Author: lilydarais

On Tuesday I went out to dinner with my friends Jen, Courtney, and Heidi. Courtney was nice enough to pick me up and we met at the Aubergine in Lehi. It was one of my favorite friend meet-ups of all time. I loved how candid, honest and wise each person was, and I learned a lot. I am so grateful for these women.

I think Abe worked the whole time I was gone because Lexy came over to nanny starting at 5pm. She is absolutely amazing and gave the kids a spa evening. And the house looked immaculate when I came home, which I appreciate from the depths.

On Sunday we decided to spend the whole day at the resort. We started by walking on the nature path to breakfast, which was one of our favorite breakfasts anywhere. I had an egg white omelet for the second day in a row with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, onion, and feta with a little arugula on top. It doesn’t sound original or mind blowing, but it was so perfectly cooked. Abe had waffles I think. I should have paid attention, but I was very into my omelet!

Then we walked back to our room to change for our tennis lesson, which we then walked back to. We absolutely adored our tennis instructor, Jane. She was Filipino! I loved her style of instruction: playful above all, but still firm, exact, and invested. I wish she lived in Utah because I would sign up to have her teach me weekly. We both noticeably improved after one lesson.

Then we walked back again to our room and changed into swimsuits before walking to the spa pool where we luckily found chairs by the jacuzzi. I listened to Braiding Sweetgrass and my language learning podcasts and people watched. Abe and I both ordered yummy lunches and smoothies by the pool and then did some quiet laps in the pool while chatting.

I loved the pool so much it was hard to tear away, but we finally did so we could be on time for our tee time at the golf course. I had never golfed in my life and was not particularly excited about it, but I figured it’s a good skill to learn well-before retirement age, right? And it ended up being the absolute highlight of the whole trip!

The golf course at the Boulders resort is stunningly beautiful. Everywhere I looked there was something beautiful. And it had cooled down so it felt like a perfect temperature, and everything was so peaceful that there were bunnies grazing everywhere. And it turns out golf is very fun. I loved it so much, and Abe and I kept exclaiming over how lucky we felt to be there with each other.

After golf we went to the restaurant for one final meal. I was still full from lunch but the food was so good that it was hard to even consider passing up a meal. We had salmon, crab cakes, and a delicious kale and corn salad.

We were so tired after that after that we went to bed at 8:30pm and slept soundly until our flight the next morning!

Today I: 1. worked out on the bike for 38 minutes 2. showered 3. dropped Lydia off at school 4. picked up glasses from my mom 5. dropped off my mom’s glasses at the eyeglass store 6. shopped at Trader Joe’s 7. helped Mary practice her piano for an hour 8. helped Ammon practice his piano for 45 minutes 9. fed the three kids at home fish and salad for lunch 10. brushed and braided Mary and Clarissa’s hair 11. did 40 minutes of reading practice with Ammon 12. cleaned up lunch 13. picked up Lydia 14. went to Starbucks twice 15. made pizza with all of the kids (caramelized onions, cut a pineapple, rolled dough, and cleaned up after them) 16. helped Lydia with her harp for 70 minutes 17. read books with Mary 18. read books with Clarissa 19. read books with Ammon 20. washed two loads of laundry 21. changed Mary’s sheets 22. folded a load of laundry 23. walked Basil 24. texted with my friend Jean about her summer trip to visit me 25. cajoled Lydia approximately 20 million times to do her homework before bed time 26. gave in and ordered Chip cookies to eat after the kids went down

On Saturday Abe was still not feeling well. That second Covid shot is a beast.

He did watch Kung Fu Panda with the kids while I went for a swim. Then I came home, showered, and did three hours of music practice with the girls. Oh, and I took Mary and Clarissa for haircuts!

They are both so beautiful and sweet.

On Friday Jen was going to come give me some oils I had ordered and so I figured why not invite the Tiemanns and Heidi too? And then Lydia had a surprise play date with her friend Katelyn (who was darling beyond belief)–making a total of twelve kids and 7 grown ups.

Abe was literally flat on hi back from the Covid shot all day, and I told him he did not need to come up. He managed to come up a little after six and was a total trooper.

We had a huge taco bar with rockfish, smoked brisket, grilled steak and chicken, vegan chorizo, crumbled cotija, cilantro, radishes, pickled onions, tomatoes, spiralized cucumber, and all different tortillas–including our favorite jicama wraps. It was a feast.

The kids ran around in a pack and we didn’t even need to feed Basil dinner because the little kids gave him so many treats! He was a star.

On Thursday I literally could not do anything almost the entire day. I got my second shot on Wednesday and by Thursday I was completely incapacitated. My whole body hurt and I realized after dropping Lydia off at school that I would not be able to do more during the day.

