JULY PHOTOS

 

JUNE

 KELLY DID IT!! KELLY'S GRADUATION

The day finally came!  It was very exciting!   Once we got the other kids to school, Nate and the littles went to get Grandma Ruthie.  I ran around a little, trying to find the perfect gift to give Kelly with her Lagoon season pass (that we ended up not actually giving her because she mentioned it would be too painful to go to Lagoon and stand in line all day), then Charity and I headed up to Weber with Kelly, gown, cap and camera in tow.  It was so much fun!  So exciting!  She needed to be there early so we were able to take lots of pictures with her and her friends.  That was a lot of fun.  Even fun for Charity to run into some old friends.  Kelly was glowing!  It was fun to see her so happy!  Minus her constant adjusting her hat and ears... but she looked amazing!  We finally went and got our seats which were way up in the nosebleeds!  Grandpa Hatch and the grandmas and Nate all showed up around the same time.  The grandmas got to sit much closer, but behind the stage.  We had fun trying to find Kelly in the sea of brown caps.  I can't believe Nate was able to spot her.  Good eyes!  I still needed the camera's zoom and then had to zoom in on those zoomed in pictures!  But it was fun to kind of watch her.  We loved the program.  It felt pretty concise.  I could have done without the adult speeches, but the students' were great!  They read the names SO FAST!  I was surprised!  But it made the thing much shorter than anticipated, so that was great!  I really loved it!!  Watching Kelly make this big move into life is just really exciting!  She is going to do big things!  After the graduation we took a few pictures with her cheering crowd, came home to pick up the kids and then after bumming around for a bit, went down to Texas Roadhouse for a little celebratory dinner!  It was fun to see Eve's family, they sat right next to us, and fun to have Kate along with all the grandparents there.  We were bummed we weren't in better seats, sitting back to back is never my favorite.  But it was nice.  We enjoyed ourselves.  We gave Kelly the gift I had picked out- a cute purple clock and some little toy race cars.  She loved them :).   The best part was probably when the balloon guy came!  He made the most incredible balloon animals!!  We were so impressed!!  They sang happy birthday-ish to Kelly, she got some yummy ice cream.  Then we hurried off so that Nate could get his mom home and then back to work in time, and so that Kelly could have her little friend party.  She and her friends were so funny that night.  Super mellow :).  They painted their graduation caps and then watched a video Eve made of everyone talking about what they love about each other in the group and then some advice- it was really cute!!  I was almost crying!  And maybe I wasn't actually invited :), but I loved it.  Then most of them went home.  Sierra stayed here and chatted with Charity all night and Kelly went off to Boondocks for the all night party put on by the school!  She was able to get in for free!  We were happy about that.  Still ended up having a really great time!  I loved that she went to that after all.  She had wanted to hang out with her friend Devon I think, but ended up with Maddie and even Whitney which was funny.  But she had fun!  Everyone sang happy birthday to her all night which was cool considering it was technically her birthday. Got home around 3:00!  Kinda crazy!  6-1-21

KELLY'S BIRTHDAY

Kelly's birthday was a crazy one.  Kinda normal for her I think, though.  Lots of fun stuff though!  We had field day which Kelly and Charity came and helped out with- I loved watching Kelly do her thing with the blow up obstacle course- making it extra fun for the kids.  We came home and got ready for her Family Birthday/Graduation Dinner Open House.  This was a fun night for sure.  She had a lot of support from family and friends- lots of Brad's friends and Brad wasn't even there half the night.  She had wanted a potato bar.  So we had that all ready to go.  We had her cute sign from Walmart, with balloons.  I made graduation cap cupcakes.  We spoiled her with gifts (mostly money) and showed a slideshow of her pictures, and just had a good time celebrating Kelly.  She had fun.  She had told her friends 7:00, so it was kind of like there was family time and then friend time.  She played four square and basketball in the back, she had everyone put their hand print on a banner.  It was a fun time.  I was really glad that Kelly was happy.  It was a fun drive up to Logan and back to take Charity home too.  It was so nice of her to take the time and come down for Kelly.  6-2-21

FIELD DAY

Wednesday was field day!  The best day of the year :).  We were so happy that the PTA had been allowed to get a blow up obstacle course after all, but bummed that it meant I didn't really get to be with Emily the whole time.  It was awesome that Kelly, Charity, Sadie and Molly came too though!  We all had a great time running the obstacle course and then they all left to go get some lunch while Molly and I ran the hose games for the second half :).  It was a lot of fun though!  I love spraying the kids.  It was SO HOT that day!!  Which was good, but also not.  We were exhausted when we got home.  6-2-21

ANOTHER TRAILER LOAD

We drove another load of Heidi's stuff up to my dad's on Thursday.  This was the last of the garage stuff which was nice.  Nate was so happy to have the garage back :).  6-3-21

