10 September 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 520
Aura and Antonio’s wedding
Endia and Cougar, Yarima and Selvin, Luis and Emma, and now Aura and Antonio! With only a few days to spare, we have had four weddings in one year!
Aura and Antonio’s wedding was simply beautiful. I can tell that Antonio makes Aura very happy. It was great to celebrate this wonderful evening with them.
There is something sacred when two people make this kind of commitment to each other. Thank you for letting us be a part of everything!
Family at Aura and Antonio’s wedding
There's one week until Homecoming, and planning it has been an adventure. I'm supposed to get the color of Hazel's dress any day now, because she just got back from Honduras, and when I get that, I'll be able to buy a matching tie, and then get the corsage.
I've been debating whether or not I should get a bow tie, or just a regular tie, and I've come to the conclusion of just doing a normal tie. I'm so excited and can't wait for the dance!
Starting up school after summer break
On Friday, Aura got married! Congrats Aura! I honestly didn't know that Aura was getting married until the day of the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, and the refreshments afterwards were quite delicious. Endia kind of taught me how to dance the salsa, but because I'm not the best dancer, it looked really weird. It was fun to learn the basics though.
On Saturday morning, we had a temple trip with some friends. Bridger and Sophie Zimmerman, Jack Haymond, and Riley all went to the temple with Gloria, Isaac, Veidi, Kai, and myself. It was a super cool experience, and I can't wait till we can do it again sometime.
We then all went back to our house and had some breakfast. After breakfast, our friends went home and we went to a service project. We put wood chips in some flower beds at a park, and that was pretty much it.
Braden and Ellie eating ice cream
Labor Day was a fun day for us because we got to hang out with Braden all day! Ellie had been wanting to go to the library, but since it was closed for the holiday, we took her to Barnes and Noble to look at books. Afterwards, we walked around the outlet mall and got some ice cream. It was a simple outing, but it was fun to get out of the house and spend time together.
On Saturday, Ellie went to her friend's birthday party. She was super excited when I told her she was going to be swimming. We got to the party and there was an inflatable pool and water slide. Ellie was excited until she got in the water and it was cold. It wasn't a super hot day, so the cold water wasn't very refreshing.
It was funny to watch because all the other kids were running around soaking wet and having fun while Ellie stood completely still with a straight face. She didn't like the water but she loved the rest of the party!
Ellie on her bed
I woke and picked up dog poop. Then we went to church. Then we went home.
Then we had a snack after me and Troy played with Legos. Then I took a nap. Then we had dinner.
Quinn snuggling dog
Aura got married, so we went to that. She was so happy, and it made me happy to see that. I really liked how her wedding looked. It was so beautiful. Congrats Aura!
This week me and Isaac went with Mom to her work to help her teach a class. We helped set up and stayed there for her whole lesson. She did a really good job teaching.
She taught about gratitude and positivity. At first the people were really shy, but Mom got them comfortable, and got them to talk.
It was Max’s birthday this week. He is five years old. I looked for healthy treat recipes for him and the other dogs, and I found some good ones. I can't wait to make dog treats for them!
Family at Aura and Antonio’s wedding
This week for our ward youth activity, we went to Copperstone Park and played capture the flag. It was really fun, because all the girls didn't go off into their own little group and not really play. This time they all were involved and we had a lot of fun.
For the first game we played, my team won. We started a second round, but gave the other team one of our strongest players, Nico Franco. He is the one who got the flag for us.
When the other team had a only a few people left, I went over to the jail and made a deal, which I knew might backfire on me, as it sometimes does. The deal was that I release four people from their prison in exchange for the whereabouts of their flag, but they (Aaron) didn’t show me where it was! A couple of people on my team were a little upset, but not for long.
Ward youth combined activity
Then when the game was dragging on too long, one of the leaders said, "In two minutes, no tagging, just run over and get the flag, and whoever comes back with it first, wins."
We asked Aaron again where the flag was, but they got our flag before we could find it. After they won, when Aaron went to retrieve their flag, he went to the opposite side that he told us. We were all like “What!?! You lied again?”
It was okay in the end, and we all had a lot of fun, and I would love to do it again, minus all the lying and cheating, but I still had a ton of fun, and I think everyone else did too.
London in Mom’s new hugging hammock
What a busy week! Fall semester at BYU started up and I'm finally far enough along to start taking psychology classes towards my major. College classes sometimes feel like they're never ending, but now that I've got a couple more classes tailored towards my interests, so I'm excited.
Being a student at BYU isn't the easiest thing, but I really do love getting to spend time on campus each day.
Congrats to Aura and Antonio for their wedding on Friday! Aura looked beautiful and they both seemed so happy!
Family at Aura and Antonio’s wedding
I spent the morning of my 24th birthday in the Saratoga Springs temple. Later on, we enjoyed eating delicious food and laughing with friends and family. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I love you all!
Endia and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on the 10th! Endia continues to amaze me the more time we spend together.
President Nelson has taught that "[Heavenly Father] gave you and me an unlimited capacity to love." Everyday Endia, I find myself falling more and more in love! You are an amazing wife, and I am so excited for you to be a great mother!
