A View of the Hills: July 2019

June 2019

Pine Valley

Cool Nyle getting ready to accept the challenge to step into the ice cold creek

The Protective Mother part of me wanted them all to get off that log! But, I kept that part inside and just quietly watched. Boys have to take risks...it's how they learn. I just generally would like to not be privy to their risk-taking. Lincoln started it, but Ned and Nyle had to try as well. They went back and forth a few times with no incident.

My Sweetie. I sure love him!

Dinner in the cabin

While Lincoln and Gwen were with Jodi and Chris, they visited Lake Powell. They appeared to have so much fun! Lincoln cliff jumped, learned how to knee board, visit some Native American Ruins, and drove the boat. Gwen had plenty of cousin time sleeping in a tent with the girls, visited the ruins, and tubed. It looked like so much fun!

Early in June we made a quick road trip to San Luis Obispo to pick up this new member of our family. Zach named him Herbie because his horn is identical to that of VW beetle in the movie Herbie. We had no trouble selling our Odyssey-- with only 70K miles and being a Honda, it was a hot commodity.

Lincoln's birthday happened to occur while we were heading out of town. Mom and Dad Hills allowed us to spend the night at their Mesquite home after spending the evening swimming at Camrin and Brandon's place and before heading up to Zion National Park for the day.

In Zion, along the River Side Walk.

Weeping Rock

Emerald Pools

Papa Ed's funeral. He loved the color red!

May 2019

This has become a bit of a nightly ritual with these boys. I guess it's what happens with so much testosterone.;)

My Mother's Day gift... now I won't have to ride one of the kids' bikes to school when we all ride together.

Nyle completed the math program for first grade (he's in Kindergarten) just before the end of the school year.

Lincoln was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society and earned an award for receiving Straight A's the entire school year.

I always LOVE these!

Gwen racked up the awards at her end of school year Award's Assembly. Principal award is awarded to just one student in the class, and of course she received the Reading Award!

We love Mrs. Miller. Nyle was the third Hills kid to have been lucky enough to have her for Kindergarten.

We celebrated the release of school with a stay-cation. We had planned on going up to Pine Valley to start the summer off, but the with the unusually wet and cool year, it was snowing up there and beautiful weather here for Memorial Day Weekend. We decided to take advantage of a promotion at the local water park, Cowabunga Bay, that was offering a free pass to kids with a good report card. Since all three older kids received straight A's and Nyle received the equivalent for a kindergartner, we decided this was our perfect opportunity. Plus, the weather was a little cool with lots of rain earlier in the week so we figured it wouldn't be too busy at the park, and it wasn't. It was a great day... warm enough to enjoy ourselves, but without the crowds, and an unbeatable price! Afterwards, we came home for Pizza and the beginning of a Star Wars marathon--our kids' first introduction into the movies.

Saturday we cleaned the garage, went on a bike ride, went swimming, then roasted marshmallows in our courtyard.

We rounded off our weekend by going to Redstone on Monday--again, not something we normally do Memorial Day Weekend because of how hot it usually is, but this year the weather allowed us one more trip.

Lincoln being goofy

We love our pool! Gwen, Ned and West work on making a whirlpool while Nyle stands on the boogie board.

Gwen made this tye-died shirt with her friends Amber and Saige as well as a bunch of other school friends.

April 2019

West at Little Makers at the Library. Once a month, the library would host a themed story time with themed play. They would read a story, then have center activities that relate to the story. This one was about clouds and rain.

A frog--but Ned's not sure he wants to touch it.

Way to go Lincoln! It's kind of a big deal since his school is so big.

My little artists!

My birthday fell during Spring Break. Since it was my birthday I took the liberty of choosing our outing for the day--A hike!

These sweet kids spoiled me on my birthday!

We always have a family outing for each birthday... I chose a fire at the lake. It was a gorgeous evening and there's nothing quite like sitting around a fire.

Over the course of the school year, each of our school-aged children earned a free pass to SeaQuest though being student of the month at some point. We decided to use them all at once, and as a result of their passes, our whole family ended up getting in for free. It was awesome. Then to top that, when we walked in, an employee was trying to refill their animal feeding vending machines and she dropped some of the food on the floor, we helped her pick it up and she gave each child some food to feed the animals for free! I was actually quite impressed SeaQuest.

This Easter we headed up to Logandale to enjoy some time with the Hills family at Dallas and Tim's house. The kids dyed, then found Easter Eggs. The kids had so much fun in their giant backyard!