August 1, 2021
This week Hinckley had 3 days of "sport camp" at the Lehi Rec center which he really enjoyed, coming back each time with red checks and stories to tell. On Monday the kids came home from DI, each with a special prize. Greyson was pretty excited about it and had to come up to the office to tell me all about his “smart pad” which was basically a small electrical thing that makes noises when you press different buttons. On Tuesday Kassie went with the primary to deliver popsicles to kids across the neighborhood as a part of the "popsicle parage", and our kids surely enjoyed it. It was a great excuse to get baths and clean up done early. I think the primary presidency was able to connect with a lot of people who don’t usually come to church which was a really good thing.
 |
| Popsicle Parade |
Hinckley has been interested in the Olympics despite the fact that it all feels like swimming right now. It is fun to see him watching it and all the questions and reflections stewing in his mind. Kassie bought a small antenna and now we have good old fashion TV channels, including the olympics. Addie had a tea party with a friend this week which made up for the fact that Hinckley went to his friend Declan’s one night for a fun movie night to make up for Declan’s missing of H’s birthday party due to sickness.
I went into the office on Thursday morning for a meeting and a quick tour of the place. I need to try riding my bike out there to see if there is actually a way I can cross the interstate if I rode. Though we may found out next week that my return to the office will get pushed back from the current Aug 30 date due to the new strain of the virus. On Friday we had our first team lunch (just my team which is 3 designers/trainers and me) and we went to India Palace and it was amazing! Yum yum yum. All three ladies ordered the lunch special and I got some veggie balls in some delicious sauce, along with garlic naan bread. So good. My worry about getting full due to the fact that it wasn't a buffet was assuaged as the meals were still huge portions. Yum yum.
 |
| Hinckley's Blobby Paraglider |
Eric and Cindie Schmidt came by after work on Friday and we visited with them. I taught Eric in my last area as a missionary and he was baptized a few months before I came home. It was really crazy to see them, and I can’t believe it has been 10 years or so since Kas and I last visited with them at their home in Hesparia. The long-awaited day came on Saturday for us to go see Space Jam 2 in the theater. About halfway through, Greyson asked me, “has the movie started yet?” He wanted to see some basketball playing! They all enjoyed it overall. In the afternoon I took Addie and Greyson to the “tree park” and we had a great time finding trees to climb on and making rock piles and rock art in the empty stream bed. Hard to believe school is just 2 weeks away, along with a birthday and baptism.
 |
| Addie's rock art |
 |
| Greyson and Addie building "pirate ships" and other rock creations |
 |
| Greyson going "through the hole" |
 |
| Addie, "The Tree Queen" |
July 25, 2021
This week was a typical summer week without any special weekly activities beyond some fun trips to the splash pad and exploring a new park. I had a team lunch on Wednesday at a brunch place up in SL valley where it was really nice to get face time with members of my team. It really does make things feel more real to actually see them.
We’ve been working on connecting all rules and expectations in the home to respect and responsibility, and have created a chart where H and A reflect on their day and decide if they get a “point” and then a parent does the same for them. My hope is that by the time they get the respective prize they are working towards it will be a habit in reflecting on those things and also in shaping our language in our home about those two things. So far I am cautiously optimistic.
Kas and I had a fun date Thursday night driving up to SLC to eat at the Vertical Diner (an all-vegan restaurant that is amazing). Though we’ve only been there twice I think it is fast becoming one of our favorite places to go. On Saturday morning H and I went nice and early to Provo to do the Temple to Temple 5K run. It was really fun! We got there early so we played the Google Chrome “no internet” dino game on my phone, and they had some really fun easter eggs in there for the Olympics that unlocked some really fun versions of the game. We ran maybe 40% of the race and Hinckley was really tired, but we did it and he had a blast at the finish line running by all the people cheering for us. We say Mom and Dad at the start line which was really fun too.
 |
| Frozen Yogurt boy |
 |
| Taking a PB Sandwich break at the nature trail in AF canyon |
July 18, 2021
Hinckley is 8 years old! He had a great day with the 1st day of Youth Camp at the Lehi Rec center (Addie went too) and then a visit to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at TPoint. We had Abi, Lucy, and M&D over for dinner, cake, and presents and that was pretty fun. He seemed to have a really great day. on Tuesday I took H to a Salt Lake City Bees game (minor league baseball), courtesy of my employer. He had a blast! We saw a bat smash, a stolen base, a couple of bunts, the pitcher got hit once, and a home run. Pretty great! "And the nachos were really good too" concluded Hinckley. I was ready to go much earlier than he was, and he just wanted to keep watching. Certainly a
nature thing and not a
nurture thing as I actually really don’t like watching baseball haha.
