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Today is the birthday of my friend, Nick Barnes. I called him to check in and learned that things are going incredibly roughly for him right now, even more-so than I was previously aware. My heart is with Nick today as he wades through deep waters.

On the home-front, Lily loved her swim today. I was at home with Ammon and Clarissa while she swam. They were home today because they were sick. She also made a healthy dinner for everyone and a lovely English gingerbread desert.

Lily got this great shot of the sunset.

In the evening, we puzzled and had a nice conversation with Clark, Swathi, Soren and Meera.

All the kids except Lydia have been sick (Ammon and Mary have vomited). I’ve somehow dodged any sickness and Lily recently got over her cold. All of that gave us the perfect excuse to bundle up and have a cozy, relaxing Sunday together.

I slept in, which was divine, and then Lily and I did a few more chores in the morning. I was feeling very tired, so I enjoyed watching some Curious George with Clarissa on the couch.

Clarissa was extremely lethargic. She took two naps today and still went to be on-time.

In the evening, we cooked up some of Lily’s homemade lasagna that we saved in the freezer. It was SOOOO GOOD. We also puzzled as a family, and played Operation and Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza together. It was such a happy and hearthy evening of family fun. It was just what my soul needed and I was so so happy all day today.

Today I woke up before 6 to meet my friend Randy Blosil at Denny’s. He’s one of my good friends that I keep up with from my old Orem neighborhood. He’s just about to launch a new luxury dark chocolate milk called DrinkShogi and I’m so excited for him.

Back at home I went back to bed. This week really flattened me at work and I just needed more time to rest. I finally got up around 10:00 and then started working on the house. I didn’t go to bed until after midnight and Lily was cranking on the house until late as well. We got sooooo much done. It was especially nice to clean up all the garage chaos that aggregated across all our family trips. Part of the cleaning up was sorting through papers. Here are some key finds:

Mary wrote the following two cards to my dad and Suzanne, as well as Andrea. She wrote them I think around Spring of 2022, shortly after she decided to be a vegetarian.

My aunt Andrea made the below banner for me for the day I came home from my mission. It’s a funny story because it was hanging in the front of the K street house in the avenues, but the wind flipped it up onto the roof. When I pulled into the driveway from my mission, I commented, “maybe we should make a sign for Jere [who arrives from his mission next week]” since I figured sign-making for us wasn’t a thing at the moment. LOL! Isn’t Andrea a great artist!

Tonight Lily and I had dinner with Emily and Matt Kahler. It was so nice to catch up with them because it has been a while since all four of us got together. It was nice to get updates on each other’s lives and also learn about all the progress of their new home that is being built. We even drove past it on the way home! They are such good people!

Lily and I have been very charmed by Clarissa lately. It is not hard to see why!

In the evening, Derek, Chelsea and their friend, Annie came over for Indian food. We had a great time chatting over dinner and then we all went to go see the Utah Symphony at the Noorda. Andrei Korobeinikov performed Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto and he was magnificent! I confess it was especially riveting because he had a cold and there was a moment went his nose was dripping quite noticeably. I was taken by his poise and focus to play through so majestically and with so much feeling. No wonder he has won so many awards. He received a standing ovation at the end.

We loved Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, and we also liked the Patriotic Sounding Symphony from Ives. It was so fun to share the experience with the Marshalls and Annie.

After school today, Lily took the kids, including Lydia’s friend Mia, to Color Me Mine. They had fun!

After work, I got to eat at Communal. I was treated by Keith and Chris, who own Fabric, a new partner that I have never worked with, but whom I was was grateful to learn about. They were also very fun to talk to.

Today Lydia stayed home from school because she was sick. Lily watched “The Good Place” with her after she did her harp. It has been so wonderful to rediscover this amazing show with Lydia and Mary.

I wrapped up work by 3:30 today so I could pick up Lydia and Mary from Foothill elementary and meet Lily and the younger kids in Provo. The businesses in downtown Provo start passing around candy at 4:00 and going has become a fun tradition for us. What made it the most fun was that Amy and her kids joined us. Amy also brought some friends from France who were delightful.

