The kids, especially Abby, were very excited for Halloween. I love the costumes they pulled together. Sara was a hip hop dancer, Abby was the Statue of Liberty and Kate was an injured mountain biker. Three costumes: 0 dollars! Love it!
We also reused the emoji trunk idea from last year.
I loved the jack o lanterns that the kids all carved. Matt, Kate and Sara all carved a bike related pumpkin. I loved that! It was fun.
Abby wasn't so thrilled about the school parade. She refused to wear her Statue of Liberty crown and didn't smile either. Oh well!
With bike season ending, it was time to get some long trail runs in to get ready for the 30k I'd signed up for. My favorite run was when Jerry and our friend Kenny rode their bikes along with me. I started as soon as we got to the parking lot while they got their bikes ready so I had a little bit of a head start. The game was to see how far I could make it before they caught me. I made it 9 miles out of 15 before they caught me! I was pretty excited about that because they didn't catch me on the uphill. I was feeling pretty confident after that run. I knew if I could make it 15 miles I could make it 18ish in a race. Also that was the farthest I had ever run so that was pretty sweet!
The next weekend Jerry and I explored some new trails in corner canyon that go down the other side. That was really pretty and fun as well. I felt really good about the upcoming race!
The Friday after the state race Matt and Kate had a day off of school so we went out for one last bike ride before winter set in. It was really great to just enjoy the day and the ride together. Matt took us on a trail that Kate and I hadn't been on before so that was fun!
It was a really pretty morning and I love being able to do this together. It's a great way to spend time with my kids!
This year the state mountain bike race was in St. George. We were all excited to go down and get some fun riding in while watching everyone race. When we got down there I rode the high school course with Matt and Kate so I could see it. Jerry had ridden it the last weekend with Matt. It was cool and I was glad I could ride it so I could know what they were riding through. After that Jerry and I took Sara on a ride on the Bear Claw Poppy trail which is one of Sara's favorites. It was such a beautiful day. I love the red rock with the deep blue sky. It's one of my favorite things!
Sara loves this trail and I love how confident she is getting on it!
The next day was Matt's race. He got called up in 27th place which was pretty awesome considering there was 100 kid in his race.
I love watching him race. It's so nerve racking not being able to see him for so much of the race and not know what's happening. It's always a relief when we spot his helmet!
I loved his finish and the way he blew past a couple of other riders.
He seriously had the race of his life. I thought that top 30 would have been a very realistic, solid race for him. I thought top 25 would have been an awesome race, and top 20 would have been the race of his life where everything came together at just the right time. He finished 20th!! There were 236 riders in the sophomore D1 division! We were so excited! He felt really accomplished, as he should have. He worked really hard this season and really learned some consistency. It was a great day and a great race to celebrate all that hard work!
The next morning everyone was tired and ready to sleep in and start the off season so Jerry and I went for a fun ride. It was so pretty and I loved riding bikes with him. I'm glad that we all have this hobby to do together!
The next night we had the awards program. It was pretty cool that Matt got to go up on the podium and get a medal. We were all very proud of him.
He's in the white shirt on the right.
Bingham also got their trophy for finishing 3rd in their region. That was pretty cool!
So Jerry had a dentist appointment one day and the dentist told him he was going to a Jimmy Buffet concert that night and Jerry knows I love Jimmy Buffet so we decided to go to it as well. I was totally excited. I have loved Jimmy Buffet since my days of running in high school and we'd listen to and sing all the songs on the bus while driving to track and cross country meets all over. Jimmy Buffet will forever remind me of Ron Keller and also of our river trip down Cataract Canyon because we sang his songs a lot down there. We didn't have tickets but figured it wouldn't be sold out. So we headed downtown, got free parking which was the first piece of our good luck. Then as we were walking in the box office had already closed so we were totally bummed but then there were these people coming out. They didn't want to stay for the concert and so since the box office was closed, the ticket guy just let us take their tickets and sit where they had been sitting which just happened to be only a few rows back on the floor! The seats were awesome. The music was great. It was such a fun night. I didn't even care that everyone around us was at least 20 years older. It was just so fun. Loved it!
We made our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the witches and have a cookie. We had a fun time hanging out together. The witches are hilarious. I love how Abby wouldn't sit next to this one. Silly girl! It was a beautiful fall day and good times with my girlies.
All the fifth graders go through the DARE program to learn about the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol. They've all liked it so that's cool. One thing that they have to do is write an essay at the end about what they learned. Sara loves to write and she put a lot of effort into her essay. Because of that hard work, she won an award for the best essay. The officer told her it was in the top few percent of all the essays he's read! She definitely has a talent for writing!
