Today Mary turned 10! Even though she has been sick, she insisted on waking up at 6:00 and making breakfast (largely by herself) for the entire family before it was time to go to school. I had so much fun eating breakfast with everyone. Thank you Mary and Lily! Over breakfast we took a video of everyone saying what they love about Mary.
While the oldest kids were at school, I slipped away from my office and took Clarissa to the bike shop to pick out a bike for Mary and also a bike for Ammon (his birthday is next week). We ate at Chick-Fillet while they were putting anti-pop slime in the tires.
Back at home, I put a bow Lily got on the bike and put it on the counter so she would be surprised after school.
Then I took a video with Clarissa to talk about our daddy-daughter date and then we took another video to capture Mary coming home to the surprise bike.
I then went back to work until it was time to go to the play! To celebrate Mary’s birthday, Lily got tickets to “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” at the Sandy Hale Theater and coordinated with my dad and Suzanne to join us. It was so much fun and the story of Molly Brown is INCREDIBLE.
Clarissa is hyperClarissa has crashed 🙂
We love you so so so much Mary! You are cute! You love people and animals and show that with your actions! You work hard at the piano, read, help around the house, help with Ammon and Clarissa and all around make life better. You are responsible, smart, hard-working and peaceful. We love love love you. Keep up your beautiful artwork!!
Today after work, I helped Nick to move out of his apartment. Some new people moved into his apartment and decided they didn’t like him and made some complaints against him that resulted in an eviction. It’s a very sad story and it has caused him immense grief. I helped put him up in a hotel, and we are storing his things while he gets things sorted out. We are praying that he finds something soon. We love Nick!
I took a break from helping Nick to see Mary perform at the piano finals. She (and Lily) have worked so incredibly hard. Mary did her best, but unfortunately her nose decided to turn on like a faucet and run throughout her piece. It was so distracting for Mary, and at one point Mary took her hand off the piano just to wipe her nose. Mary did not play very well because of the distraction, but she did amazing under the circumstances and it was still a very valuable experience for her. We love you Mary!
Today I woke up feeling fine, which was unexpected given how ill I felt as I went to bed. I was happy to feel well enough to attended the last part of my high school reunion (that I went to) which was a hike to St. Mary’s Lake starting from Brighton Ski resort.
The weather and trail were beautiful and it was so fun to go a little deeper with my friends on learning about what they’ve been up to. One of my friends, Genevieve, played a huge role in the testing and vaccine roll-out in Durham North Caroline and it was really interesting to learn all about that. I also told Charlie all about the crisis happening with the Great Salt Lake.
I dropped some people off and then headed home for Mary’s birthday dinner with Nana! Mary and Lily made chocolate cake which we froze and will eat another day. Dinner was a delicious souffle Lily made along with watermelon and a salad with our garden tomatoes. While preparing dinner, it was cute to see the kids interacting with and playing with Georgia.
After dinner, Mary opened up here presents from Georgia which you can see below.
After I dropped of Georgia, I came home for a bit to help put kids down and then I went to visit Nick at work who recently got an eviction notice and is going through a tremendously dark period right now. Lily and I also stayed up late working through some things.
This morning we all woke up and went to get flu shots. All of us, that is, except for Mary, who has a piano competition and so we did not want her arm getting sore. They happened to get their Covid boosters in yesterday too, so Lily and I unexpectedly got our Covid shots as well. The kids also got some extra shots they were due for.
Everyone handled their shots very calmly except for Clarissa. She asked to go last and when it was her turn, Lily held her hand while she lied down and we played music from Tuck Everlasting. When the shots happened, she burst into tears and we had to console her. Sweet girl.
Speaking of Mary’s piano competition, Lily went and took this video. Mary and Lily have been working so incredibly hard on the piece and it really shows in this video. I’m so proud of you Mary!
We found out later in the day that she qualified to go to the final competition on Monday! The notes about her performance are below:
I left around 9:30 to meet up with my friends to play ultimate Frisbee. It was honestly one of the highlights of my whole year. Was a ringleader for getting Frisbee together in high-school and some of my happiest life memories are playing Frisbee. As my friend Charlie said today, “there are few feelings in life that are better than catching a frisbee at the top of your jump in full stride.” I ran my heart out for an hour just feeling pure joy. One of my friends compared me to a gazelle, lol. It felt just like old high school Frisbee times and it was so so fun. After Frisbee, we all just chatted and then I played some basketball with Lesi, Artem and Seth.
After sports in the morning, I went to the officially organized reunion luncheon. It was incredible to so people that I hadn’t seen in 20 years! I know not everyone loves their high-school experience, or that it can be very mixed. But for me, high school was not mixed. I loved every year, and it just got better and better until my Senior Year was so happy that it was by far the happiest year of my life before meeting Lily and having a family. Being with all the people that helped make is special was a profound experience for me. I did have some embarrassment with forgetting names (and my hair was a mess, I was sweaty and in gymn clothes from having just woken up and played sports), but I really just basked in the awe of seeing all these wonderful people again after so many years and learning about how their lives turned out.
Because I got in late last night from bowling and still woke up early (inadvertently), I was feeling tired after all the activity and I went to my dads house to nap in my car for a while (all his furniture is moved out). I then showered and dressed for the evening.
I picked Anthony up and we drove to a reception hall call, “The Shop” and we had a dinner and a dance. Again, it was so amazing seeing old friends and catching up with people. I saw some funny (and embarrassing) photos that we on display as well. We had Cafe Rio, which was a repeat from yesterday, but it was so delicious, I didn’t mind at all.
