Ammon and Clarissa had two hours of dance in the morning, and after they had fun coloring their pictures from dance. I had fun jogging and walking with Basil along the Provo River Trail while they were in dance. Smash Dance is right next to the river trail so I had a great time exploring it. The weather was beautiful. After school Mary had a play date and I made popovers.
After school Lydia took an uncharacteristic nap, and that slightly alarmed me. She had been saying that her body felt a little off, but I told her she still had to go to school because she is going to miss so much in October. On Thursday she came home, fell asleep on the couch, and woke up feverish. I tested her in the evening for Covid and it came out positive.
I felt so bad for Lydia, who was pretty miserable. I also felt bad because we’d had two play dates to our house this week, and I had to call the parents and tell them the bad news. I hope their kids don’t get sick.
On the upside, I am really grateful that if the kids are going to get Covid, they are getting it now instead of in North Carolina or Greece. That would be so much harder.
I didn’t take any pictures today, but I did go on a really good-feeling run this morning with Basil, and after we dropped off the older girls at school I walked him around the playground while Ammon and Clarissa played. I helped Ammon with his practice, read books to Ammon and Clarissa, caught up on blogging, and took all of the kids swimming after school. After swimming I fed them dinner, turned on Mama Mia 2 for them (because it takes place in Greece and we are going to Greece in October!–and also because we are all crazy about musicals and they hadn’t seen that one yet), and went to register the kids for ballroom dance. Then I came home, cleaned everything up, tucked Ammon in, and am about to bingewatch Madam Secretary.
Abe went to work in the office for the first time in a long time, and he loved being with colleagues, although we all missed him at home.
Because the girls have been so good about getting up at 6:15 am to get their practice and reading in before school, I actually have time to do Mary’s hair. It’s been fun!
Ammon and Clarissa don’t have school until next week, so for now we have been going to the playground after we drop off the girls.
We have been wanting to backpack in the Uintas all summer but have not had a free weekend, and now it is too cold to backpack. So we are now backpacking this upcoming weekend in southern Utah, but on Sunday we drove to the Uintas for a day hike to Cliff Lake. The Uintas are where Abe would backpack every year growing up, and it was so special to go to this place in Utah that has been such a big part of his own history.
On the way to the Uintas, we ran into a herd of sheep. They were grazing in the Aspen forest and nearby meadows, and we had to slow down because they were also crisscrossing the road! The only time I’ve ever stopped in the road for sheep was in Ireland, so to me the sheep seemed exotic. The kids were enchanted and Basil had fun barking at all of them.
When we got to the trailhead, everyone ate breakfast and then we began our hike. The smell of the Uintas is unbelievable. It is maybe the best air I have smelled in my life. The scent of the pines is so powerful, and everything feels clear and fresh.
Lydia was in charge of pictures for half of the hike and asked me to pose for her here.Another shot taken by Lydia.Courtesy of Lydia.Abe and I wanted a shot of the kids taking selfies together.
Here are some fun videos the kids took:
On the hike we stopped by the cliffs at Cliff Lake and set up to fish for a couple of hours. We didn’t even know that they were used for cliff jumping, but some boys jumped off several times while we were there. That felt like free entertainment! Lydia is currently our only child proficient at fishing and casting, so Abe was very, very busy helping tie and re-tie all of the poles, and the rest of the kids spent most of the time playing pretend in the woods and by the shore of the lake. Abe didn’t get very much time to fish himself, but even so he was so happy to just be back in the Uintas.
Here is Basil not wanting to take a bathWe came home, had some takeout for dinner and then let the kids play in the sprinklers until bed time.
The kids spent a large part of the morning playing store. Each kid had a store. Clarissa had a tattoo parlor. Ammon danced for people in his store. Mary sold her art pictures and Lydia had a soda shop where she made orange juice soda with whipped cream and a chocolate drink for people (using chocolate syrup). Abe visited each shop and paid for things with piggy and horsie back rides for the kids. It turned into a hilarious game with Abe trying to give horsie rides while non-riding children put obstacles in Abe’s way and tried to physically prevent him from completing his ride for each kid. Abe pushed through the obstacles and collapsed at the end, but had a very fun time, as did the kids (who giggled and laughed during the ordeal).
Here are pictures from the kid’s stores:
Clarissa gave her dad a tatoo with her new body crayons.Clarissa gave Mary a tattoo too!
Here are videos from the store:
Here is a video of Lydia saying supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in slow motion:
Long day! (Clarissa was asleep, and the girls thought her position was funny and so they imitated her.)
Abe then spent the rest of the day helping me organize the garage.
With the basement still under construction, our garage has been a disaster. We spent the evening organizing this side. We took this picture before we cleaned the floors, but after we had completely revamped this half of the garage. Now the floors are totally clean and it is so, so nice to use (this half) of the garage!
Clarissa started her birthday by coming down the stairs and seeing decorations. I think Lydia did a few takes to get this video:
Happy birthday, Clarissa! In the morning Clarissa opened some presents with her breakfast.
After we dropped the older girls off at school, I took Clarissa and Ammon to the butterfly museum.Clarissa looks bewildered that her butterfly flew away immediately. She was shaking it so she probably should not have been surprised.
After school we all went to decorate cupcakes together.Clarissa went to town.Lydia made a Basil cake!!Clarissa’s creation.Ammon’s cupcakes.Tom and Suzanne came down for the birthday dinner. Clarissa requested salad with eggs for dinner, so we had kind of a riff on a nicoise salad.
She likes her new wig.Tom and Suzanne gave her a Frozen train. Frozen was a theme in Clarissa’s gifts, so this was the ultimate culmination of the day for her.
Clarissa makes us all absurdly happy every day. She makes us laugh many, many times a day. We all think she is just the cutest, funniest, most darling little four year old and are so grateful to have her in our family. We love you so much, Clarissa!
morning playmore playI made some whole wheat banana muffins to go with Abe’s stew for lunch.Back to school open house! Abe took the girls to meet their teachers while I took Ammon, Clarissa, and Basil to the splash pad across the street.The older girls joined us after the open house and the kids played until almost 6pm.
After Abe was done with work we went to Scheel’s to get some camping gear and a fishing pole for Clarissa’s birthday. Clarissa and I stayed in the car with Basil, and Clarissa went totally crazy playing with Basil. She pulled and tugged and fell on him, and he was so, so patient with her.Some of Clarissa’s playing-with-Basil antics.
Clarissa has been very talkative lately. Here is evidence (I think she says sparkle at least 10 times 🙂 ).
