Memorial Day 2018-- Part 2

In addition to observing Memorial Day, we celebrating our favorite 10 year old on the planet's birthday!!!! Happy birthday, Cannon!  We adore you!

The five of us left the rest of the gang at our house and we enjoyed an absolutely heavenly, perfect hike up Rose Canyon.  This is Clark's favorite stomping/hiking grounds.  What we did wasn't at all challenging, but it was delightful and rejuvenating. 

Abe and Chip-- our fearless hiking leaders.

Laura and I.

And then, as if this Memorial Day couldn't get any better, we enjoyed our traditional cookout in the park with our good friends, the Butterfields.

It was slightly chillier than I would have liked, but it wasn't a problem.  It also wasn't a problem that we forgot to bring the hot dog buns from home-- bunless hotdogs all around!

I think these two will sleep well tonight.

The girls got hammocks for Christmas and already, they are well worth the money spent. 

What can I say, laying in a hammock makes me feel "peaceful".

The little ones are good for the big ones.  And the big ones are so good for the little ones.

I was surprised the park wasn't more crowded-- we had it pretty much to ourselves.

Bethany and Connor doing hammock tricks.

Greta found her happy place.

 Faith hanging upside down in her hammock and I'm in the hammock underneath.

Poor George got a touch of motion sickness from too much hammock time.

We got a pretty good game of four square going.  I don't know why my stance is quite so serious.  And I played kind of mean, which I feel kind of bad about.  But it was still quite fun for all ages.  Even little Peter and Greta got to have turns. 

Memorial Day 2018-- Part 1

If it is 9:00 AM on Memorial Day, you know where you will find our family-- Wasatch Lawns Memorial Cemetery visiting the graves of our loved ones who have passed on.  With Clark being on his mission, this is the first year in his entire life that he wasn't with us. 

We meet up with my mom's brother's family, my Uncle Lane and Aunt Diane.  As much as my kids like to pretend they are put out to have to listen to more family history stories, deep down they love it!  They may like to joke about it, but they remember the same stories that are told year after year. 

My Aunt Diane, who besides my siblings and I, probably loved and misses my mom more than anyone else I know. 

Dad, Chip, and I.  We missed Brig's and Matt's families this year.  Hopefully we can have all four siblings together for a Memorial Day soon.

Greta loved all the pinwheels.

The girls with cousin Kaylee.

Sitting and listening to the stories of Amasa L. Clark.  I like how the kids don't even try to get out of listening to the stories anymore.  It's like they sort of like them... or they just know resistance is futile:)

I bet you didn't know Elinor got an eyebrow piercing...

Ha ha ha.  She didn't.  They are two strong little magnetic balls on her eyebrow.  So funny.  Nice 'tude to go with it Els!

 Have I mentioned lately how much I love having daughters?  Like, A LOT.

When we're done on one side of the cemetery we head over to another side for my dad's grandparents.  

Next stop is Valley View Cemetery where both Abe and I have relatives buried.  Here we are at my paternal grandparents grave site.

Abe and Cannon are the wonderful "Jolley Foxes" of the family-- middle name Jolley, last name Fox.  Abe's mom has the same pattern, but we didn't get to be with her today.  

Following our cemetery visits, we had a very tasty lunch out together.  The kids were happy, the adults were happy-- we had a winner!

Icecream, cotton candy, chocolate fountain marshmallows, cookie.  Where are this child's parents?  Whatever.  It was a holiday.

Bethany discovered she had a gift for making beautiful ice cream cones.  Who knew?  These little gems of hidden talents.

We love our Aunt Laura!

Hiking the Y

To celebrate Cannon's 10th birthday we decided to hike the Y.  If you're not familiar with Utah, there is a giant Y on the mountain above Brigham Young University and there is a fairly steep trail that leads up to it.  He wanted to invite one of his best buds, Jake, and his family.

 Greta was left home with a babysitter and we had planned to leave Peter as well, but one mention of the word "hike" and Peter had visions of snake and lizard hunting dancing in his head.  He was adamant he be brought along.  He did quite well, although about 3/4 of the way he moaned, "Me should have stayed home!"

