July 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY: July was our big travel month & BOY did we have a lot of fun! And BOY are we glad to be home! We left for Richfield on the 3rd, stopping by the Beaver creamery on the way for an ice cream cone :) We enjoyed visiting that night, going to the parade the next morning and then Heidi took the girls and headed to SLC. Mom told the girls we were going to go visit Darla, who we had been praying for, which was true, but we didn’t tell them that Grandma & Grandpa would be there! They had been on their Missouri mission for the past 7 months but they came home to see Darla as she was on home hospice. It was so good to see them & Oaklyn especially was in heaven! It was neat to spend some time with Darla, too. It was the last time we saw her living as she passed away in August. We were going to go with the Edwards tonight to see the fireworks, but it was cold and rainy and we ended up just watching National Treasure & then heading back to Aunt Trisha’s & watching the fireworks in their backyard, which was neat! We ended up staying with the Simons for about 10 days! Friday, the 5th, was Ireland’s birthday & the family came over for dinner & to celebrate. Joseph even came & brought a snake and a Tegu! And it was so fun to have Grandma & Grandpa there, especially since they had to leave the next morning :( On Monday, McKinley left for Oakrest for the week and we hung out and had a ton of fun using our new Get Out Passes! We went to the kids climbing place in Lehi, SeaQuest aquarium in Layton, and Cowabunga Bay water park (not all on the same day, of course) :) We also went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon where Heidi used to work. It was beautiful! Aunt Trisha gave the girls all their annual hair cuts while we stayed there, too! On Sunday we headed up to Lava Hot Springs for the Potts family retreat. It was a lot of fun! We went to the hot springs, to the huge Olympic swimming pool (some of us even jumped off the Olympic platforms!), on a fun horse-drawn wagon ride, complete with a nice dinner & live music (only sad part was Spencer having a severe allergic reaction), river tubing, and lots of movie-watching, game-playing, and playing outside. We loved being with family, especially the Checketts :) After Lava Hot Springs, we drove about 45 minutes south to Burton’s & stayed in his trailer. The girls had fun riding horses, playing with the dogs, and kitten, and jumping on the tramp. We even got to see Canon and his 22 pomsky and goldendoodle puppies (we were all in heaven!) and his 100-year-old house that he just bought. Friday morning we went to the lake with Burton and got to go boating/tubing for the first time in YEARS! We had a BLAST! We would have stayed longer but we hadn’t seen daddy in about 3 weeks and we MISSED HIM! So, we headed home in the afternoon & drove till 11pm & finally made it home after our long sojourn! Daizy and daddy were happy to see us & we were happy to see them! Once we got home, it was back to reality! And chores, and getting ready to go back to school! The 24th was breakfast at the Pavillion, the parade, and hand-washing dishes :) We also did a great amount of teamwork the last week of July - putting a paver pathway from the sidewalk to the top of the basement entrance stairs. It took 2 days and lots of sweat and teamwork but we got it done! Some of our activities this month: Make it Monday - Pipe Cleaner animals, Taste it Tuesday - Galaxy Cakes and Chocolate creations, Water Wednesday - splash park, Cowabunga Bay, and boating, Thinking Thursday - the library and making circles with pringles, and Forest Friday - a hike in Millcreek Canyon!
JASON : Daddy worked hard and played hard while we were gone! He worked on the airbnb and our downstairs rooms, and he got to go fishing and ride his dirt bike! He also got to spend lots of 1-on-1 time with Daizy :)
HEIDI: Heidi really enjoyed spending so much time with her family - especially seeing her parents and Trisha & her family. It is nice to be able to have meals together, exercise together & go to the temple together :) She also enjoyed her time with Cindy & helping out in her classroom. Heidi also got to get together with a few of the SIDS moms - Anna, Jen, and Alyssa. It was a wonderful evening of visiting. The Potts Retreat was great and Heidi loved wakeboarding at the lake (It’s been SO LONG!) and thoroughly enjoyed watching the girls go tubing! Heidi has been listening to an autobiography called Angela’s Ashes, about a boy who had an Irish Catholic upbringing.She has really enjoyed that. Uncle Burton gave Heidi his grandpa’s missionary journal & it’s really neat! Heidi is in the process of getting it scanned so it can be uploaded for all to enjoy.
McKINLEY:
-While in SLC, McKinley was able to help GG on 2 different days so she could pass off one of her last Personal Progress projects! She helped GG scan a bunch of old newsletters and pictures, she even uploaded a couple to FamilySearch! Great job McKinley!
-McKinley had such a great time at Oakrest with Addison Bealer and hopefully made memories that will last a lifetime. Some of her favorites included: ziplining, all the songs (mom & McKinley stayed up really late singing the night she got back), Kacey (a man who had an accident and didn’t have legs who taught them they could do anything), Whisper Grove, her counselor Aspen and another counselor Sundance, and all the girls she got to hang out with in her cabin :)
-McKinley had fun traveling, especially talking with family and playing games. She also really enjoyed tubing down the river!
