Thursday, June 6, 2019

May Newsletter & Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QRD8Sdg7Uq1pcpeV7

May 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY:WE SURVIVED MAY!! Really, there were moments when we wondered! (huge projects, concerts, field trips, etc) But YES, we are on the other side & SUMMER is here! :) On the 4th, Kezi had a soccer game, and it was the annual Share Walk. It was a beautiful morning, mom helped with the walk, and the olders helped run their bake sale. In the evening, mom & dad got to have a nice dinner for their 19th wedding anniversary at their favorite italian place. Mother’s Day was wonderful & mom enjoyed her time with her treasures & sweetheart.  The 18th was Truly & Levi’s wedding & it was just beautiful! Heidi got to be Truly’s escort for her endowment and on her wedding day. It was amazing! They also asked Jason to do the ring ceremony in the evening before their reception started, and he did a wonderful job. It had been cold & rainy, but the day of their wedding was beautiful and they were beautiful & we’re so happy for them! It was a long day, but the girls helped a lot and now they’re living in our SUU rental, so we get to see them :) The 22nd was the LAST DAY of school for the girls! Hooray! That day we headed up to SLC, stayed with Trisha that night, and headed to see Tiarra’s graduation at 9am the next morning. Then, her luncheon that afternoon. We made a crown and rings out of dollar bills for her, and we’re excited to see what the future brings for her! After the luncheon, we gathered our things from Trisha’s & headed to Richfield. We stayed with Grandma & went to Payson’s graduation the next day. We gave Payson a pizza box with “You can’t live on pizza alone, so here’s some dough” on the lid along with a bunch of dollar bills looking like a pizza. He also had a luncheon where we enjoyed visiting with Payson & family. The next day, we headed to Mapleton. We had to get a new tent because we couldn't find poles from our old tent and it was pretty much on it’s last leg anyway, so we set our our new quick set-up 9-person tent & enjoyed our moments with family. It was strange not having grandma & grandpa here this year! But we got to play with the Simons and the Tews and enjoyed eating yummy food, going for a hike, roasting s’mores and being together. The weather wasn’t too bad, either. We had quite a bit of rain on the last night, but our tent held up nicely :) After Mapleton, we drove to Vernal & checked into the Quality Inn where we had fun swimming & watching Disney Channel. Then to McDonald’s & Cafe Rio before bedtime. The next day was Jason’s Aunt LuRae’s funeral. It was good to see so many family members we hadn’t seen in so long! And remember sweet Aunt LuRae. It was a long drive home, but we made it & were thankful to sleep in our own beds after a week of being gone. After that, our summer really got started - extra chores (our home is so much cleaner!), but also lots of fun. We’ve already done churros and the library and drawing and a hike (the red hill). We are doing 2 reward programs this summer - teamwork tickets (for when they help out - to use in a fall store), and puff balls (to try & earn a Lagoon trip). So far they are working well & we’re excited to see how many they’ll get. It’s been a cold, wet month. We didn’t turn on the water or air conditioner at all this month!  The saddest part of this month was saying good-bye to our Sydney dog. She was really struggling while we were gone & she was ready to go. It was hard to say good-bye, but 16 years is a good long life for a dog and we loved our time with her.

JASON : Jason loved getting to see so much family & be back in Vernal, we haven’t been for probably 8 years or so. We hope it’s not that long till we can go again.

HEIDI: Heidi was feeling pretty overwhelmed at the beginning of the month - helping with the Young Women’s dinner while Jason was a lot of work ,and she also helped a lot with this years’ Share Walk, they added her to the Share board & are thinking about doing a 5k next year, so she’ll be involved in that. Both of these, along with helping the girls with all their end-of-school-year projects and assignments was stress inducing!  but even though we didn’t get to rest until a week or so after school let out with all the traveling, she’s SO glad that summer is finally here & intends to make the best use of the time with trail running, hiking, outside yoga, and just being outside with the kids :) Heidi really loved getting to be Truly’s escort for her endowments and wedding. It was TRULY ;) a privilege & honor. Heidi finished the book “Before we were Yours” which was horrifying, heartbreaking, and inspiring all at once. She also read Peter Pan, which she LOVED!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley was sick for a couple days in April & it seemed to throw everything off with her homework, and then the RISE testing started and they were pulling her out of classes for that and she was having SO much homework. Finally, we decided to pull her out of the RISE testing at the end because it was testing or grades and she chose grades. She did end up pulling a 4.0 for her whole 7th grade year - she got a plaque for that and also a trophy for math! Way to go McKinley!
-McKinley had lots of fun things the last weeks of school, too, including going to the movies & to the bowling alley!
-McKinley also went on a field trip to SUU to be a “college student for a day” - her favorite class - Chemistry!
-McKinley’s final orchestra concert for 7th grade was wonderful!
-McKinley got her schedule for 8th & was excited to get tutoring, but sad not to get teacher aide. She got journalism, which wasn’t on her list at all, so we’re hoping to change that!
-McKinley had a lot of fun at Mapleton with her cousins. She went for a long hike up to the snow with Michael, Tucker & Talon. And had a couple long games of Phase 10, too :)



IRELAND:
-We’re SO proud of Ireland - she finished all her huge projects this year, including becoming a “Queen” for her Quest medieval project, which included being able to watch a movie with popcorn, soda & candy. She also finished her ABC book report for Michael Vey, Battle of the Ampire (and got 100%), and also did her Switzerland country report. She got a 4.0 last quarter!
-Ireland had LOTS of fun end-of-school-year activities, including going to the movies, swimming in Veyo, swimming at the Aquatic Center, and Field day. So much fun!
-Ireland did terrific on her last concert for band - they have improved so much since the beginning of the year!
-We got some new flute music for Ireland to keep practicing this summer!
-Ireland has been reading Michael Vey and listening to Harry Potter this month.


