Family and Missionaries

Stuart and Tiffany's family came up for a backyard cookout on Monday evening.  They have two older married daughters, THREE kids on missions (YIKES!) and then a four younger kids very similarly aged to our five youngest.  I hope I speak for them as well when I say, we had a lovely evening enjoying the best things of summer.

Samuel, George, Cannon, James, and Peter.

Greta is used to hanging out with the boys and their friends.  She was so happy to be with her little cousins.  They were so cute!

Our contortionist cat.

Some recent pictures Clark sent of his district in Longview, Texas.

This "artistic" picture cracks me up.  So funny.  

Abe with his niece, Kyli, who had her mission farewell today.  She is headed to Mongolia by way of the Provo MTC this week.  That will make five Fox cousins on missions-- so wonderful! (one of the twins was on the phone wishing her mom a happy birthday).

Abe was in heaven holding his baby nephew, Jimmy.  

The Inflatable Pool of 2019

Abe and the Brothers Fox went on a little hike up Yellow Fork Canyon a few nights back.  They were unsuccessful in capturing any reptilian wildlife.  Disappointing for them, for me-- not so much.

Nature is good for everyone, and perhaps even more so for little boys.

Ahhhh... the best $20.00 on Amazon I ever spent.  Never underestimate the potential fun of a backyard inflatable pool.

The slide into the pool... classic!

Add a few neighborhood friends in for extra excitement.  The big brother shooting a water gun at the little sisters-- classic!

A popcorn snack.

Adorable little ladies.

Everyone was happy when Faith arrived home from camp on Friday.

Awww... yeah!

So cool.

After our plans for family swimming at an actual pool were thwarted on Saturday, we settled once again for the backyard inflatable pool.

Sometimes being together is all the fun we need.  But an inflatable pool certainly helps:)

Summer is for Camp

This week we gave away all our kitties.  I listed them on KSL and people happily and grateful came and claimed them for free.  We got two months of adorable kitty entertainment and now they have new homes.  Everyone is a winner.

Elinor left early Monday morning for a team water polo camp in Riverside, California at Cal Baptist University.  She was so excited to go and she took the request to pack light very seriously!  That little blue duffle bag, plus her swim bag was all that she took with her for the week.

You can barely see Elinor in this picture (just behind the girl in the red sweatshirt).  She said the van ride was good, but not as good as a Fox family road trip.  Just sayin' ;)

I suppose it is stating the obvious to say I MISSED HER while she was gone.

Can you pick her out?  Here is a clue-- she has a dark cap.

They had four days of camp and were in the water up to six hours a day.  I give a shout out to Elinor for being diligent with sunscreen and not getting burned.  I applaud her wisdom in going to bed close to on-time most of the nights.  I recognize the desire teenagers have to pull an all-nighter at least once and I am glad she chose the last night to do it.  She came home EXHAUSTED and will probably need several days to recover from the trip, but she had a great time.  She is a goalie and I think she is excited for the coming year to implement all the skills she learned.

On Wednesday Faith left for her second camp in as many weeks.  She went to Stake Beehives camp-- a camp for the 11-13 year old girls.  We don't have many girls that age in our ward, but Faith had a blast and even got to hang out with a few friends she had met at Oakcrest Camp the previous week.

They stayed in a big lodge and I think their leaders spoiled them with all sorts of fun little gifts and special things .

The children in our family who take after me tend to struggle with arts and crafts.  This is often a main activity at a girls camp-- so that's a little humbling for them, but as Faith would say, "You know what?  That's okay!"
Ah!  I love that girl!
So I was down two girls this week and I missed them something fierce!  I was so so happy to get them both home.  I know it is very good for them to go away and have experience and I don't begrudge that at all.  I just really really enjoy them and love them to be around.

Our Other favorite City

We love our home city of Riverton and one of the highlights of summer is Riverton Town Days around the 4th of July.  But because of swim and water polo, we also love Herriman!  So we were excited to go to the Ft. Herriman Days parade on Saturday-- and of course we were sporting our best Herriman gear. 

Last year we hiked.  This year we parade crash.   

This is my favorite parade picture so far.  The temperatures were abnormally cool.  I actually wished I'd had my sweatshirt with me.

Abe wore his beloved Prototype X shirt to the parade because two entries behind the Riverton float was team 3230 Prototype X.

