A Comfortable Pace

January may be cold and dark, but its got routine going for it and it has a more comfortable pace of life.
Cannon was so happy to get to spend much of the day at a Heroscape tournament with "both" of his older brothers-- Clark and Zach.
May I just take a moment to say how nice it is to have Clark home.  He has an apartment down in Provo (the Glenwood-- the same humble complex Abe and I both lived in when we met).  We don't see him a lot, but it's so nice to be able to see him as much as we want to or need to.  We had a baptism in the Fox family this past week down in Provo.  We picked up Clark  beforehand and got some food and talked.  He stopped home for a minute before the tournament this morning.  He and a friend came and played games with us Sunday evening.  We missed him so much when he was on his mission and it just feels so good now to get to be with him.
And on that note- BYU-Idaho is entirely too far away and I don't like it.  I mean, I do like it for Bethany because she is doing great things and learning and growing and she loves it.  But darn it!  I miss her and wish it wasn't quite so far away.

Elinor is wrapping up the high school swim season here in the next couple weeks.  She is so happy to have overcome her shoulder injury that plagued her for much of this season.  She is excited for water polo to get going.  Now that she is half-way through her junior year, she is seeing the end of high school coming faster and faster.  She is dedicating herself to ACT study and trying to position herself for a good launch into college.  I am sort of dying a little inside at the thought of another little birdie leaving the nest so shortly after the last one.  My goodness, it is shocking how fast it happens.  I swear, it took a lot longer to get them here than to see them off.

I took the youngest three to the Museum of Curiosity last Friday evening while Cannon was at dance.  So enjoyable-- no strollers, so running-away toddlers.  Some people live this way!

That moment when you look at your child and hardly recognize their growing-up body.  Gone are the short,soft, and squishy little arms and legs.  All of a sudden they are more of a big kid than a little kid.  They are long and skinny and looking school age.  So weird how that happens.  He's 5 1/2 now.

In case you are interested, these Thanksgiving Point museums are open till 8 and there is hardly anybody there in the evenings.  It's lovely.

Elinor recently placed 5th in the Student Congress event at a speech and debate tournament at the University of Utah.  She was pretty happy about that.  She is also really, really enjoying (far more than she expected) her involvement with the Riverton City Youth Council.  I love how much Elinor loves being active and involved.  She's inspirational.

Abe and my dad were some of the volunteer judges, but of course, they didn't judge Elinor's event.  Faith was supposed to be in the tournament as well, but the "concussed one" was in no condition to do that.

Over the Christmas break and well into January, I completed this 2000 piece puzzle.  For the record, I thoroughly enjoy a 1000 piece puzzle.  A 750 piece puzzle is like child's play.  But a 2000 piece puzzle is, frankly, more frustration than it's worth.  I shall not be duped again.