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Today Amy and her kids came over for a play-date and dinner. I worked until late at night, but came up for an hour and a half to eat with people, chat and help clean a little. It was such a welcome break! Lily made the most incredible veggie lasagna. I also had so much fun talking with Lily and and Amy. I felt thoroughly refreshed as I went back to the basement to continue getting my work in a good spot to leave for Europe.

Also, we had watermelon with our dinner and Ammon and Mary took great care to make sure it got home safe (see below):

Today I worked until 12:30 PM and then I joined Lily in the efforts to prepare for home-church in the afternoon. Lily invited a lot of friends to attend and offered to have anyone over for dinner afterwards. Attendance was amazing (probably around 12 adults and about the same amount of kids). The lesson was on the Trinity and it evolved into a discussion about how different people understand God. It was a beautiful and enriching discussion. For dinner, Lily made the most wonderful lasagna.

After church, people stayed, ate and chatted until almost 8. We had such a good time. I feel so happy when I’m around our beloved friends, and I’ve also noticed Lily being extra happy lately with all the hosting.

The kids have seemed very happy too (see Mary’s video below). It has just been a really happy summer.

I was so tired after hosting that I lay passed out on the couch while Lily was productive and cleaned and facilitated the kid watching fireworks. I eventually roused myself to help her. What a great day. It completely took me away from the stresses of work, and I felt kinship with other people who understand God as a mystery, but have deep desires include God in their lives.

Today I woke up and got a little work done in the morning and then I took the kids to the Darais pool party. I LOVE the Darais pool party at my cousin Christina’s house. They have a great pool and I get to catch up with so many lovely family members that I haven’t seen in a little while. The kids had a blast seeing family and doing dives off the diving boards (except Clarissa who was too scared).

We spent 5 hours and 45 minutes at the party. We had a lot of fun, ate great food and had a lot of sun. Everyone except Mary slept on the ride home.

At home, I set up our basement oven so that Lily could cook the lasagnas for the dinner we are hosting tomorrow. While I was at the pool party with the kids, Lily was home cooking like crazy to get prepared.

Then I took Mary to a work activity at the Qualtrics suite at the Real Salt Lake game.

It was so fun to spend the evening with Mary. There was great conversation with my work colleagues, a fun soccer game to watch, fun food for Mary to eat (I already was full), and an awesome fire-work show at the end. Here are the fireworks we saw:

At home, Lily had a wonderful time sitting on our front steps and watching fireworks with the other kids. Happy early 24th of July!!

Today all the kids had swim lessons. Except Clarissa did not want to get in the water because it would mean that she needed to take off her new wings from Claire’s lol. Lily obliged. I love this picture so much LOL.

I was able to pull away from work at 4:15 and bike South Fork canyon with my good friend Daniel Olsen. I needed the ride so much and loved every second of it. I also almost ran into a wild turkey that struggled to get out of my way in time (thank goodness for brakes!).

In the evening Lydia babysat (thank you so much Lydia!!) and Lily and I went to Block restaurant with Daniel and Amanda. We love hanging out with them so much and after dinner we went to their house for brownies that Daniel made.

When we came home, we saw that Lydia had cleaned the kitchen. She did it while listening to How to Train Your Dragon. She is such a gem!

I promised Lydia and Mary a trip to Build-a-Bear based on some good behavior about a month ago. Today it was time for me to deliver. When we arrived at Build-a-Bear, we noticed that it closed early due to staffing shortages. Instead, Lily was satisfied to go to Claire’s.

Clarissa loved Claire’s with every fiber of her being. For ten minutes she ran around excitedly saying things like, “I want this Tiara! No wait, I want to find the thing I love the very most!” “Look at this Elsa braid! No wait, I want to find the thing I love the very most!” etc etc. She was absolutely in heaven. She had such a hard time picking her “thing she loved the very most” that she even switched out her selection when I was in line to pay. She eventually settled on a kit containing fairy wings, a wand and a tiara. She was over the moon and wore her wings immediately after purchase. They broke ten minutes later while waiting for Lily to pick us up, and she cried. When I said we would return them, she ran with great energy back to Claire’s. I was exhausted and trailed her a good 30 paces calling out to her where to turn (she had no idea where she was going).

She then picked out a different set of wings and a wand that she loved even more. It was sooooooo cute.

Lily cleaned the car while we had our adventure. Thank you Lily!

Today Lily and the kids had a really fun play-date with Sarah and her kids.

I was in the office today for QBRs with my team. I loved having everyone together! I’m really high on my team right now. I think they will do great things this year, and they are super fun to hang out with. After our QBRs, we all went to Smoking Apple and then we went paintballing.

The group was mixed on desire to paintball, but most of the group stayed for it. Most people ended up having a really good time, and everyone got a good laugh when Ryan (who suggested paintball) got hit in the privates really hard with a paintball at the end. He reacted very dramatically (he was in a lot of pain) and everyone felt very sorry for him, but we were also laughing our heads off. It’s great to have a good belly-laugh!

We had the most wonderful picnic for dinner with Carly and Nathaniel Hall at Big Springs park. We haven’t seen them in a very long time (maybe since before we moved) and we instantly connected like old times. We love them so much and we were astounded to see their daughter Olivia do a double-back hand-spring.

Today Lily and the kids met up with Amy and her kids at Antelope island and had a really great time. Here are some pictures from their day-trip:

After their super-fun day, they went to Nielson’s Froze Custard (now a family favorite!)

I was up very late working, but we were able to get out of the house by around 9:30 or 10. We got to the North Shore around 1:30 (and stopped for Del Taco and then shakes on the way).

The weather was perfect. It was unreal how many people were there at North Beach, but found a spot. The sand was amazing and the water was the perfect temperature. The whole experience was divine.

Lydia and Mary had a lot of fun stalking me in the water.

Of course Ammon made friends and played with them!

Some other highlights were when I led Mary around in the boat, floating on stars next to Lily, sitting in chairs with Lily soaking it all in, eating avocado and pbj crackers and other fun snacks and listening to “All the Light You Cannot See” to prepare us for France.

It was a hefty day trip that took it out of me and Lily, but we agreed it was worth it.

I was up late working, but we managed to get out the door around 8:15. Amazingly, we made it by 10:00 and got to see the train “Jupiter” arrive. Anthony and Malika arrived with their kids about the time that we did. We were SO happy to see them. They are in town from Switzerland.

After we watched the train arrive, the kids worked in their Junior Ranger books while the grown-ups chatted.

At 10:45, we saw the reenactment of the ceremony for when the East and West railroad track-lines were brought together.

Afterwards, we all went to the Spiral Jetty, the most famous piece of art in Utah.

After seeing the spiral, we went to the lake, which was a half-mile hike because the water is so low. When the lake is more full, the water would be all around the jetty.

Afterwards, we all went to Nielson’s Frozen Custard in Bountiful. It was delicious, although it was very hot outside when we ate our refreshments.

We then went home and Lily and I napped. I then stayed up past 2 working.