The Bikers

CrossVegas kicks off this week and we were lucky enough to host a few riders from the Hudz-Subaru cycling team on tues and wed nights. CrossVegas is a local cyclocross event. My understanding of cyclocross is that it's a cross between road biking and mountain biking. There are almost 200 racers in town to compete. The team set up shop in our garage and before we knew it the place was transformed into biking heaven for Mike. At one point I walked out and was greeted by a ton of wheels everywhere. I'm sure they were expensive but I really don't know the difference. I just saw Mike drooling quite a bit.

We had strangers in and out of our house for two days but they were all super nice. It was interesting to talk to them, learn about the work they are doing, and about their families. Wed morning I woke up to find someone sleeping outside in my backyard. Both girls gave up their rooms for the cause. Brianna set up shop in our closet and Chelsea inherited Mike's half of the bed since it was his idea to host the team. Cord loved to sneak off into the garage to be a "helper". He also loved talking to all of our new friends. He made interesting conversations with them such as "you have flowers on your leg" (commenting about one of the girl's tatoos)

In trade, Mike got a couple of VIP tickets to the event. He took Chelsea and she took pictures. She said they had a great time. At one point in the race they have to hop off their bikes and run up some stairs. Wierd.













Sue was one of the team members who stayed with us. She ended up taking 5th overall in the womens competition.

Chelsea's award

Today Chelsea was awarded her Young Womanhood Recognition medallion. She has worked very hard for this and has done all the work on her own. We are very proud of her accomplishment. The last thing she had to do was finish reading the Book of Mormon. When the bishop was presenting her with the award, he talked about how much he enjoyed visiting with her, learning about her different projects, and hearing her testimony. We look forward to seeing her name on the plaque on the wall in a few weeks. It was nice to have family come down to support her. We had a BBQ last night and she entertained us with her guitar. She is a very talented young lady.

Truman brothers concert

Tonight the girls attended a tri-stake activity with a BBQ and concert by a new LDS duo called the "Truman Brothers". They couldn't stop talking about how much they loved the music and how amazing the night was. Oh, and there was a couple meantions about how cute they were. They bought the CD and got the to autograph it.

I did it

Wish I could take credit for this one. Cord has learned (with no help from his parents) how to write and spell his name. He was out in the garage keeping himself busy when all of a sudden he announced "I did it". What a smart boy.

Scrapbook USA

It's time for our annual trek up to SLC for our scrapbook expo. But this time we expanded our posse. Melissa and Shelley joined us and Shelley's sister, Cindy, flew in from Reno to spend the weekend with us. It was so much fun. This time Brenda and I took some of the classes that were offered. We wanted to learn more about digital scrapbooking. So while I didn't get as many pages done that I normally do, I really enjoyed the classes and felt it was great to get me started in the digital world. I'm not ready to go 100% digital, but I'm hoping it will be good to help me get caught up. So we scrapped, shopped, and laughed ourselves silly. Brenda and I even won some prizes this time. We got to SLC by 10:00 on Friday and stayed until midnight. Thanks to Melissa, we got a hotel room really cheap. Apparently there were some snoring issues that night so it made it a little difficult for people to sleep, but all I'm saying is that I was SUPER tired and slept great. The snoring didn't bother me :). We headed back to the expo Saturday morning by 8:30 and stayed until 6:00. We got back to St. George a little after 1:00 am. It was a quick trip but so much fun.







I got 13 two page layouts put together and did these 3 cute digital pages in the classes. The teacher made it so easy, I just hope I can remember everything.

Grandparents day

Before we left Salt Lake we took some time for me to stop at the gravesite of my grandparents. I am also thinking about my grandma's birthday coming up on the 23rd. So I found these beautiful fall flowers for her. It was nice to be there for a few minutes and take some time to think about them. It was a little difficult for me to go up to SLC knowing that she wasn't there. I didn't go see her everytime I went up there, but it was always nice to know that she was there. I remember as a child going to this cemetery a lot to put flowers on the gravesites of my uncles. It was important to grandma that there were fresh flowers there as much as possible. So I wanted to return the favor. Miss you grandma!

Operation - escape the heat wave

The weatherman have predicted a "heat wave" today with temps reaching 107 deg. I don't see what the big deal is. We have been that hot all summer. But I guess it's because it's unusual to be that hot in September. After this weekend we'll hit the low 90's. So we packed up the family and headed back up to Mount Charleston. We went from 97 deg down to 79 and even hit some 60's on our way home this evening. It felt really nice up there. We packed a picnic and loaded some games, but forgot to get Cord's jacket into the car. That's why he's wearing daddy's sweatshirt. Brianna brought along her friend Emma who is spending the weekend with us while her parents are out of town. Mason invited his Friend Nicholas so we had a full car. We played lawn darts, bocce ball, helped Cord play t-ball, and played a little catch. Bri and Emma explored the area and Emma almost got stuck in the tree she was climbing. Chelsea preferred to kick back and read while she was relaxing We saw some wildlife in the trees around us (I think it was a wolf but there's some debate about that.) When it started getting dark we headed home. I asked Cord if he had fun and he said "I like it". I guess that means yes. This counts as our Labor day activities since I have to work sun and mon. Bummer because Mike actually has his first paid holiday off as a lawyer. We could have headed up to St. George or something. But this was a nice second choice.















For the first time ever, we had to let Cord go Pee outside on a "tree potty" (a hole in the ground by a tree) I've always tried to prevent this cuz I didn't want him peeing outside in the backyard because we had just taught him to do it in the wild. He had to go a couple times while we were out there. Then he found this cute tree stump that was hollow in the middle like a little seat. He kept sitting in it and saying "I go poop in this potty?" NO. Luckily he made it til we got home.






We stayed as long as we could but when the sun went down we had to head back down to. It was a nice evening. The kids even got along at least 95 percent of the time :)