Author: lilydarais

On Thursday I took Ammon and Clarissa on the Cascade Springs hike. I pulled over en route to take a picture. My camera card was full, so I tried to practice the composition techniques I’ve been reading about using just my iPhone.

This next picture I took when we were close to Cascade Springs. I stepped out of the car and for the first time in forever heard nothing but beautiful, sweet silence. There was no one around for miles. It was sort of ominous at first, but after I gave myself a pep talk (“No one is going to jump out of the bushes and murder you and your children”, etc.) I was able to sink into the gorgeous aural sensation of SILENCE.

Also, in the morning I studied a photo of sunflowers in front of Mt. Fuji, and when I was trying to figure out how to capture the beautiful vista in front of me, I used it as a reference.  It’s amazing what reading and studying do!! I am seriously kicking myself for not doing this years ago.

I was a little nervous to hike Cascade Springs because, as I said before, not a soul was in sight. But it turned out to be the most glorious, sweet experience. I loved every minute of this time in nature with my kids. I kept feeling overwhelmed with wonder that this is my life. It was so beautiful.

It was an absolutely amazing morning and afternoon, and I felt so grateful to be alive and in my own life.

With all of that beauty and goodness from the morning, you would think I would have stored up some sort of emotional reserve so that I could behave well when I thought I saw a mouse in the basement. But, sigh, no. I am not at that point yet. I was a totally crazy b*&$! for the next three hours after that–all the way until Abe ascertained that there was no mouse. It must have been my imagination.

Then I felt really bad and guilty for the rest of the evening. I did go to yoga and got back to a good place, but I am hoping that I can figure out how to BE NICE EVEN WHEN I AM STRESSED OUT. This is a very difficult project for me. I hope I can figure this out before my kids all grow up.

 

Today Abe and I were up by 5am and then went running. I have been sooooo good about exercise and–this is how bad my eating is–I have ZERO to show for it. Well, I guess I’m healthier, so there’s that. But I am no skinnier! Sigh.

Despite the fact that I still tote an extra fifty pounds around, I had a terrific day. I kept the house pretty tidy, did a bunch of laundry, made a huge batch of the healthy kind of broccoli soup, got caught up on the blog, took Ammon and Clarissa to the library, and made sure the kids got their homework, practice, and dance in.

Abe had a kind of tricky conflict at work with one of his team members. That took the emotional wind out of his sails, a bit. But he’s still cheerful and fun. When we drove up to the house from dance, Lydia said, “Why do we never do any Halloween decorations?! We are going to be the most boring family on the block!!”

…So Abe dug in the garage and found some orange lights, a giant spider, and some of my La Befanas I picked up when I lived in Italy. The kids are playing happily with them and think they are Halloween witches.

I also got a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone today. That’s depressing in retrospect, but I have been thinking about Baskin Robbins for at least a month. We almost never go there, but for whatever reason it’s been on the mind.

On our way home, Abe saw this cherry orchard turning colors. He did a u-turn so that he could snap these pictures:

Right now everything feels chaotic because it is 7:39 and the kids aren’t even in pj’s. Everyone is playing, eating and doing homework:

 

On Tuesday the babies and I stayed home in the morning to read and play while the girls went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Then after school I picked them up and took everyone up to the Timpanogos trail head. We spent at least an hour there, but a lot of that was actually spent getting jackets and shoes on everyone and overseeing potty runs to the outhouse. During the actual hike, we went very, very slowly because Clarissa wanted to walk.

When the trail got too muddy, I put her in the carrier. She screamed at the top of her lungs in protest…and she didn’t stop screaming until we turned around fifteen minutes later and went all the way back to the car. That was so unfortunate because the trail was beautiful and the other kids were doing so great on it. We might try again later in the week.

When we got home, everyone did homework and practiced. I stayed up reading my how-to photography books. I am kicking myself for not reading these YEARS earlier. Anyhoo, they are wonderfully inspiring and instructional. I hope to become a better photographer with their help!

On Monday the kids had their last day of Fall Break, so I packed them all up, including our little neighbor, Eli, and took everyone to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden.

Before I continue this story, let me just preface it by saying that Monday was one of the BEST DAYS EVER!!! It was one of those days I felt happy from start to finish. Every activity was a delight. The only thing that would have made it better is if Abe could have been able to come too. I just needed to record that in case I look back and think I’ve wasted these little-kid years complaining and feeling ungrateful. Honestly, I felt active gratitude in my heart practically every minute of this glorious day. It was so fun.

Okay, so we drove to Ogden because I have not explored it much at all since moving here to Utah, and I have been wanting to for some time. I debated between Ogden, southern Utah, or Salt Lake stuff, and I am so glad Ogden won! It was beautiful with the fall colors. (Apparently, it is on the top ten places to visit for fall colors in the U.S. After Monday, I believe it!)

Oh! Before we left for Ogden, the girls each practiced their instruments without complaining and were soooo good. That was awesome.

Then we drove to the dinosaur park in Ogden. It was incredible. The kids spent hours exploring and playing. I loved it because of both how much the kids loved it AND how beautiful a day and place it was. It was a gorgeous day and we were right at the mouth of Ogden Canyon. So pretty.

After the museum, we went to Prairie Schooner, a theme restaurant I read about a couple years ago. It was so cool and the pictures do not capture a smidgen of it. The food was so-so, but nobody really cared because everyone was so busy having fun in our wagon and exploring the “prairies” in the restaurant.