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

I'm calling Thursday the last day of school.  Technically it wasn't until Friday.  And can I just say how much I am going to miss having Fridays off!  That was seriously the best thing ever!!  But anyway.  We did it!!  We finished the craziest school year of our lives!  Hopefully it's the only crazy school year.  This was a tough one, but I think we came out with flying colors!  The older kids were mostly done by Thursday, I think Noah went to get his yearbook, but I did get to go take pictures of Jack and Erika with their teachers at the end of the school day.  It was awesome.  Just like old times.  We went and got some Frosties to celebrate :).  Of course we ran into that funny guy who we run into all over Kaysville while we were there and he was asking lots of questions and kind of interrupting my time with the kids (normally I'm more than happy to humor him, but that day I wanted to hear about Erika and Jack's last day of school!) so we took off and talked in the car :).  It was great to think about all that we have accomplished this year, all the fun they've actually had even though there were a lot of hard things as well.  We got home, got swim suits on, went to the Clemenses for a little while.  Sadie was sleeping so I was able to just sit and chat for a while.  It wasn't my favorite thing this year.  That night we had our traditional Projector Movie- thanks to Erika reminding me that we do that :).  A bunch of the kids' friends came and we watched A Dog's Purpose at Wesley's request.  I think Erika's friends were the highlight that night.  Kelly and I got a kick out of listening to their conversations.  It was actually hilarious.  Kelly texted herself all the funny stuff they said.  She was so nice to just sit and relax that day- made me happy to see her off her feet!  Jack and his friends watched the movie from the top of the swing set.  Kinda crazy but super fun.  Molly informed me that this was "the worst projector ever!" meaning that the evening did not go as she had planned.  Too much noise and talking during the movie and she didn't want to sit in a certain place.  Luke showed up with some of his friends even, but then left to watch basketball.  Brad and Brandon even stopped by, but literally only a second, and then they were gone... I think they were watching basketball as well.  I think everyone had a nice evening though.  "Can we talk about her ears?  She looks like an elf!"  6-4-21

KELLY'S HAMMOCKING TRIP

Kelly and I planned a pretty fun hammocking trip for her and her friends this weekend!  We were very excited about it.  Lots of last minute shopping and packing and even stopping to look at her book that arrived in the middle of it all, and she was off!  I was actually not all that worried about her and her friends.  She has a really good group of kids who have good heads on their shoulders so I wasn't too worried.  They had been right next to a lake so we rented some paddle boards and they were able to play in the water quite a bit and then had dinner and s'mores, then cereal in the morning.  I had wanted to go up and be with them for a bit during it, but that just didn't work out with the other parties Jack and Erika had been invited to, but Nate did.  We thought it was a good check in for them all.  He didn't do much, just fished :).  But I loved hearing about it all and seeing that they had all had a good time when they got home Saturday around noon.  They all crashed on the couch and slept most of the day.  Even Brad who had come home with the plan to shower and then go work out.  HA!  Glad it was fun and nobody got hurt!  (minus the paddle board paddle)  6-4-21--6-5-21

KELLY'S BOOK!

Her book finally came!  I say finally just because it was so much later than when I would have liked to give it to her, but actually it came three days sooner than guaranteed.  It looks great!  My prayers were answered about the yellow cover!  I was so relieved about that.  Kelly was cute, trying to look at it for the first time as everyone was showing up to go camping.  She didn't want to read any of the notes and start crying- that was pretty cute.  Although, I did want her to at least read Paul's :).  She seems to love it!  So that is good!  Makes me happy.  I do love how it turned out for the most part.  Just bummed I missed a few things.  Can't be perfect though.  6-4-21

NO MASKS

This was our first real Sunday with no masks!!  (Technically I didn't wear one last week, but I'd rather not remember that experience)  It was SO AWESOME!!  I loved it!  I loved seeing everyone's whole faces and being able to talk- I wasn't AS aggravated by Sadie the whole time.  It was a huge blessing.  I have needed this.  6-6-21

GLASS

I must have knocked a chunk of glass into the Caesar Salad (my bowl has been chipped for a while, I'm just too cheap to replace it) because when I bit into my salad I got a big crunch!  I fished the piece out of my mouth but there were still some small-ish pieces that kept finding their way to my teeth.  I ended up swallowing some of it I think.  Which felt kind of weird for a lot of the evening.  The back of my throat was a little numb.  I hope everything just heals and is fine on it's own.  I can't imagine a tiny little crumb size piece of glass doing too much damage.  6-6-21

GRANDMA HATCH'S BIRTHDAY

We had grandma, Simon, Steve and Heidi and her kids over to celebrate Grandma Hatch's birthday on Sunday.  It ended up being a lot of fun.  I had to borrow a yellow cake mix from the Pearce's (well two since I screwed up- she's always so inspired!) to make the Chess Squares/Ooey Gooey Butter Bars/White brownies/Racist brownies, but they turned out amazing!  Yep, I ate one because it was Fast Sunday and anything goes on Fast Sunday.  We gave her the diamond painting, Steve gave her two pictures of the two of them.  We watched EmmyMade make some flower sandwiches- those were really cool! Everyone looked at Kelly's book.  It was a good time with everyone.  6-6-21

