April Newsletter & Slideshow

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April 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY:APRIL! What a month! The 1st was April Fools & miss Kezia was up to her old tricks! See her section for more details :) The 6th was a Saturday & the girls had fun swimming at the Aquatic Center & having a s’more roast with friends that night. The 8th was Noelle’s birthday and she is a WHOLE HAND now! Happy #5 Noelle! We left for our big Spring Break Oregon trip on the 12th! Here are some memorable moments: LONG driving - 8-9 hour days. The girls did really good for the most part! We called our van the “Germ-mobile.” There was a symphony of coughing and sneezing, with about 5 of us sick. Mom had the chills and was achy & pretty out of it the first day of driving &  Noelle especially was hacking stuff up & spitting it out all over :(  Driving by the Great Salt Lake & salt flats - it was fun to see that people had put “sharks” & “crocodiles” in the salt flats by the road. Stopping by a beautiful lake by Mt. Shasta for a picnic lunch, skipping rocks, Kezia catching a pretty lizard that let her hold it, and Daizy catching ticks :( We had to stop by the PetCo in Grant’s Pass (where Olaf Potts was born) to buy tick removal items. Stopping in Myrtle Point for dinner at the Kozy Kitchen Cafe, having the locals tell us not to take the route we planned because the road was washed out from all the rain. Saying a prayer, driving the windy back roads by the Coquille River, in the foggy darkness, listening to John Bytheway CDs as we try and find Bandon & our cabin. Cabin was great - 5 beds in the loft - 1 for each girl, and no fighting! Hearing ocean from the front yard. Beach days - Whisky Run beach - dogs in heaven running on beach, finding LOTS of cool rocks & shells, sandcastles, yellow flowers, finding crabs, dad wandering off on his ocean walks & mom not being able to yell to him. People panning for gold where the river met the ocean. First 2 days rainy. Myrtle point - HUGE waves, seeing surfers & seals. Roasting hot dogs & s’mores. McKinley & Kezi get in the ocean in the rain. Tried to get Daizy in. Seals showed up to play. We threw balls to them, but they just floated away. Couldn’t find Sydney late one night, Jason & McKinley drove to find her, said a prayer, both felt prompted to come back & they found her. So thankful - miracle! Movie nights - popcorn, licorice, candy - watching Sabrina, spy kids, bugs life, League of their Own, Kids baking show. Cabin carpet - looks like hardwood, but was carpet. Day at Redwoods - gorgeous drive along the coast, HUGE trees, fun hike,  couldn’t find a DQ so we waited to eat till 9pm in Bandon.  Ocean day - mom got in, girls mad that she was in so deep. Coquille Point - magical! Tidepooling, finding hermit crabs, shishy barnacles, and starfish! Watching the waves crash into the arch in the rock, beautiful views from the top. Staying up late one night, turning on mom’s phone flashlight & seeing which rock were transparent. It was so cool! Bandon Creamery - ice cream cones - yum! Ireland tummy hurt on last day :( Shopping in Bandon - Cranberry sweets (yummm!), daddy gets seafood from the crab shack, Washed ashore art exhibit where we helped put together some things for their next art project. Saying good-bye to the ocean, Kezi finds a full sand dollar! Left at 6am to get to our hotel in Hawthorne, NV only to find the pool was closed :(  Overall, though, even with the sickness and a few disappointments, our spring break was a HUGE success! We LOVED exploring the Oregon coast and spending time as a family. Sunday, April 21st, was Easter (late this year!). In the morning, we did all the resurrection eggs and learned about the last part of Jesus’ life. We all got matching dresses. Sadly, daddy had caught something from our “germ-mobile” and stayed home with a couple more sickies, but we did have a great egg hung and the Easter bunny brought them all books, candy, flip flops, and art supplies :) We’ve been having Jaden over for Sunday dinners when we can. Jaden is a man who is homeless, Jason has helped him find a job and get him back on his feet. Oaklyn is cute with him & likes to have him read her books and cuddle with him.


