Sleeping Beauty - Riverton Arts Council

Sofia has taken up acting...

This is her 4th play and she is enjoying it. Sleeping Beauty was the play that required the most time and effort on her part. She was cast as Fumpfel, the lead "goon" of Malificent, the uninvited fairy in the story.

When she finished the Herriman Pirates! play this summer, she had to think about trying out for "Sleeping Beauty" because she is not really a princess girl. But when she found out that she could try out to be a "goon,"

she was ready to go!

Sleeping Beauty pics 2

Sleeping Beauty pics

Ogden Marathon...

Congratulations to Jose and Sofia... Jose completed his 2nd marathon yesterday and reached his goal of under 4 hours. He ran the Ogden Marathon in 3:54. Sofia ran the KidsK - her first official race. It was about one mile and ran along the end of the Marathon Course. Both are extremely happy with their efforts. Alex also planned to run, but had a baseball game that he could not miss Saturday morning. He did run our Stake's 5K Fun Run on May 9th and came in 1st place for primary age children. He ran the 5K in 34 minutes.

Shorts & flip-flops in February!!!

Jose has the running bug... and his latest race was the Ragnar Del Sol Relay (213 miles from Prescott to Mesa). Of course, we had to make a family trip out of it because we all wanted to see the sun and breathe the fresh mountain air.

Our plan was to drive to Page and spend a day with Kristi and her family before continuing to Phoenix to spend a couple of days with Laura and Adam. But Kate and Rachel got a stomach thing the day prior to our arrival and we did not want to risk Jose puking his way through the race. So we drove to Flagstaff, spent the night, and then took a very scenic and relaxing drive through Sedona and the AZ back country on our way to Phoenix.

Oak Creek Canyon was beautiful!

Oak Creek Canyon...

We took a short hike along the canyon. Alex was disappointed that we didn't follow the trail all the way down to the creek so that he could go rock jumping! If you look closely, you can see the creek way down under the bridge, kind of over to the left!

Tuzigoot National Monument

So I just realized that even though I uploaded a number of pictures from Picasa, I guess blogspot only lets 4 of them appear in a post. So you are missing out on all of our fun in Sedona. It was a fun little town, although I about died at the idea of spending $60 on lunch - for a slice of pizza each. Luckily, I thought, "there must be some other restaurants somewhere off of this little Main Street Tourist Trap" and we only ended up paying $25.

Tuzigoot seemed like quite a funny name. But it was really an neat site. From what I read before arriving, I thought it would be cliff dwellings like in Mesa Verde. To my surprise, it was a stone castle up on the top of a hill. It was neat. We also went over to Montezuma's Castle, which was built by the same (Sinagua) Indians. They were both specatular. But, the most interesting thing was a timeline that put perspective on them. They were built at the same time as Notre Dame in Paris. We all had to pause and consider the great differences in life in Europe and life in the Americas.

Cerreta's Candy Factory

Laura is in Glendale, and as I searched for things to do close to her (besides swimming at the pool and playing at the vollyball court), I read about this little candy factory. Cerreta's gives tours each day, and we thought it would be fun. All of their chocolates are hand made. We enjoyed the tour and the samples! Alex really wished he could have a bite of the 330 pound Cardinals football!

Cardinal's Stadium

Although Alex could not have the Cardinal's chocolate football, he was thrilled to go to Cardinal's Stadium and go on a tour. It is an incredible stadium. Unfortunately, there were no players around. But Alex did go into the "Visiting Team" locker room.

Ragnar Del Sol...

Last, but not least, the reason for our trip to Arizona... the race. Jose's team ran the relay in 28 hours, 29 minutes, 32 seconds. They were 47th out of 214 teams, and 12th in the Men's Open Division. Jose had a great race. His average pace was 8:25 for the 17.4 miles that he ran. He even ran his last leg (a little over two miles) with an average pace of 7:52. Way to go Jose!!!

We (Laura, the kids and me) even decided to go pump him up for his middle of the night run. We drove out into the no-man-land close to Wickenburg, AZ at midnight to wish him well. He was very surprised to see us.

Saturday afternoon we met up with Matt and Kelly Fairbanks. We had a nice visit with them, and then went to eat at "In 'n Out Burger" We'd never been before and it has been such the controversy with the knock-off here in American Fork. After dinner we got on the road and headed up to Page. The stomach bug had passed, and we wanted to see Kristi and her family. We spent an enjoyable Sunday morning with them. Kristi fixed us a tasty lunch, and then we were on our way home.

Needless to say, I am already missing the sun and flip-flops of Arizona!

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.