They sing some songs as part of their program and even though Sara looked less than amused, she did a great job and said she liked singing!
We finally got our first dusting of snow in the mountains in October. I love how pretty it looks! I love fall days.
This was an especially good fall day because I was able to get really good tickets to for Kate, Sara and I to go to the General Women's Meeting in the conference center. I was so excited to take them and Sara was so excited to get to go to the conference center for the first time. It was chilly out there, but we still had fun.
Our seats were really good and the meeting was amazing. It was so awesome to listen to the prophet and all the other speakers. It was definitely a highlight for me that I will always remember!
Afterwards we got dinner at Gourmandise which was fabulous! We had such a great evening out. I loved it all. I love these girls and I'm so proud of them. They are really growing up to be fantastic young ladies.
I love that Abby gets to do all these things that she has been watching her older siblings do her whole life. She wasn't so excited about the jog-a-thon but she did it anyway. I was proud of her for getting out there and doing it!
After Matt's last race his coaches jokingly gave him the nickname of "Sparkler" because he started off so strong and bright and then faded so fast! We all laughed so hard about that! Matt loved it too so he painted it on the back of his legs for a little fun. I love that he has a sense of humor!
The weather in Kamas was much more favorable and Matt was ready to bust another race and have a solid finish again. He started out great and raced really well.
Matt finished 10 and was excited to be back on the podium.
The Bingham team was also excited to be back on the podium finishing 3rd again.
I love Matt's form. He looks so awesome! I really love being at these races, in this environment and watching my kids and their teammates race. I never thought I'd love anything as much as cross country but this is definitely a close, very close, second!
Kate didn't race but she's an awesome cheerleader for her brother and everyone else on the team.
I love having my kids home, but by September 24 I was ready to have them all in school at the same time. I celebrated by taking Tulo on a trail run. I had signed up for a 30k trail race and it was time to start getting in shape for it. I love running in the fall. It's definitely my favorite
Right after Sara went off track it was Abby's turn. We had lots of fun things planned to do. First up was a lemonade stand with one of her friends. They were so excited to do it and loved selling it to anyone and everyone. It was a great day to be outside.
She got really excited when Kate and Sara got home from school. She has fun with me, but playing with sisters is definitely the best! They had lots of fun making up silly things to do.
We went to the zoo on her birthday. That was a super fun day. The weather was gorgeous and the monkeys were loud and crazy and it was super fun to watch. I loved spending the day with her!
I also got to babysit my friends little girl. I used the excuse that she needed to be held while she slept and I just sat on the couch and rocked her and read a book. It was pretty fabulous!
I had never been to Vernal or Dinosaur National Monument so I wanted to stay an extra night in Vernal so we could check some things out. We had fun spending the day together and it was nice not rushing home after the race when we were all tired.
First stop was to see the Vernal Utah Temple. It is definitely unique in that it's just a remodeled tabernacle. It was cool to check out the grounds.
After that we drove out to Dinosaur National Monument to see that. It was cool to see all the real bones that were still in the rock. It was worth the trip out so I'm glad we stayed and checked it out.
Kate was super excited and bummed for the race in Vernal. As a Devo rider, this was her last race. But she was having so much fun racing and kept improving so she was excited for another opportunity to get out there!
She really liked her Devo coach and all the kids really listened to him.
Kate had a great race finishing in 15th. She improved every race which made her feel very confident and super excited. Her skills improved so much this season and the great thing was her self confidence just went through the roof! I loved seeing her blossom into herself and find something that she really loves. It was worth all the sacrifice of getting her to practice and races and stuff. It was a great season for her.
One of the greatest things was all the people she met. She and Natalie got to be such good friends and have continued hanging out even long after the season has ended.
I loved how much Matt and Kate both got involved in the team and all the people. They both had a ton of fun. The team was also so good to include Sara and Abby. Those two felt so grown up and cool hanging out with everyone. I loved that they were included.
Matt got a little tired waiting around for his race...
Matt's coaches encouraged him to really push it hard this race. He definitely took that literally and went for it at the start. It was a little shocking and awesome to see him get the whole shot and lead the race for the first mile or so.
Unfortunately, he just couldn't hold on and didn't finish as well as he had the other races. He was disappointed in that, but he loved leading the race for a while. He learned a lot from the race which usually happens and is very valuable and he pointed out that he'll probably never lead a race unless he does it that way and it was kind of fun. So he was a little bummed but overall it was still a positive experience so that's good!
