Trimester Catch-up

 No, that is not an announcement! It means I have the first four months of the year (and Christmas and Thanksgiving....) to catch up, and this one post to do all the catching. Let's hope this post has some hands like Jerry Rice.

How about, in no particular order, a photo montage. Our first display is the beautiful colonial dresses Justin's mom sewed for our upcoming George Washington research trip that includes a visit to Williamsburg. In this photo the girls were asked to look authentic. Julia and Gwyndelin apparently thought our first mothers were quite regal; Elisabeth, quite bored; Katharine, rather nervous; Elinor, hoppin' mad.

Katharine really is like our founding mothers in her love of baking. She wanted to make her own birthday pie for her 13th birthday. I respectfully declined.

For Spring Break we went to St. George and toured some old hot spots like Judd's Candy store for breadsticks (it was universally declared that my version of this delicacy was better, possibly because we can eat as many as we want without paying $2.50 a pop for one. Also, the wheat flour.) and the St. George Tabernacle for a tour given by the father of one of my 5th grade homies. 

The highlight of the Spring Break trip was supposed to be Elisabeth's 16th birthday. It started out that way: Justin, Opa, and the three big girls went to Cedar City for a temple baptism appointment and then went out for an authentic Mexican lunch afterwards. Apparently it was a little too authentic; Elisabeth spent the rest of the day violently emptying her stomach onto the side of the road, into the sink, into the toilet, and into other random receptacles. She took any number of short naps in this comfy chair as we tried to carry on bravely around her. Into the annals of Collings family history will certainly go Elinor's goodnight prayer that evening: "We're thank Thee that Elisabeth could watch me eat her birthday cake!"

Around February 25th we hosted a surprise 40th Anniversary party for my parents, the highlight of which was the gift of a hot air balloon ride. The kids made lovely decorations even though the event falling on a Wednesday evening meant most of them did not get to join the festivities. We handled decorations and dinner; Chari came up with a fun game; and I think everyone else did something to help out like funding the hot air balloon ride itself.

The younger kids had a ton of fun hosting Thanksgiving for the Suttners this year. Here's a shot of Gwyn and her cousin Charlotte dressing up in their dream identities: Gwyn aims no higher than to be a stranger incarnation of the Jackalope. Charlotte wants to be a candy cane mermaid.

Gwyn and Abdiel both played basketball this season. Abdiel played with all the neighborhood boys and Justin was the coach, though I can't find the pictorial proof of it. Here's Gwyn with her team. 

Her true love, however, is brooding musical ruminations. Elinor's is modern dance.

Another shot from Thanksgiving with the Doty and Suttner cousins thrown into the friendship-bracelet-making mix, and Gabe in front of the bookcases we are all still in love with.

Katharine thinks Charlotte is well-equipped to be a selfie-taking teenager already.

We were invited to enter a gingerbread house-making contest. Gwyn was quite offended when she overheard my comment that our role in this quest was to make others feel good about themselves since I am nowhere near up to such tasks. She set right to work outlining a winning plan  and we did our best to execute. We ended up not winning--the smarties who put a "Coldwell Banker--Sold!" sign on the premises snagged the prize, but she did secure a $25 amazon consolation prize for us!

At Christmastime we found a service need at the Provo Historic Village for pioneer carolers. We joined with our friends the Clarkes to fill the bill, and then, since we already had the costumes, played Nauvoo Carolers at our ward's Storybook Christmas party. Both events were cold but fun. And very cute.

I snagged a $12.99, new with tags, Barrister's Ball formal that also happened to be green in honor of the St. Patrick's Day holiday on which the ball fell at Saver's the day of. Let's just say it was a St. Paddy's miracle. 

Not such a miracle was the news that Gwyndelin makes 5 out of 5 of our children that tested into the resident Gifted and Talented program in our school district. We knew she could do it! Go Gwyndelin!! We went to Leatherby's to celebrate.

After Gabriel got a haircut for his first birthday, we realized we were all a little shaggy. Turns out the daughter of the family that baptized my dad works at the AF Fantastic Sam's! Small world! Thanks, Michaela, for making us look so good!

Good, but not quite as good as Elinor's letters. With Abdiel and Gwyn getting treats for doing a hard thing every morning (piano and violin practice, respectively), Elinor began begging for a hard thing that she could do. Various elements led us to settle upon learning to read in 100 easy lessons. She has since taken to writing "stories" and drawing "birthdays". This is one about and for Beau.

