In our Handy Dandy NOTEBOOK!

{For 18 months – Jan ’17 to Jul ’18 – I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Our letter titles are taken from a list of family sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with her.  You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}

So last Sunday we celebrated Natalie's birthday at Grandma's, and she invited a couple of her friends.  =)  It was so nice to see some of them, especially Whitney & Stephen with their new little George.  Everyone's "nice talk" turned into this hilarious fight about how many things you're allowed to say in a big group, and also roasting Natalie at some point.

On Tuesday, Dad took Morgan with him down to Escalante scouting out the High Adventure trip.  This may have happened along the way:

Right?  And it's a stick shift.  But the middle of the desert is the PERFECT place to learn.  

This is the week of Last Week of School performances, etc.  The kids had a world cultural dance festival, instead of just a singing performance.  See if you can spot Derek... just look for the smiliest kid, and you've got him.

Connor's performance had him facing away from me, so I only have pictures of the back of his head, so here are the twins.  Guess if they were so cute and excited about wearing their pioneer clothes for the third time this month.  They had so much fun:

Derek graduated from 6th grade, had a BBQ, and goes into 7th!!!

We had a visitor in our yard.  He was about 4-5 feet long, and nice & thick & healthy.  Guess if Zeus was excited or beyond himself:

Kids' last day:

And my favorite meme of the week:

Miranda, I've been thinking so much about you.  I've been thinking about you in Bolivia, but also been thinking back on when you did all these things the kids are doing.  Your 6th grade BBQ, your HS graduation, your news that you got into BYU, your mission call.  All the things the kids around us are doing in the neighborhood.  It's so exciting, and I can't believe I have a child who has done all of them.

We sat the kids down tonight and went over our goals and schedule for the summer; mostly our daily schedule.  We're going to do one of the summers where we get up every day and have family prayer and have a certain amount of exercise, yard work, reading, chores, and free time.  The kids handled it really well hearing that they weren't sleeping in every day, and that the first week of every month (starting tomorrow) is NO SCREENS.  They didn't really see it coming, so I'm really proud of them for handling it so well.

Love you and we're praying for you.  Our official first package goes out to you on Tuesday, so let me know if there's anything else you want us to throw in.  xoxoxoxoxoxox, Mom


And the stuff that didn't make it in the letter:

Derek looked so handsome graduating from 6th grade:



Jeff took the kids + Bobby to Chuck-a-Rama to celebrate:



And the kids said goodbye to some exceptional teachers.  We really scored at Westfield this year.  Mrs. Stark:



Mr. Pratt:



And Mrs. Bjornberg & Losee:



Here is a record of the most bittersweet days of the year for Zeus.  He tries so hard to entice every animal, no matter how big or small, to come play with him.  He's in heaven, barking his heart out.  He adds a little puppy tone in the end of his bark when he's trying to convince them that he's super nice and they would have SOOO MUCH FUN if they would just come over to his fence.  Poor poor boy.