Happy Birthday, Clark!

The Man-Child turned 12 today!  He received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a deacon by his dad this evening.  It was wonderful to have so much support from so much family here in Spokane. 

What a good example for younger brothers and cousins he will be.

Of course, this was all before he organized an army to attack the girl cousins.  Lovely.   He trained his army-- they were a disciplined group.  It was a fearsome thing when the loaded golf cart careened around the corner of the house and he dropped off his troops for the attack.

It was a very memorable birthday packed with lots of fun activities.

We went to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane this morning and rode the famous old carousel.

Cannon was nervous.

Great fun to try to grab rings as you ride by.

Feeding the ducks is always fun, even if these ducks behaved exactly like the ducks back home.

George is feeling mucho mucho better.  

We watched a free IMAX movie entitled Remembering Spokane.  The kids loved seeing footage of what Spokane was like when Grandpa Fox was a boy here.

After lunch we went to Manito Park to visit the Japanese gardens.  They were so beautiful and peaceful, but the kids just couldn't get over this yellow koi fish.  It was impressive.  How can we stock our backyard pond with these?

We gathered in a little gazebo there to tell Clark what we loved about him.  

I don't know if that quite made up for the lack of gifts he received today, but he got a bunch of camping equipment earlier in the summer for his birthday.  So today it was just gifts of words.  Hope that's okay, Clark!

This afternoon we hung out for a couple of hours at Jesse and Amy's house.  It works out quite nicely as our families have almost identically aged children who get along very well and love each others company.

I'm not sure what game this was, but it looks refreshing on a hot summer day.

As you can see from the pictures, Abe's parents live in a most picturesque setting.  It is on top of a large hill and the summer evenings are delightfully cool.  The masses of cousins are free to run, play, dig, ride, jump, swing, etc. to their hearts' content.  The parents pretty much give up at making children eat healthy food, the children thoroughly wear themselves out and then finally conk out way too late at night.  It is heaven on earth.

And they can't get enough of their cousins.  They love, love, love them!

And I love, love, love my Clark.  Happy birthday!