CROSS COUNTRY

Noah and Bradley starting cross country today.  First time back up at the Vita course.  They both came back in a good mood and seemed to have a good time.  6-7-21

FHE

Luke taught us a lesson about taking care of sacred things by using an analogy with our family book and comparing it with how we treat other books.  Pretty cool.  He's good at the short and sweet lessons that are really impactful.  We played four square and had dippin dots for the treat.  6-7-21

GETTING READY

Tuesday was our getting ready for Arches day since we were going to need to leave super early Wednesday morning.  We found out about a week ago that the camping trip was for the 8th-11th not the 9th-12th like I had had on my calendar all year.  So we had to scratch the first day for Nate's night shift instead of scratching the last day for Sydney's wedding.  Kinda funny that it worked out the way it did.  But it did work out.  We spent all of Tuesday getting packed, cleaned up and ready to go.  Nate loaded up all the boxes we had packed in the car before watching the Jazz game and then me driving him to work.  It was kinda nuts, but we made it work.  6-8-21

ARCHES

Our Arches trip went really well!  Everyone had a great time!  I dragged everyone out of bed at 5:00 Wednesday morning, we did our last minute packing of the cooler and grabbed all the last minute stuff and were off.  Picked up Nate and then headed down to Arches.  I was a little stressed about getting there in time for our river run, but decided along the way that things would work out and was able to relax.  We (me and the five oldest- no Charity) had a great time on the river.  It was Kelly, Bradley, Luke, Noah, Erika and I along with Becky, Eric, Becky's cousin Genry, and Sarah on our raft.  We loved the water fighting and all the funny jokes the boys kept putting out there.  Especially Noah's "Rattlesnake Rapids" comment as well as the punch line when the guide pointed out the heron and Kelly announced, "Those are so ugly!" to which Noah proudly responded, "I think that's my spirit animal." HAHAHAHA!!  He's hilarious.  Our guide was Gigi.  She was a nice girl from Park City.  She was fun to talk with everyone and try to get to know the kids.  We learned a lot of cool things about the black on the canyon walls, the different rock formations we could see like Mater and McQueen.  And Brad, Luke, Noah and Kelly all took a turn rowing!  So fun!  I loved the river.  It was a lot of fun.  Nice and cool.  I did feel a little bad that Nate was off having to kill time with the younger three.  Which he didn't feel was killing time at all and had a great time with them.  I knew they would have fun as well.  They ended up walking all around Moab and looking in some shops, getting McD's, you name it!  They had a lot of fun.  I enjoyed hearing about it all with them.  When we were done with the river we got some Frozen Yogurt- cool total $44.44!  Nate loved that even though it meant we were ripped off a little.  Then headed up to our campground through Arches National Park.  We loved that they kept letting us in the park for free because of our 4th grader.  We loved seeing all the cool rocks all the way there.  It's fun to hear everyone talk about it all and get into it.  We got to camp, said hi to the Mottishaws, and then set up our tent.  It was time for dinner so Brad made our fire and Nate cooked our tinfoil dinners we'd made the day before.  They ended up tasting really good!  Not burnt at all!  I loved that!  The kids spent all of their time in the camp exploring.  We had such a beautiful campsite.  Same as seven years ago, but so beautiful!  The kids loved looking for lizards and scorpions in the dark and commented on every living creature they came in contact with.  Everyone was pretty tired, but played some hide and seek before bed.  Sweet little Sadie was super tired and very happy to climb into her sleeping bag.  I loved watching her tightly closed eyes relax into sleeping eyes as she fell asleep next to me.  So sweet.  Molly was insistent that she sleep next to Sadie, so we did some rearranging before they all dozed off as well.  It was a nice night- not too hot, not too cold.  I LOVE that about sleeping down there.  The ground is nice and soft too.  

Thursday went differently than planned.  Mostly because of the insane wind we had all day!  Some of the highlights: Landscape arch (for Nate and all the kids but Kelly, Sadie and I), Sand dune arch.  We loved reminiscing about all that happened last time we were there.  It's such a cool spot.  We went down into town for some ice cream and fries.  Balanced Rock.  Then Kelly, Sadie and I dropped Nate and everyone off at Delicate Arch for that hike.  We had planned on going down into town to get some pizza since the wind was so bad that a campfire was out, but Kirstin talked us into just cooking our hotdogs on their camp stove.  We sat and talked a lot with my cousins, that was fun.  Glow sticks to top off the night.  This night was harder for everyone to fall asleep since our tent was FULL of sand!  I think there had to be at least a few cups of sand covering everything in our tent.  When we were off exploring, our tent had collapsed.  It ended up being okay and kinda cool that nothing was broken, but the sand got through the mesh top.  It was one night, so I knew we would survive, but it was very annoying.  Everyone was so patient with it and hardly complained.  We got up bright and early, ate our cereal and then loaded up to head home.  It was short, but sweet!  We had a great time.  The kids kept thanking us and telling us how much fun they had.  That was nice.  It was a great time for me too.  Time to head back to life and get ready for Sydney's wedding.  6-9-21--6-11-21

