Halloween 2008

You'd think I'd be answering the door, but that's Baby Nikki's job this year. Alex, Sofia, and friends have already gone trick-or-treating and come home. Now they are getting ready to watch a movie. So I've got time to upload these, (besides, now that I have discovered Picassa, it is really quick and easy!)

Alex's accent was great! "Trik o Treeet, Alloweeeen"

Marathon Man...

Last March, a friend from our ward invited Jose to run the Wasatch Back Relay. This was a race on a team of 12 men and women who ran 180 miles from Logan to Park City over a 24 hour period. Jose's portion of the race was about 17 miles divided into 3 parts. After training for the Wasatch Back, Jose decided to run the Provo Half-marathon, then he decided he was running the

Top of Utah Marathon...

This is at about mile 18.5 where Nikki and I first caught up with Jose after finishing our 5K. We then leapfrogged ahead to cheer him on at 19.5, 21, 22, and 25 before finally catching him at the finish line. Alex had a football game this morning, so my mom came up and stayed with Sofia and Alex so he wouldn't have to miss out on his game. Thanks Mom!

Jose's official time was 4 hours, 34 minutes, and 17 seconds.

HOORAY for Jose!!!

Jose wanted Nikki to run the Top of Utah 5K (run on the last 3 miles of the marathon course the same morning), but she was nervous to do it alone. So I told her that I'd walk the 5K with her. We had a fun time doing it together.

Now that the marathon is over, Jose has signed up for another... He'll be running the Ogden Marathon in May (along with the Wasatch Back again next June, and the Ragnar del Sol - another Wasatch Back type relay in Arizona - in February). Go Jose!

Sofia and Alex start school...

So the summer's gone... now that all three kids are back in school, I have to figure out what to do with all my "free" time. I suppose getting caught up on the last month of our lives will be a good project for today.

Sofia and Alex are starting at a new charter school this year. Thus the "oh so original" clothes for the first day. Luckily for them, the dress code is fairly lax, and they will definitely be comfy at school. I don't think Sofia would have agreed to go if she had to wear a skirt like some schools require for girls.

Sofia's a STAR...

In July, Sofia auditioned for the Herriman Arts Council Summer Production, "School House Rock, Live". She made it into the yellow cast, and spent the next 5 weeks rehearsing:

"Conjunction Junction, what's your function?"

"A noun's a special kind of word, it's any name you ever heard..."

"I'm just a bill, yes, I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on capitol hill..."

There were 3 casts who rehearsed separately and then put it all together at the end. There werw about 120 kids involved. Sofia made some new friends and really had a good time. Last week they were live on the Early News one morning, then they had three performances. Each night she was excited that some of her extended family could be at the play.

Here are three short clips from the play. Unfortunately, my memory card was full, so I didn't get all of her songs.

Nikki's First Day of 8th Grade!

Today (August 25th) was Nikki's first day of school. She was very excited until she looked at her schedule and noticed that she didn't have classes with any of her friends. She left at 6:55am and had a pretty good day. She likes all of her teachers, and is very excited about her theater and spanish classes.

Saturday PM Jeeping

We had a great time in the morning, and around 4pm headed back out to do Hell's Revenge. Jose wasn't too concerned because we did this trail last year. Don't get me wrong. There were some parts we were not too excited for, but it wasn't going to be anything new. Or so we thought...

We started out just fine with Jose getting his foot stuck on both the gas and the brake at the same time. We were on a section of the trail where we could only go forward. Jose yelled for Adam to get out of the way, but... Adam didn't hear. Luckily, Brandon has a great mind for fixing things and figured out how to use the tire jack and a hammer to pound the bumper back into its proper form.

When we made it out to this fantastic overlook of the Colorado River, I knew that we were not where we had been before... Conrad "forgot" to tell us that last year we took a short-cut on Hell's Revenge and he had some "fun" in store for us this year. Jose just about died as we had to hug around a sloped curve with an endless drop-off on his side.

The last bit of "fun" was following thos black tracks down to meet up with Conrad and Adam. It sure presents a lesson in trust when your little brother says, "just a little to the right, ok now you just drive straight over the cliff and keep your wheels headed for the black tracks in front of you." You can bet that Sofia and Rachel (not without complaints on their part) were sitting down, with their seatbelts on for this part of the trip.

Saturday Morning Jeeping

Saturday morning, we rented four jeeps from Brad's Cliffhanger and went out for a fun day of four-wheeling!

I think that the most anticipated part of jeeping is being able to stand up as we drive along. Sofia especially was so excited to stand. She even got Grandma to stand up with her!

Conrad planned for us to go on a trail called "Fins and Things". It didn't take long for us to decide that the "things" were bumps. Kristi was certain that Kate was going to end up with Shaken Baby Syndrome, and I thought that I was going to have a bruised brain as well!

Alex doesn't mind missing football...

Alex's coach is adamant that they need to do 40 push-ups and 40 sit-ups daily. Alex thought this slab of rock at Windows would work nicely.

Coach Sham also requires the boys to stay hydrated. Alex (and all of the rest of us) filled up his water bottle at the spring just up the river road to ensure not only that his coach would stay happy, but that he would return again to Moab.

Somehow I think the chances of his return to Moab are greater than his return to Rome, even though he also threw a penny in Trevi Fountain to ensure that return.

Knight Family in Moab

Two summers ago, Kurt and Jenn taught the kids how to carefully dig down and extract a slab of sand at Sand Dune Arch, then to carve interesting shapes (mostly arches) out of the slab. We spend hours at Sand Dune Arch trying to create our own... This summer, Adam came up with the best plan of action. Instead of trying to get a slab of sand and carefully carve out an arch, he just pulled a slab of sandstone off a nearby rock and carved away. This masterpiece was dubbed, "flat side arch" for the flat back side.

Kate of course is adorable!!!

Where are the Curls???

Nikki and Sofia disappeared for a couple of hours this afternoon, and when they returned...

Sofia's curls were gone!! "Hi mommy!" she exclaimed trying to make sure everyone noticed her straight hair.

She spent most of the time screaming "don't burn me" but she was VERY excited about the final product!

"I love it!!" she said when asked to explain "I like how now I can brush it without getting hurt! My favorite thing is seeing how it goes all the way down to my pants."

Now she wants her hair straightened every day.

Sofia's Baptism

We've had a great week visiting with family and celebrating the Fourth of July, but the highlight of the week - and you know it must be important because I am actually posting...

Sofia's Baptism!!!

I am so happy for her. She is a super sweet little girl! We were all a little tired after our late night of Fireworks, but it was definitely worth getting up early to be at this special event.

Here's the group shot! It was great to have most all of Sofia's cousins, aunts, and uncles with us today!