Goodbye, June

Thanks to the inspiration of Bob Ross, Faith's water color masterpiece.  Please note the "happy little trees".

More ballet classes at Thanksgiving Point means more pony rides for George.  As you can see, this is fun for George.  He likes it.  He's into it!

Cannon... not so much.  Cannon informed me he "hates farms".
That seemed a little harsh, but he has consistently disliked Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point for quite some time.  So, maybe he really does hate farms.

These two lovely ladies had a simply marvelous time at EFY this week.  They did a stay-at-home EFY at the Salt Lake Community College Taylorsville Institute building.  They were so full of excitement every evening when they came home.

Have I mentioned lately that teenage daughters are pretty great?  Except that I can't dress them in matching outfits anymore.  That would make it even better!

Oh, look!  MATCHING OUTFITS!
We carpooled each day with the Endemano boys in our ward.  They are all great friends and it was riotous fun listening to them while driving home at night.

The girls auditioned to be a part of the variety show and were very happy to get in!  You may remember the unfortunate trouble with Clark and Bethany's "Bohemian Rhapsody" last year.  By way of refresher, it was deemed inappropriate by the EFY powers that be.
But happily, a piano/violin duet of "Rather Be" this year was more to the judges liking.

While the older girls were gone, Cannon completed his final week of his summer Ballet West workshop.  HE ROCKED IT!  He really enjoyed himself and if, after 30 hours of ballet and contemporary over three weeks didn't dampen his enthusiasm, we can assume he would enjoy going to Ballet West in the fall.

I had a lovely week at home with the five younger kids.  Greta is so lucky to have so many people of all sizes to love her.

Cannon's future's so bright...

It was hard to concentrate during a piano lesson this week when the cat kept going in and out of the dollhouse through the front door.   I'm not sure how this cat is going to work out in our family.  Hopefully she is just young and "playful", but it also might appear she is a vicious huntress, attacking unsuspecting feet and legs of family members.  We'll see.

Abe, Clark and I played a late night game of Puerto Rico.   It's a really fun game that Abe and I didn't play together for many years, because it wasn't good for our relationship.  Hopefully, we've matured and I will be able to win more often so we can keep the peace!

I'm sorry to do this.  I do hope he will forgive me, but this picture so accurately shows Peter's intensity.  This moment is brought to you by the sun, since at 9:30 pm it was "too light for night-night!"

When Clark leaves home life just won't be the same without him.   Case in point-- Clark and Cannon and George went fishing to Strawberry Reservoir with my dad on Friday.  They did not catch any fish, but thanks to Cannon, they brought home two crawdads.
Gross.  Gross.  Gross.  But what can I do?
That evening they cooked them up.  I am horrified.  I can't believe this is my life.
I suppose it's not that much different than the cooking of lobsters, but for the record I would be horrified to cook up a live lobster in my kitchen as well.

Despite the lack of fish to be caught, the boys all had a great time.  My dad recently got this new (to him) boat and has put it to lots of good use taking family members out for water adventures.

While boys were fishing on Friday, Faith and I had a fun time doing a "Tinker Crate" making fiber optic stars.  We have a monthly subscription to get these great STEM  project kits in the mail.  I highly recommend them.

Sariah, one of my wonderful piano students, cross-stitched me this adorable Fox!  She did such a good job and I'm thinking we should do a trade-- I teach her piano and she teaches me to cross-stitch.  Except that I'm sure she would find me quite difficult to teach.  

Oh, my.

I'm like a moth to the flame-- I just can't stay away.  

Soccer.

George is doing a summer soccer league.  Will I like this sport any better in summer than I do in the fall?  Doubtful.  Everything is better in the fall.  Nevertheless, George wanted to play and I need to foster his interest in something other than collecting things.  

So here we are watching little league soccer games in 90 degree-plus heat.  

I should have a better attitude.  Maybe this will be the year that a Fox child is a part of a winning team-sport team.  But seeing as how his team lost their first game 0-10, it's not looking good.