June 19, 2019

It is parade season!   Normally we just attend our city's parade the evening before the 4th of July.  But since Bethany will be riding the float in many parades this year, we're checking out the parades for several cities.  Last Saturday was Saratoga Springs.  This Saturday is Herriman's parade.  I'm guessing we'll probably run out of steam after the 4th, but we'll see.

Lovely.

Right about now Clark is thinking he probably ought to try to be a little nicer to Bethany when he gets home than he was before he left:)

Peter "dancing" for the candy.

Side note: I paid about $10.00 for my sunglasses over two years ago.  I love them.  Abe got his for free from "Fat Catz" Entertainment Center truck in the parade.  As it turns out, you can collect some useful stuff from parades.  My own personal haul from this particular parade was one spatula, one whisk, one t-shirt, three tubes of chapstick, one container of floss, and a considerable amount of quality candy (salt water taffy does NOT count as quality candy). 
Knowing George's hoarding tendencies, you can imagine that parades are a sort of collectors paradise for him.

But, in fact, I won the grand prize at the parade.  A FULL SIZE CRUMBL COOKIE!  I may or may not have yelled out the woman handing them out from the back of the truck in the parade and shamelessly begged her to please give it to me!!!!!  
Whatever.  It totally worked and she gave me the cookie.  It was worth it.
In other fun summer happenings, Monday evening we took the gang-- or most of them anyway-- to go get shave ice.  Now that Peter and Greta are older, I'm thinking we probably ought to take them out in public more often.  I don't mean to whine, and I'm certain it is my own doing, but the younger kids are not very well-behaved in public.  Perhaps its the difference between having one boy and a bunch girls, versus a bunch of boys and one little girl.  But I swear the older kids were better behaved by this age.  Oh well, something to work on, I suppose.

Yesterday Greta and I were left home alone, just the two of us.  Naturally, we had a tea party.

Is she for real?

Oh... wait.  Yeah, she's for real.  I shouldn't have mocked her pain by taking a picture of her distress when I denied her a piece of candy from the piano lesson treat bag, but her performance was so authentic-- so raw and real.  I couldn't help myself.

Clark was surprised to learn George was proficient at riding a Rip Stick.  He wanted photographic evidence.

This awesome gal went to Oakcrest girls camp for this week.  I'm on day three of her absence and I. AM. DYING for her to come home.  I seriously miss her.  She is so much fun to have around and quiet useful as well.  Friday at noon can't come soon enough.  I'm not worried a bit about her because I know she can handle herself and anyone else just fine.  I sent a message letting her swim coach know she would be gone all this week.  He responded, "She will be missed!  She's such a little leader.  No problem standing up to the high school boys.  She's great."

It's pretty much the best thing anyone has ever said about any of my children!😂😂  And it cracks me up.

Perfection.

George's recent Lego creation.  I should have listened more carefully.  This could be a bird or a flying dinosaur, but I think he said it was a flying dragon.  Don't quote me on that.

Elinor and Abe are going on Trek with out stake this summer.  Tuesday evening they went out for a "training" walk.  I quite like both of them.

A Week of Pageantry

Well now.  That was seriously fun.
Bethany and I went to all four nights of the Miss Utah Scholarship Competition in preparation for her participation in the competition next year.  We took lots of pictures of ourselves because we wanted to remember the experience.  Also, because we didn't wear jeans even once and that was something different and unusual for me!

There is a lot more to this organization than I realized.  I have come away with a lot more respect and admiration for the young ladies who participate.  I am so happy for Bethany- to have somewhat unexpectedly ended up on this course for the next year-and I believe it will help her to be her best self.

Just like Bethany, this cute gal was recently crowned Miss Provo and she will be competing in Miss Utah next year.

With the exception of the last evening, we rode Trax downtown each night.  It's always a cultural experience.
One of the best parts of the week was when several people would see us, and of course, they would look at Bethany first because-- Hello!  She has a sash that says Miss Riverton and she's gorgeous and I'm a 40 something mom-- so yeah--- and then they would look at me and say, "I can tell you are mother and daughter.  You look so much alike!"
*sniff, sniff THANK YOU!!!!

Now, I'm going to take a moment to share the secret of our fashion success.  Bethany is the absolute best DI and Savers shopper.  She is the thrift store pageant queen!  Almost everything she wears is second-hand.  Knowing Miss Utah was coming up, I took her with me a couple weeks back to help me buy some clothes that weren't jeans and t-shirts.  I don't wish to brag-- nor do I have right to at all (I do recognize that) but I think we did a pretty good job. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the week.   These are a few of the ladies who will be doing Miss Utah next year.  They were so excited to meet each other and they were so confident and happy and friendly.  I am so excited for Bethany form these friendships.

This little cutie was there with her mom, who recognized Bethany from one of the city's DARE graduations Bethany spoke at.  Also, Bethany taught this little one swim lessons.

Here are a few Riverton people.   The two ladies on the left were former Riverton city attendants who were competing with other titles this year.  The one in yellow is the previous Miss Riverton who was in the competition this year and then the mayor of Riverton and his daughter, who was Riverton's Little Miss.  It's a whole new sort of weirdly wonderful world to us we are just getting a glimpse into. 

Bethany and Miss Herriman-- who work together at the pool.

It was a fabulously entertaining week.  To get to spend so much time with Bethany before she heads to college was a rare treat, indeed.  We had hours and hours to talk about so many topics.  We giggled and laughed about silly stuff and we discussed and thought and important stuff.  It's going to be an exciting year for her to prepare for Miss Utah 2020.  

Spring Piano Recital 2019

My piano students had their spring recital this past week-- I was so pleased with them all!  I quite enjoy them all!

A few of my boys:)

George and his best bud.

Why is Cannon so stoic?  I don't know.  Elinor is not one of my students, but she still gets to play in my recital (lucky thing!)  This was Faith's last official recital with me as her teacher.  She is moving on to the same teacher as Elinor. 
The theme of this recital was Classical pieces.  

Happiness Is...

Happiness is a Sunday afternoon family walk about the neighborhood.  

...sprinklers under the trampoline with siblings.  Like Greta's swimsuit?

... a trip to the zoo with cousins.

... the train ride at the zoo with your gal pals

... a happy nappy after a hard day's work.

...A snuggle hug with your mom

... your pet chicken.

Oil and Water Play Nice

For much of their 16 and 13 years of life, these two have been my oil and water children.  They didn't tend to get along very well.  But all that has changed!  They can't get enough of each other these days and it makes me so happy.  Is there anything more rewarding to a parent than to see their children cherishing one another?  I think not.
This picture was taken the morning they both headed off to piano lessons together.  I taught Elinor piano lessons until she was 12 or 13 and then she moved on to a more advanced teacher.  I've been teaching Faith since she was about 4 years old (when she begged for lessons) and just this past week she has moved to the same teacher as Elinor.

They both swim crazy amounts of hours each week, although they swim for different USA teams.  Elinor's team is in South Jordan and Faith swims for a Herriman USA team.  There is a method to my madness as to why they swim for two different teams, but nobody but me would care about the reasons why, so I will spare you the lengthy explanation.  They both play water polo for a Herriman and they practice during the summer from 5-7 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is probably their favorite four hours of the week.

They both swim/workout in the mornings and evenings-- it ends up being 4 to 5 hours a day for each of them.  WHAT??? 5 hours a day?  How is that even possible?  Is that healthy?  Shouldn't they be more well-rounded?  Won't they get burned out?
All fair questions, but frankly, I am so proud of both of them for working so hard, by their own free choosing.  We are not requiring any of this, but they are loving pushing themselves and feeling the thrill of working hard and seeing results.  They aren't wasting time on social media or TV (save the occasional Psyche binge).  They happily go to bed early and manage their schedules and equipment.  They have great coaches and they enjoy the kids they swim with and the lessons they learn here will follow them throughout their lives.
They love to come home and tell me about their victories and frustrations.  They are setting goals and bonding through their love/hate relationship with chlorine.

This week Elinor started her summer job of being a nanny for my brother's children for five hours a day, 5 days a week.  Faith is rather lost without her around during the day.  She tries to fill the void by napping on water polo days:)

Dance and Potty Success

She is practically perfect in every way. 
She had potty training breakthroughs this week!  This is more graphic than I like to go, but we are talking actual poop in the potty--- MULTIPLE TIMES!!!!  Celebration!  We are getting very close to having our last child potty trained.  This is big.
But she is doing something strange and somewhat disturbing at nighttime.  She wakes up (multiple times).  She will go downstairs and take off her pajamas and diaper and go potty.  Then come upstairs to our room and find random clothes to put on, by her herself. 
One time she got up and went downstairs to help herself to the jar of peanut butter.  Another time she unwrapped multiple band aids and stuck them on the floor.  Weird.  And concerning. 
So, she is practically perfect, minus the recent bizarre nighttime behavior.  That leaves room for improvement:)

George had his dance recitals this past week.  Tuesday he performed his ballet dance.
Here it is-- George starts on the far left.

Wednesday he did his tap number.  He did a great job in both of them!
Here it is:

So here is a fun thing!  Well, fun and busy.  Cannon and George are BOTH doing summer workshops with Ballet West Academy this summer.  George is the age that Cannon was when he began at BWA.  George is trying it out this summer to see what he thinks.  BWA is intense and it just gets more so as the kids get older, so I would not consider sending him there unless he really knew what it was and still wanted to do it.  After one week of 2 1/2 hours a day, George seems to be really enjoying it.  He says they are pretty strict, but he likes it. 

Cannon is loving it (as was to be expected).  He dances five hours a day and sleeps great at night (also to be expected). 

It's pretty great that the Brothers Fox get to do this together. 

Trek Prep

Last weekend Abe went up to the Martin's Cove area in Wyoming with the Stake Young Men's Presidency (pictured here), the Stake Presidency, and the bishops of the stake for final preparation and training for the Stake Youth Trek later this summer.  The presidency has been in place for a little over a year and he has really enjoyed the calling and getting to know these great men.

We have a smaller print of this painting of Joseph Angell Young, "The Blue Angell" in our house.  Abe is one of his descendants and he makes sure all the kids know the story of his coming to the rescue of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies who were stranded on the plains of Wyoming.  I appreciate that Abe knows and appreciates his (and my) family history).

In a very adventurous moment, Abe caught this little beauty with his bare hands.  There was some concern among some of the bishops that this snake might be venomous.  Abe assured them it was just a giant gopher snake.  

Abe was quite proud of himself and as soon as he got home, he was excited to send these pictures of the him and the snake (a Western Gopher Snake) off to Clark.  Knowing that no one would appreciate his accomplishment more than Clark.  

You can imagine our delight when Clark shortly thereafter replied to the email with his missionary "find" of the week (a Texas Rat Snake).  

 Seriously, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON!  They even took the same pictures in the same poses.  You'd think that this would disturb me, but I confess, I was ridiculously proud of both of them-- knowing how much they were celebrating each other's victories was delightful.

A tasty treat on the way home.