Author: lilydarais

On Thursday I let the kids play with Annabelle. I had banned them from all of the neighborhood kids because hand foot and mouth disease was going around, but Annabelle’s family had been steering clear of the infected families for a while and we figured she was safe. They played almost all day together:

Clarissa also discovered the grapes in the fridge. Seeing her sneak the grapes from the fridge reminded me of Lydia who used to do the exact same thing at her age:

I made a shrimp creole for dinner. Abe has been very stressed at work this week, but he got to go golfing with his fellow managers for most of the day and absolutely loved that.

On Wednesday evening we got together with Brittany and her girls and the Kahlers to swim at the Orem Fitness Center. It was fun to get together with our neighbors…except when I stood up to talk to Abe, and my breast popped out of my swimsuit. Oops. Also, Abe lost his glasses in the pool for a minute.

I guess those two incidents constituted most of our excitement. It was a pretty low-key day. I spent a lot of the day just enjoying the kids. I love it when I can take time to appreciate them. That made the day wonderful for me.

On Tuesday I spent Clarissa’s nap back-blogging while Ammon watched TV and the girls played outside. We didn’t bring electronics for the kids on our trip, so I justified the TV marathon by the fact that he didn’t have a minute of screen time for nine straight days.

Then when Clarissa woke up, we headed over to Blair’s clubhouse and played in her pool. She brought a giant crocodile that the kids loved. Ammon kept yelling, “THREE, TWO, ONE…” — and then flipping backwards off of it into the water. In the meantime, James, a boy after my own heart, sat right next to Blair quietly eating apple jacks with his feet dipped neatly in the pool. Blair and I could not get over how different our two year old boys are.

Blair and I had a great time chatting, and before we knew it, it was 5:30! I had to bribe the kids out of the pool with ice cream, so we didn’t get home until almost six. Abe made a spaghetti dinner, and steamed some of our garden zucchini. Our zucchini went nuts while we were out of town. The vegetables are as big as baseball bats and there are a ton of them.

After dinner I took Lydia to her harp lesson, and I am ashamed to admit, I slept through it. I kept waking up periodically to take notes, but I could not keep my eyes open for the most part.

Then we came home, put the kids to bed, and Abe and I watched half of Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought it was one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen in my life. Abe, on the other hand, thought it was great.

On Monday the girls had great music practices and then I cleaned the inside of the car while Lydia babysat Clarissa on the front lawn.

After that I put Clarissa to bed and worked on laundry and post-trip clean-up while the girls played outside and Ammon watched TV.

When Clarissa woke up, we went to the eye doctor to get her eyes checked out. She will need a stent like Lydia did, and the doctor also thinks she might be cross eyed like Mary. Poor Clarissa! The doctor did a full eye exam on her because she was higher risk as a sibling of someone with glasses, so we were there for a long time. Praise be, Ammon slept through the whole thing in his stroller. I would have been out of my mind had he been awake.

Then we drove through Chick Fil A for dinner and I got Lydia a Dairy Queen to pass the time since all of the kids were asleep except for her. After we got home, we fed all of the kids, read to them, and put them to bed.

Abe and I then took a walk to Menchie’s. On the way we ran into so many people: Steve Young, Jon Bishop, and, when we got to Menchie’s, we ran into Mary’s piano teacher and his family. After our ice cream, we walked home and looked at the clock. It was 10:30pm! Time flies with Abe.

On Sunday we drove home from Las Vegas. We arrived in Orem around 5pm.

On this trip we listened to a lot of audiobooks. On Sunday we listened to Sarah, Plain, and Tall, Skylark, and Caleb’s story. Over the course of the trip we also listened to Number the Stars, How to Train Your Dragon #1, Rabbit Ears – the Moses books, Rabbit Ears– (some of the Beatrix Potter stories, but I can’t remember which ones), Rabbit Ears —  How the Leopard got its Stripes, The Tailor of Gloucester and Amazing Grace. We listened to How to Train Your Dragon twice because it was the best audiobook we have ever listened to. The narrator was the most entertaining we have ever heard, and the story is rollicking. Although I have to say that Meryl Streep’s reading of The Tailor of Gloucester had my mouth open in awe. Her voices, inflection, and narration are breathtaking.