QUESTTIONNAIRE 2021

This year I decided to have everyone else help me pick questions.  Kinda fun.  Here's everyone's responses:

Erika's question:
1. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Jack- Paleontologist
Luke- I don't know
Bradley- Personal Trainer
Nate- train falcons
Sadie- Rock climber (we decided this after watching how much fun she had on the rock by the bathrooms at our campsite... kinda fearless for the most part!)
Noah- Mechanical Engineer
Kelly- Mom
Molly- Horse rider
Erika- Scientist
Me- a nurse

Bradley's question:
2. What is your favorite quote in the last year:

Bradley- "a belt is the most optional piece of your wardrobe but once you start taking it off in public you become a creep."
Molly- "I'm looking for my pants the fun way."  (When Kelly found her in the dryer)
Kelly- "Oh my gosh that was a mom gasp!"
Erika- quoting Jack, "If I can't think of anything else I'll just say fishing."
Jack- "Then people getta shove you!" (when someone was telling him about hockey)
Luke- "the tissues in the office expired two years ago."
Noah- "that's my spirit animal" (referring to the "ugly" heron)
Nate- "300 million trillion kabillion..." (Biden)
Sadie- "Nanny do" (her random words that come out when she doesn't know what else to say- usually means "another one")
Me- "Take your shoes off so you don't get any dirt in the tent." (after buckets of sand had been dumped into our tent by the wind... so funny :) )

Noah's question:
3. What is your biggest pet peeve?

Noah- when people say "due to the COVID-19 pandemic..."
Nate- when someone asks me if I'm sure.
Luke- when the eraser is dry and doesn't work
Jack- masks
Bradley- when people feel like they always have to be funny
Erika- someone scratching on a chalk board
Kelly- when you're talking to someone and the only thing they ask you si where you're going to school.
Molly- when people tell me to be quiet when I'm singing songs
Sadie- when people don't know which do-do (or du-du or da-da) she's talking about
Me- our country's response to COVID-19

Nate's question:
4. If you could make one wish what would it be?

Nate- a dog
Noah- to be able to go anywhere whenever I want
Luke- have a million dollars
Sadie- a dog
Bradley- to not get injured
Jack- to get all the dinosaur toys I want
Kelly- unlimited funds... actually- if people would just be more nice
Erika- to be able to go to the bottom of the ocean or to space with no risk of death
Molly- a puppy
Me- a non-pooping dog so my family can have what they want

Jack's question:
5. What is your favorite memory from this trip (Arches)?

Jack- hiking towards delicate arch
Luke- listening to Henry talk on the way back from the hike
Noah- rafting
Sadie- climbing on the rocks
Erika- finding lizards with everybody and exploring down in between the rocks
Bradley- water fight on the boats
Kelly- that everyone took a picture by the Moab sign with me and sitting by Molly in the car
Molly- playing the games and having the glow sticks
Nate- Sunset and sunrise
Me- talking with Kelly in the car while everyone hiked

Kelly's question:
6. If you could get rid of all of something what would it be?

Kelly- eggs
Jack- robbers
Erika- clowns
Bradley- injuries
Molly- getting hurt
Luke- coronavirus
Noah- mosquitos
Sadie- inside
Nate- mid shifts
Me- housework

Molly's question:
7. What is your favorite thing?

Molly- when I have sleepovers with Erika
Kelly- clouds
Bradley- going fishing
Jack- dinosaurs and family
Erika- being outside
Luke- water
Sadie- Mommy
Noah- beating my time on a mile
Nate- fishing
Me- playing board games with my kids

Luke's question:
8. What is your favorite color?

Luke- orange
Sadie- blue slide
Noah- blue
Bradley- purple
Jack- red
Erika- light green and light blue
Kelly- yellow
Molly- purple
Me- purple

My question:
9. What is something not many people know about the person to your right?

Molly- Kelly is really nice and kind
Kelly- Molly knows every word to every song
Erika- how creative Bradley is
Jack- Erika is fun and thoughtful
Bradley- Jack is really loud once you get to know him
Noah- Luke is incredibly smart
Sadie- Noah is creative funny, good at being a leader
Luke- Sadie loves to talk to people and herself
Nate- how much I love anatomy and the body
Me- the fact that Nate is not a computer nerd/techy person

Sadie's question:
10. WHY?