Then we drove home, and just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better, Abe gave me a massage. It really was the perfect day.

I am so grateful to God, nature and all of the wonderful people in my life for my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

 

On Sunday I taught a lesson on Larry Echo Hawk’s talk on forgiveness. 

The lesson went well because everyone had so many insightful things to share. One of my neighbors will have imaginary conversations where she will apologize to people she’s held secret grudges against. Then she asks them to forgive her, and she visualizes them saying “yes.” She then asks God to forgive her, and then finally she asks herself for forgiveness for harboring ill will and hurting her own spirit. Isn’t that an inspiring practice? I found it so.

Another woman shared how her sister and she didn’t talk for years and years, but in the ten days between her sister’s cancer diagnosis and her sister’s death, they reconciled. This woman cried when she talked about how horrible she would feel if they had never reconciled. It was very tender.

There were lots of other good stories too.

I think we forgot to take pictures on Sunday. Darn.

 

On Saturday morning we took Lydia’s best friend, Grace, along with our family to Wee Witches in Gardener Village. It was a lovely day and a fun outing for everyone.

After this, we dropped Grace off, headed to the library to check out books, and spent the rest of the day reading books to the kids. I think I read thirty books. I know my voice was threatening to go out, and I was just thankful it held up because the kids kept wanting to read more and more. That was a very cozy and happy part of the day. Honestly, I wish I had a picture because I liked it even more than Wee Witches–and I am a BIG fan of Wee Witches!!

On Friday we drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. It is the last national park in Utah that Abe and I had yet to visit. I was blown. away. I love all of the Utah parks, but I have to say, Bryce Canyon is absolutely, without question, the most beautiful.

We did have one rough moment when Lydia didn’t want to look over the rim into the canyon, and Abe, in an attempt to quickly cure her of her fear, threw her on top of the fence that is supposed to keep tourists from falling into the canyon. This made Lydia scream, all of the tourists gasp, and me…say bad words. Abe immediately put her down, apologized, and asked forgiveness (even though he admitted he had no idea what he had done wrong.) I was giving a lesson on forgiveness the next day, so I waited until my rage and adrenaline dropped before having a much needed healing conversation with Abe. (It took ten minutes for my chemicals abate to the point where I could see straight again.) But after our conversation, we went on to have a wonderful rest of the trip.

We finished by hiking the mossy cave hike right outside of the park. It was our absolute favorite part of the trip. I wish I had taken close ups of the river there. The rocks were all pink and purple. It was amazing and the light was incredible. Sigh. We’ll just have to go again, I guess. I can’t wait!

Today Abe took the day off of work. He has been working SO hard, and he really needs a break! Plus, it is fall break and our family photo day to boot. So it helped that Abe was around.

After doing bikram this morning, I got ready…and then went back to bed. Abe brought me breakfast and played with the kids. He is a saint.

When I got back out of bed, I cleaned the house. Then my neighbor came over to teach me how to curl my hair. I am very challenged when it comes to hair tools, so this was quite difficult. She gave up and ended up curling it for me.

Then we all changed and were off to Jolly Ranch Campground for pictures. We should have taken some ourselves so that I could blog today, but, alas, we didn’t. We left that up to Wendy from Blue Lily. She was spectacular. I really couldn’t rave enough. We adored her, and our kids ate out of her hands. Speaking of spectacular, Abe and I were blown away by how GOOD our kids were. They were sweet, charming, perfectly obedient, and just amazing in every way. We were so thrilled. And shocked. And thankful.

Afterward we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. We waited approximately one million hours for dinner, but boy was it worth it. I probably ate five thousand calories because I had starved myself before the photos. Now I am a plump ball blogging away in bed. This was a great day and actually, I think I might be sad it is over.

On Wednesday I played with, read to, and sang with Clarissa and Ammon all morning. When Clarissa woke up from her nap, she screamed a lot because she is constipated and her poop gets caught halfway. This is the second time I had to frantically pull it out of her because this time, her poop was ripping her perineum and there was blood all over. It was horrifying and I don’t know if I have yet to recover. I am praying she gets better and doesn’t have to suffer like that ever again. I am going to cook broccoli soup for her to see if that helps. I don’t think she gets enough vegetables. Or water. She just drinks milk and eats carbs. Poor thing–she needs a more attentive mother who hasn’t given up on mealtime!

After naps, we then picked up Mary and Lydia and headed to Qualtrics for our flu shots. Ammon fell asleep on the way over. We decided to give him his shot while he was asleep. Talk about a rude awakening.

Afterward we all headed to Malawi’s pizza to kill time before ballet, which is right next to Qualtrics. It didn’t make sense to drive home and then drive almost directly back, so pizza with Abe and the kids was a nice way to fill that window.

After ballet Mary had a piano recital. During her recital Abe and I put the kids down, left them with my mom, and went on a date to clean the car and pick stuff up from Target.

Then we picked Mary up, let the girls watch The Great British Baking Show until far too late, and watched The Good Wife ourselves. Abe stayed up until 2 am working.

It was a full day!

I am back blogging and can’t remember this day, except for the fact the girls went to ballet. I have a picture of a tree in our backyard that Abe took a picture of recently. He loves the colors on it. So do I! I will now post this random picture as a stand-in for this apparently very forgettable day.