Back to School

 My boys started the school year a couple of weeks ago.  These are some pictures I snapped quickly as we were running out the door on the first day.

Dallin is a Freshman this year.  He is excited to be at the high school.  He also just found out that he made the soccer team, so he will be a busy boy this fall.

Thomas is in eighth grade this year.  He is student body president at the junior high.

Jack is in 6th grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Krekeler.  Thomas had her for sixth grade too.  She did the best job preparing Thomas for 7th grade, so we were very happy that Jack was assigned to her class.

Drake is in 4th grade, so he moved up to the Intermediate school.  This is the first year that he has had a principal other than his dad.  His teacher is Mrs. Breedlove.  Jack had her for fourth grade too, so we know that Drake will have a great year in her class.

Tad is in 2nd grade.  His teacher is Mrs. Hancock.  None of our other boys have had her, but Jeremy says that she is a great teacher, and Tad is loving her class so far.  This is the first year that Jeremy has only had one boy at his school.

I love that handsome group!  Have a great year boys!!

Summer

One of the first things that we did this Summer was flying with Uncle Joe.  Jeremy's uncle flew up here and offered to take all of us on some short flights.  The boys loved it!!

We then headed up to Utah and spent a week there re-doing my parent's main bathroom.  It was full of green laminate countertops and a peach sink and tub.  They were all original to the house (built in the late 60's) and had seen better days.

Jeremy was too quick getting on the demo, so I didn't get to snap very good before pictures.

This is after the remodel.  The lighting in my mom's bathroom is terrible, so I apologize for the quality of these pictures.  We plan to add an overhead light in this room on our next trip up.  We just ran out of time.

The room looks very white in these pictures, but my mom has added lots of color with her decor.

While we were working on the bathroom, Dallin attended a session of EFY with his cousin, Paige.  He loved it and was disappointed to hear that he wouldn't be able to attend next year.  I am sure the new FSY will be great, but he loved meeting kids from all over and spending time on BYU campus.  Oh well.  At least he got to attend once.

After we got back we went camping with the Hatch family. Sadly this is the only picture I took.  My boys loved taking the ranger out for little drives.

Drake and Tad took a session of swimming lessons.  They both did great!!  Drake is getting to be a really good little swimmer and Tad came sooo far this year!

They were both rewarded with their favorite Spongebob ice cream bars on their last day.

There was not a single firework to be purchased anywhere on the mountain for the 4th of July, so we purchased some glow sticks and the boys had fun playing with them in the yard.

Thomas and Dallin took first and second in their age group at the Taylor 4th of July run.

And just to finish off this Summer post, here is the view of the walk up to my house.  The dwarf potentilla are coming along great and I love the happy little yellow flowers that are always covering them!

I also love my pretty hanging baskets.  I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and they look even better now.  They make me so happy.

It has been a good summer.

Tad is Eight!

Our baby Tad turned eight back in June and was baptized! 

It was a good day and we are so happy with what a good boy Tad is!!

Per tradition, I made him a quilt to celebrate his special day.

He picked out the pattern and the fabrics for this quilt. I will try to get better pictures of it up on the blog soon.  But, with my blogging frequency lately, I wouldn't hold your breath.

As usual, I am feeling pretty nostalgic during this special time for our little Tad.  So, per tradition, I will share a whole bunch of pictures of him through the years. . .

We love our Tad and we are so grateful that our family was blessed with him!!

April/May 2019

April and May were busy months.  Both Dallin and Thomas ran track again this year.  Dallin was injured running the 100m at the first meet of the year, so he gave up sprinting and focused on high jump. This was his first year doing that event and he loved it.  He did well.  He placed at every meet and won at the qualifier.  He took second at the championships, right behind a boy he had beaten at the qualifier the week before, but Dallin was happy about it.  At the last minute the coaches asked Dallin to run the 200m at the qualifier, so he agreed and took 2nd, so he ended up going to the championships in that event and finished on the podium in that event as well.  Not bad for an event he had not been training all season.  The coaches also asked him to run the 4x100 relay at the championships. Their relay team won at the championships.  It was pretty fun!

Thomas focused on running the 800m.  He placed at every meet, and qualified for the championships.  At the championships he finished off the podium but he was the 2nd fastest 7th grade boy, finishing less than a second behind the fastest 7th grade boy.  His finish also earned points for his team, and helped them win the Championship!  That sets him up pretty well for next year.

