This morning Lydia let Clarissa help her make waffles for everyone…
The girls also dressed Clarissa in their own huge socks and big jacket because they thought it was a silly, cute thing to do.
In the evening before Abe came home, Clarissa climbed onto my lap and we took a selfie. She loves to grab my phone and say, “cheeeeeeese!”
Then we took all of the kids to the mountains to celebrate the birthday of one of Abe’s team members. I mostly chased the babies and made sure Clarissa didn’t throw herself into the raging river (which she honestly tried to do on multiple occasions. I wish I were exaggerating, but she literally tried to climb through the bridge into the river. I was firmly holding her hand the whole time and dragged her away, but there are spaces big enough in the bridge rail that, left on her own, meant she would have succeeded.
I also stress ate a lot today because of Lydia’s harp practice and also chasing the babies. But I have not had sugary desserts for several days now, so that’s a win.
We spent the morning cleaning the house, and then I did the girls’ hair and nails. Actually, I did EVERYONE’s nails, including Ammon and Clarissa’s. After Ammon begged to be included, I gave him rainbow toes. He spent a minute drying and admiring them in front of the fan and then declared he didn’t like it and happily scrubbed it all off.
Clarissa, on the other hand, hogged the station. Once she got her toes done, she declared it was all “MINE,” stationed herself in my lap, and refused to budge. I had to crane my head around her to try to see the other girls’ fingers and toes, and so I was basically painting them half blind. I think everyone had a good time, though.
Mary wanted a flower braid.In the evening we all made pasta. We got a late start, and then during Mary’s piano lesson Clarissa decided to play near the boiling water on the stove. In the meantime, I was helping Ammon roll pasta through the machine. I didn’t want him to roll his finger through (as he attempted to do several times), so I ended up locking Clarissa in the mud room while I finished with Ammon. It was horrific. She screamed the whole time and threw everything she could get her hands on all around the room, and my foot decided at that minute to start throbbing with pain. By the time Abe and Mary got home, I thought I was going to pass out and Clarissa was out of her mind with rage. Abe made it all better. I love him.
While Abe worked on the pasta, we watched I Love Lucy with the kids. It was so nostalgic to share that show that Abe and I both watched and loved as kids. When my foot stopped throbbing I helped Abe finish up dinner, and afterward we let the kids watch more I Love Lucy until bedtime.
In the morning I took a picture of Lydia’s hair handiwork from the night before:
When Lydia took out these braided buns, Mary had beautiful curls!
For breakfast we did slappy cakes at home. I am on steroids for my foot and didn’t sleep the night before, so I was a big grouch during this time. But the kids were so sweet and still smiled when I took pictures of them:
In the afternoon we headed to the splash pad for Brinley’s birthday party. Clarissa was still napping at home with my mom so I got to chat with my wonderful neighbors during the party. Emily took this picture:
In the afternoon we picked up Abe from work early (at 4:15) and headed up to the mountains to go fishing as a family. The river was high and fast, so we didn’t catch anything. But it was so fun to be together in the mountains, and we had tons of fun watching all of the people tubing and rafting float by. Also, we were right across from a beaver dam! So we saw the beaver swimming around!!
Uggamugga with Clarissa was pure bliss.
Then in the evening we ate leftover tacos, corn, and orange melon before heading over to the mall parking lot to watch the Orem fireworks with the Kahlers. They brought all of the kids fire snap thingies and glowsticks, and they had the BEST time playing while we waited for the firework show.
Yesterday I was not in a very productive mood. After reading to Ammon and Clarissa, I retreated while Mary took over and played with them. She is such a sweet sister to Clarissa. She calls her “Clawissy!” and leads her all around the house by the hand, giggling as she takes her up the stairs or to the back yard.
I spent a lot of time reading this article and watching the video in the article. These made me laugh to tears almost every time. Naomi Campbell, a super model, tells all about her tricks for traveling. I just compared her mode of browsing duty free, sanitizing, hydrating, and strolling everywhere in silk pajamas to my harried, crazy attempts to go places with my kids. Ammon is always trying to run away or find the nearest most hazardous thing to do, Clarissa is now trying to follow his example, and the girls love to whine. I am zoned out, snappy, or just harried out of my mind. It is SUCH a contrast to Naomi Campbell!
In the evening we went out to do errands and got started on dinner late. The kids helped press tortillas for the chicken fajitas I made. They loved making tortillas, and Lydia was better at cooking them than I was.
