My Sunday Afternoon Sharing Time

I had a birthday this past week. I'm 33. This brownie was my dinner and birthday cake in one. How efficient of my people. I spent the afternoon at the Dr. office, but the good new is I have an induction date of July 30th. Now-- I must not get too set on that day. I must keep in mind that things can change. I may not be able to go in that day or. . . I could go into labor on my own two weeks early. What? It's possible! It has happened to other people. It could happen. Maybe. Probably not.



Clark also had a birthday this week. He turned 11! For his birthday he wanted to do a reptile hunt.
Hey, to each his own. We knew of a good place to find reptiles up Spanish Fork Canyon. So Abe and a couple other dads drove the gang down for a hike/hunt and a picnic lunch on Saturday. I suppose my pregnancy paralysis set in again and I opted to stay home with Faith and Cannon.






They had fun and were successful in catching a few lizards. Abe says they probably saw about 50, but they were hard to catch. I'm sure the boys' mothers were grateful they were hard to catch so there weren't many "party favors" brought home.










The boy on the left is Ammon. He and Clark have been friends since they were babies. Well, they've been friends for the past 8 years. For the first 3 years of their acquaintance they just took turns injuring each other. But they've matured and are great friends now. He lives some distance away, but Clark really wanted him to come on this outing.
Because of the distance involved it worked out for Ammon to stay the night at our house on Saturday and then go to church with Clark. We will return Ammon to his family this evening when we go to dinner at his house. This is a big deal because we don't do friend sleepovers. When visiting with family we've had cousins stay over. Our family has had camp outs with other families. But just one child, one friend sleepovers we have never done. It has worked out well and Clark has really enjoyed the extra boy time. We've known Ammon for so long and we know his family so well that he feels like one of our children. Except he's probably quieter and better behaved than some of my children. I wonder if we could work out a trade?


I thought I would try to make the most of the time with Faith and Cannon. I took them to a local splash pad to play in the water and stay cool (and not spend any money!). We put on swim suits and sunscreen. Got our towels and water bottles ready and headed off. I'm feeling like such a nice mommy. It was a bust. I didn't realize Faith and Cannon are HORRIFIED of sprinklers, Splash pad wasn't much fun it you can't stand water falling on you. The area was fenced off, but Cannon kept crawling under the fence to escape. After about 20 minutes we packed up and headed home. I'm just saying I think I should totally get mom credit for attempting to do something fun.

Clark, Bethany and Elinor played a trio of "Love is Spoken Here" in Sacrament meeting today. Clark and Elinor on the piano and Bethany on the violin. They practiced it a ton and were very well prepared. They played it very well. Poor Elinor was pretty nervous as it was her first time playing in church. Afterward she told me her heart was beating really fast. I thought to myself, "I think mine was beating faster!"

Abe's Reunion

Many of you know how I feel about the beard.
The beard and I are NOT friends. Abe wanted a beard for the pioneer trek. He wanted a beard for the family reunion so he could get a picture with his other bearded brother, Russell. Mission accomplished. The beard has been shaved. According to our "deal", the beard ought not to make another appearance for many years--if ever.






Abe and his brother, Jesse, after riding a scary ride.















I thought it was pretty brave of these dads to take 6 kids to an amusement park.














A fun part of the family gathering is the brothers playing D&D. If you don't know what that is, it's probably for the best. This picture features 6 of the 7 brothers, one "brave" brother-in-law, and one cousin.












Some of you may have noticed that Abe likes to wear hawaiian shirts for his regular attire. He helped outfit the kids for the luau night. The shirt Clark is wearing is the shirt Abe wore on our very first date. That date didn't go so well and the shirt didn't help things.
True confessions: I really like that shirt now. I thought it was the UGLIEST thing I'd ever seen.

Abe Note: That shirt actually first belonged to my Dad....who knows how old it really is. But the shirt still lives on (I just can't fit into it anymore)!!

Faith's Reunion Pictures

A reunion wouldn't be a reunion for Faith without Eliza. Eliza helps Faith be more assertive and it's good for her.













Pretending to ride the four-wheelers with cousin Abby.















The first time I talked to Faith on the phone during the reunion she told me she had eaten about 100 licorice. I'm not so sure she wasn't exaggerating.













Someday, some young man is going to be ecstatic to hold this little lady's hand. It just didn't happen to be this young man (John) on this day.














In a family this size it's a pretty special thing to get both Grandma and Grandpa to yourself for a picture. Faith IS a pretty special girl.

Elinor's Reunion

The great thing about a HUGE family is that there is someone for everyone to play with. I suppose if you're at the very top or bottom of the cousin line up this isn't true, but so far all of our kiddos have NUMEROUS cousins within one year of each other.