 |
| Swimming suit tubbing |
 |
| At the Bee's game |
 |
| Nacho time |
We had quite the birthday party on Friday night with 4 friends and some amazing decorations and games Kassie had prepared. They were a very energetic group! Greyson was overwhelmed and spent most of the time trying to avoid wherever the party was happening (unless treats were involved) and Addie managed to spend most of the time in the thick of it all without getting too injured or overloaded with everything going on. It was a camping theme so they had camping-related food such as lake water (lemonade), grub (nachos), deer poop (chocolate covered raisins), and more. Kassie made some amazing S’more cupcakes and the boys loved the scavenger hunt she prepared, as well as pin the marshmallow on the fire, toss the ball into the bear’s mouth, fruit basket turnover, and charades. As this was a “late over” they watched The Lorax to top it all off and around 9:30 when it ended they ran straight outside in the backyard and commenced running and jumping around at a very high volume. It was a success by all accounts! Hard to believe we have an 8 year old now.
 |
| Ready to party |
 |
| Ready for the party to begin (Charles, Henry, McCann, Carson) |
 |
| Fruit basket turn over fun |
 |
| Family birthday cakes + Blobby |
 |
| 8 years old! |
 |
| Cousins ready to eat cake |
 |
| Family birthday guests |
Kassie and Addie had a date on Saturday getting a treat before coming home to watch
Luca which is Addie’s 3rd time seeing it...she’s pretty into that I suppose. Hinckley and Greyson had a fun time playing with H’s new laser tag gun set he got for his birthday. They came in from outside with red sweaty faces and a big appetite for mac and cheese. We went swimming as a family to the American Fork pool and it was fun to see how much the kids have learned this summer. Hinckley and I did lots of diving board jumping and diving practice and it was fun to see Addie to a full-headed bob (put her head underwater). Greyson was happy to inform us as he often does that he "didn't drown".
Running all this week was a really fun Youth Camp at Lehi Rec center that both Hinckley and Addie participated in. They did all sorts of activities (including watching Luca) and both came back raving about it every day. Greyson has really taken to advocating for the position that pants are not needed. He loves running around in his underwear and enjoys eliciting reactions from all of us in the process. Addie has turned on her vinegar this week as well and enjoys being silly and teasing her brothers until someone gets hurt. She is very eager for her birthday and we created a paper chain to help her visualize and stop asking when her birthday is.
July 8, 2021
We’ve had a full July thus far with going up to Bear Lake and returning today. We are all pretty tired and I think ready to get back to some kind of regular routine. It was a really fun trip up to the Lake and everything worked out pretty well for the reunion.
The kids stayed up late and played with cousins, we had lots of good talks and games outside and in, and the lake and hiking seemed to be the right balance for all. I really enjoyed watching some family home movies including some hilarious ones of Lucy I don’t recall seeing before. It was fun to watch those and laugh my head off.
 |
| Family reunion at Bear Lake 2021 |
 |
| Waiting for famous strawberry shakes near Bear Lake |
 |
| The beloved foam pit |
 |
| Greyson rides Uncle Ryan's shoulders on the hike |
 |
| Preppin' S'mores |
 |
| Learning from Nana and Grandpa |
 |
| Beach day relaxing |
 |
| Exploring with Sadie |
 |
| Boating with Nana |
 |
| Cousin sand creations |
July 4, 2021
We finished up the Colorado trip this week. The kids enjoyed time in the hot tub and going to see
Peter Rabbit 2. They also had a treasure hunt sponsored by Grandma and enjoyed that between the spats of tiredness and argument. I had a really good conversation with Hinckley about baptism as we read from Mosiah 18 together and talked about how the Lord cares more about the direction we are going in than all we have previously done. It was pretty incredible to have that talk with him. I hope to have many many more at that level!
We drove home from Colorado on Wednesday. Greyson was very lethargic, quiet, and not himself and we were starting to get worried since he hadn’t peed or anything recently. Well, just outside of Grand Junction he vomited a good 3 or 4 times and while he didn’t have much in his little tummy he did have plenty of water and a chocolate muffin. That was a new experience for us. He's been fine ever since! We have given up on the tablets for car rides and tried a new setup with a dual-screen DVD player and RedBox DVDs. While a little retro (and fingers crossed they keep offering RedBox DVDs for the coming years) this plan seemed to work much better for everyone. Sure there was still fighting and screaming over small things, but I think it worked.
Comments
Post a Comment