We also listened to a lot of music. We listened to TONS of Raffi, an Israeli world music CD, Jack Johnson’s Curious George CD, The Greatest Showman, and random favorite songs on Pandora and YouTube. Among these are: Sara Bareilles’ “Be Brave,” Imagine Dragons’ “Thunder,” the Piano Guys, “Amazing Grace/Fight Song,” and Alex Boye’s “Lemonaid.” We also listen to the Piano Guys generally, whatever Christian radio stations we could find, and, when it was really late at night and Abe was in charge, random pop music from the radio.

When we got home, my mom had prepared a lovely dinner and the house was spotless. We bathed all of the kids, ate dinner, let them play in the yard and pick tomatoes, and put them all to bed. Then Abe and I took the car to wash and vacuum it out. Our own end-of-the-day shower was much appreciated after the long trip.

On Saturday we broke camp and then drove to La Jolla.

We ate breakfast at Sugar and Scribe. Abe got lemon curd pancakes, I got a Sligo scramble, and the kids got french toast fingers. Then we headed to the beach.

We played on the beach for a bit before Abe took Ammon, Mary, and Lydia to the tide pools to explore. Right when the got back, the tide started coming in and drenched Clarissa, who was playing happily in the sand until that moment. Luckily I was right there and grabbed her, but she was startled and sad at being so unexpectedly soaked. I put her in her carrier and we walked over to the Children’s Cove to look at a seal swimming nearby.

Then I took Clarissa back to the car while Abe and the kids showered. I drove and picked them up and we headed to The Cottage for lunch. I got a crabcake melted sandwich, which was basically drenched in butter and very delicious. I don’t know what anyone else got because I was in the car with Clarissa the whole time. She was asleep and Abe ran me my food so I could eat in the car without waking her up.

After lunch, we all packed in and drove to Las Vegas. The most notable thing about that drive was a stop at Eddie’s World by Yermo. It looked brand new and was astounding in the middle of the dessert. They had gourmet pizza with a fire oven and lots of food options. Everything was brand new and the people were remarkably friendly.

We pulled into the Home2 right around midnight.

On Friday we went to Hash House a Go Go again for breakfast before heading over to Balboa Park.

Vince had had an eventful morning wherein his car died right before breakfast, so he slept in the car while we took Kamiyah and our kids through the Japanese Gardens. During the Gardens, Ammon pooped right before Mary also pooped–in her pants. Thankfully I had packed a spare set of undies for her because she had been on the verge of pooping or peeing in her pants the whole trip long.

After the gardens, we parted ways with Vince and Kamiyah and headed to the San Diego Art Museum. I was still on my period, and after Abe and I got separated, I came upon a part of the museum set up for story telling. There were pillows on top of a cushy rug on the floor. I let Clarissa crawl around while Lydia studied the nearby art and I sat menstruating on the pillows imagining what it was like being in a red tent back in the day. The pillows were awesome, but I’m not sure the red tents were.

Then we met up with Abe, who was patiently waiting in the lobby with an out of control Ammon. We then headed over to the Model Train Museum, which was absolutely incredible. It was so much bigger than the model trains we had seen on Monday…but the kids weren’t half as impressed. They were still very interested and eager, but I think their first encounter with a model train blew their minds. This encounter was fun, but it wasn’t as mind blowing.

Then we went over to our favorite fast food restaurant for one last drive through vegetarian meal before we went to Coronado Beach to relax from all the earlier stresses. Coronado Beach was incredible. There were gold flecks in the sand and the water was a great temperature. We felt so happy and relaxed after a couple hours there.

After Coronado Beach we drove back into San Diego for some Pinkberry frozen yogurt, and then headed back to camp.

On Thursday we started the day by heading over to the San Diego Safari Zoo. For the first hour I carried Ammon on my back in the carrier through the zoo while Clarissa sat in the stroller. I can not overstate how delightful it was to have his sweet little commentary running in my ear as we walked.

I was of the mind that we should just skip eating in the zoo and eat afterward, but Abe realized that eating, while it seems optional for me, is not an option for the kids. So we ate lunch at a restaurant in front of a stage where people danced a lot of different global dances. After that we did some more exploring. Right about when we got to the lemur walk I started to feel done. I was on my period, the sun was really hot, and all of the walking with my plantar fasciitis was doing me in. So Abe and the kids headed to the zoo tram while I took Clarissa to the car. On the way to the car I stopped at the duck pond. Clarissa was asleep, and I had a wonderful prayer by that peaceful, almost deserted corner of the zoo. I sat there basking in good feelings until Clarissa woke up, and then I headed to the car to change her diaper, feed her, and tidy the car until Abe and the kids showed up.