JASON : Jason was at the Redwoods last year on a fire, so it was nice to have his knowledge with what trails to try. Jason loved to take long walks on the beach :) And enjoyed eating the fresh seafood and the Cranberry Sweet candy - he even tried the ghost pepper chocolate! Jason finally (we’ve had it since December) started using his Galaxy s7 this month & he’s enjoyed it. The girls have enjoyed it, too, since it takes pictures with all the silly stickers. It’s nice we can video call, too.  He was sick at the end of the month, but got some antibiotics that helped him knock it out before he had his fire training in Denver the last week of April.

HEIDI: Heidi has ALWAYS loved the Northwest and has wanted to visit the Oregon coast. It was such a heavenly time. All the green, the moss, the ocean… she was looking up real estate by the end :) Heidi was very busy with the SUU rental this month - getting the DS apt painted, finding new student renters for the basement, and dealing with drama with the upstairs renters (breaking their lease & not wanting to pay). Also, dealing with huge homework projects for the girls, the stress of doing the publicity for the Share walk as well as the Young Women’s fundraiser dinner wanted to make her run back to Oregon :) But, she was not oblivious to all the blessings that overshadow the stressings. Spring has been GORGEOUS this year! All the moisture of the winter has just made all the colors pop and the smells are amazing! She has loved to get out for a run or walk most days of the week!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley was sick for 2 days before spring break, and we took a day off to drive, so she missed 3 days that week, and you’d think it was a month with all the catch-up work she had to do when she got back! Poor girl, she worked hard to bring back up her grades!
-McKinley loved the ocean and was not afraid to get in, even when it was raining! It was so fun to see her swim with the seals! It’s amazing how zoned out she can be while driving, though - just like her dad. She sat & stared out the window for hour after hour with zero entertainment.
-McKinley is all signed up for Oakrest in July - and Addison gets to be her roommate! Hooray!
-McKinley’s orchestra was in a competition at the Heritage Theater & they got all superiors! Way to go!
-McKinley & mom got to go to a devotional the the SUU Center with Elder Ballard speaking. It was inspirational, and actually pretty humorous, too (who knew Elder Ballard told so many jokes?)
-McKinley has been spending lots of Fridays & Saturdays with Micaela and Karmiyah. They hole up in McKinley’s room and laugh a lot :) They have candy code names for their crushes (Skittles, snickers, etc)

IRELAND:
-Ireland got 100% on her Europe geography quiz - way to go girl!
-She got to go to Raquel’s birthday party before she moved and they got Pizza Cart & pedicures!
-At 9pm one night, Ireland informed mom that she had to dress up for a Renaissance Fair the next day & it was part of her grade! We scrambled to find a costume (used an old Halloween one) and the next day she woke up at 4:30am (!) to shower and make sure her hair was right :)
-Ireland has had 3 HUGE end-of-year projects that she’s had to work on, a country report (she did Switzerland - someone else took Ireland. We made Zopf bread and Swiss stickers), the QUEST Medieval project (150 points to be a queen - she colored elaborate dresses, hand-tailored a dress to a soda bottle, and stayed up till midnight making a castle out of popsicle sticks), and an ABC book report. She has been begging mom to pull her out of the last part of school, she’s been so overwhelmed. We’ll all be so glad next month when it’s done! 
-Ireland made it to the next level in gymnastics! Way to go Ireland! For next year, we are asking her to commit to working on her skills more at home as well as the gym.

KEZIA:
-We have all learned NOT to trust Kezia on April 1st! This year her antics included making “orange julius” for her little sisters (which was actually a mac n cheese packet with water), she covered the mouse sensor with paper, put a party popper over mom’s door, glued a quarter to the sidewalk at her school, and had fake poop in the hallway!
-When we were walking to the store, Oaklyn asked Kezia to hold her hand. And she loves to say “My Kezia!” so cute.
-For activity days, they had an etiquette luncheon. She and Addie Price dressed to the nines and had so much fun! The next day, Kezi put her new etiquette skills to use and set a fancy dinner for us at the table!
-One of the reasons Kezi was sad about not going to North Elementary with her sisters is that they didn’t have the Watchdog program at East, but she got her wish this year & daddy got to be a watchdog at the beginning of the month! She was so excited!
-Kezia continues to be busy with soccer this year - she has been an awesome goalie and made 2 goals as well! Go pink tigers!

