Hi Grandma! The only thing we did today was go to church. Mom and I walked over an hour to get home, and we’ve been tired ever since. Now we’re having a movie marathon at home while waiting for Abe to arrive. His flight keeps getting delayed.
We went to Rockaway Beach in Queens today. It was so fun, but I didn’t put sunscreen and probably gave myself skin cancer.
Grandma, Clark’s computer drives me nuts and Lydia is begging to go to bed. I wish I could write more, but blogging takes me so long on this computer that this will have to do. Love you, Grandma! Sorry to steal Mom from you–we think of you all the time!!
We’re in New York! I didn’t blog yesterday, so this is a catch-up picture post. Yesterday Abe said good-bye to us as the girls and I took our flight to New York. Abe is going to Puerto Rico for a wedding, but he will join us on Sunday in New York.
We had a wonderful reunion with Nana:
After dinner, we took a stroll to the park:
The girls had trouble getting to bed. They ended up sleeping with me, and I woke up to the sight of them curled up next to me. It was sweet.
Then we took a walk to The Cloisters with Mom.
Then the girls played in a park:
We watched Frozen twice today, and now Lydia is begging to go to sleep. Love you, Grandma! Wish you were here!!
This morning was pretty low-key: cleaning, reading, lounging, playing with kids, feeding kids, etc.
Isabella came over at 2 pm so I could go to yoga. By the time I came home, it was time to make dinner. I tried my new pressure cooker today and it worked! I read the manual yesterday and couldn’t find it today, so I kept hoping I wouldn’t accidentally blow the house up. When I turned the knob to “release pressure,” the sound was so startling that Mary screamed and we all ran out of the kitchen. That might take some getting used to.
Then we met up with our friends, the Skardas, and headed up to a campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon to make s’mores.
I literally ate so many that I still have a stomachache. Carrie had the great idea of sandwiching the marshmallows between chocolate coated cookies. It was delicious.
Once again, the girls were too tired for a proper bed routine. I will tell Lydia to brush her teeth for five straight minutes tomorrow morning…
Today was my brother’s birthday! Happy birthday, Clark! We’re so excited to celebrate the last year of your twenties with you in New York!
It was also a very busy day here at the Darais household. This morning I took the girls on a walk/run to the park.
After that, I took the girls home for lunch and naps.
Then we went to a fun pool in Bountiful with our friends Rose, Taina and Sev.
We didn’t even have time to eat dinner by the time we got home. Abe and I simply packed the girls in the jogger, attached it to a bike and took off for the canyon. We got in five miles before the light gave out.
Today, of course, we went to church. During Sacrament Lydia got a time out for misbehaving. Abe took this during her time out:
Then we came home.
Abe and I took turns going back to church to wait an hour each for our recommend interviews. There was a long line today, but Abe and I both came away independently impressed by the cheerful attitude of one young, newlywed couple who were waiting in line with us. Everybody else (including me) was inclined to grumble a little about how long certain interviews were taking (the one that got me going took 45 minutes, and there were six other people in line in front of me), but this one couple was nothing but smiles and cheerfulness. When Abe came home he said, “Honey, I met the coolest couple today!”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Was the wife Columbian? Do they ballroom dance? Did they meet at BYU?”
“How did you know?” he exclaimed.
I explained that they were waiting in line while I was there, too. I spent the whole drive back contemplating how I could be more cheerful like them. I’m grateful for the influence of inspiring, good people.
Then we came home and got home taught. It’s also my mom’s birthday today, so after our home teachers left we called my mom to wish her happy birthday. Happy birthday, Mother Dear!
Abe took the girls on a walk to visit his home teachees, and I stayed home and cooked dinner.
We had Jessica Felix and her daughter, Harley, over for dinner tonight. Speaking of the influence of good people, her example inspired us to no end. She was so cheerful as she told us her story. She’s been through unimaginable hardships, and right now Abe and I gathered that she is the current victim of terrible racial profiling–but she didn’t complain at all. Instead, she just cheerfully talked about her determination to press forward and make life better for her and her kids. She was baptized last Saturday and has this incredible enthusiasm for the gospel. By the time she left, Abe and I were in awe.