Erika- because
Noah- because I can
Jack- because I'm cool
Bradley- becuz
Luke- when
Nate- nanny do
Kelly- why why why why why why why
Molly- because
Sadie- da da da dee ooh
Me- 

6-11-21

SYDNEY AND HUNTER'S WEDDING

Saturday was Nate's big day!  Well, technically it was Sydney's, but Nate was responsible for the food for her wedding so it was also a big day for him!  Keeping meat for 300 people warm during a 2 hour drive is not an easy job!  He did such a great job on the food though!  So many compliments.  Once again, Nate outdid himself.  Sydney's wedding was great as well :).  The place looked so nice, cute decorations everywhere.  Their cake was so cute and simple.  It was fun to see her so happy and glowing.  It was nice that we could all be there for the ceremony and then the luncheon and toasts.  We did have to leave a little early because Nate had to work, but it was a nice day.  I couldn't help but wonder when we would be moving into that stage of life.  We'll see.  Kind of nerve-racking but exciting at the same time.  6-12-21

NATE'S TALK

Nate got to give another talk this Sunday.  He did such a great job!  Everyone loved it!  He had some questions to ask yourself about your relationship with Heavenly Father and that was probably my favorite part.  He always does such a good job though!  So proud of him!  6-13-21

TAKING THE VAN IN

We took our van in finally, on Monday, to fix the side that Gary backed into.  I wasn't super thrilled about the size of the rental car they gave us and even asked for something bigger, but after a few minutes of driving it I was kind of in love with the Nissan Armada!  Nice car!  I mean, let's be honest, it's all the gadgets inside that make the car- we have loved those- but also the smooth ride.  I miss being the largest thing on the road though.  So we've had to take two cars anywhere we took the whole family, which is annoying, it only seats 7, so we'll be glad to get our 12 passenger van back.  It is kind of nice that he hit the door that had the egg dents from when we got egged.  Kinda funny.  6-13-21

KELLY'S FOLLOW-UP

So Kelly's follow-up appointment has left me feeling a lack of respect and confidence in our orthopedic specialist.  He was kind of a terd to her- calling her a wimpy Lacrosse player- then he x-rayed her before asking her what still hurt, so he had them x-ray her left leg, then when he came in to look at her he found out she had most pain in her right leg, pulls up the x-ray and shows us, on the x-ray of her LEFT LEG where she has healed and what's going on with the pain in her RIGHT LEG.  Not realizing that the x-ray was of her left leg.  So.... duh.  I wasn't super happy about that.  Then he asks me what I want to do.  Again.  I'm not an expert!  I have no idea how long stress fractures take to heal, I don't think she should still be in pain and I'm tired of not knowing what to do for her, so I had no idea what to say!  But of course I'd like to look into why she's still in pain!!  I think he was wanting me to say she was faking it and could just suck it up or something, but that's really not the case!  So anyway.  I kind of insisted that she get an MRI done to make sure there's not something deeper or different going on.  I had wondered this in the very beginning for some reason, so now I'm a little nervous, but trying to keep a positive attitude.  I'd just hate for her to have some serious problem with her legs that takes too long to fix and recover from ya know.  So we'll see.  We have her MRI scheduled for Monday.  6-14-21

FHE

For FHE we decided to just go out to dinner :).  Kelly was working and was supposed to be the lesson, so we went to Olive Garden instead :).  It was a nice time.  Luke joined us after being let down about the plane ride with Grandma.  Everyone was so good :).  The kids learned that they don't really like the kids meal pizzas there.  Kind of a bummer.  But Sadie ate her mac and cheese like a big girl!  She ate so much!  It was cute.  I love sharing those places with our family.  We missed Charity and Kelly.  Everyone brought home a leftover box for lunch the next day.  6-14-21

CHARITY

Charity showed up randomly on Tuesday- much to our surprise!  That was fun.  We tried to do something fun before she had to leave and of course had to get some Chik-fil-a.  It was nice talking with her and spending time as we sat in the drive thru for a half hour!  It's nice to get moments with her still.  6-15-21

SYRACUSE SPLASH PAD

We had playgroup at a fun splash pad in Syracuse this week.  I was so glad that most of the kids wanted to come!  Even Brad and Kelly came and hung out with me the whole time.  They were super cute with the kids too.  I just love that they still want to be with me :).  Luke was not in the mood for a splash pad- we missed him.  We had a lot of fun though and it didn't feel too hot at all!  Even though we have been in record high temps this year!  Unbelievable!  Poor Sadie got pretty burnt.  Luckily for me she tans really well.  It was fun to talk with Emily and Natalie there too.  Good times.  6-16-21

FLOWRIDER

Kelly and Erika got to go on a combined YW activity to Flowrider this week!  The videos they sent me of them were so fun to watch!  I need to go to that place some day!  6-16-21

ERIKA MATURATION VIDEO

Erika reminded me that we hadn't done her maturation video yet!  She was right!  Thanks to COVID she did not get the traditional Maturation day at school so we had decided to do it on our own.  We combined it with Costa Vida :).  Watched the video in the car on my phone- cute video btw- not like the dumb uterus and ovary pancake one I had.  Erika was a lot of fun to be with.  She gets this stuff and seems to be okay with it all :).  I hope she gets a while before she has to use the information.  But I'm glad we got that time together.  Costa Vida after!  6-17-21

THE GARAGE!

