Father's Day and Family Dinner

We went to church on Father's Day for the first time since the middle of March!  Darn COVID!  It was nice to be at church.  The Spirit is the Spirit.  Taking the Sacrament, singing the hymns, hearing a great talk.  All really good stuff.  And at the same time, it was sad and empty and we missed seeing our friends and neighbors.  I'll be going again next week to play the organ.  I guess under the current circumstances I prefer church at home-- only because now that we're kind of used to it, it feels more normal than a mostly empty chapel with very limited contact among friends.

A picture of Abe with his fan club.   Who knew our genes would combine so well!

We hosted a family dinner with my extended family Sunday evening.  We haven't seen my dad since the middle of March-- he and Bev are being very cautious (understandably so).  It was great to have him with us for the evening.  And of course, we love anytime we can get Clark for a visit. 

We celebrated Chloe's 5th birthday with cake and cousins.

The older kids don't have much by way of Cannon cousins that are close in age, but the younger certainly do and they love them!

My brother got a couple of commercial grade electric scooter and he brought them to the dinner.  They were the hit of the party!

Grandpa even got in on the action!

And yours truly.  And you know what?  It was outrageously fun and I can't stop thinking of when will be the next time I can go for a ride.

My siblings and I.  We're all busy with kids and jobs and life.  I am grateful to have them-- even if we don't get together as often as we'd like.

Another fun thing from this weekend was getting a weed whacker.  We have been in dire need of a functioning weed whacker for quite some time-- as the weeds in our front yard and all along our back yard fence line have attested.  Anyway, we're feeling pretty good about it.

Greta with her real live kitty in a stroller.  JOY!! Have I mentioned that kitties are her favorite thing?

Camp Out and Hike

A summer backyard camp out.

The top picture is Faith, Cannon, and George in June 2014.  The bottom is Peter and Greta in June 2020.  Miraculously, our tent has survived and isn't much worse for the wear.

We watched Back to the Future on the big screen outside.  I had the brilliant idea to bring a mattress outside to lay down to watch the movie.  It was heavenly for the 15 minutes I stayed awake for. Greta snuggled up next to me and we promptly feel asleep:)

Everybody had a good night's sleep.

And it's a good thing, because they next day we attempted quite an ambitious family hike up Butterfield Canyon.

Neither Abe nor I were familiar with this hike or the drive up the very winding, narrow road.  It was nerve-racking for me and our big van was ill-suited to the journey.  But we made it unscathed.

It doesn't appear so in the picture, but after the first quarter mile, it was very steep.  We didn't end up reaching the peak,-- I ran out of steam--which was our goal, but we deemed the hike a success anyway.  It was a really beautiful hike.

  Everyone copied Peter's gang sign:)

We found a log to rest on.  We named it the Log of Tribulation.

Guess what?  Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary-- June 24th.  It's been a very good 23 years.  There have been unbelievably happy times and incredibly sad/hard times.  And we've learned a lot and we're still learning.   And we have a beautiful family whose lives will also be a mixture of happy and sad.  And they'll keep on learning and growing.  And I am so grateful to have Abe for a partner and companion.  We have been very blessed.

The Brothers Fox.

The Foxy Ladies.

Elinor was Greta's companion and she was so helpful with her all the way back down the steep trail.

A boy and his dad.

A girl and her dad.  Father's Day was this past Sunday.  These kids definitely got the best of the best with Abe for their dad.  We are all blessed by his love and service to our family.
Here's a couple more fun anniversary pictures--

Abe put this collage together.  I guess the years haven't been too rough on us:)

A Little Bit of Everything

Shortly after the his dance recital, George took a flying leap off a trampoline and tried to clear a table.  He missed and caught himself with his hand and sustained a minor buckle fracture.  Lucky for him, he didn't have to get a cast, but can just wear a removable brace. 

Faith played sidewalk chalk with Greta.

Cannon is in the middle of week 2 of 3 for summer workshops.  So basically he's getting his trash kicked for five hours everyday.   And he loves it.

Bethany and I took a day trip up to Logan to check out Utah State.  She is hoping to transfer there this fall.  She enjoyed BYU-Idaho, but Utah State has the major (music therapy) she is hoping to do.  She's waiting to hear back, but I don't see any reason why transferring would be a problem. 

I think she'll make a great Aggie-- Cache Valley is gorgeous, she loved the campus, and it's closer than Rexburg!  Yay!

And since we were in Logan, of course we had to pay a visit at Stratford Ranch.  They just got a new Polaris covered 4-wheeler thing (I don't even know what they are called). 

We went for a ride up to the top of the property.  So fun!

The setting is so picturesque!  I just love being up there.  And I loved having a day with my Bethany.

And while Bethany and I were gone, Abe spent a day with the little kids at Thanksgiving Point.

The butterfly is camoflauged on his hair.

The Butterfly Whisperer.

The Butterfly Biosphere is one place that everyone is happy to go.

This is how Cannon feels about Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point.  The boy has never appreciated it.

A pony ride is such a treat.

A day with Dad is good for everyone.

Clark and Alexa stopped by for a cookout.

Want to see something adorable?

They both went to Texas on missions-- Clark to Dallas,  Alexa to Fort Worth.  I'm dying, they are so cute!

They are sisters, so sometimes there are hurt feelings or short tempers.  Even so, I am happy they love each other and are there for each other.  

We recently purchased this little beauty of a car from my brother.  We've got lots of drivers needing to go lots of places for work.  It might be possible for me to drive everyone where they need to go, but I would be in the car ALL DAY long.  It's so much better when they can get themselves there and back again.

I am so pleased with how hard working our three oldest are this summer.  Well, all the time really, but especially this summer.  Clark works 30 hours a week for Natures Sunshine doing customer service.  Lucky for him, he gets to do it from his apartment right now. He's taking a full load of classes online through UVU this summer as well.  Bethany has three jobs-- nanny for my sister's kids, life guarding at JL Sorenson, and teaching swim lessons at Lifetime Fitness.  Elinor swims to two hours every morning, then works cleaning my brothers house three days a week and she teaches five hours of swim lessons everyday.  And if she has a week off of teaching at Fuller's Swim School, she substitutes teaching lessons at another private pool.  So yeah.  We don't see much of any of them.  But I am glad they are so responsible and hardworking.

I'm getting older and they gray hairs are having babies.  I've not been happy about the gray hairs, but I've also been resistant to coloring my hair.  Mostly because I've always really liked  the color of my hair.  A few weeks ago I bought a box of hair color, but I didn't do anything about it.  I was nervous.  Finally my girls dragged me into their room and said, "We are doing this right now!"  So they took care of me.  

The end result it so close to my normal hair color, that hopefully nobody has even noticed;)