Thursday, July 25, 2019

June Newsletter & Slideshow

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June 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY:SUMMER, SUMMER! We love SUMMER! We have been soaking up these weeks of freedom and sun before all our traveling sojourns. On the 2nd, we had a school paper burning ceremony in the backyard and it took a long time to transform all those papers to ashes! Here is a taste of some of our activities this summer: Make-it-Monday: We’ve done cool drawings, water colors, melting cups, and squish balls. Taste-it Tuesday: Jello Fruit Watermelon (fail!), sand pudding, chaco tacos, and Jolly Rancher suckers. Water Wednesday: We went to Lake at the Hills, had a water balloon party, and went to the Aquatic Center. Thinking Thursday: The library (and ice cream afterwards at Hermies), penny boats, and read-a-thon, Forest Friday: Rainbow Canyon - twice! Once with just us, once with the Hillsteads, and we still need to find those petroglyphs! And Pioneer Park. On the 7th, we celebrated National Doughnut Day (thanks Alexa!) and stopped in Doughnutsville for some good stuff. On the 10th, they cut the hole in Ireland’s old room to make way for a door to the basement! It took about another month to finish the project (which wasn’t easy since we had a huge hole, we didn’t have a fence all that time, and our water lines were cut so we had to hand-water everything), but we now have an outside entrance to our basement - hooray!!! We had Truly over for breakfast on her birthday on the 15th & had fun celebrating. That night, Ireland, Kezi & Noelle slept in the back of the truck under the stars :) Dad took the olders to see Big Hero 6 at the main street park one night (we just happened to see a poster about it and it just happened to be a movie we were talking about seeing). It was a really chilly night, but they all had fun! The 16th was Father’s Day! We had fun spoiling dad - French Toast in the morning, homemade bread in the afternoon, and steak at night. He wanted to do a root beer tasting contest and we had fun tasting about 6 different brands. The Wal-mart brand was one of the favorites! Mom, McKinley & Ireland went to girls camp up Cedar Canyon the last week in June. It was Ireland’s first year! We had a good time & mom had fun with the olders while dad had fun with the youngers. He ended up going to Richfield for his birthday & getting spoiled by his momma :) Ireland’s birthday party was the Saturday after we all got back - in the morning we went to Fiddlers as a family & watched Dumbo, then picked up her gift (a loft bed), then back to Fiddlers with her friends for her party. Lots of fun! Another activity that consumed much of the last part of May and beginning of June was getting our SUU rental ready for Airbnb. MANY hours of researching, buying, and putting together finally came together & we were able to list it and get it out there. In June we had 2 bookings, and quite a few more booked for July, so we are so thankful to be able to get a little extra income that we wouldn’t have otherwise had. It keeps us busy with the cleaning & communication. We’ve also been trying to find people for our basement apartment, too. So - lots of extra busyness, but we still have found plenty of time to get outside and enjoy these summer days that fly by! One crazy/funny/annoying thing: Daizy the dog has figured out how to jump the fence between our yard and the Prices yard, wherein one of her best playmates, Rocky, lives. She can just pop over there anytime she wants now for a play date! (The wall is a good 4 feet tall on our side and another foot or so on their side!)

JASON : HAPPY BIRTHDAY daddy! We were so sad not to be there on his birthday, but Jason celebrated in Richfield with his family while we were at girls’ camp. Happy #42 daddy! Jason has worked hard on the rental and he’s busy at work. We’ve really hoped for some fires this year, but so far hasn’t happened :(

HEIDI: Heidi has spent a LOT of time with the rental, but hopes that things will streamline soon. It has been wonderful to spend more time outside and enjoy more time with her girls. Heidi enjoyed going on a trail run with Jason this month. What a wonderful morning! Heidi enjoyed going to girls’ camp. It’s been several years since she’s been in Young Women’s & gone to camp. She enjoyed getting to know the girls more and the leaders, too. And just being up in the TREES :) She did miss her hubby & littles, though :) Heidi went to Grifols this month. Thankfully donating is close and fast & she can do Come Follow Me while she’s donating, while she makes money! She’s already made over $300 with the bonuses :)

McKINLEY:
-McKinley didn’t like that she got Journalism for her elective (not any of the choices she requested), so we completed a paper to request for a schedule change. She did get changed over to humanities, so she’s glad for that, even though she’s sad she’s not doing student tutoring or teacher advising.
-McKinley has been hanging out a LOT with Karmiyah and Emma this summer. They come here, she goes there, they go on a walk with dogs or siblings, and sometimes have late-night fires and/or games.
-One day McKinley & Kezia were hanging out with Truly and she showed them the song “Riptide” on the guitar. McKinley decided to learn it & she’s done really well! It’s fun to hear her play!
-One Saturday night, mom went to bed exhausted & the kichen was a mess. She woke up on the Sabbath Day to find the kitchen cleaned, breakfast set out and “Happy Sabbath Day” on the kitchen table. It was such a sweet surprise & was so appreciated!
-McKinley had fun at girls camp. The Mia Maids were a pretty tight group and LOVED to stay up WAY too late!