Afterward I let the girls watch my favorite YouTube channel, Cute Girl Hairstyles, and Lydia practiced hairstyles on Mary. I want them to be good at doing hair. I don’t feel good at hair at all and I am 36!!! It feels a little late to learn, but that’s probably not true.
Today the highlight was making spring rolls with the kids. I have decided that until the end of the summer, I should let them help with cooking as much as possible. Spring rolls are so kid friendly, and Eli was over and loved them too. I read them our picture book about Alice Waters while we ate dinner.
Also I spent hours outside with Clarissa in the evening. The weather was perfect. For some of the time I read Melinda Gates’ Lift, but most of the time Clarissa wanted to sing and play. I spent a lot of time just looking at her healthy, happy self and feeling so lucky and blessed.
During Clarissa’s nap the kids played a bunch in the basement and took silly pictures with my phone:
On Sunday I read Erling Kagge’s book, Walking, in the evening while all of the kids played naked in the backyard. Clarissa has a rash and so I stripped her down to help her heal, and then all of the kids wanted to join in. They played for hours.
Abe had a great time at church and told me all about it. He loved all of the great discussion that went on about Paul. I wasn’t in a very great mood and pointed out the irony that these people who are supposedly having beautiful insights into Christianity in Sunday School voted for Trump. That kind of put a damper on the conversation.
In the afternoon Abe left on a work trip, and I fed the kids a really early dinner…(around, er, 3:30 pm). When Abe’s gone, the earlier we get things done, the better!
On Saturday Anthony, Malika, Emile, and Amalia came over for the afternoon. Ever since I saw this on our calendar I have been looking forward to it. We get to see them so rarely and it feels like a luxurious treat to have lots of time to just be together with these beautiful souls.
We played games with the kids, chatted, ate bagel sandwiches, and just enjoyed each other’s company. After they pulled away I turned to Abe and said, “Oh my gosh, we didn’t get a single picture!!” I felt SO sad and for a minute contemplated a last minute trip to Salt Lake just to catch up with them and get a picture.
They did invite us to join them in Hawaii for Christmas, so here’s hoping Abe bills a TON between now and Christmas so we can–and we can hopefully remember to take a picture if we do!!!
This evening we were lounging in the backyard when Mary marched out and announced, “There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is,” she grinned widely, “I killed a fly. It was gross!” She was so obviously proud of herself. It was adorable. “The good news is that I drew this!” and she proudly handed me several drawings cut and taped into a birthday cake shape, with the word, “Mary!” colorfully drawn on the top layer. It was too cute.
Abe and I were really tired today. Clarissa was up for HOURS last night. It was the first night since the trip that we didn’t go to her with milk in the night when she cried. And boy, can she express her feelings. She has such great lungs. Maybe she’ll grow up to be an opera singer or professional candle blower or something.
The evening was gorgeous out and Lydia and I spent it reading her new series, The School of Good and Evil. The woman who worked at Powell’s highly recommended it and Lydia is obsessed and wants me to read it, so I, with great effort, set aside Erling Kegge’s book, Walking, and picked it up instead. It’s not half bad.
Thursday was our first day back, and thank goodness Abe didn’t have to work. We arrived home at 1am, which we were actually thrilled about considering we started on the Oregon Coast, stopped at Powell’s books on the way, and managed the potty needs of six people en route. Well, actually, we were pretty bad about the potty needs of everyone in pull-ups or diapers (half of our family!). We didn’t stop for those folks, and poor Ammon was basically dripping pee everywhere by the time we arrived home. Ammon, I am so sorry. We love you so much, and you were such a trooper to never complain.
Actually, Ammon was a STAR traveler. He made it this whole month sitting for countless hours in his car seat without any access to any type of screen and entertained himself–quietly!!!–99% of the time. I should just make a rule no more screen time during Clarissa’s nap times at home. He can totally do it. Ok, maybe we’ll try that out tomorrow…
Also, Abe did the vast majority of driving. We had to stop to pick up his car at the airport and if it hadn’t been for that, we would have been home before midnight. It was an incredible feat!
On Sunday we packed up from our airbnb in Beaverton and drove to Slappy Cakes in Portland. We discovered Slappy Cakes last year and love it.
Abe was very proud of his spiral pancake:
Lydia did the dog and Mary wrote “Love.”