We finally cleaned out our garage!  I think this was the first time we've done a deep clean on our garage since we moved here.  I was so proud of us!  Took about five hours and I was sneezing and having an allergy attack from it all the entire time, and by the end felt like I'd been camping for a week and desperately needed a shower, but it was really great!  Looks so much nicer now!  We can actually use the space out there.  Then the next day, Nate cleaned out that fridge too.  Pretty awesome!  6-18-21

ERIKA BABYSITTING

We made arrangements for Erika to babysit Porter and Alyssa on Friday.  She did such a great job!  She played with them so hard!  I was shocked to see her carrying Alyssa around everywhere they went.  She was a lot of fun!  This is a great opportunity for her and for her relationship with her cousins.  I hope she doens't get too burnt out.  6-18-21

SHOPPING

We had a small-ish group to go Father's Day shopping this year!  Charity out with Isaac, Kelly at work, Luke at Jaxx's, Noah and Erika babysitting Isaac's siblings... it was Bradley, Jack, Molly and Sadie with me!  Kinda crazy when that happens, but still fun!  We were so quick and did everyone's shopping in record time!  I loved being with these kids for this- we had a great time!  We had to stop for some Panda Express- first time back at dining in!  That was nice!  I was so happy when we left to realize that I wasn't going to have to sweet up all of the rice Sadie spilled.  It's nice that life is getting back to normal a little.  Can't wait for Father's Day tomorrow!  6-19-21

FATHER'S DAY

We were so prepared for Father's Day this year!  It was exciting to find out that Nate was going to be home with us all morning instead of meetings.  We did our traditional breakfast in bed.  Bradley created a culinary masterpiece of an omelet and I baked some bacon.  The kids showered him with gifts- Sadie gave him the cute, soft, stuffed dragon "Squisheee" that she had picked out.  Molly gave him some squirt guns- she was so happy about this!  and some Keto chocolate candy.  Jack gave him some Wasabi Almonds.  Erika gave him the 3D wooden map of the world like Grandma Ruthie's  that she had helped me pick out online.  He seemed really excited about that.  Noah gave him two bags of sugar free Werther's.  Luke gave him a gift card to Texas Roadhouse.  Bradley gave him some smart outlets and lightbulbs.  Kelly gave him the collection of Calvin and Hobbes books.  Charity gave him a gift card to Cabelas.  I had bought this cute book for the kids to fill out answers to questions about Nate and that was super cute.  So we gave him that right then and he read the entire thing right away.  It was a fun way to spoil him.  He had to work so once we got to church the celebrating was basically over.  I wish we'd had more time with him or that the kids hadn't been sleeping during the time we did have, but I guess that's just how it goes.  He left for work during church.  We went up to Grandpa Hatch's house for a barbecue with Steve and Heidi to celebrate my dad.  That was a lot of fun.  Molly kept begging me to let her get out the hose so she could squirt grandpa so when I finally did- they had their own little two person water fight.  That was pretty adorable.  Molly would go inside, fill up the cup with water and ice and then surprise grandpa- and he was outside talking on the phone to Brent and family during a lot of it, so she caught him by surprise a few times.  So fun!  It was cute that he was letting her have fun like that.  We gave him his grilling tools and cashews and a nice card.  I was glad we got to hang out with him.  When we got home we waited a little bit- got ready to say goodbye to Charity and then Nate walked in!  We were so happy and surprised!  We hurried and did our kiss song before Charity had to leave.  Unfortunately one of the kisses hit Nate's hurt finger so that was a bummer.  We might need to update that tradition somehow.  I feel like it's not his favorite.  Maybe during the next year we could come up with something.  We'll see.  Good day though.  6-20-21

ERIKA BASKETBALL CAMP

We did something new with Erika this year- Basketball camp!  She got to go with Kate and Morgan which was awesome.  It was a lot of fun to hear about her winning all of the dribbling and shooting challenges in her age group.  She's super humble about it though- kinda cute.  She is really good and I think this was a great way for her to see that.  It was only four days which is kind of a bummer, but she did get a free shirt out of it :).  6-21-21--6-24-21