Then we headed over to Solana Beach to meet up with Vince and Kamiyah, who had driven down from San Diego. I thought Solana Beach would have tide pools for the kids to play in, but it didn’t. Instead, we just ate at a so-so Mexican restaurant right next to a highway-esque road, and then we headed back to the KOA. I felt bad about such a disappointing detour.

At the KOA the kids all played in the playground until it was time to swim.

The actual swimming was a disaster. I was, as stated earlier, on my period, and my tampon was, how shall I say this, er, not working. So it was very uncomfortable for starters. Also, we did not have enough floaties. Kamiyah did not know how to swim and was terrified of the water, but she was also wearing one of our two floaties. Since Kamiyah would not let go of either Abe or me, we gave her floatie to Mary, who was on the verge of drowning. This upset Kamiyah. Also, it was dark, so we were trying to keep track of Lydia, who firmly believes she can swim…but she can’t. And Ammon is two, and so we have to keep our eyes on him, not to mention Mary–who, as we said before, had swallowed a lot of water while we were taking care of Kamiyah–and anyway, it was just out of control.

I hadn’t had time to get enough towels and clothes together because I didn’t realize Vince wasn’t swimming until the last minute, and as soon as I realized he wasn’t swimming I threw as much stuff together as I could as fast as possible so I could get in the pool and help Abe deal with five kids. The result was that when we got out of the pool, our situation went from perilous to abjectly miserable. We had one towel for all five, cold kids. Also, Abe and Kamiyah had no clothes to change into. Also, Clarissa was shaking from cold. Also, Vince got confused about how to help Kamiyah change, and so Abe ended up running around the camp trying to find him for 40 minutes while I stood aching and streaming blood while holding Clarissa in the shower. Thankfully, Mary and Lydia were awesome and helped by getting showered and dressed themselves, but after my 40 minute, bloody shower with my poor, sad baby, I was beside myself.

Finally everyone got dressed and Abe came to get Clarissa, at which point I could finally take care of my situation. Once we were all changed, we put the kids in the car and intended to take them to dinner, but they all fell asleep except for Kamiyah. Vince got lost on the way to McDonald’s, and so we ended up just heading home to camp and transferring our sleeping kids while he found McDonald’s and fed Kamiyah.

It was an eventful day, for sure.

On Wednesday we drove back to Balboa Park and watched a puppet show at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater.

Then we headed  over to Mission Beach to visit with my cousin, Jodi, and her son, Ty.

We had the most amazing time with Jodi and Ty. Ty taught Abe how to boogie board, and after an hour I started to fear Abe would never return to shore. He loved boogie boarding so much. In the meantime, Jodi and I had fun visiting while we watched the kids.

When Abe returned, he helped with Clarissa, who was getting fussy. He decided to try to get her to sleep in the stroller, which he pushed back and forth in the sand. In the meantime, the girls were playing in the shallow part of the waves. At one point, I turned my back on them to check to see if Clarissa had indeed fallen asleep.

When I turned back around, Lydia and Mary were gone. Instead of seeing my girls playing in shallow waves, I saw waves twice the size of the girls in the exact spot where they had been playing a minute earlier. Only I didn’t see my girls. At that very moment, a lifeguard on a jet ski was patrolling the spot where my girls had been because there was a riptide slightly further out. I ran into the water and waved him down and asked him if he had seen my two girls. People on the beach started looking worried, and Jodi came up to me and kept repeating that the girls were okay, that they probably had just gotten lost on the beach, and that we would find them soon.

I was seriously going out of my mind at that point. I was sure they were dead, and I was hyperventilating and starting to panic-cry. Abe began running down the beach looking for the girls while Ty looked after Ammon, and a minute later he came back…with two very frightened little girls.

Mary and Lydia had somehow gotten lost on the beach and wandered away from us, and when they saw how scared we all were, I think they learned right away to respect the ocean waves just a little more. For the rest of the trip Mary refused to get more than her feet wet in the waves.

I was so, so, so thankful that they were alive. I had to sit down and calm down after thinking they were dead. It was a horrible episode.