When it was time to dance, I had a sinking feeling. I’m not good at dancing and I haven’t danced for probably 4 years at the last daddy daughter dance at the LDS church. I decided to just keep chatting with people (which got harder with the blaring music). But then I saw my friend Anthony dancing away with everyone and somehow that inspired me, so I jumped in and did a lot of dancing with my friends. I went from feeling like there was not one piece of me to do that, to having a blast and just letting go. That is the power of friends and music.
Speaking of friends and music, when everything wound up at the dinner/dance, we all went to Genevieve’s house. I brought my karaokee machine and we did Karaokee, and I played ping pong. I left around midnight because I was tired, but some people stayed up chatting until 4:30 in the morning!
It’s a good thing I left when I did because on the way home, I starting feeling very sick from my Covid Booster, and I had full on chills by the time I got home. What a great day!
Today Lydia and Mary had a ballroom performance. They now do ballroom with Foothill Elementary instead of Legacy, and it has been much better for us because it’s not so intense and it’s still wonderful. I had a meeting during the time of their performance so I missed it, but I’m glad Lily got video!
After I finished work today I drove to Red Iguana to meet a lot of my friends from high school who were all in town for our 20th high school reunion. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I didn’t go to our 5th or 10th high school reunion so most of the people I met up with I hadn’t seen in 20 years! We all ate at Red Iguana and went bowling afterwards. It felt like we were back in high school and we all had such a good time.
Clarissa and Lily have really been enjoying the last year where they have full days together. The spend a lot of time working and playing together. Here is a large game of memory:
Also, Ammon is learning a song about the continents in school, and he has been dancing to it.
In the evening, Lily and I went to an informational session about proposition II to split out Orem from the Alpine school District. Our friends Morgan and Jessie were hosting it and Lily and I were genuinely interested in the issue. The presenter was outlining all the reasons why the split does not make sense as well as many of the errors in the DEC report saying the split would be a good thing. A lot of statistics seem conflicting between the two side, but what does seem clear is a vast majority of teachers do not want the split, and I think they are the best sources for what is good for children and our education programs. We hung out with the Attendees and Morgan and Jessie afterwards and then ran around our neighborhood for exercise and went to bed.
Today Lily went on a canyon run that made her very happy. Also, Lily has been finding value in therapy lately and she has been going more often. Today she did sand therapy and she said she cried and she felt that was a good release for her. I’m excited to hear more about her session, but here is the result of her sand therapy session:
In the evening, Lily and I went to the Foundry Grill with Chelsea and Derek. I have been working very intensely and this fun night out was just the refreshment I needed. Derek and Chelsea were so engaging with their humor and family stories. We loved every second with them and the food was great.
Our sweet Lydia got braces today! Yesterday, Lily have her a bunch of caramels that we got in France that were still in her purse since it would be the last time she could have caramel in a while. Today, Lily helped acknowledge the day by buying Lydia some shakes from the grocery store, by making her pureed soup and by buying her a blizzard from Dairy Queen. Lydia’s mouth will be very sore this week. Our hearts our with you Lydia, and you look great in blue!
Lydia has been wondering all week what colors to get. During the week Lydia was having trouble finding a shirt that she thought went with her blue jeans. Lily repeatedly insisted that anything goes with blue jeans. I think that wisdom carried through to Lydia’s choice of navy blue for her braces.
Today was a super full and happy day, however, at church we understood that some people in our congregation are in a lot of pain right now.
Without going into details, our church’s leadership made a decision that affected one of the members of our congregation and several people were very upset about it. Because our Pastor is the one who was designated to carry out the decision, she was feeling very alone and unpopular. Also, the person who was affected by the decision felt very hurt and upset as well. What was interesting to me was that in the first half of church, the people against the decision were able to lift their voices and share their feelings. Our Pastor was also asked to share her feelings by the congregation. In the end, the person giving one of the talks shared a story that helped everyone have empathy for both sides. We then had a potluck and said goodbye to Roy, who is moving, and people shared their favorite stories about him. Even this was a very uncomfortable church session, it was awesome to see a community working out its issues in real-time, with both passion for justice expressed, and empathy and humility expressed.
We then went shopping and picked up Georgia who was joining us for dinner! I made dinner and it was one of my favorite meals I have made. It was relatively standard with salmon, fingerling potatoes, salad, bread and sliced peaches, but everything turned out really good, and I ate until I was completely stuffed. Everyone else enjoyed the dinner also.
While I was making dinner, Georgia played Sleeping Queens with Ammon and Clarissa. The kids were so into the game and I could here their energetic play. It was so sweet for Georgia to give them that experience and I wish I would have taken a video.
Also, while I was making dinner, Lily was helping Mary with a school project. Mary had to do a project that she could learn something from and she chose to make peach muffins. She was asked to take pictures of her project, and I’m including them here to help her remember.
The first thing Mary learned was how to make buttermilk from normal milk. Lily taught her.
The peach muffins were absolutely delicious.
After Lily dropped Georgia off, we tidied the house and then the Giles came over. They are our friends and hometeachers and seriously the sweetest family ever. Our kids absolutely light up around them because they show such genuine interest in each one of them. First Mary played her concerto for them and they effused with praise for Mary (Mary even got a standing ovation). Ammon then played and also got great praise. Afterwards, Ammon and Clarissa talked and talked, and talked and talked……..and talked….and then talked some more telling them all about the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Versailles, our garden, our new soda maker and on and on and on. The Giles were so sweet to give the kids such genuine attention and affirmation. Here is a small clip below:
