Cave of Wonders

 

    Cooper's senior pictures by VanWagenenshots.pic-time.com.

Spring was a whirlwind. Let's start by admiring the new release of photos for my mama collection: Eagles About to Leave the Nest. (The face Cooper is making in this one is more like the face I'm about to make when I picture him left to his own devices in a Guatemalan kitchen.) Thanks to Craig Van Wagenen for doing a great job on Cooper's senior pictures. 

So, I do come up to his armpit. At least!

This alligator from his senior trip is normal sized. I'd believe it.

Mark got to do two fun trips in under two months. One with Cooper, one with me and his team for the company President's Club cruise, for his birthday. He got so many comments on his favorite T-Shirt.

This is in the Dominican Republic. 

While we were gone, the kids were home with Grandma, diligently practicing their instruments and eating their vegetables. (Maybe not Luke. I don't think even Grandma could pull that off.)

My mom, Macy and Leslie went to a fun play together. 

Mom also found time to paint this picture. Saving it here for posterity because, true to her personality, she gifted it to a good leader she had in mind. She also did this delightful one of my Rosie from her super cute tutu and Toy Story phase. And gifted it to me!!

Lastly,  Boston has been having a wonderful time on his mission and is also working hard. This was a nice text to receive from a Senior Missionary sister in his area.

I LOVE this picture with the little boys. It just portrays exactly what I expected he would be like as a missionary: loving, kind, inviting. The little kids stuck to him like magnets. Kids are excellent judges of character.

And of course, he was pretty into this motorcycle. Did not actually drive it. I'm told.

It's pretty exciting that we will have two missionaries out at the same time. Boston and Cooper will overlap a year (so, apart for three years total). This is one reason why Cooper chose to be available to be called as soon as he graduated. Recently, he also told me that he likes the parable of the ten virgins because, lots of his friends have asked him why he's leaving to serve "so early" instead of playing around all summer or earning more money first. He told me with conviction that made me swallow hard, "I want to be ready [for Jesus] now. Why would I want to wait?"

This is supposed to be a missionary clock--one time set for home, one time set for wherever the missionary serves. But, we are going to use it as a two missionary clock, that conveniently fits right in front of their photos. Boston is usually 8 hrs ahead in Spain depending on daylight savings, and Cooper will be one hour ahead in Guatemala if I understand correctly. 

This was a fun display to create as Cooper finished up basketball. It matches the usual "decor" of sports on the big TV screen in the basement. Macy can have a lacrosse picture up once she graduates in a couple more years. For now, here are some great shots of her season. She usually played varsity on attack.

Usually the weather was good. This game got cancelled. JV was able to play a shortened game before the snow hit hard. 

The lacrosse parent organization was always begging for volunteers to keep stats and announce. I figured I'd take a turn. I didn't know the rules well enough to do the stats, but I could handle announcing the lineup and saying, "GOAL!" This is a photo of myself that I never in a million years would have predicted.

One game day, Macy turned 16, so I pulled her out of school over lunch and we got her driver's license.

Now that the weather is warming up, and sports are winding down, here are some other shenanigans with the family. 

This was an Easter egg hunt one of our neighbor girls did for us for a fundraiser project. To make it even, I played "Tackle Luke" while he and Rosie hunted eggs. He still got more than she did. I'm no footballer, but he laughed and laughed. Best egg hunt ever.

Ellie Ro is walking. And running, and climbing, and getting into everything. One day she wandered into my pantry and just kneeled and stared at all the bounteous no-nos. I called it, "The Cave of Wonders!" I hope my pantry is always a Cave of Wonders to my kids, grandkids, and all their snacky friends. 

With Cooper and Macy taking up so much of our time with sports, we thought it would be nice to take Luke out on a date, to dinner at Raising Cane's. We got talking about this Elvis picture painted on black velvet, and I told him to make his best Elvis face. I'm impressed. Also looks a little like The Grinch.

And I didn't even plan this! But the next picture up is Luke with a heart of stone, two sizes too small? He likes finding heart rocks and sending pictures of them to his Gramma. What a sweetie.

This was just such a beautiful spring evening. We went for a drive while Cooper and Mark were gone on Cooper's trip. 

We had a great time going to the Rec Center with Leslie and Ellie. She loved jumping into her mama's arms. I loved hearing Leslie laugh with delight also. That's one joy of being a Grandma I hadn't counted on. A. The baby is adorable. B. Your grown child is also adorable while they love on their baby.

Cooper went to a couple of dances with his group of friends. Here are some of the fun pictures. I don't usually know the girls, but these guys are two of Coop's best friends, Forest & Thys. I think most if not all of his Latter-Day Saint friends have mission calls. The basketball coach mentioned that this is the first time that he can remember that all of the varsity seniors have a mission call by graduation. 

I love this picture with the golfing pantomine and his date, Cedar. Coop spends a LOT of time on the golf course--he was so happy for the snow to melt. And sad when his Youth on Course pass expired on his birthday. 

Just sneaking in some cutie pie pictures. 

This Sweet Sixteen cutie pie got to go to NYC with her choir. I don't think she got much sleep, like, hardly any honestly, but she saw all the sights and a broadway show and a baseball game, and had a great time with her friends.

Here's another cutie pie. She was excited for the last week of school when they have theme days. This was Cowboy and Cowgirl day.

This was a really big day for Cooper (and me!) Maybe even more exciting than graduation for me. He finally, miraculously, was able to get his double permanent tooth implant for his front tooth and cleft tooth. Also signifies the end of a very long road of orthodontia (since he was a baby). The implant took months, then failed the torque test, then the first tooth didn't fit. They had to make another one at the lab, and the dentist earned a complimentary box of Crumbl cookies when he finally got it to fit correctly, just before graduation. (And after Senior pics. Boo.) If this hadn't worked, Coop was going to have to go to Guatemala for two years missing two of his front teeth and wearing a dinky plastic retainer that he'd have to pop out to eat anything, like he has been wearing since August. My brother Jake had to go to Brazil with a flipper retainer for his front tooth, and he said it was a huge pain.

Cooper turned 18 and we were actually home on his birthday to celebrate, since it was a Sunday. Usually it's in the middle of all the May craziness and triple scheduled. We measured him on the wall, and he is still growing as of basketball season. Who knows, he might come home from Guatemala with another inch. Right now he is 6 ft 4. He is trying to pack on the pounds--he eats a lot of cheeseburgers and milkshakes--before Montezuma's revenge takes a hit on his body mass.

It was a big, busy graduation. I was glad to hear Cooper's name called amid all the cheering and obnoxious forbidden air horns. 

We had a fun family afternoon at the Provo park, with my mom, Leslie, Cole & Elise. 

This was a nice firepit evening, courtesy of our friends, the Langfords. I love that Macy and her friends are musical and there is generally a lot of singing going on.

For Memorial Day Sunday we had a great Day family reunion in Fillmore. Luke is always excited to see Uncle Doug Marks and whip out the chess board.

Cooper received his endowment--an important covenant with God--in the House of the Lord, May 27.

Here's to a great summer. These younger three children of mine have some big shoes (and wingspans) to fill once Cooper moves out to serve his mission.