Before he turned twelve months, Gabriel turned eleven months.

And then he turned one, and enjoyed his edible arrangement immensely. It is a rather frequent theme in our home that so-called "cake smashes" are wasted on one-year-olds because they're not yet sure what to do with a cupcake in any real way. If you want to see a messy one-year-old, I recommend chocolate-dipped strawberries.

After that, he got a haircut.

And Elinor made us fancy mermaid crowns.

Gabriel met his cousin Alexander sometime in January. The first of many future cousin encounters!

Things have gotten a little wild around here, like Julia participating in the seniors' Spirit Bowl dance all dressed up like a hip-hop queen,

Gabriel starting to sport a mohawk,

 and Elinor aspiring to be an actress.

Apparently the Stake President got wind of our wild ways and hoped a special invitation would help us put our lives back in order. He consequently secured us in-person tickets to the ground-breaking of the Lindon temple. The weather was not balmy, so the meeting was in a nearby church, but we did all venture out to the construction site to watch the first ceremonial shovels full of dirt be turned over.

Children had to be over 8 years old to attend, which meant Gwyn and Elinor rode with a neighbor to their soccer game instead of joining us at the groundbreaking. I picked them up afterward and then drove by the site to see if things had cleared out enough for them to be able to see anything and maybe turn over some dirt. They had just packed all the golden shovels away, so we used our hands. Elinor hasn't stopped talking about the groundbreaking since.

We've had some fun Come, Follow Me activities in the two hours set aside for family time before our 1:30 pm church. On the left we have Isaiah, Zechariah, and King David who read their prophetic statements about Easter; on the right we have towers of Babel which we then destroyed in slo-mo video shots. Epic.

Speaking of Easter, we were very grateful that the neighborhood Easter egg hunt hosted by the Muhlsteins made a come-back this year. Gabriel quite literally did not know what to do with himself, and I didn't want to seem greedy, so he made out with about five eggs. Either the older kids knew better what to do, or Justin was not so concerned about appearances.

The biggest highlight of the first quarter of the year was probably Justin having the honor of giving the BYU Devotional. In President Worthen's words to me as he shook my hand afterward, "That was an instant classic." We, of course, think it should be required reading of all incoming freshmen. We were glad that Justin's parents, my parents, Jeni and Samuel Tolley, and my brother, Beau, could be in attendance, and are very grateful to my ministering sister for watching Elinor and Gabriel and to Taylor for her fashion advice. 

 

We began the year trying to take "temple trips" where we stayed overnight in a hotel at a Utah temple a little farther from home, namely, in Brigham City and then in Logan. We find that we have very, very busy children and so the whole family never got to go on a trip all together. It was fun to see the bird preserve in Brigham City, however, and perhaps pinpoint the fascination with birds that President Packer possessed throughout his life. 

Another trip was a Justin's 40th birthday surprise to Sun Valley, Idaho courtesy of our friends the Livingstons. We had completely wrong expectations for this swanky ski town! The accommodations were lovely and the company even lovelier.

Julia went to quite a few dances during her last few months of high school. Did we even take a picture of her acceptance to BYU? Pictures of her randomly assigned Helaman Halls roommate? Pictures of her scholarship offer?? So proud of this beautiful girl!

Abdiel casually mentioned one day that he had won his class spelling bee and was required to attend the school one. He refused to study the list, and so got out on "tartan," a special kind of plaid.

We've had some random fun as well, like trips to the park, BYU basketball games, and just hanging out. Upside down.

Gwyn has a refugee from Russia in her 2nd grade class as of the week before Spring Break. Lucky for her and for us, Elisabeth has been studying Russian for the past two years and so has gone in during the last hour or so of class a few times a week to help Viki. It's a blessing for all! Hatching spring chicks was also big news in both Abdiel and Gwyn's classes.

The biggest news of the second quarter of the year so far: Justin's new position as Associate Academic Vice President starting July 1st. This means, sadly, a departure from teaching at the law school for a while, but other than that we are all excited and humbled by the new assignment. This picture happens not to have anything to do with this assignment--as associate dean he attended the President's Leadership Summit--but perhaps the new assignment will afford more opportunities to quote G.K. Chesterton to and with Elder Holland.