The Hanson Crew

 

 We painted Joshua's new room and moved his stuff over. He's most excited to have his own bathroom for most of the year while Ashlyn is away at school. He wasn't too happy about the grey paint color, but loves the bigger room and a nice big desk to use for homework.

 John and Ashlyn also enjoyed a 2 weeks cruise through Europe this year! He got another great deal on a repositioning cruise, and decided to spend a couple weeks spoiling Ashlyn before she goes off to college. They loved London, Russia, and France. They took a lot of pictures, but these are the only ones I had on my phone. I will try to update more later...

 Since Ashlyn has the biggest room in the house with her own bathroom and she will be away to college for most of the year, we have decided to switch the kids' bedrooms around. Ashlyn will be moving upstairs to the smaller bedroom (her old bedroom she had when we moved into this house), Joshua will be moving over to the bigger bedroom upstairs next to Ashlyn, and the 2 younger boys will be moving to the bedroom downstairs. Because Ashlyn's closet downstairs is for one person, we decided to turn it into a walk-in closet for the boys so they would each have a rod for clothes. Here is the progress on the closet so far...  

 I joined our neighborhood social committee this year and decided to help plan and organize a summer parade. We asked kids to decorate their bikes, strollers, and wagons and then we walked/rode through the neighborhood together. It was a good turnout and alot of fun. The boys helped leaded the line and played music on a speaker as we walked through. I am looking forward to more social events like this one in the future...

  Joshua and Jonathan committed to another season of summer swim in our neighborhood. They love the exercise and hanging out with friends. The tan is a bonus! Go Coves Crocs!

  Jonathan is our third teenager to get braces put on and it looks like the first to have them on for 2 years. We're excited to see if it helps move two teeth down from his top gums as well as even them all out.

 Ashlyn went to Truman University today in Kirksville, MO to sign up for her classes, meet her roommate, and get a freshman/new student tour. She is a little more excited now that it's all done. She will move in one week before the older classman so she can adapt to college life for a week before it actually starts. She's very excited to be a Bulldog!

 Ashlyn's graduation was so fun and very special, but we missed her Grandma Sue greatly. She would have loved to take Ashlyn on a senior trip when she graduated. So we decided to do it together in her honor. We chose New York and Canada. We saw all of the tourist spots including the Empire State Building, the 9/11 Memorial, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Statue of Liberty, and Times Square. Then we drove up to Niagara Falls. We recommend visiting New York at least once in your lifetime. Definitely go see a Broadway play while you're there. We saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Amazing! We made the mistake of renting a car so we could drive to Canada. We ended up taking the subway everywhere after the first day of driving. It's a nightmare driving there. We took over 100 pictures, but I am only sharing a few. Enjoy...