KEZIA:
-Kezia is done with 3rd grade! Yay! She was sad, though, and is going to miss her teachers. She bought them candy and an American flag. She also wrote them very sweet letters.
-Kezia got LOTS of pesos this year from Senor Niles and was able to “buy” a jewelry dresser at the end of the year! And a toy and a lot of candy.
-It was cold & rainy, but Kezia still had fun at her 3rd grade field day, hula-hooping, basketball, bean-bag tossing, disc-throwing, batting caging, and 50 & 100-yard-dashing :)
-This was Kezia’s first year taking RISE testing, and she thought it was Meh. She liked the Math portion, though & felt she did good overall.
-Kezia got to be a lunch worker this month! She didn’t like her job (stacking trays), but she made it fun by saying to everyone that gave her their tray “Thank you for shopping at Wal-mart!”
-Kezia had her last soccer game on the 11th! They did great & Kezi scored some goals this month! She will miss her classmates/teammates and friends. When it was our turn to bring treats, Kezi was cute and tied them all up with ribbon!
-Kezia went to a birthday party at Del Taco this month for Amy. She had a lot of fun & got lots of Mexican candy!


LINK:
We always love remembering you & sharing your story at the Share walk every year, our sweet Link. This month we saw one of the brightest rainbows we’ve EVER seen! It was almost too bright to look at! We are so thankful for these sweet love notes.

NOELLE:
-Noelle had a field trip at the farm! She got to hold a lamb, see puppies, horses and cows! It was going to be chilly that day & Noelle’s teacher reminded them to wear a jacket & no sandals. Noelle kept reminding mom, but apparently that wasn’t enough because she told Alexa to remind us, too :)
-At preschool, Noelle made a shrinky dink of her hand and was SO excited to give it to mom for Mother’s Day. She even put it in a bag decorated with all kinds of dinosaur, flower & sparkly star stickers. She couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks :)
-Noelle finished preschool this month & her graduation was SO so cute! She sang the cutest songs & smiled so big. Jason was able to come from work and watch her & she even had a cap and awesome sunglasses. She is missing her teacher & friends, but is also loving all the time with her sisters at home, too :)
-Noelle went to James Petersen’s 5th birthday party this month and had a lot of fun. Mommy stayed to help & it was fun to watch her interact with all the boys. She didn’t like it when they didn’t let her be the boss ;)
-Noelle was apparently fascinated with sticks and she decided to see what would happen if she stuck one in our mailbox key slot. She admitted to what she’d done, and mom & dad both tried to get the tiny stick fibers out, but in the end they just got shoved in more and we had to end up paying $40 and waiting 2 weeks to get the lock changed :(
-One rare day, the littles and mom were just hanging out in mom’s room, sitting on the bed, listening to the rain & watching the wind blow the trees. Mom decided to have Alexa tell a story & she told a long story about King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the round table. Later on, mom asked her what the story was about to see if she rememberd, and she said it was about the Lamanites :) (Laman-KNIGHTS)? :)
-At Aunt LuRae’s funeral luncheon, we were waiting in line for food & passed by cookies. Noelle liked a few & put them back!
-Noelle started swimming lessons at SUU this month - she is having a lot of fun! There’s even a girl in her class named Kezia

 OAKLYN:
-At McKinley’s orchestra concert, Oaklyn saw someone carrying a violin & said “mom - look at that little cello!”
-Oaklyn is happy to have her sisters home so much & mom is happy that her sisters can watch her while she runs errands or takes Noelle to her swimming lessons.
-Oaklyn still alternates between sleeping on the bed and sleeping on the floor, with the former being the preference lately. We don’t really care where she sleeps, but it is hard when she wakes in the middle of the night & wants us to help her move locations!
-Oaklyn REALLY hates it when Noelle gets ready for swimming lessons & she doesn’t get to go. The minute Noelle gets in her swim suit, Oaklyn gets in hers and we’ve had to resort to letting her “swim” in the bathtub a lot.
-Oaklyn calls the nose your BOOP a lot. She will point to your nose & say “that’s your boop!” One time at church she loudly said “I touched your boop!” But boop sounded like another word :)
-It FINALLY got warm enough to put our new hard tub in the backyard and now EVERY day after breakfast, Oaklyn runs outside, strips naked, and jumps in her little pool. Uncle Burton asked mom if Oaklyn’s Zodiak sign was one with water because she kept pushing the button on the water jugs, and mom is thinking it must be because she does LOVE water!
-When we were staying at Aunt Trisha’s, mom laid down with Oaklyn in bed, thinking she’d fall right asleep. Boy was mom wrong. Oaklyn stayed up and talked, and talked and TALKED! It would have been adorable if she wasn’t supposed to be asleep! One time she kept saying I love you, I love you! Mom said she loved her too. Oaklyn replied “Stop talking! Go to sleep!”
-Oaklyn has been having more playdates with Charlotte Price this month. It’s SO cute to see them together. It’s like they were best friends in the pre-mortal world. They sometimes fight, but they hug a LOT and talk about each other. It’s so cute!