For our first anniversary, she also surprised me with this poster of all our great memories from our first year together!
School has been a little rough lately because I have been struggling with math. But my other classes are mainly good and ahead.
Isaac has been coming to work finally, and he stated his training. He also isn’t going to be a sub anymore, and can work every day. Now there are four Hill’s at work, and they said that they can’t take any more of us at the same time, because they are worried what would happen if we go on vacation or something.
For our youth activity this week we went to Copperton park and played capture the flag. After the game we ate some hotdogs and played on the playground. On Thursday I was able to hangout with Riley and we watched a movie and played some Uno.
Seminary has been awesome because I am able to learn more and I stated to talk to more people. I like how Brother Berry teaches because there is always a game.
On Friday we were able to go Aura's wedding. It was super cute. Antonio seems like a good guy and I am happy for their family.
On Saturday we were able to got to the temple with a few of our friends like Riley, Bridger, Sophie, and Jack. After the temple, we went to our house with our friends, and ate breakfast. Mom and Dad had already left to go to the Saratoga Springs temple. After breakfast we went to the do the day of service.
Family at Aura and Antonio’s wedding
On Wednesday, we had a combined youth activity with our ward. We played capture the flag. I realized that I'm "out of shape." I was not ready to run around and play capture the flag, and I was having a hard time catching up to people! Afterwards I felt really sore, cause I didn't stretch before or after.
On Thursday, we had our stake sports thingy that we do every week. We were playing kickball. I'm not really a fan of kickball, but I went anyway. I had a decent time, but I was still feeling really sore, so running around to bases did not help.
Friday was Aura's wedding! Congrats Aura and Antonio. The wedding was pretty neat, and afterwards we had refreshments.
Kai playing homemade battleship
On Saturday, Monte, Gloria, Isaac, Veidi and I woke up early to go to the temple with some friends of ours. It was a pretty fun appointment, and afterwards we asked if our friends wanted to eat some breakfast burritos at our house. Mom had made the breakfast burritos the night before, and they were "muy delicioso!"
When it hit 9:00am, we went to a service project down at the corner of 56th and 70th. Basically we cleaned up and replaced the old wood chips with new ones.
This week was a banger! It was really fun, but somewhat tiring.
Troy playing with Kai via handheld radio
Me and Quinn got back in the habit of playing Legos. It has been a pretty long time sense I have played with Legos. I play with Legos after school, and I have 85% and above with all greens.
On Friday we went to Aura's wedding. She was getting married to Antonio. After the wedding, we had refreshments and they were so delicious. I think Ashton, London, Endia and Cougar made them. After the party Endia and Cougar were going to sleep at our house.
When we got home we got ready for bed. When Endia and Cougar came, we played a couple rounds of Qwixxx. which was a dice game with some colors, and it was so fun!
in the early morning I woke up and had some breakfast at 6:00am. Because Mom and Dad and the Olders were going to the temple, I had to babysit Quinn and Joanna while they went to temple and the service project afterwards.
Family at Aura and Antonio’s wedding
This was a busy week! The biggest highlight was Aura and Antonio’s wedding. I had a lot of fun and it was awesome to see everyone together and so happy.
Saturday we went to an endowment session for the first time at the Saratoga Springs Temple, which is definitely my favorite temple in terms of the way it looks. So amazing!
Tuesday was the busiest night. I had a haircut right after work, and then dinner with an old mission companion. After dinner I then met up with one of my friends who ended up trying to get me sold into this “community of entrepreneurs.”
It was a little strange to me, but these people are everywhere! This is my third time trying to be recruited by them and it’s so weird every time it happens!
Dad reading “Big Bad Wold” to children
Congratulations Aura and Antonio! I loved your simple but beautiful backyard wedding ceremony! There was such a good feeling there as we all spent time with you and with your wonderful friends that helped put everything together.
It was also great to spend a part of Cougar’s birthday visiting the Saratoga Springs Temple for the first time since we attended the open house a couple months ago. What a beautiful place!
And on top of everything else, this is the week that I started teaching classes at BYU again. I was pretty nervous getting back into the swing of things, and I am having to redo all my lectures from nine years ago—so much has changed!
Children listening to Dad/Grandpa
This promises to be a very busy semester, not only because of the time it takes to create each class lesson almost from scratch, but also because I am teaching four days a week, and commuting eight hours a week to do it. Normally, I would have back to back classes either on Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday, but since I was hired later in the process, I had to take what was available.
It will be a balancing act for sure to keep on top of BYU teaching stuff while still trying to move our MyPack Dog Training business forward at the same time. I’ll admit, as I’ve spent the last couple weeks hyper-focused on getting ready to teach, our training appointments have suffered, and that’s after we’ve already had a few weeks of slowdown on appointments!
However, despite the additional stress, I know God is leading us to a better place. He will watch over us, and take care of us. Sometimes, He lets us stress and worry more than we would like before the help comes, but help always comes when we let Him be a part of our lives, and sincerely go to Him in prayer!
Dad, Antonio, Aura, and Mom