happy HAL-O-WEEN

I think it's clear he prefers Dole.

Photo Shoot Fail

So I didn't rotate all the pictures---rotate your head instead. Let's just say Hal decided to be a 6 month old and the cute monkey photo shoot was a fail.

Still mastering the art of sitting

creepy cat that has no tail

27

 

All I wanted for my birthday was to spend the day with my boys at the Pumpkin Patch. Besides the fact it was 89 degrees on October 11--it was perfect! Nothing like hay rides, slides, farm animals and pumpkins to make a day great. (I won't like I do miss Circle S, but Butler's Orchard was pretty good too). 

Now that I am 27 (one of my favorite numbers by the way) I felt I needed to do a little accounting. In the past 27 years I have:

been in school for 19 years

received 3 diplomas (UAHS, BYU, OSU)

been married once

had one baby

served a mission in the Philippines

visited 4 countries (Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Philippines)

seen 26 temples

been inside 7 temples

technically owned 1 car-a 93 Camry purchased by my dad and gifted to me

lived in 2 states (Ohio and Utah) and 1 district (Washington)

Read the Book of Mormon a minimum of 25 times

Read the Old Testament cover to cover once

Rushed the field after 2 football games (State Championship 2000 and OSU vs ND 1996)

taught my Mom how to text

cracked one windshield

wrecked zero cars

had zero speeding tickets (and only a handful of parking tickets)

You get the idea.

All in all I am blessed and grateful for my life!

50 Miler.

Seven years ago, I received a phone call from a mission friend. He asked me if I would help him with his scouts 50 mile bike ride. We went out to the desert west of the Salt Lake Valley, I followed the boys in my truck as they rode on parts of the Pony Express trail.

Now it was my turn to take the boys in my scout troop on a 50 mile bike ride. We have been partnering with the Bethesda and Potomac wards for the cycling merit badge. Our adventure began by camping along the Potomac river, at Swains lock, in Potomac, MD. On Saturday morning we were joined by Elder Hardie of the 70 and Bishop Marriott, both members of the Potomac Ward, and active cyclists. The would lead us (15 young men and 6 leaders) from the campsite to the Washington DC LDS temple. From there we rode down Rock Creek Park (which I may add is beautiful this time of year). We stopped by the Lincoln Memorial to take the above photo, we turned around at a very windy Haines point. From the Lincoln Memorial we took the Capital Crescent trail back to the C&O tow path to our camp.

I would post the data from my garmin, I'm sure about 3 of you would find that interesting. I will say we set off at 9:30 am... 57 miles later... I finished about 30 minutes before the next scout/leader. All the boys and leaders were back safe by 5:15pm...

Three of the boys did the ride in jeans, I told them how impressed I was that they rode in jeans, one of the boys piped up and said "I did it in skinny jeans!".

203

Reza just raced an Olympic Distance triathlon on September 25. It was way too hot for being the end of September but he did an awesome job. We invite everyone we know to plan on doing it next week. We can rent a sweet house and have a great weekend at Smith Mountain Lake, VA.

Go Cougs.

I am still working on my sports photography. If you look closely you will see Reza.

What a finish!

Carnivore

Hal likes to put the entire head of his rubber ducky in his mouth. Silly boy.

The Pantry

It's a thing of beauty. We live closer to a grocery store, than you can park next to one. We have come to call it the pantry. Awesome, I went there twice today. We go there almost daily. Why keep a pantry stocked when you can just go across the street and get what ever you need. The produce is always fresh, and always there. We can buy fresh fruit and veg that we are going to eat right away. I love it, If I want some gummy bears after dinner, boom, 90 seconds later I have them. It's half time and I want chips and nacho cheese, boom, I'm back before the commercial break is over. One night, we had already sat down for dinner and I wanted some sweet chili sauce. I was there and back, and the food was still hot.