Faith and Kate were quick to the top.  Bethany, Elinor and I took our time.  I hope to hike a lot this summer, but I'm not in great hiking shape yet.  The girls were kind to bring up the rear with me.

In the end, we all made it to the top and the view was well worth it.

With the exception of Peter, these boys never did run out of energy!

What kind of hike would it be if they didn't catch at least one little critter.  No reptiles were harmed during this hike.

Clark taught his little brothers well.

 Everyone was happy we did the hike and everyone was pretty beat when it was all said and done.

Crawdaddy Disappointment and The Evil Cat

Peter sent a Marco Polo message (a video walkie-talkie app) to Grandpa last week begging Grandpa to take him fishing for crawdaddies.  You don't have to ask Grandpa more than once for a fishing trip.  He immediately sent a message back to Peter with a day and time.  The boys were excited for a quick trip to the local fishing pond and dinner out with Grandpa.  No crawdaddies were caught.  One fish was caught but it was too small and had to be thrown back.  This upset Peter who reportedly went behind a tree to cry.

 Our cat.
 Known 'round these parts as "The Cat" or "Evil Cat".  It's not a nice cat.  We thought it was a boy cat.  We aren't what some would call responsible pet owners.  Go ahead a judge us.  We deserve it.  Anyway, we thought it was a boy cat.  We thought by now it would have had kittens if it were a girl.
I fear we were terribly wrong.  This cat is about to have kittens.  It lays around ALL DAY LONG.  It's tummy is bulging.  We are responsible for bringing its offspring into the world.  The world does not need more cats like our cat. 

Whenever we find it like this we have to check to make sure it's breathing because it looks totally dead.  It's sort of creepy.  My brother's family and their dog came to our house today.  The Cat was not happy.  I've never been so scared of our cat as I was today.

Back arched.  Hair standing up on end.  Eyes freaking glowing.  Claws extended.  The fright was probably enough to put her into labor tonight.
Stay tuned.

Dancing Through Life

This week was the parent observation night for Cannon's ballet.  

Umm..he's pretty good.  It was so enjoyable to watch his class and see him in his element. 

There is one other boy in his class, but he won't be returning next year. 

I took a lot of pictures and videos--- they will all pretty much be the same thing-- Cannon and a bunch of girls doing ballet.  It is very  much my cup of tea.

I would tell you the names of the moves he is doing, but it's all Greek (French) to me.

I can hardly believe how they work these kids during class.  Oh, man!  It looks so hard!  And they are all so disciplined-- these kids mean business.

Here is a little compilation video of some clips I took during the class.

And here is a video of the dance they performed at the Children's Showcase last weekend.

At the end of the class they kids were given their envelopes with their progress reports for the year.  They are given scores in all sorts of categories and placed in their class for next year.  Since this was Cannon's first year at Ballet West, and it is not at all uncommon to spend two years at a level, we expected he would either stay where he was (Elementary D) or move up to the next level (Intermediate A).  We would have been great with either.  

To our very great surprise, he was given excellent marks throughout and moved up TWO LEVELS!!! What the heck?!

He'll be in Intermediate B and working harder than ever!  There was a note saying it was unusual for a student to move up two levels, but they thought he would progress well.  

Maybe this is standard for boys.  Maybe they have another boy they want to put Cannon with so he isn't the lone boy (not that he minds... he doesn't). Maybe they need a boy in that level.  Or maybe, they see what we see-- a kid who has a passion for ballet, incredible focus and a determination to work hard.  Maybe all of the above.  Whatever the reason, he's a little nervous and a lot excited.

Beef Cake Stands On Her Head

Faith had her annual spring gymnastics recital this week.  She nailed it!  She is standing on her head right in the middle of this picture.

Now she is standing on her head, doing the splits.  That's all... not so hard.

Now she is showing her guns in the final pose.  You can see why her nickname at home is at "Beef Cake."

The video is pretty fun, although I should warn you that it's quite loud.  Faith borrowed a cheering squad for the night.  Her best friend's younger sister was in the same recital and her family and extended family know how to bring the support!  I think it made Faith's whole night.

 They even made signs!  "Chum" is the nickname she and Tristin have for each other.