Elinor and Annie having a blast at Silverwood.















Elinor and Annie are only 3 days apart in age, but there is an obvious height difference.















Fun, fun, fun.
















Thanks to anyone who helped Elinor with her hair!

Reunion for Bethany

For Bethany, it doesn't get much better than cousin play-time.















Bethany can play forever. I asked Abe if he saw or talked with Bethany at all on the trip. Not that Abe was negligent-- quite the opposite-- I think he did a great job of taking care of the kids. It's just that Bethany had such fun with her cousins.










One of the great activities was renting out the Roller Valley Skating Rink. This looks like so much fun to me. I hope it's repeated next year.














Lots of girl cousins perform "Pearly Shells" for the luau night. Bethany is in the middle in orange.














Fun to drive Grandpa's golf cart.

My Peeps are Back and Clark's Reunion

Everyone is home again. Hooray! Cannon and I sat on the grass under the shade of the tree and anxiously awaited the family's arrival. When he realized who was in that car that pulled into the driveway he was ecstatic!










He mauled the girls. He was getting pretty grumpy those last couple of days without the kids.














They all agreed my tummy had indeed gotten bigger while they were gone.







Abe was the photographer for all these pictures, but he was okay with my putting them up here and commenting. I don't know how good the commentary will be from someone who wasn't there, but here goes.

Family reunion time often falls right around the 4th of July, which is right around Clark's birthday. So he gets to celebrate his birthday with lots of family.













Much to Clark's delight, there were snakes to be found. What are we to do? Does anyone want to help produce a YouTube show for Clark so he can break into the business with his own wildlife show?











Clark had a great time with his older cousin. It was very gracious of Abe's oldest sister's family to host my people. They have nine children, so it was a very full house with the addition of our family. Thank you!











Abe and his next younger brother, Jesse each took their three oldest children to Silverwood (a northwest amusement park) for a day. It worked out well because everyone had a riding partner. Clark and Alexis are about three months apart and have always been good friends.










A favorite part of the reunion for Clark was leading an adventure with cousins.

Roller Valley Dance Fight

This is Jesse and I (Abe) at the Fox Family Reunion in Spokane, Washington re-enacting the Michael Jackson "Beat It" Knife Fight.....But on Roller Blades!!

Also, I completely meant to fall down at the end...........

Emily

This is my Emily. We've been friends since our sophmore year of high school in Virgnia. She came out to visit me while my family (except Cannon) went to Spokane for a family reunion. At which reunion they have all had a fabulous time. I'm sad to have missed all the fun activities, but Emily and I have had such a marvelously relaxing few days together. I feel rejuvenated. I feel like I can make it (happily) to the end of this pregnancy. She is such a gracious, giving friend and has taken such good care of Cannon and I. I hope everyone has an "Emily" in their lives.











Cannon quickly discovered that Emily is WAY more fun than me. That is fine with me. I know I'm no fun. I haven't been for quite some time. We all spent quite some time enjoying the kiddie pool in the backyard. We never bothered to put Cannon in a swimsuit. He didn't mind.

















Emily's visit was good for me in lots of ways. She reminded me that I am not a paralytic. In my "condition" I was beginning to feel like I just couldn't move my massive self around. It took too much energy. It wasn't worth it to move and do anything. Emily LOVES the mountains and I would feel beyond guilty if she came all the way out to Utah from VIRGINIA and I denied her a trip to the mountains. I was doubtful I could do a VERY easy one mile walk around a lake (with a boardwalk, mind you!) I don't know what I thought would happen to me, but I think it involved my pelvic floor giving way and birthing the baby at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. As it turns out, I can still walk! We had such a great time. It was cool up in the mountains, Cannon loved it and Emily can return home fulfilled.
Proof! Me at 8 months pregnant-- not on my couch.






















We got pedicures one evening. I know I do not have lovely feet, but I put this picture up so I can remember how much fun it was for us. In fact, not just the pedicure, but waking up each day with almost no commitments to have to go anywhere or do anything. This wouldn't be a very fulfilling way to live your life long-term, but it's been so delightful for a few days.
So many thanks to Abe for so willingly taking the children on such a lengthy trip and encouraging this get together with Emily and I. To have such a friend for so many years, who knew me in when I was younger and so ridiculous and boy crazy and still finds my friendship worthwhile is a wonderful thing. Abe will come home to find a much happier wife than he left.

Another great thing about her visit, was that it distracted Cannon from missing the family too much. He has yelled out a few times, "Clark, where are you?" Not articulated super clearly, more like, "Cak, are oo?" but we knew what he meant. Cannon also watch a youtube video of Abe about 15 times, yelling, "Daddy!" I think he's ready for his regular entertainment squad to come home.
I must say, I too am looking forward to being with my peeps again.