Family, Temple, More Family, a Dog and Some Very Good News

 

Abe and his brothers had a great time our their 2023 brothers trip.  

I love how much they enjoy each other.  

These are two of my favorite things

I love, love, love to go to the temple.  

Really good times.

A Fox siblings dinner while Russell was in town.

A couple weeks ago I had the great pleasure of going on a dinner date with my eldest child-- no where near a child anymore.  He is a good man with a good heart and I enjoy his company so much.  I love hearing about all his hobbies and projects.  And he saved me when I left the headlights turned on during dinner and killed my car battery.  He is so good to me.

The boys headed off to meet up with other Fox menfolk to see the new Dungeons and Dragons movie.  They had good reviews.  Abe said it was not an embarrassment to the D&D world.  That is actually pretty high praise from him because the D&D world has been a part of his world for a very long time.

Abe has since gotten a new phone since this picture was taken, so I expect we'll be seeing markedly improved pictures in the near future:)

Grover is a blessed dog.  As Elinor recently said, "He's basically another one of the siblings."

Greta and I went on a thrift store, Wendy's, and Walmart date.  We know how to have a good time!

This is a good look for you, Faith.

I ADORE this picture of my two Jolley men

My two favorite creative minds.  They are both so good at envisioning things creating them and identifying problems and coming up with ingenious solutions.  They were discussing a foam sword making project and I wanted a picture of them together.  I took this and then said, "Stand like you like each other."

So then this.

To this.  What jokesters.

Sister love

Faith and I continued our IKEA lunch birthday celebration on her 17th birthday.  I know.  I'm as shocked as you are.  Faith is 17???  What the....?  She is regularly mistaken for being markedly younger.  But then again, I guess that is nothing new for her.  She's always seemed young-- for which I've always been grateful--to get to enjoy her just a little bit longer.

Prince Grover.  He willingly let Greta dress him up and tape a crown to his head (which he did not try to remove).  He is the most amazing dog ever.  Yeah, I know I keep saying that, but seriously.  

Every dog prince needs a change of robe .

I like how Greta put a "G" on his crown.

She was fanning him and reverencing him.  She even changed into her red dress to be royal with him.  

He's just a big puppy.

Now, I have saved the best bit of news for last---

Elinor also had a birthday!  She is no longer a teenager! 

AND... I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on this blog, but she is expecting!!!! Due with a baby boy on August 1st.  We're going to be GRANDPARENTS!!!!!!  Poor Elinor has been pretty sick and even still at 23 weeks still feels pretty crummy.  But she and Brandon are excited and we are excited!  

We ordered them a car seat/stroller for her birthday present, but Abe wanted them to have something to open at her birthday dinner.  What a cute grandpa he'll be:)

Just Keep Swimming and Swimming and Swimming

This post is a recap of the events finishing up Faith's Junior year of swim team-- both her high school team and her club team.  February feels like one big, long swim meet, and it is exciting and fun to see all the hard work pay off at the end of the season.  Here is Faith before heading off for the 6A High School State Championship down at BYU.  

She qualified for several individual events, but each swimmer can only swim 2 individual events.  She decided on the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, plus the 200 medley relay swimming backstroke.

Here's the thing--- if you don't have a really good camera and you aren't down on deck, it's pretty much impossible to get really good pictures at a swim meet.  And yet, six years into high school meets, I keep trying.  Faith is in the gray suit second from the bottom.

I do know of a fellow swim parent who got a lot of great pictures.  I'll try to get a hold of some of those to share.

Do you see Faith's facial expression in this picture?  For the sake of truth and transparency, let it be known that that is an accurate depiction of how she felt about me for most of the month of February.  Parent/teenager growing pains--that's how it goes sometimes.  And then things get better as we try to understand each other and communicate.  And we witness tender little mercies and angels stepping in to help soften our hearts.

At the end of last year's high school state championship meet she declared that next year she WOULD medal and make the podium.  And if you know Faith, you know she did just that!  She got 8th place in the 100 fly.  

She is on the far right-- I guess technically she is not on the podium, but the top 8 are who get medals.

She is a winner!

Riverton's state team

These three are the only Riverton kids that medalled.  

At the end-of-season team banquet, Faith was pretty darn happy to be named as one of the four captains for next year-- her senior year.  You know, it's just another day of Faith meeting another of her long-term goals.  