It was so good to see the team-- we may not have someone on the team, but they are still our team.

On a funny note, it looks like the guys walking are holding hands.  I am quite certain it was just the angle and they are not actually holding hands. 

Clark will like to see this picture.

Oh look, it's a picture of Clark and Bethany way back when.
Not quite, but so close.

The always creative George is at it again.  This time making string instruments out of kitchen trash and organizes Peter and Greta into a band.  

Here he is composing music for his instrument.  I love the way his mind works.

I want to make mention of Greta's fashion choices.  I get her dressed every day in one set of "normal clothes.  By the end of the day she has layered on several more articles.  Her very favorite shirt is the pink-ruffled My Little Pony shirt that she puts on whenever she can find it.  

Her clothing choices do make for a lot of laundry because it's challenging to keep track of what is actually dirty and what was only a middle layer of clothing.  I suppose one of the nice things about having so many children is you know full well how long each stage lasts and a little extra laundry is a small price to pay for her smiles. 

Peter Saves the Day

In a couple of months or so, Peter will turn five.  Five is traditionally the age that little ones start "school".  The same is true for our homeschool.
But Truth Moment.
For about three years I have lived in fear of starting school with this one.  So much power of will.  So much determination.  So MUCH of everything.  Clark was challenging and I feared I might not have it in me to walk the path with another "spirited child".
But you know what?  I think it's going to be okay.  More than okay.

This week he started begging to "please start doing piano lessons".  I had planned to slowly, slowly, slowly begin this fall.  But since he was so sincere in his asking, I agreed to take him on a special trip to Walmart to pick out a piano notebook.  He excitedly ran through the store and excitedly picked out a green notebook.  Had to be green.

As soon as we got home, we got right to work.
And let me just say, he did well.  Not, "Well, he did well for a really little kid..." But he actually did WELL.  In the last three days he has repeatedly hounded me to practice with him-- and for long chunks of time.  I ask him if he is all done and wants to take a break.  He says, "No! I want to play the next one!"  I eventually have to tell him that I want to take a break.  What. The. Heck?

This may be my favorite child-video every.  So earnest and so honest:)

And since piano went so well, I thought we might give reading a go.  Guess what?  It was good.  I underestimated him.  This changes my feelings about the coming fall and he might just be the inspiration I need to stay excited about our homeschooling the back half of the family.

A Force for Good

Bethany had some exciting events last week.  Her platform, or what is now called her "Social Impact Initiative is "Protecting children from pornography through community and family standards."
It's explained fairly well in this recent South Valley Journal article that was published a couple weeks ago.
Click here to read the article.  So that was pretty exciting for her. On June 4th she and her first attendant went to the City Council meeting to give the invocation and lead the Pledge of Allegiance and to introduce themselves and their impact initiatives to the city government.  At that time, Bethany gave them all copies of a Sandy City resolution passed in 2015 and she proposed  Riverton city adopt a similar resolution. The mayor and council reacted very positively and that was that.  We thought maybe she would follow up with it in a couple of months. 
A couple of weeks later she was thrilled to hear from the mayor that the resolution was on the agenda for the council meeting on June 18th  and would likely pass.
Abe, Bethany, and I went to said council meeting and they asked Bethany to speak again and reintroduce the resolution and then they unanimously voted in favor of it!  Happy day for Bethany!

The next day she was contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune who were writing an article to be published the next day.  She did a phone interview Wednesday night and then this came out Thursday morning. 

Here's a picture of the actual paper article.

In other worthy accomplishments, Cannon completed his first three week ballet workshop of the summer. 9 am-2 pm Monday thru Thursday.  Here is is with his fellow classmate and carpool friends.  He'll enjoy a couple of weeks off before he picks back up after the first week of July. 

And George completed his first workshop! He went from 2:30- 5:00 each day.  He loved it and will likely start at Ballet West Academy this fall. 

Look who is home from camp!!!!!! Hooray!  She had  really great time, made a ton of friends, wasn't even a titch homesick. 

As per tradition, the bishop...

... and his wife up to Oakcrest to visit her on the last night.  I thought it was especially sweet since Faith was the only girl from our ward at camp this year. 

She loved it all!

And then she was overjoyed to be reunited with her Old Chum Friday evening.  They called this their "Chum Look" and they went out to lay on the trampoline on an uncharacteristically cool summer evening.