LINK:
We love you Link! Thank you for always watching over us and keeping us connected. We sure missed you on our Spring Break trip, you would have LOVED the ocean!

NOELLE:
-HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY NOELLE! We can hardly believe she is a WHOLE hand now! She had a fun birthday - mom & dad got her a metal detector, binoculars, a star glow pillow, and a toy volcano. McKinley got her a huge marble maze that she’s had tons of fun with! Ireland got her starburst. Kezia got her a handmade dinosaur journal and skittles and grandmas & grandpas got her money to spend! She also got a unicorn purse and jewelry from mom & dad & mom made her a unicorn cake. She was SO excited to take applesauce and cupcakes to her preschool class to celebrate!
--Noelle had Kindergarten registration at the beginning of the month & did great! She’s so excited to be a Kindergartner with her friends!
-Also on her birthday, Sam Potter came over with some daffodils and a card. He sheepishly gave them to her and said “I gave these flowers to you cuz… cuz… I love you!” it was SO cute!
-Noelle LOVED the ocean! And she had been waiting so long to come, asking mom constantly when we were going to the beach. Finding seashells was her favorite!
-One day we were walking on the beach barefoot, and Noelle said “Watch out mom! This part is stick-y” (as in, there were a lot of sticks) :)
-Noelle found Ephedra on the beach (bamboo-looking plant) and said “I’m keeping this in case any panda bears come!”
-One day mom asked Noelle if she was changing her clothes. Noelle responded “Indeed I am!”
-Noelle has been getting out of bed in the middle of the night a lot and jumping in bed with Kezia.
-Sam came to play one day and Noelle yells out “Sam! Come look! These snails are marrying!”
-One day mom was fixing Noelle’s hair and Noelle told mom that she believed in God. Mom was so happy to hear that. Noelle said one night she was sleeping in Kezia’s room & something dark came out of the closet, and she said a prayer in faith and it went away.
-Noelle had something in her eye one day & she was crying and crying and wanting a band-aid.
-A recent Noelle-ism is “Kaboom!” as in “Kezia didn’t get me an apple and KABOOM, my tummy was hurting!”
-Noelle’s preschool had chicks hatch! Noelle was so excited to come home & talk about how the cute babies came out of their shells!

 OAKLYN:
-When you call Oaklyn’s name and she responds with “NO!” - that’s a good indicator that she is somewhere making an enormous mess and it’s in everyone’s best interest to check it out ASAP!
-Oregon was Oaklyn’s first time to the ocean! Her first experience wasn’t so wonderful, though. Mom was walking with her in the low tide, but a sneaker wave came and completely knocked her down and soaked her, fully clothed :(
-We have been REALLY good about cleaning up immediately after meals lately because of this girl. She has dumped entire bottles of ranch, applesauce, sugar, etc out
-Oaklyn said a prayer “And thank you for all the bad guys… and thank you for bad guys all dead.”
-A few Oaklyn-isms: “Meanie!” “Spank your bum” “I love your face!”
-One day Oaklyn was outside with mom while she was spraying weeds. She turned to mom and said “Mom, Jesus loves you!” It was sooooo sweet.
-We were playing at main street park after the library one day & mom was watching as a little girl about her age sat down & cried. Oaklyn came right over to her and gave her a hug :)
-Oaklyn’s nights haven’t been too fantastic lately. She still sometimes wakes up multiple times. One night, after 2 other episodes of her waking up & wanting something (like to be switched from the bed to the floor or visa versa), we heard her door open again. She walked in our room (it was probalby 2am) and said “Goodnight, goodnight, see you in the morning!”