Sporting the captain's hat.

Faith and her bestie Braxton were both Rookie of the year as Freshmen.

As sophomores

I assure you, they really are just great friends-- but aren't they the cutest!  They have been loyal swim buddies for a long time. 

Later in February Faith and I headed down to St. George for Senior State Swim Championships with her  USA club team-- Lehi Aquatics.  Here we are-- first stop-- the local Chick-fil-a for dinner.  

Second stop, the hotel-- where the first attempt at waffles in the morning did not go well. 

Third stop and most frequent and lengthy stop-- the gorgeous facility at Utah Tech.  Three full days of meets.  I did not mind it in the least.  Faith is third from the bottom.  She added the 100 free, 200 IM, and 200 backstroke to her 100 fly and 100 back.  She dropped a lot of time in some, not so much in others.  Day two was her most important day (to her) and sadly, that was the day that didn't go so well.  I quote her, "That was a really crusty day of swimming. "  That's how it goes sometimes.  Even still, we had a great time down in St. George.

One of their relays

I enjoyed a lovely walk over to the St. George temple during early morning warm-ups.  I also volunteered to do quite a bit of timing on deck.  That was fun to be down near the action.

Here are a few cool pictures the professional photographer took of Faith swimming her fly.

I like this one.

Interestingly, there are no pictures with both of her hands in the picture.

See? 

So close, but still only one hand.

No hands-- even better

Faith has worked so hard and it would appear that Greta want to be just like her:)

We Made it Through February

Cannon and George had a really, really spectacular ballet and contemporary show in February.  It was excerpts from Sleeping Beauty and a contemporary ballet choreographed by Lindsay Folkman-- Cirque de Ballet.  I cannot wait to see the professional pictures.  It was SO SO GOOD!

Here's a picture someone snapped of one of the pieces.

One of the MANY snowstorms we've had this winter made our drive home from the Covey Center is little scary.  Our mega-van does not like snow.  

These adorable hard workers spent the day trying to dig out the neighborhood.

Can you even imagine the months-- nay, years-- of physical therapy and chiropractic appointments it would take to heal me of this.  

Peter was so thrilled to get to go to a Heroscape tournament with Clark.  

George is our resident inventor.  For many years now, I frequently find him in his room, surrounded by a lot of mess, deeply engaged in making whatever brilliant idea his mind has thought up.  This one was made from a mousetrap.  A mousetrap? Yes, a mousetrap.   Don't ask.

He created a Spiderman shooter thing that fired a little foam ball.  

Cannon and George and I went to the temple this morning.  It was so lovely.  To celebrate we picked up some Crumbl cookies on the way home.  We propose every Friday be Temple and a Cookie Day!

Greta and I made a list of the pieces she needed to practice on her violin.  She got it all done, but Greta is not to be rushed through life-- or practicing.  She took lots of breaks to "portrait" as she called her drawings.  

I love how little girls play together.  

One day Greta decided to "be Faith".

Peter tinkering away on his Tinker Crate.  Lately, I've had to increase security measures in the house.  We're not talking fancy door cams or security systems.  Rather, I bought a couple $6.00 plastic tool/ammo box thing and a couple old-school padlocks.  No joke, I locked up all the video games and all the TV remote controls.  I am exhausted from trying to monitor it all.  Too much time on the screens, too much time asking to be on the screens, too much time thinking about wanting to be on the screens, too much time arguing with me about why they should be on the screens, too much celebration when I  leave home because that means they can immediately get on the screens.  Too much time not engaging their beautiful brains because they are distracted by the screens.  You get the idea.  So I locked them up.  They can come out sometimes.  But it is minimal.  

And you wouldn't believe-- actually if you are a mom, you would totally believe-- how the creative juices have been flowing the last couple of weeks.  

The first week or so was uncomfortable, but Cannon spent hours practicing guitar, George composed a ragtime piano song, Peter wrote a book, and Greta's art is taking over the house.  

At this point in my parenting journey, I'm pretty sure at some point (probably as a teenager) they will all detest me for something.  Something I did or didn't do, who I am or who I am not.  I also think (at least I hope) that when they are older they will forgive me and still love me.  So if I'm going to err, (and I AM GOING TO ERR) I am okay with erring on the side of less screens.