KELLY'S MRI

I'm just going to make myself annoyed writing about this, but I like to have these things documented.  We were finally able to take Kelly in for an MRI on Monday.  We were super excited about this and anxious for answers.  When we got there we found out Kelly is an adult and needs to check herself in and fill out her own forms AND they gave us ridiculous masks to wear.  Yep, places are still requiring masks... duh.  I had some fun doing my Prime Day shopping while she went back and got her MRI like a big girl.  But the devastation hit when she told me that they only did her RIGHT ANKLE!??  WHY WOULD WE ONLY MRI HER RIGHT ANKLE????  It's so weird.  I mean, I'm not the doctor, but I would definitely love to know what he's thinking.  Her pain is in both legs and feet.  She can barely walk, the stress fractures were in both legs and feet, and clearly there is something still wrong!!!   WHY is this so difficult!  WHY is the medical field so useless when it comes to Kelly?!!!  I can't figure it out.  So anyway.  We got the CD of the images and there was a lot of bone edema on the images, but the report from the radiologist said there was no stress fracture.  Which is silly because in Dr. May's Indication it says that patient came in with stress fractures in "left tibia" and then the MRI was on her right ankle?!!  So strange.  I'm really anxious to talk to him when he gets back from his vacation on Monday.  His plan after the MRI was to start on Physical Therapy.  EYE ROLL!!!!  ugh.  Anyway.  Like I said, kind of a touchy subject.  Not sure how to feel about it all.  6-21-21

ROOT CANAL

After Kelly's MRI we grabbed some lunch and then over to the dentist to hopefully fix my broken tooth.  I knew this was going to need a root canal, I could tell.  So I was planning on him giving me some numbing gel or some pain meds until I could get in with someone else for the root canal, but surprisingly he just got right on it and did the root canal himself!!  Well, what am I saying, he STARTED the root canal and then had other patients come so he turned me over to his new dentist, son.  And he did a great job, it just seemed like it took a really long time.  I felt bad that Kelly had to sit there through it all and with dead phones for the last 15 minutes or so.  But I was SO RELIEVED to have that taken care of!!!  Such a great surprise and blessing.  6-21-21

FHE

Kelly was the lesson, she taught us about choosing the right people to surround yourself with.  We got to talk about someone who has influenced our life.  I remembered how Carissa Flitton had corrected me with "you're BLESSED" when I said I was lucky with my good kids.  I loved that a lot of the kids chose siblings.  I love the love these guys have for each other.  Makes my heart happy.  We played Brad's choice- lightning- while Kelly and I stressed over her legs.  Then we went and got supplies for Luke's treat- fondue!  Nate's been buying these little fondue kits at Costco and the kids just love it!  Strawberries, raspberries and angel food cake (aka: the bread! so cute).  Good times.  6-21-21

STUDY TIME

We got back into study time this week.  I'm embarrassed to say, we really slacked off for the past few weeks.  It's been tricky to make time for it with Brad and Noah going to Cross Country Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then everyone staying up late.  It's probably time to get back into some kind of routine sleep and waking up.  6-21-21

ERIKA THE BABYSITTER

Erika tended for Heidi again this week.  This was a much longer time and it was not Erika's favorite.  I shouldn't have let her have Kate here the whole time.  It was a lot of work.  And so far Heidi has not paid her.  But I have to say I was really proud of how good Erika did!  She was so attentive- so entertaining... she is a very good babysitter!  She's got a talent.  The next day we tended them as well and Noah had said he was going to, but that didn't really happen- we all just kind of pitched in. I think Erika was burnt out.  And not seeing the return the day before was a little bit of a bummer.  6-22-21

PLAYGROUP

We had a really fun playgroup this week, at Castle Park with just us and the Maughans.  And my mom when she brought Heidi's kids.  We stayed for quite a while- with a few interruptions to go get the basketball camp-ers, pizza, and Emily had to pick up Rachel.  It was really fun though.  6-23-21

RENTAL

We've still got the Nissan Armada rental from last Monday.  Still waiting on our van to get done.  Kind of annoying, but also kind of not because I have loved driving the new Armada around.  Just kind of a crazy time to need to drive two cars anywhere we want to take the family. Also, we have a whole trailer full of stuff we need to take to the dump and the DI and no way to get it there.  6-23-21

RESCHEDULED PICNIC WITH THE FERGUSONS

We were supposed to have our much anticipated picnic with Isaac's family tonight, but their daughter got sick.  We were pretty bummed and since Charity and Isaac were here we decided to just go out to eat.  Charity wanted Pizza Pie Cafe and that ended up being a lot of fun!  I was so happy that we got to spend that time with them.  It was a rough time for Isaac with his roommate situation really grating on his nerves, but he was trying so hard not to talk about it or think about it.  It's been good to get to know him a little better and see more of Charity these days :).  She had spent the day with Noah and Erika at Lagoon too :).  6-24-21

HATCHES ARE IN TOWN!!