After breakfast we drove to the Portland Art Museum. Ammon was asleep in the car, so I stayed in the car enjoying the fresh morning air and daydreaming while he slept for two hours. Abe took Clarissa in the carrier, and she slept on him while he and the girls explored the museum. The girls did their assignment of sketching and writing about their favorite pieces of art. Abe said they wanted to sketch and write about everything, so he had to start drawing boundaries about how much they could do so that he could actually move through the museum. The museum fed his soul (and mine, when it was my turn).
When it was my turn to go in, I felt so alive and happy and grateful. Portland has the best art museum we’ve seen in a long time. It was certainly better than Seattle and Vancouver! It felt like a feast. I took pictures of waaaayy yy too much art… I won’t post them all, but here are just a few:
This is Kehinda Wiley’s “Indio Cuauhtemoc (The World Stage, Brazil)” painting. He paints people of the African diaspora in grand poses from the European Renaissance. This was the first painting I stopped in front of, and it alone could probably occupy someone without kids waiting for them for at least an hour.Dutch art. If I HAD to pick my favorite type of art, I might cheat and just say “everything the Dutch paint.” I love it all.IT’S CLARISSA!!!!! I didn’t realize that until I was showing everyone the pictures I took in the car. When I showed them this photo, Abe exclaimed that both girls had stopped in front of this painting and said it was Clarissa!!! (This is “Nature’s Fan” by William Adolphe Bouguereau. He lived at the same time as the impressionists but was doing this instead.This tree by Swiss artist Alexander Calame took my breath away. When I showed it to Abe he said this one stopped him in his tracks, too.“Marine,” by American artist William Trost Richards, caught my eye. I know this is a painting of the sea, but I grew up by Lake Michigan and spent many hours sitting on the rocks by the lake looking at scenes that looked a lot like this. Light, water, horizon and clouds all together feel very familiar and deeply resonant to me.This painting, “Peanuts,” by De Scott Evans was another one that caught my eye and that Abe exclaimed had caught his too when I showed it to him later. It’s not that big of a painting, but it’s very striking.This painting is very large. It was so colorful and vibrant that I almost cried looking at it. And then I wanted to laugh because I found out it’s an American still life (painted by Severin Roesen, born in Germany but labeled “American”), and upon second examination, it was obviously Americanized–at least it looked like it to me. I feel like a Dutch painter would have painted something a little more restrained and elegant, whereas the still life with an American sensibility is ebullient, gregarious, dripping with so much dew that the flowers are practically sweating to grab attention, and overall completely in your face.There was a huge exhibition on Paris during the Belle Epoque, and most of the paintings were full of fashion, parties, and industry. This painting was sobering in contrast. (“A Martyr: The Violet Seller” by Fernand Pelez.)
A few more things from the Paris exhibition:
It was a glorious experience. When I tore myself away, we drove to the World Forestry Museum.
They had a wild rapids “ride” :
The back of their museum was a water feature, which the kids loved.
My honest thoughts were that the forestry museum was interesting and had some great information, but it also had a slightly dated-feeling. On the other hand, we had the place almost to ourselves, so it was very peaceful.
After the museum, we caught a shuttle to the rose garden. We wanted to rewrite everyone’s memories of it after the wasp disaster there last year. To do that, I gave the girls my phone and told them they could each take pictures of the roses. They traded off and took pictures of each other whenever they switched so we would know later who took what. Here are some of Lydia’s photos (and poses to show these are hers):
And Mary’s:
Then we took the shuttle back, with Ammon chatting with the whole shuttle again (as he did the on the way up), and then drove to a restaurant I enjoyed last year, the Indian Bollywood Theater next to Eb and Bean. We ate soft serve at Eb and Bean afterward.
Then we drove to Powell’s books. I have not been to Powell’s since Mary was a baby. On that occasion, I vowed to spend more time there on the next trip. Last year I didn’t want to do it with four kids, so we skipped it. But this time was, um, heaven. It was pure bliss. Abe and the babies waited in the car while the two older girls and I explored and basically went bananas inside.
I spent waaaaayyy too much money on books that were deeply discounted (and a couple that were for the, er, heck of it.) I also took pictures of books I didn’t buy but wanted to add to my Goodreads To Read list so I can remember for the future. (It worked because I just added them now!)
And then we drove to Seaside! There was still light out enough to enjoy the Oregon countryside for a while before it got dark. It was so cozy to pull up to the darling Airbnb that we reserved months ago. It was adorable.
I have to end by saying how much I LOVED this day. It had books, flowers, art, museums, and nature. Can I do this day again every day????
