Tiredness, Tears, and Some Photos

Last night Mike took the dish scrubber out of my hands, and, with promises to finish every chore (and to put every small kid to bed), insisted I get out of the house and go find something fun to buy. 

I don't know that a book on the prophecies of Isaiah, some Miralax (not for me! not for me!), and two packages of paper bowls were quite what he had in mind when he told me to find something fun, ... but the escape was timely. (And here I tried to put into words why the escape was timely, and deleted, and tried again, and deleted, about ten times before staring blankly at the screen and giving up. It's nothing. Just tiredness and tears. That's all it is. Tiredness and tears. And trying to wrap tiredness in any kind of words ... well, apparently that's too tiring. It seems, if it's going to express itself at all, to prefer tears. [A shame really, as I much prefer words.])

In any case, Mike's taking over was timely. And, if I can't find the words for that, then here, at least, are some photos that demand nothing but the simplest of sentences:

The five sisters (and one mom) at my niece Jasmine's baby shower:

Goldie performing in the Matilda musical at her high school:

Abe with the first MTC district that he saw through from start to finish (prior to that, he had taken on the last portion of another district). He was sad to see them go, and I think felt a smidgen like a parent sending his young off into the world with hopes that he had done enough to prepare them:

Abe with his climbing crew down at BYU:

Daisy and Star. She (Starling, not Daisy) has become increasingly stubborn and demanding -- scream insisting that we call her "princess" or "little gray cat" over and over all day long, refusing to wear pants, and saying things like this (as she walks up to Daisy sitting on the one comfy chair in the living room), "That's called my chair, Daisy."

A "motion" photo Penny took for a class at school. I did give her the idea of trying a very slow shutter speed, but she took the picture. (Anders outfit, however, was all his own.)

Hans and Starling during the one or two moments they weren't crying and demanding to be held during a cold, wet day up at the farm. (We'd driven up with Mike who needed to check on some things.):

And that is all!