June Newsletter and Slideshow

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June 2020
Hamilton Newsletter

FAMILY: June was a warm month filled with lots of fun with each other and friends. It is a rare day when we don’t have multiple friends over to play. Some of our activities this month included: flower pudding cups, the aquatic center, whittling crayons, hiking the Red Cliffs trail, making yarn bowls,  smores, a basket cake, homemade Take 5s, Chaco Tacos, Bristlecone Pine Trail, Reading Pride & Prejudice, and playing at East Canyon Park in the stream. We also went camping this month to Indian Creek Reservoir. We ended up getting a spot RIGHT by the lake and it was awesome! Catching fish, throwing sticks for Daizy into the lake, hammocking, watching Anastasia for movie night on Heidi’s phone hooked up to the bluetooth speaker and taped onto the tent :), WINDY the first night, freezing the second night, but GORGEOUS view of the stars both nights!, silly silly songs around the campfire, s’mores, dad eating a fish with hardly any seasoning, laughing as Daizy tried so had to catch a chipmunk up the tree by our tent - she patiently waited at the bottom for hours!, playing Phase 10 and Yahtzee, etc.. Lots o’ fun! Just like we played hard, we worked hard, too! Mom mixed LOTS of cement and added color to make a stamped pathway in the backyard. It’s nice, but was LOTS of work! We have also been working on breaking up dirt in the garden area and MOVING ROCKS. Lots and lots of ROCKS! We moved all the rocks in the section of the backyard closest to the block wall to make way for an in-ground trampoline. Mom bought it online, but only one box came! :( Walmart told her the 2nd box was lost. But MIRACLE!! It arrived the next week! Daddy has also been working hard in the basement - we got it framed - yay! And he helped Jason rough in the plumbing, too. Progress!  We got to see Grandma & Grandpa Potts a few times this month - once we had Sacrament Meeting and Sunday dinner at their house, once they came to see the girls’ play, and once they came to help out around the yard! :) Oh, and we stayed with them when we came up to SLC for Spencer’s baptism (though McKinley and Kezia stayed behind for play practice). The girls performed on June 27th & 29th and did an excellent job! It was such a fun play - Willy Wonka :) We’ve had lots of families move into our ward this month - and the girls have made some new friends at their play, so it’s been fun to have some new friends over to play. Teal McDonald’s dogs had puppies - 2 litters! And we had fun going over a few times to play with them! SOOO cute! Not much compares as a mood booster than spending an hour with puppies! Another MIRACLE! The laptop was missing for weeks and weeks and we FINALLY found it way under our bed - (Oaklyn!). We’ve “adopted” some neighborhood cats this month - there are a couple cats that walk the back fence that have just been super cuddly. Well, one day, one of them had a kitten in our sandbox! She took it and jumped the fence. We’re not sure what happened to her kittens, but they named her “sugar” and her mate is “spice” and the girls LOVE it when they come around!

JASON : Jason interviewed with Aphis this month - and got the job! We prayed and fasted that weekend to know if it was the right direction for our family and we felt good about the change. It will be a GS-12 as well, but non-supervisory. Jason is very excited about learning new things and working with his new boss, Wiley. He will also be a little closer to home, so that will be nice! His start date is August 16th! Jason has been working hard in the basement and is still very busy with his current job. This month was Jason’s month with Father’s Day and his birthday. We tried to spoil him with his favorite foods and some simple gifts. It’s not enough for all he does for us. We love you daddy!

HEIDI: Heidi enjoyed the little trip up North to be with her family. It was cram-packed! A baby shower/luncheon at Olive Garden, a Father’s Day BBQ at the park, taking her dad out to eat at the Belgian Waffle place, and Spencer’s baptism, then back to Cedar. It was a wonderful whirlwind :) Heidi learned a lot doing the cement pathway this month - a few of them are: 1. It’s tough to get the exact right consistency of cement. 2. It’s sweaty, hot, terribly messy work. 3. A 40+ year old back does not do well lifting 80 lb bags of concrete all day long! 4. It’s best to think of the master plan. A lot of her work was undone when we brought in a tractor to dig a hole for the tramp :( Anyway, she’s thankful for the girls’ help with the littles as she worked long hours to get it done. Overall, she is really pleased with it! One of the ways she passed the hours was listening to Harry Potter book 6, almost done! Heidi also LOVED going camping - it’s been too long! The time outdoors was just what her spirit needed! Unfortunately, it wasn’t what her hips needed (rocks!) :) But totally worth it!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley did a great job as Mrs. Teavee in Willy Wonka! Her “son” Mike was addicted to screens - we don’t think she will be that kind of mom when she grows up :) She was quite “made up” with lipstick and a skirt and jacket. She delivered her lines wonderfully and sang great!
-Mom, McKinley & Dad made a few bets in June for goals. McKinley’s bets were about finishing a certain number of chapters in Humanities. She came REALLY close to losing a couple of times - and having to cut half her hair off! - but she pulled it off and finished her book! It was fun when she put together a Google form for her aunts, uncles and cousins to fill out for one of her chapters. Their responses were fun!  We are so proud of her and we know it will be a lifelong treasure.
-McKinley enjoyed spending time with Karmiyah (who got a puppy this month!) and Ella!
-Mom & McKinley lunch date this month to Pizza Cart! There was a TINY green spider that joined us for lunch :) It was Link wanting to say hi!

