Today my mom hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner because she will be in Hawaii during Thanksgiving. It was such a delight to have my brother, Jere, in town, and also my Aunt Bonnie, my cousin Jason and his son Giles. I had not seen Bonnie and Aaron for a long time and it made me so happy to see them, and it was so fun to get to know Giles (he is crazy about monster trucks!). It was also so nice to catch up with my mom and Jay.
After a delicious turkey dinner, we visited my grandma in her care facility. She was in good spirits and so fun to talk to. We learned about a wave frequency therapy she is doing and caught up generally. She’s had multiple roommates pass away and one be very mean to her, but she’s had a good attitude about everything, and she recently moved into a new room with a new roommate.
Lately Clarissa has been crafting a lot, and she has especially been enjoying the glue gun, even though recently she accidentally burned herself with it.
She calls her most recent creation a Chick Stick. Essentially, it is a bunch of popsicle sticks glued together with a piece of yard glued to it. She made a game that is a blend of hide and seek and tag. The person with the Chick Stick has to count to ten with her/his eyes closed while the other person hides. Then the person with the Chick Stick looks for the other person. When that other person is found, s/he has the opportunity to run away and is only caught if the Chick Stick holder can touches her/him with the yarn on the Chick Stick. If the person without the Chick Stick is tagged, s/he then has the Chick Stick and counts to ten while the other person hides and so on.
Mary played this game A LOT with Clarissa and it was fun to hear them having so much fun together laughing as they ran around the house. Before putting Clarissa to bed tonight, I played it with her for 15 minutes and it was the highlight of my day. She is so fun!
In other news, while Lily continues to go very deep on learning about the conflict between Israel and Palestine and is expressing her thoughts through letters and conversation (including at the fun dinner with had with Lucas and Kim at the Lakehouse tonight), we also have another activist in our midst. It’s Mary! She started to feel strongly about the situation of girls chatting at recess having to walk too far to get to their favorite chatting spot, and also about them getting hit with soccer balls while chatting. Here is the letter she wrote to have her school address the situation:
On the topic of Mary, Lily took her to the eye doctor today, I think to get both new glasses (her old ones broke) and contacts in the same visit. Afterwards, they went to lunch with Georgia, which was lovely for all. Here is Mary in her new contacts with her lovely Nana:
Also, I had a major RFP presentation today (virtually) and it was a major relief to be done with it and on to my weekend.
Today Lily spent time with our good friend Betsy Croft. Betsy has gotten really good at making fancy coffees lately with her new kitchen gadget, and Lily loved the creation Betsy made for her (and I’m sure these cups were made by Betsy too!). Lily said she so loved her visit with Betsy. It really made her happy.
Today was very fun. All of the kids enjoyed going to school in their costumes.
After school, Lily brought the kids to Qualtrics where I took them around for trick-or-treating around the office.
Then the kids got to show Nana their costumes.
Then we went to trick-or-treat in downtown Provo. I forgot to take pictures!
Then Lydia and Mary went to their friend’s houses where they trick-or-treated with their friends. I took Ammon and Clarissa around our neighborhood with Todd and his son Casey for a while, and then Lily joined us as we went to the scary garage-converted-into-haunted house, that Ammon and Clarissa love as well as Morgan and Jessie’s house, and our favorite skeleton house and surrounding area.
It was a very fun Halloween overall for everyone. Perhaps the most amusing part is how happy the younger kids are about their candy. I have memories as a kid just reveling in my candy haul and sorting it and trading it meticulously with siblings. And that is exactly what Clarissa, Ammon and Mary did. Clarissa has her candy sorted all over the dining room table (and plead that we let her keep it there), and Ammon’s room has now turned into a trading floor for he and Mary.
I had a very intense day at work today so I came home and rested when I was finished. And then it was so fun to switch gears and carve pumpkins with the family while we listened to Taylor Swift (our new musical obsession).
This morning we got up early to go to the 1st Presbyterian Scottish Celebration per the recommendation of our dear friends the Gruwells. It was so wonderful to see them, and the service blew our minds.
The service especially touched Lily who grew up going to a Presbyterian church. So many aspects of the service today (such as the building, the message in the sermon etc) reminded Lily of her childhood experience. She felt like she was home, and she was touched by the entire experience. We may attend much more based on how wonderful the experience was. I couldn’t help myself in grabbing these two videos. The music was so beautiful.
The sermon was about how we need God’s help to change us, and the pastor told the story of a very rude and bad child in the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series who turned into a dragon from his greed. He was not able to shed his own scales but needed Aslan to rip them off for him. The process hurt but made him a new creature, and we were invited to step into God’s grace and become new. It was beautiful
Then we went to lunch with the Gruwells and had such a great time talking with them. A highlight for me was learning about Ammon’s transition to veganism for environmental sustainability and how well it is working for him. Also, there were very few people at “O my Falafel” which worked out great given all the kids that we had with us (8 total!).
At home, I delivered on my promise to Ammon to help him build his birthday Millenium Falcon. It was one of my favorite father-son experiences that I have ever had. At first it was especially nice because we could methodically build each section together. Then, as we realized it was a five hour project or more, I spent the last hour and a half myself finishing it up. Ammon was so thrilled to build it with me (and I was having so much fun with him) and his mind was blown by the result. I have to admit that it is the most amazing and thoughtfully designed Lego set I’ve ever built. I was also very impressed with all the details. To top it all off, we watched Star Wars Episode IV (the first one ever made) so Ammon could get an appreciation for the Millenium Falcon. I was over the moon sharing that movie with the family and Ammon really got into it.
Today I woke up before 6 to run a half marathon. Since it was a Halloween-themed half-marathon, I decided to run as a cactus!
Lily and the kids came to support me, which made me so happy!
I took Clarissa to get her face painted
I also bumped into my friends Lucas and Kim during and after the race:
Back at home, Clarissa, who has been very crafty lately, made a unicorn hat:
In the afternoon, I took all the kids to the Spirit Halloween store so Lydia could get some accessories for her Halloween costume, and just so we could all walk around and enjoy the store:
Then in the evening we went to the Taylor Swift Era Concert movie. We got the idea from Jamie Gruwell who had just gone the day before (which is why Lydia babysat for her). The movie was unbelievable, one of the most incredible pieces of entertainment we had ever seen. Not only was it physically impressive that she can even sing and dance for three straight hours, but the execution of notes, dancing, talking to the audience, lighting and frankly everything was flawless. She is an incredible person, and it was amazing to see her express the music in her heart in such a powerful way. She was also so gracious in how much love she shared for her audience. And her songs just simply rock. She loved it!
Today Ammon and Clarissa had very involved fun making a food shop out of magnetiles. Lily and I each got some things from their shop. The specialties were exploding food items which you will see in the second video below:
Also, in the evening Lydia did her first babysitting outside of our family and babysat Ethan and Peter Gruwell. The Gruwell’s are one of our favorite families and Lydia had such a blast doing it. Those kids are the cutest!
Today I got the wish of my heart from yesterday (when I walked alone in the beautiful fall colors), and Lily and I were able to meet up for a walk today. She and the colors are so beautiful!
Speaking of beautiful colors, at home, Clarissa painted some beautiful flowers. She was so proud of them and showed them to others, describing great details about them. I think her favorites are the ones on the left.
Lily topped off a beautiful fall day by making a wonderful fall dinner. She’s been cooking a lot lately (cauliflower mac and cheese & vegetarian chili have been two recent great dishes).