Abe has been very slammed at work and was unable to take the day off, so our kids watched tv all day while I lay in bed and he did his best to manage the rest of the day’s pick ups and drop offs.

By dinner I started to feel a little better and moved to the couch, where I witnessed a fun dance party with Abe, the kids, and Basil.

Early in the day, Ammon reported his dream from the night before.

On Wednesday I tried three times to get my second shot, and I kept forgetting various things and having to go back home for my ID and wallet. Finally I made it, and I was one of two people in the clinic getting a shot. When Abe went a day later, he was the only one. Utah Valley folk appear not to be really interested in this vaccine. Regardless, I was very happy to get mine, and on the first day felt very few side effects.

The kids had fun while I was running back and forth to the clinic. They did a lot of puzzles today.

We also loved watching Ammon and Clarissa dance.

We had my mom over for dinner too, and everyone loves it when she comes over!

In the morning Abe and Liem biked all of Slickrock together. It was a huge accomplishment, and I am so thrilled that they didn’t die in the process.

In the meantime I took the kids to a viewpoint on the way to Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands. There was no one around, which I thought was ideal. The kids walked out to some giant boulders and played until Clarissa threw a tantrum and I had to drag her back to the car. Basil was pulling one arm, Clarissa was pulling another, and draped across both arms I had everyone’s coats. That was the highlight of our adventure.

When we got back we picked up Abe from Subway (he and Liem biked to Moab after Slickrock), ate, and then drove up to Hidden Lake in the La Sal Mountains. It was slightly hair raising because the roads were not marked and half of them were unpaved, but we were thrilled to finally made it to the lake! And just as we turned into the pull-off for the lake, our car sank cabin deep into the craziest mud we had ever seen.

Abe and Liem built a ramp for the van, and then Liem, Phuong, Phuong’s dad, and Abe all pushed the van while I drove in reverse. I honestly thought we would be stuck on top of that mountain forever, but after twenty minutes–the van was free!

After that everyone but Clarissa, who was taking the longest, deepest nap of her life, and I headed to the lake to fish. The lake was iced over, so Abe heroically jumped in and cleared a spot for fishing! All of the non icy part of the lake below was cleared by hand by Abe, who was chest deep in ice water.

People spent two hours fishing and caught five fish. Ammon was traumatized when Abe had to kill one because the hook was buried in it. He saw the fish’s head and burst out into tears.

Soon after a stray dog found everyone. Phuong, Lydia, and Mary brought the dog to the van and while they were there the owner happened to pull up and collected his dog. I cannot stress how remote this location was, so this was kind of a shock. But it turns out his ranch was on the mountain around the corner, so not so shocking when we realized that.

The dog, whose name was Betsy, was so sweet. She wandered back to us thirty minutes later again, and I let her play with Basil. The kids absolutely loved her because she was so sweet.

Then we drove home along Route 128 past Castle Rock and along the river. It was so stunningly beautiful. I took pictures resigned to the fact that they could not remotely do this place justice.

We stopped at a grocery store, picked up stuff to grill for dinner, and then let the kids eat in the RV in front of the tv while we joined Liem, Phuong, and Phuong’s parents outside of their RV for a candlelit dinner that was so delicious.

This was definitely the most adventure filled day of the year! We are so grateful to have such fun friends to share the day wit.

Happy Valentine’s Day! The highlight of our day was exchanging family valentines and eating TONS of chocolate. (Yesterday we bought a 2 lb. box from Mrs. Cavanaugh’s, and today Lydia passed out Russel Stover boxes to everyone). We spent most of the day adoring Basil and cleaning up poop and pee accidents. Basil and Clarissa scored about the same number on both. It is days like today that I am especially grateful to be a team with my favorite Valentine ever. Between the two of us, we got the stains gone and our children and puppy clean. Clarissa got two baths and Basil got one. 🙂

Before going to bed Lydia and Mary played a concert for my dad and Suzanne. Then we showed them the dog again, including me playing/wrestling with the dog a bit. I like to play rough with him and let him use his mouth, but we are trying to train him to know that he can only use his mouth to play if it is with me, and if I’m wearing my special playtime gloves. It’s so fun! I love making him pounce and chase my hand!

On Saturday Abe and I did the 500, but I only did one set and then an easy bike ride. I have been tired so that felt like more than enough to me. But Basil thought Abe’s workout looked so fun that he kept pouncing all over him while Abe was doing push-ups and burpees. So Abe incorporated him into his work-out as much as possible. It was so cute.

In the evening we did errands and took Basil with us. He ended up on my lap for the majority of the ride. He is the cuddliest.