-Karmiyah and McKinley walked to Tropical Smoothie Cafe for a smoothie :)
- McKinley got to babysit & dog-sit this month!
IRELAND:
-Ireland come upstairs at 6am one morning looking for a bandaid. Mom asked why. Ireland said her legs were itchy. So she shaved them!
-HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY Ireland! We can hardly believe she’s 12. We were at Aunt Trisha’s for her birthday & she got Krave for breakfast, Papa Murphey’s for lunch, and pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. In the afternoon, she got to choose the activity and she chose a climbing gym in Lehi. It was so much fun. You just walked around with a harness & hooked up to all the fun climbing walls! At night, all the family came for the pulled pork, a Costco cake, and ice cream! For her gifts she got a loft bed (the week before), a book (Ranger’s Apprentice 2), and tons of earrings. Her sisters also got her make-up! Grandma got her a futon cover, Aunt Trisha got her a lip gloss kit, and Aunt Cindy bought her fairy lights.
-Now that Ireland can wear make-up, she doesn’t miss a day! It took her a little while to figure out how to clean under her eyes with the mascara, but now she has the hang of it and looks so grown up!
-Ireland did a lot of reading on the trip and read Flipped and Ella Enchanted.
-Ireland had a lot of fun on our long trip, especially hanging out with her cousins! She loved jumping on the tramp at Trisha’s (getting her backflips down!), getting a “manicure” from the rufa fish, going to IKEA to choose some decorations for her room, playing with her cousins outside at the airbnb, going river rafting, and going tubing (Uncle Burton called her a bull rider!)
-Ireland couldn’t wait to get back home to decorate her new loft bed! She now has 4 pillows on the futon, a futon cover, and fairy lights - with a remote!
-Ireland was SO sweet - after 2 hard days in the sun putting in the pathway to the basement entrance, mom sat down and Ireland brought over a bowl of water and washed & messaged mom’s feet, then painted her toenails. What a sweetheart!
KEZIA:
-Kezi was so cute and make a “Wheel of Fortune” insert for Wolf’s wheel. She would run on it till it landed on something like “Get one almond” or “3 chin rubs” or “100 pellets” or “Bankrupt” :) Too bad Wolf ended up destroying it, but it was fun while it lasted!!
-Kezia LOVED the bird encounter at SeaQuest! She went twice because she loved how they they just flocked on down to you and land everywhere and eat out of your hand.
-Kezia also loved sleeping on the tramp, going to Home Depot with her cousins and making a tow truck, and jumping off the HIGH platforms at the Olympic swimming pool!
-Kezia also got to have a couple playdates with Hailee Packard, who she hadn’t seen for a year.
LINK:
It’s always hard to be with the Simons and know that if you were here, Spencer would have such adventures with you! But we know you were with us on our trip and we love you so much!
NOELLE:
-Noelle had a dream this month that she told us about at breakfast. She said Satan came to her and told her to join him and she said no. Mom asked what Satan looked like and Noelle said he had a mustache. Noelle said afterwards “Mom, maybe it was a vision!”
-Speaking of vision, Noelle’s vision has deteriorated since she lost her glasses. One evening, her right eye kept going cross-eyed. Mom couldn’t get her into a Cedar doctor before we went on our trip, so she saw an eye dr. in Salt Lake. She got a new prescription and he suggested doing some patching. So, she got TWO pairs of glasses (one pink, one purple) and some patches. We’re hoping she stays consistent and her eyesight gets better.
-Noelle got to go on a lunch date with daddy to Golden Corral this month!
-Noelle had fun going boating on the lake, but after getting knocked off a couple times, she never wanted to get back out there.
-Noelle is going to BUSY, BUSY, BUSY when she grows up! Just in the past month she says she wants to be a scientist, a firefighter, a builder, and an animal rescuer. And one time when we were in the van, Noelle said that when her kids are in bed at night she’s going to go do a concert and sing. Mom asked what she would do about sleep. She said she would go to sleep at 10:00 :)
OAKLYN:
-Oaklyn was SO excited to see Grandma! And Grandpa! We can’t believe they have been gone over 6 months and we’ll get to have them back in less than a year!
-It was so fun to see Oaklyn & Rachel playing together so much while we stayed at their house. Oaklyn often exclaims “Rachel is my cousin!”
-When we got back from our trip, daddy said Oaklyn grew up! And her clothes agree with that, we are moving up in sizes!
-Oaklyn at first didn’t want to get on the boat, but after she was in she enjoyed it. She did NOT like it when mommy when to wakeboard, though, and she would NOT even try to get on the tube.
-Oaklyn keeps saying “Did Sydney die?” “Why did Sydney die?”
-Oaklyn LOVED going to the parades this month and was so good at getting that candy really fast!
-Oaklyn is getting really good at doing her balance bike!
