with Joe, Camille and their two kids. We really love that family. We had a wonderful time talking to them and we especially found insight as Joe told us about his battle with ADHD and how medication has changed his life. Lily and I took mental notes because the things he struggled with were the exact sort of things Lydia struggles with. Lydia really doesn’t want to take medication, but I hope she will be open to the idea at some point of how much better her life could be, and how she could shine even brighter if she gets some help for something that is not her fault.