IRELAND:
-Ireland’s best friend, Mahina, has been doing an SUU prep thing at the school this summer, so Ireland hasn’t had as much friend time as she’d like. Mom keeps finding her sneaking screen time :( But she did go to the temple with Sariah & had a great time!
-Ireland & Kezia were so sweet and had 3 spa nights for mom. One night was a nail night, one was a mask/facial night, and one night was a message night. It was so heavenly and appreciated!
-Ireland has been having a lot of fun with the Bop-It lately :) She’s gotten a high-score of 100! Wow!
-Ireland had fun at girls camp! There was some Beehive drama, with friends feelings getting hurt. Ireland is good at trying to stay out of it and above it while being kind. She didn’t love how late everyone stayed up, but she enjoyed it when she slept downstairs and got to keep the fire going.
-Ireland’s birthday party was so fun. Mahina Vogt, Sariah Bailey, Hannah Goodman, Izi Newbold, Ana Worth, Paloma, and her sisters all came to Fiddler’s Fun Center to celebrate. We had fun doing laser tag, then the arcades, then Dairy Queen for an ice cream cake. She got lots of fun gifts and she should feel very loved!
-Ireland had been asking about a loft bed for a long time so when we found one on blogshop with the twin mattress and futon, we jumped at the chance! We had to do quite a bit of touch-up spray painting, but it looks awesome in her room & she has big plans for some more fun things to make it fun & cute, including fairy lights, pillows, and tulle.
-Mom took Ireland & McKinley out for their lunch date to Golden Corral :)

KEZIA:
-Kezia had fun at a play date with Macie at Ruby’s house. She’s been wanting & trying to play with Ruby all summer, so it was a lot of fun!
-Kezia went on a date with dad to see The Secret Life of Pets 2. She loved it! She earned the date because she passed off all of her multiplication, great job Kez!
-Kezia and Macie had a lemonade stand (she had a sign that said “No Ducks Allowed” - per the song ) :) and made enough money to buy a running wheel for Wolf. She bought it on ebay. It’s pink and so cute. Wolf loves it!!
-Ireland & Kezia were so sweet and had 3 spa nights for mom. One night was a nail night, one was a mask/facial night, and one night was a message night. It was so heavenly and appreciated!
-We went on the trail by Walmart one morning & it was HOT! Noelle was whiney & complaining a lot on the way back. Kezia came back, put her on the back of her bike, and pedaled her up the hill in the heat all the way back to the van. What an amazing big sister, Noelle & Oaklyn are so blessed to have her!
-Ireland & Kezia were so sweet and had 3 spa nights for mom. One night was a nail night, one was a mask/facial night, and one night was a message night. It was so heavenly and appreciated!
-Addie Price hops the fence most days & comes in our back door to join our circus for the day. Kezi and Addie are very creative with their songs, dances, dressing up and baking!
-Kezia really thinks she might want to try ballet. We keep trying to find a time for her to come watch a class!

LINK:
Our sweet boy, how we love you! We KNOW you would have loved summertime and playing in the sandbox and swinging on the swing set and learning and growing. How we miss you. Thank you for constantly watching over us!

NOELLE:
-Noelle finished up swim lessons this month & had a great time! She thinks she might want to continue in the fall!
-Noelle often asks for melatonin at night. Mom says she has to wait 30 minutes. One night mom heard Noelle wake up and yell “It’s been 30 minutes! I want melatonin!” It was 2:00am.
-We were going to go swimming at the pool & Noelle kept asking when we were leaving & mom kept saying 3pm. Noelle tried to change the little alarm clock to be 3pm & showed mom :)


OAKLYN:
-Oaklyn is SUPER fond of running outside, stripping down naked, and play in the sandbox and use the “jet spray.” One day mom said “Oaklyn, you need to put your pull-up on!” She said “But it hurts my feelings!”
-Oaklyn is getting pretty picky about many things, but especially getting in her carseat, she hates it when someone else does it. She says “I do it myself!!”
-Oaklyn had super-fun getting into moms makup and putting maskara on a couple different times this month :)