Thankfully there was no one better to be with than Jodi and Ty. They are so fun and cheerful that pretty soon I felt recovered. We spent a little more time playing–but this time I never took my eyes off of the kids, and neither did Abe. After we were done in the ocean, we walked to the car and got changed. Then we re-met Jodi and Ty at the boardwalk and walked to a restaurant right on the beach.

We had a great dinner there and enjoyed visiting so much. I was so happy to have that time with my cousin and her son!

After we parted with Jodi and Ty, we drove to a laundromat and threw all of our sandy things in the laundry, along with all of the dirty clothes from our trip. In the meantime, I was texting with my friend, Amelia, and trying to coordinate a meet-up.

We finally met up at 11:30pm at the aptly named Extraordinary Desserts. I haven’t seen Amelia since she visited me in Boston in 2008. It has been TEN years!!! I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the highlight of my trip to meet up with Amelia and reconnect. I just love and admire her so much. We got our extraordinary desserts (mine was a plum cheesecake crumble sort of thing) and ate outside. Abe parked right next to us, so we were ten feet from our sleeping children while we all visited. The late hour was completely and totally worth every minute with Amelia. Next time I hope to meet her partner, Belinda, too.

This is what the kids looked like when we woke up on Tuesday:

After we got all ready for the day, we went to the Crest Cafe in the morning for breakfast.

Sea World. I watched Blackfish a while back and have learned how horrible Sea World is, but the movie has faded in my memory and my conscience has dulled sufficiently to allow me to take my kids there with only the occasional, fleeting, and exceptionally faint feeling of guilt.

We started off by watching the dolphin show. Abe and the kids sat in the front row right in the wettest part of the “soak zone,” and Clarissa and I stood to the side. I have to admit, the minute the dolphins jumped out of the pool in unison, I almost started to cry at how magnificent those creatures are. They are beautiful. Mary declared them “her favorite sea creatures.” When she said that, I wistfully remembered that a year ago she earnestly declared that mermaids were her favorite sea creatures. I suspect now she knows that mermaids aren’t real. Sigh.

Anyway, after the dolphin show, we headed over to the sea lion show. I had Clarissa in the carrier all of this time, and the sea lion show was in the blazing hot sun. Even though we had covered everyone with sunscreen, Clarissa was starting to turn red in the carrier. I couldn’t tell if she was overheating or she was burning. It was a little worrisome, so I was slightly distracted during the show. As soon as it was over, we headed straight to some shade.

Then we trekked over to the killer whale show. Some clouds had come and hidden the sun, which was awesome because I don’t know if Clarissa could have handled another show in the blazing sun again. Honestly, I thought the orca show was a bit of a let down because the orcas didn’t do that many tricks. On the other hand, my faded memory of Blackfish helped me understand that this was probably a really good thing. While feeling nonplussed by the splashing orcas, I decided that when we got back to Utah I would re-watch Blackfish so I could remember exactly why it was a good thing the show has evolved to its current boring format.

After the Orca show we ate lunch at whatever restaurant is right by the river rapids ride. Clarissa finally had some time out of her carrier and we got everyone to go to the bathroom and get new diapers. Then Clarissa went back into her carrier and we napped together while Abe and the other kids rode the river rapids ride. After the river rapids, Ammon, Mary, Clarissa and I migrated over to some better seating while Abe and Lydia rode a roller coaster. Mary was not tall enough. Ammon fell asleep in the stroller, so that made life easy while we waited.

After Abe and Lydia returned, we almost went home but then decided to check out the little kid section of the park. We were so glad we did because this was a big hit with everyone. The kids all got to go on rides with very short lines and then they got to play, play, play on all sorts of kid-friendly structures. There was even a place for Clarissa to play–which she did, for over an hour.

After everyone was finished at the play place, we headed over to see the Beluga whales and walruses. The Beluga whales were my absolute favorite of all the sea animals. They were magical, regal, and so gorgeous. If I had to be an animal, I might pick being a Beluga whale.

Then Abe and Lydia went off to try to ride the biggest roller coaster in the park while I took everyone else through the penguin display. Mary had to pee frequently and so finding her a restroom was also a recurring crisis throughout the day. We finished up by finding her a final restroom, only to get to the car and have her announce she needed to pee again. At that point we put her in a diaper.

We drove through a different vegetarian fast food restaurant and were delighted once again with vegetarian fast food. It is amazing. I am half tempted to open a franchise in Utah.