IRELAND:
-Ireland has been into cake decorating lately and she did all the basket weave for our Taste-it-Tuesday cake!
-Ireland was in charge of Come Follow Me activity time this month & she spent a long time putting together a Jeopardy game - it was challenging and a lot of fun!
-Ireland got to go to Aunt Trisha’s baby shower luncheon when we went up North. It was the first time she had eaten at Olive Garden & she had fun. She even bought a little onesie and some socks for baby Austin with her own money!
-Ireland had a ton of fun with her cousins at the BBQ at the park - they played frisbee for over an hour!
-Ireland is SO CLOSE to getting her splits!
-Ireland rotates her friends - Sienna, Sariah, and Mahina - and now she has a new friend Annie Rupert who just moved in - hooray!

KEZIA:
-Kezia was perfect as Violet beauregarde! Her singing and lines were so good and even when her costume malfunctioned in one of the performances, she did great! She improvised and it turned out great! She had a ton of fun meeting new friends, learning new songs and memorizing her lines. She even made a new friend - Gracie Ulrich, who played Charlie, and has had a couple playdates with her!
-Kezia and Addie never seem to run out of creativity! On Charlotte’s birthday, they made her a cake. They also are so cute and do a little ballet/dance class for Noelle, Oaklyn, and Charlotte. They also have transformed the Price’s shed into a hideout - complete with a couch! They also have adopted 2 neighborhood cats - Sugar and Spice.
-Kezia and mom went on a bike ride and a run this month!
-Kezia also has had Macie over and they formed a “Pineapple Squad” with some of their friends :)
-Kezia was so cute and made a whole playground for Noelle’s tiny toy puppy from a cardboard box, including a tiny swing, a sandbox, and a place to take a bath. It was so so cute!

LINK: We love you Link! We know you would have loved that camping trip and are so thankful for the love note of GORGEOUS sparkling stars at night. It was so magical. We love and miss you so much Link!

NOELLE:
-Noelle has really LOVED the cats that we have “adopted” in our backyard - Sugar and Spice. She will go out there for hours just trying to get them to come and pet them when they do. She REALLY wants to adopt them for real and let them come in our house, but one day she came in from petting one of them and her eye was almost swollen shut :(
-The crazy thing is that Noelle told mom about a dream she had about Sugar having baby kittens in our backyard and that mom let her keep one of them. Well, a week later she really did have kittens in our backyard! The last half of the dream is probably not going to happen, though :(
-Noelle also LOVED getting to see Teal’s puppies and begged and begged to see them every day.
-Kezia did ballet this month and it was fun to go back!
-Noelle prays almost every night “And please bless that we can go together as a family to heaven.” She is just really worried that we won’t be able to go TOGETHER and can’t stand the idea of only one or two of us doing and the rest staying here. We pray that prayer with her!
-Noelle spends a lot of time with Oaklyn & Charlotte or Kezi and Addie.
--Kezia was so cute and made a whole playground for Noelle’s tiny toy puppy from a cardboard box, including a tiny swing, a sandbox, and a place to take a bath. It was so so cute!

OAKLYN:
-More Oaklyn trouble - HUGE powdered sugar mess, and then took out half of the pages of McKinley’s birthday book! Grrr!
-One day Oaklyn said “Mooooooooom! Noelle’s not please-stopping!!”
-We ate corn on the cob one day and Oaklyn said “I’m rubbing it on my leg! It’s so warm and feels so good!”
-Oaklyn was on the ottoman with a blanket and told mom “watch! I’m going to disappear me!” and she went under the blanket :)
-We love Oaklyn’s attitude about friends. Whenever she sees anyone even remotely close to her age, she will point at them and exclaim to mom “Look! Mom! It’s my friend!”
-A scary thing happened when the Schoppman’s found Oaklyn on their hot tub cover :( We’re thankful she’s safe.
-Oaklyn still goes over to Charlotte’s or Charlotte will come here most days of the week.
-Mom has been trying harder to have more 1-on-1 time with Miss O. One day we were playing felt downstairs and making felt faces. She made a face for daddy that had long girl hair! :) She brought the felt upstairs and has had fun playing felt with Charlotte.