A View of the Hills: July

Hi Lincoln,

We've had a great Fourth of July week! The week started with some fun bike projects.

West has been enjoying his new bike and Nyle is so ready to buy a mountain bike of his own. To keep him happy and satiated for now, he worked on building a bike ramp with his friend, Jayson. He first had to take apart the plant protective cages so he could use the wood to build it. They tried it out and then decided to try it out on an unused hill on the edge of the golf course.

Big news for Ned was the removal of his braces. He was able to get them off Wednesday morning, and then retrieved his retainer that afternoon. Gwen received news at that appointment that she would get hers off on October 6th!

Thursday evening, we drove up to Utah to look at a bike for Nyle. His offering price was too low, but then the guy changed his mind when we were 50 miles down the road. Needless to say, we didn't get the bike. We're not giving up hope on getting a good bike for him. We arrived in Annabella pretty late, but happy to be there.

Friday included tennis matches for West and Libby in the morning and Tim and Zach, Ned and Anna, and Kaven and his girlfriend in the evening. Tim and Zach may have been the oldest players, but they played so well! It was so fun to watch everyone. The cousins really enjoyed cheering for Tim and Zach as they did their best to hold their own against some early 20-somethings.

Friday, we woke up early to help Uncle Chris with his town's breakfast. Dad and I had fun making and flipping pancakes. Then we hurried over to the parade. After the parade, we visited Grandma and Grandpa's new house and hurried back to Annabella to help out with lunch. After all this, we were so tired and snuck off for a nap. We ended the evening with a nacho bar at Dallas and Tim's and fireworks, when we were able to talk to you.

Sunday we really enjoyed church- all the testimonies were focused on Christ as well as the gospel doctrine lesson. Then we watched the Brazil v. Norway game and headed over to G&G Hills' home to celebrate Leslie's birthday.

It was a great weekend, and now we're back to the LV heat, but thank goodness for our pool!

Love you so much!

Mom and Dad

July 12,

Hi Lincoln,

How are things going in the Capital?

We've had a pretty calm week at home. I was about to say "chill" instead of calm, but there has been nothing chilly about the weather. It's hot! Which makes it the Dog Days of Summer. It's hard to get motivated to go out to do much when it's so hot so we've been battling boredom a bit.

Nyle, West, and I visited the pump track. We also used up some free jump passes at Uptown Jungle. I've also spent a few days helping Shannon unpack stuff in their new house while the boys went swimming in their pool. The big news for Nyle was the arrival of his new Mountain Bike. We were finally able to align with the guy we purchased it from by his going to Mesquite, dropping it off there, and then Camrin and Brandon brought it down on their way to the airport. They flew out to Hawaii, so they parked their Tacoma in our garage. Nyle was so excited and we were so grateful they brought it to us.

Ned has been working a bunch, and Gwen has been wrapping up her classes and writing BYU essays.

This week will be dedicated to getting ready for Lake Powell. We're a little concerned about the weather report as there will likely be rain when we are supposed to be heading out next Sunday. I'm sure we'll make the best of it.

We love you and pray for you every day!

~Mom and Dad

July 26,

Lake Powell

Hi Lincoln,

We made it back from Lake Powell today. We had a great time with all the family doing the usual water sports, games of tag in and out of the boat, paddle boarding, and lots of games.

Watching Spain beat Argentina in World Cup

Sunday night family games- West v. Adam

West

Nyle

Ned

Zach being favorite uncle- dragging the tube

West with his hat

Clara, West, Nyle

Last Sunday night we had fun playing some family games provided by Aunt Janae. Then Monday, we hit the water hard with surfing, wakeboarding, slalom skiing, kneeboarding, and tubing.

Gwen's graphic design classes paid off when her designs were selected for the T-shirt and hoodie. Clara used Canva to create a great design for the hat.

Hoodie design

shirt design

West earned the hat pretty quickly by surfing without the rope on the first day. Nyle earned a hat by performing the Ollie on the wakeboard. Ned earned the hoodie by doing the backside butterslide on the wakeboard, and Nyle earned it by slalom skiing early one morning. Ned also got really close to performing a 360 on the surfboard. He was able to complete the 360 but struggled to stay in the wave afterwards. Next year...

Ned and Nyle with their newly earned Merch

Wake Monkey Awards

Gwen at Daddy-Daughter night surfing

Dads and Daughters

Zach's a natural

Love this action shot of him!

Kendall and Gwen trying to match Adam's height

Uncle Rick- the G.O.A.T

Janae's pretty amazing too!

Ned caught some air!

Nyle makes it look so easy!

So many hours spent on the runway

Gwen had fun surfing and wakeboarding, but no merch this year, and Dad and I also enjoyed surfing, but no merch for us either.

We awoke in the middle of the night on Monday or Tuesday to a raging storm. We were staying in the master bedroom upstairs, and when we opened the door, we were met with a virtual wall of water from the storm. Dad and I were a bit worried that the ropes wouldn't hold on the anchor, so we went out to check them. The port side of the boat was super taut, but the starboard side had the ropes practically dipping in the water (not good). Rick got up as well, and together, we tightened the ropes, but by then the storm seemed to be dying down a little. We checked to make sure that both his and Darrin's boats were staying put, which they thankfully were, then went back inside to ride out the storm. When we awoke the next morning, all seemed well, however, on further inspection by Bowen, we discovered that Darrin's boat sustained some cosmetic damage as it had apparently rubbed against the rock face during the storm. It wasn't too bad and didn't hinder us from playing the rest of the week, but it was a bit of a bummer for him. Others in the lake weren't so lucky, as we heard that some boats in another dock had sunk during the storm and had to be cut from the dock as they were dragging the dock down.

We had such a great time playing games, catching up, watching fireworks, eating a ton, and relaxing. We sure missed having you there and are so excited you'll be with us next year!