After trick-or-treating in Provo, we went home to an incredible meal made by Lily. She made home-made chili, salad, cornbread muffins (from scratch), and spiced cider. I ate four bowls of chili and loved the whole meal so much. I rarely like cornbread, but I LOVED this recipe that Lily made and it was divine with her home-made honey butter (with marshmallow creme). It was also so much fun to have Amy and her family join us for dinner.

Then Amy and her family joined us for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. The weather was superb. I was toasty in my frog costume. Everyone had such a good time. Here are some videos, including the haunted garage one of our neighbors made. That was the finale for everyone:

The spoils!

Everyone had such a happy time. Thank you to Lily for making the incredible meal and preparing all the costumes. Thank you to Amy for joining us with her sweet family and making it double the fun. What a great Halloween!

Today was a fantastic day. We woke up, got ready and went to church. Lily drove, so I could have a group call with my AXB friends from college which I loved. My story about getting a sour stomach in India launched us into a chain of similar stories, and there was much laughter.

Church was low on numbers because a lot of the congregation is meeting separately out of protest to a decision the Community of Christ made recently. The division saddens us, but church was still wonderful and uplifting. Afterwards, we went to a park with the Gruwell family (who we love so much) and we all ate lunch together while the kids ran around. It was so nice to be in the fall weather with friends enjoying our food. They are so fun to talk to.

Then we visited my grandma who recently moved to Ogden. She has not been feeling well the last few weeks, but she seems to be on the upswing. It was so fun to reminisce with her and also catch her up on our family. She is so sweet and she has a beautiful attitude in spite of some of the challenges that face her right now

Then we went shopping for the chili Lily will make on Halloween as well as for pumpkins for carving tonight. Since we were late to the game for buying pumpkins, only warty ones were left. Lydia was very vocal about how disappointed she was about the warty, but eventually she decided she liked the warts just fine (Lily helped by reading her articles about how popular they are for carving right now) which Lily and I are grateful for.

I helped the kids carve while Lily tackled the ever unfolding entropy in our home.

Lydia and Ammon aren’t old enough to use knives yet, and I got a real kick out of Clarissa sticking her tongue out while she focused on the pattern she was drawing on her pumpkin.

In the end, the pumpkins turned out so great, and they made us really happy while we looked at them.

After carving pumpkins, Lily and I cleaned and also talked to Clark and Swathi and planned trips for next year with them.

What a beautiful, wonderful and meaningful Sunday!

Today I woke up and played frisbee with a new frisbee group that I found. When I had my high-school reunion a month or so ago, we played frisbee just like we did in high-school and I was reminded about how much pure joy I get from playing ultimate frisbee. I found a group that plays in Saratoga Springs online, and I went today. It was absolutely everything that I had hoped for. They had some really great throwers and I caught some fantastic passes in full stride (an amazing sensation). I struggled with my throwing game, but I had a ton of fun being a receiver.

At home I worked on the house and the garage while Lily had really intense music practices with both Ammon and Mary. While doing house-work, I snapped this photo of the fun gourdes Lily bought for decoration.

Then Lydia practiced while I loaded all the bicycles. After music and house work until 3:00, we all went on a bike ride on the Jordan River trail. We had never biked the Jordan River trail, and we absolutely loved it. Lily and I felt it was one of our favorite trails we’d ever been on. Even though it was a little cold and windy, that didn’t dampen our spirits and we all had such an amazing time. Ammon and Mary are loving their new bikes, and it was fun to have Ammon and Clarissa with painted faces (from Lydia earlier in the day). Lily and I effused multiple times afterwards how much we loved the bike rides.

Then we all got Thai food at Baan Thai Cuisine & Bar in Lehi at the outlet malls. Clarissa was making cute faces while we waited for our food.

The food was superb, we all loved it. We then shopped the outlet malls and bought a new coat and fleece for Lydia and a new coat for Ammon.

While we were in stores, Ammon and Clarissa played hide and seek. It stressed me out a little bit, but I had to admit, it was also very cute. See below.

In the evening, Lily stayed up until almost 1:00 watching The Good Place with the girls. I watched until 11:30 or so and we all laughed so much. What an absolutely joyful Saturday today was.