Moab

The guys survived their 24 hour race in Moab, Utah. Dallin loved it, David liked it. It was hard, dangerous, dark, dusty. They had a five man team and each person rode a 15-mile loop, then the next guy would take off and do the same loop. Each loop took them about 2 hours. So the first guy started at noon, the next went out at about 2, then 4, etc. They rode that way all through the night (how would you like someone to radio you at 2 in the morning and tell you it's your turn to ride!). They drew numbers to see what position they would ride. Dallin was first, then David, Nick, Chris and then Mark. Since Dallin was the first to ride, with the way the laps went, he ended up riding the last lap. It was his 3rd lap and everyone else rode two laps. But he didn't care. He loves riding his bike. I liked the thought of the two of them being able to do something like that together.
OK, I've tried twice to add photos, but blogger is not cooperating, so they will have to wait!

On another note, I'm teaching Relief Society (women's class at our church) tomorrow. I hope it goes well. I'm just substituting, but I get so nervous. I'm not nervous now, but I will be tomorrow morning!

This is a picture that I took just outside of our front door. The clock tower in the bottom left corner is Hicks Canyon Elementary (Sara's school). The smoke is just billowing. Yikes! That's good for the lungs.

Where there's smoke...

OK, I'm officially tired of the wildfires. Thank goodness we are safe. We do have our bags packed in case we need to evacuate. We thought we might be evacuated on Sunday night because of the smoke. The sky is kind of a gray, orange, red. Very weird looking. This morning when we went outside, there was ash on everything. The kids have been going to school, but they aren't having PE, recess or after school sports. Lauren and Dallin had a cross country race scheduled for tomorrow, but it's been cancelled. It's been in the 90's for the past couple of days. It's supposed to be down in the 70's by Friday. My sister in law, Timani, is driving down from the SLC area to go to Disneyland with her kids. I hope the air there is a little better, as her oldest, Lance, has asthma. We are hoping to might them there on Friday since my kids will be out of school. We are praying for the firefighters and the people in the path of the fires to be safe.

Twelve

I can't believe it! Lauren is twelve today. Right now I'm sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen because the living room has been taken over by 11-12 year old girls. Eleven of them. And one isn't here yet. We are drowning in pink streamers (in 3 shades) and silver accents, including stars hanging from the ceiling with pink ribbon. There is a chocolate fountain and bowls of pretzels, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, madelines, graham cracker sticks covering the bar. Two empty boxes of pizza and many cans of soda and bottles of water are on the table. The girls are now watching Material Girls and when the movie is over we will be heading to the hot tub. Presents and cupcakes await us when we return.

The good news is that I don't need to entertain these girls. The are happy watching a movie, talking and listening to music. The bad news (and this is REALLY bad) is that I do not have a camera. David took his camera to Utah and mine is broken. I'm so sad! The room looks beautiful and so do all of the girls. And I won't have a single picture from Lolo's only 12th birthday! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. I guess I'll have a pretzel dipped in chocolate.

Update

It's been a while! After posting that I wanted to decorate for Halloween and plant flowers, I got sick. So, the flowers still have not been planted. Most of our Halloween spookiness is on the walls, counters and shelves, though. I still need to add the spider webs to the front porch. I thin Lauren is hoping I will wait until after her birthday, so I'll do that. She's going to be 12 on Friday! She's having a party with 10 friends. It's a pink party (surprise, surprise!), so tomorrow we are going to Party City to get some pink goodies and decorations. We are going to have a chocolate fountain! Yum...I can't wait for that. Lauren had said that she wanted to rent one for her party and two days later I was at a garage sale and found one brand new and still in the complete packaging for $10. Perfect! I think we will be renting a movie and the girls will be enjoying the hot tub, too.
David and Dallin will be out of town at the time of the party. They are going with a couple of friends to Moab, Utah for a 24-hour mountain bike race. They are on a team with 3 other guys. A father/son duo from our ward and another guy that they don't know. We are all hoping the weather will be good for them. Apparently, last year it rained the whole time. The father/son that David and Dallin are going with are a family that we knew 10 years ago in Portland. We were in the same ward and we had had dinner at their home. How crazy that we ended up in the same ward 10 years and 1100 miles later! The mother of the family (Anne) is a friend that I walk/hike with once a week.