Thomas was also named Athlete of the month at the Junior High for the month of May.

Thomas decided to run for Student Body president at the Junior High.  We went with a Napolean Dynamite campaign theme, and it was a hit!  His uncle helped us put together this perfect poster for him to hang up at the school during the campaign.

Here is a better look at the poster.  I'm telling you, he could not have done a more perfect job of getting Thomas' face on that poster.  When I first saw it, I laughed harder than I have in a long time.

He was also allowed several smaller posters, so we made several that were similar to this.

We also made a bunch of these Vote for Thomas t-shirts that he and Dallin and a bunch of their friends wore during the week of the campaign.  They were apparently quite the hot item, and lots of people were asking them where they could purchase some "Vote for Thomas merch."

The campaign must have worked because Thomas won the election!  Dallin has been student body president this year, and Thomas will be next year.  We are getting quite the political dynasty going at that Junior High.

Thomas also played club soccer this spring.  He was a busy boy, but he loved it!!

Dallin, Thomas, and Jack all had their end of year choir concerts. 

Thomas made the Superintendent's list at the Junior High for the year.

Tad was awarded Best All-Around Boy in his first grade class.

Jeremy finished off the year with the traditional balloon drop at his school.

It was a good couple of months for the Hatch family!!

March/Spring Break 2019

In March, we decided to take our yearly family vacation during spring break.  We decided to go up to one of our favorite places on earth - - the Oregon Coast.  We went there on our honeymoon, and then flew up there with Dallin and Thomas 4 year ago over spring break.  This year, we decided to load all the kids up in the car and go again.  It did not disappoint!!
I took soooo many pictures on this trip.  I promise, even thought this post may seem like picture overload, you are only getting the highlights.

On the way up we stayed with my parents for a day and while we were there we took the boys to see the Bean museum at BYU.

We also took them to see this cool art exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.

After we left Orem, we headed up to Cascade Locks, OR.  We made several stops along the way, but this was my favorite.  Shoshone Falls.  The water was going crazy, and it was sooo cool to see.

Once we got to Cascade Locks, Jeremy and the boys headed to the hotel pool and I relaxed in our hotel room.  This is our favorite place to stay in the Columbia River Gorge.  This view was from the window in our room.  So pretty!

Another view from our room in a different direction.  I love this place!!

And, I just have to share our view we had at breakfast the next morning.

Such a great place to stay!!

After breakfast we drove across the Bridge of the God's into Washington, just so the little boys could say they had stepped foot in the state.

We then headed onto the Columbia River Gorge Scenic highway.  They had obviously had some snow recently, so it looked a little different from the last time we were there.  This is Horsetail Falls.

We also stopped at the famous Multnomah Falls.  It was cool to see it iced over.  We also took the hike up to the bridge that you can see above the boys in the picture.

It started to warm up after our first two stops, so we decided to take the hike to Bridal Veil Falls.  It is a fun little hike, so we are glad the weather cooperated.

The boys at Bridal Veil Falls.

We made a few more stops in the gorge as well as finding Jeremy's favorite bakery in Portland for lunch and then we headed to the coast.  Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese factory and then Cape Meares.

Cape Meares is one of my favorite places on the Oregon Coast and I just love this picture of my boys having so much fun there.

We headed down the coast and visited Cape Foulweather, the prettiest spot on the West Coast, if you ask me.

We stayed that night at our favorite place on the Oregon Coast, the Overleaf Lodge. I didn't get any great pictures this time, but this is Drake just outside of our room.  It is an amazing place to stay.

The next day we saw lots of lighthouses. . .

and beautiful coastal views as we worked our way down to California.  We stayed that night just outside of the Redwood National and State Parks.

We spent the entire next day exploring the Redwood Forest.  

None of us had been there before and it was really something awesome to see.

Seriously, pictures do not do it justice!

The next day we drove down the famous Avenue of the Giants.  It was incredible!!

And the following day we took the Pacific Coast highway for quite a ways as we headed toward home.  So beautiful!

We covered a lot of miles on this trip, but luckily my kids are great travelers.  We saw so many cool things.  I am so grateful that I have been able to show my kids so many beautiful and interesting places in our country, and I hope to be able to continue the tradition every year as they are growing up.