We are so excited for this portion of our summer where we get to spend a lot of fun, quality time with the Hatches!  The Lagoon pass holders got to go to Lagoon with them Friday- well, just Noah and Erika- while we played with Aria.  Sarah and Izzy showed up around 3:00 and the big kids stayed at Lagoon until at least 6:00.  I was glad they were having so much fun!  It was really good to sit and visit with Sarah- we could talk for days!  We let the kids play in the backyard all evening after eating the yummy Maddox food Nate picked up for us.  It was a lot of fun!  We're looking forward to lots of other hang outs and time well-spent.  6-25-21

STOWELL REUNION

We went to the Stowell reunion Saturday.  This ended up being a lot of fun despite the fact that Grandma Hatch didn't get a bouncy slide.  Amazing.  HAHA! Just kidding.  It was at the new-ish Creekside Park in Bountiful.  We ate Nate's amazing food- he surprised us with some chickens and sausage along with the Pulled Pork.  Kinda cool.  I had to pick up a table so I missed the time capsule thing.  Let's just say, in five years, I plan to have a married kid or two and maybe even a grandkid.  Probably a missionary out, and probably some fun sports or something going on with other kids.  In 5 years Noah will have graduated and Sadie will be in 3rd grade!  Time flies just thinking about it.  I hope we're happy at least.  We did the silent auction, I think Kathy got my cake.   We played a few games conducted by yours truly- I don't know why I can't yell anymore.  I think I strain my voice or something.  It was fun though.  Charity and Isaac came by for a bit, Kelly surprised us at the end (she had been working), Nate had to leave a little early for work.  But the rest of us were there for the long haul.  It was pretty fun- I had a great time!  6-26-21

SADIE AND NURSERY

She doesn't love it yet.  I stayed in there for a few minutes and then snuck out and I guess she was crying her little heart out when Luke picked her up.  Poor thing.  It stinks that we're having to do this now.  She'll get it though.  6-27-21

ASHTON GARDENS- LEGO EXHIBIT

This was not my favorite activity that we've done with the Hatches.  We weren't officially ever invited, it wasn't something I wanted to do, we got there about an hour before we were able to start walking through it, Heidi chewed me out for walking to fast when I was simply trying to keep up with Sarah and my kids.  I wasn't even in the front the whole time, the Lego things were subpar.  Just kinda small.  But overall it was a good time.  The kids had fun.  I enjoyed being with my kids, outdoors, doing something different.  They were good sports.  They were very forgiving about my losing my temper at Heidi.  I hope I can use this as a reminder to not lose my temper anymore.  To stop letting things get to me so much.  She was blaming the wrong person, but I could have kept my cool.  We stopped at Costa Vida on the way home and cute Sadie slept on my shoulder the entire time.  Kinda tired!  The Hatches and Grandma Hatch and Porter came over afterwards to hang out in the evening, Sarah had a photo shoot so we all tried our best to entertain the Hatches.  Brad took Alvin and Erika to Farmington pond.  Luke, Charlie, Aria and I drove around looking for a splint for Luke's finger he jammed.  The little kids just played in the backyard with the water and stuff.  Kinda fun.  We were all very tired when the day was over.  We got donuts as a family night treat.  6-28-21

KELLY DOCTOR

So we took Kelly back to Dr. May.  He was a lot nicer and more compassionate, but still has no idea what is wrong with her.  He decided to run some bloodwork.  Seems pointless since we just did that a few months ago, but we did.  Now we wait... again.  6-29-21

MOVIE AND ICE SKATING WITH THE HATCHES

We all met up at Farmington Station movie theater and saw Peter Rabbit 2.  It was a little chaotic.  Super fun for the kids, but the babies and moms ended up in the hall.  We did have some fun in the hallway, chatting.  Kinda nuts.  After the movie, and some gift shopping in the little sotres outside (freeze dried taffy... mmmmm...) we came back to our house for some lunch.  After lunch we loaded up and headed down to go ice skating.  This was A LOT of fun!!  I LOVED watching the kids skate around with each other!  I sat on the bleachers talking with Kelly and holding a sleeping Sadie in my arms.  Bradley and Erika skated around playing tag most of the time.  Luke was a good sport and looked like he was having some fun.  Noah was gone to his Deacon camp with Nate.  The smile on Jack's face the entire time was priceless.  I loved that.  And cute Molly got around just fine with the little kid walker thing- no idea what it's called- so everyone had a really fun two hours skating around.  I loved watching Erika try out some of the things she'd watched the figure skaters doing.  When Sadie woke up she was really restless so I went and got some skates on and after waiting a while for Porter to finish his turn in Sarah's stroller, Sadie took a turn!  I pushed her around on the ice- she loved that :).  She's more of a do-er, so I think in her mind she would have preferred actually skating herself, but she was entertained by this too.  After ice skating we came back to our house, played around for a bit and then headed off to the baseball park with some slower than every McD's and Cafe Rio.  This was a pretty relaxing time. I loved Sarah's idea to share a salad.  It was the perfect amount of food.  Grandma and Porter showed up.  We were missing my big kids for most of the time there- they were all at youth activities, but the littles seemed to have enough fun.  The big kids showed up near the end.  This was a good time.  6-30-21