People Doing Notable Things

Of course, Malachi is always doing great things. But one particularly great one was that he won first place at his final Speech and Debate tournament in oratory. Sam and I went to hear the last several rounds and had to concur that he really was the best! 😄 From a very good field, I might add. There were about 250 competitors in just the oratory category (which is writing and then giving an 8-10 minute speech entirely from memory). I loved Malachi's speech about facing in to the people close to you rather than facing outward to an "imaginary audience" (it wove in all kinds of surprising connections and metaphors; I can't do it justice in a summary) and was just so impressed with his maturity and thoughtfulness. He is so smart. Such a deep thinker. And he works so hard.

Even more impressive was the fact that he kept competing in debate tournaments this year at all, since he was also a full-time student at BYU! He came back home from college on Thursdays to be T.A. for his debate program in spite of a busy college schedule. He really is quite remarkable. He even got ranked 3rd overall (out of a huge group…over a thousand, I think) for his performance in tournaments all year long! It was fun to cheer him on and see the huge, screaming, standing ovation he got from his peers. I suppose it was a "high school graduation" of sorts for him and I'm glad he got to pause and have that celebratory, look-back-over-what-you've-learned kind of milestone, even though he has technically already moved ahead to the next stage.

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Malachi also went to Prom with cute Jordan (did he go to every dance with her this year? I believe he did…) and they made a very handsome couple! The mom who was supposed to take their group's pictures couldn't come at the last minute, so Malachi took them himself, and boy did he not let anyone forget it. He was praising his own photography skills to the skies for the next several weeks. (He had someone else actually click the camera shutter on these pictures of himself, but still claimed all the credit, naturally.)

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The next notable thing is that Junie turned 15, which, granted, she could not help—but she's such a good 15-year-old, she should surely get some credit. She has already had several driving lessons from Sam, and drove me around to several stores grocery shopping the other day without me even fearing for my life once! Her birthday was quite a Day O' Fun, because it was on a Tuesday (which is our Math Class and Field Trip day) and we had to stay in Provo all day so we'd be there to take graduation pictures for my niece and her family in the evening. So, we met Sam and went to Cafe Rio for lunch…

…and played games with my mom at her house…

…and went to the Provo Rec Center and swam (the place was practically deserted on a Tuesday afternoon)…

(Clementine acted just like one of the big kids and wasn't scared a bit on the waterslides!)

…and then we had a picnic dinner in the park with my brother and sister-in-law and nieces! Chicken salad and flavored milks (from Gossner Foods, of course) and rainbow jello and clementines and oatmeal lemon bars. So all that was fun.

But THEN of course Junie still wanted her "real" birthday dinner at home, so we had that the night before, and she wanted to watch Pride and Prejudice so we did THAT the night after…and of course we had to make little treats for watching such a long movie (gyoza and cucumber sandwiches and cracker dip and flourless chocolate cake)…so, all in all, I think it was more like three birthdays Junie had this year. Which would make her 17. Which sounds just about right (and she would be pleased to beat Daisy to it).

After such eventful birthday festivities, one might be forgiven for falling asleep in the chair next to one's sister!

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We had an Etiquette Unit for school, and at the end of it I promised lunch out somewhere fancy to practice our excellent manners. We went to a buffet at a hotel up in Salt Lake City, and it was fancy and expensive, so definitely an out-of-the-ordinary event! The children acquitted themselves nicely. They thanked the waiter every time he appeared in the vicinity, waited politely in the buffet lines, used the correct silverware, and made pleasant conversation. A random guy at another table came over specifically to tell me "Your kids are so well-behaved!" and I was quite pleased…since that was the very reason for which we had come! Ha!

Yum, look at the pastries!

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Teddy's on a neighborhood track team this spring, so we got to go to a track meet! It has been a while. I forgot how long (and boring, haha) they are. It always seems to take forever to get to the event you're waiting for! I took the younger kids and hoped we'd be home after just a couple hours. Ha! Silly of me. Teddy was fun to watch, though! He ran the 100 m. and the 800 m.

We saw a baby of our acquaintance, and played with him. Cute little Alfie!

Clementine ran down the hill many times, and one of the times she didn't so much run as…fall. She got quite a scrape on her head and nose. (She wanted me to take this picture so she could inspect her wounds and determine how sad to be about them.)