After she left, we cleaned, put the girls down, and called my mom again to check up on how her birthday concluded. It was a full, great Sunday.
Love you, Mom! Happy birthday!!!
We love three day weekends. I am so happy to have Abe around, although you wouldn’t know it because I sneaked off for a three hour break to use a Groupon I got–myself–for my birthday. It was for a an hour massage, an hour facial, and a twenty-five minute back scrub. They cut the facial short and the back scrub lasted maybe seven minutes, but the massage was an hour and a half, and it was the best massage I have ever gotten in my life. After all the yoga this week, it felt amazing.
While I was at the massage, Abe and the girls were home eating, building forts, and putting flowers in Mary’s hair:
Then I came home and ate with the kids before we went swimming. After swimming we did some errands. During the course of our errands, Mary dumped two full cups of ice water on herself and Lydia dumped an entire water bottle on herself–all accidents. Lydia was trying to drown a fly that was pestering her, and Mary was just trying to drink water. When we got home, Mary made a beeline for some water on Lydia’s table and dumped that on herself too.
We had changed the girls into their pj’s after swimming so that we wouldn’t have to change them again before bedtime, but guess what? With all the water dumping, the girls got fresh pj’s once again when we got back.
Happy belated 4th! We were so exhausted by the time we got home that I am just now blogging.
In the morning while I was at yoga, Abe and the girls had a flag hunt. The girls would hide flags and then go find them, over and over again. In fact, that’s what the three of them are doing now as I type:
After I got home from yoga, I watched How to Train A Dragon with Lydia. Abe and I watched it Thursday night and loved it, and it was fun to watch with Lydia. Afterward, Abe gave me a massage and the girls helped. Mary loves to pound my back with her little fists. It’s really cute.
Then we went to the Darais picnic down in Provo. We picked up Balu on the way there.
At the Darais picnic, there was a lot of reposing going on.
There was also a fair amount of rolling down hills.
After the picnic, we headed to Sugar House Park for fireworks. We got a great view, and it was a beautiful night. By the time we got home, Lydia and I were asleep, but Mary was still as excited as could be. She was the first person to wake up this morning. I think yesterday was a happy day for her–and everyone!
Kate showed up at 8:30 so I could make it to 9 am yoga this morning. I think I might have pushed it too hard in yoga because for the rest of the day I just dragged. For example, at one point I dumped all the laundry on the floor in the girls room with every intention of sorting and folding…and instead, I just sat there playing with and reading to the girls. I finally got around to the laundry at bedtime. Six hours later.
In the interim, Abe came home and we did errands. We had what felt like social hour at the grocery store. We ran into Abe’s old friend, Abe’s first grade teacher, my visiting teacher, and the mother of some of the kids in Primary who gave talks last Sunday.
Then we came home and had s’mores for dinner, much to Abe’s chagrin. But I pointed out the girls had eaten a ton of raw snap peas before our errands, and they’d had a ton of berries and crackers on our outing. I couldn’t picture them eating much more substantial food, plus I couldn’t wait for s’mores. We were supposed to go camping tonight, and when the reservations didn’t work out, the one thing I was sad about was the prospect of missing out on s’mores. The electric coils on our stove top were a fine–superior, even–substitute.
Lydia has had nosebleeds in the middle of the night two nights in a row. Her bed is right over an air conditioning duct, and I wonder if that’s why. At any rate, Abe and I are exhausted and hoping she doesn’t have one tonight. It’s a little hard to drag ourselves out of bed, clean the blood and start a load of laundry at 3 am every night. I’d love it if we could break the habit tonight.
And a fireworks show just started in the valley. It’s so exciting to be able to watch from my desk–time to wrap this up!