We got rain! And right where we needed it! And guess which day? Just guess. It was a miraculous Sunday blessing! Yay! It didn't wipe out the fires but it helped them get more in control for which we were grateful.

Cheyenne lost her voice this week! She didn't talk to us for three days! I kept her home from school Monday but after that, she just plugged along. She did agree it might not be good to run while she was sick, so she opted out of cross country practices until Friday. I thought that was a good idea. The girls did get their cross country shirts this week. They're really cute!

Calianne ran in a cross country meet without her sisters this week! Varsity doesn't run in the Red Devil Invite and Chey was sick, so Cali soldiered bravely on! She did great!

Mariah worked three days this week since she helps at Springville Rec with Cub Soccer and they had a make-up day. She was also up early three days this week, twice with basketball and once for the annual cross country Denny's run (that was Friday so CC ran, too!). Then there's everyday cross country practice, and basketball at the rec whenever she can fit it in, and calculus. Plus it was homecoming week, so she went to movie night (Napoleon Dynamite), the burning of the S, the football game, and, of course, the dance. What a week!

Yes, I did do her hair. Yes, I am proud of it. :)

Meanwhile, back on the home front, Beth and Ben had a karate tournament on Saturday! They both did really well. Neither one fought but they both competed in forms and Ben competed in weapons where he even won a 2nd place trophy! It was fun to watch them. They really enjoy it and seem to be doing well!

Combined forms

Combined forms

Weapons

Individual forms

And how did Ben do without screens all week? Well he was busy with karate and flag football (two "tackles" this week!) He also played in the dirt! And earned money by washing my car! It made me happy. I hope it did him, too.

 

Savannah is doing well in her classes and at work. She is usually gone from morning to dinner, but we love seeing her everyday and hearing about things when she gets home! She had a friend over for some Avatar Sunday night. It's one of her favorite things you know!

The fires continue to rage behind the mountains around us. We had to go to a pre-pre-evacuation meeting at the high school, but the fire is still pretty far away from us. There are about 2000 firefighters working on these fires as well as planes and helicopters and crazy amounts of other resources. I am humbled to see so much effort put into saving people and property and land and livestock. It seems that we spend a lot of time criticizing our nation, but some things they do really, really well and it's so good and beautiful to watch.

So, the smoke continued to be a problem all of our mornings, but the afternoons always cleared up. So, the kids could still do cross country and tennis and flag-football. They were grateful for that! They've had plenty of practices cancelled because of it this fall!

Savannah had a couple of sick days this week with a stomach bug. Other than that, she's been doing well. She got to attend a baptism for a convert in her singles ward and she loved that! It reminded her so much of her mission.

Mariah, Cheyenne, and Calianne attended the Bob Firman invitational cross country meet near Boise, ID this weekend. They left super early Friday morning, ran Saturday, and got back super late Saturday night. They all ran super races though and had a great time with their friends. The varsity team placed 8th and Mariah PRed by 15 seconds. The JV team, where CC ran, placed 1st and the twins both improved their times, as well!

Cali and Chey also had their final regional tennis tournament this week. It was Thursday and they played in the alternates tournament. They won their first two matches and then lost to some friends who are also on the Springville team! They were very sad to lose but their friends were really sweet and supportive. The end of the tennis season is always jarring with these single-elimination tournaments! But Chey and Cali had a great time being on the team, improved their tennis game, and made some great memories!

Bethany decided this week that she would like to get her hair cut! It really wasn't my idea, at all. I know that I have been behind most of my kids' brief forays into short hair and they have almost always been mad at me about it! Maybe I have learned a lesson? I don't know but I really stayed out of Beth's decision. She told me she was thinking about it. She asked to look at pictures of cuts on the internet. Then she told me she decided and could we do it Saturday? So! There you have it! She looks adorable! (But then, she always does!)

Benjamin had karate with Beth and also did flag-football and guitar and cub scouts. His friend in the neighborhood, Nico, has been coming around about everyday, too, so that is fun! Cheyenne bought a hoverboard with her very own money this week and the last thing she told me before leaving this weekend was to make sure Ben didn't use it while she was gone. After the second infraction, Ben has been grounded from all screens for the next week. We will see how that goes!

Savannah made it through her second week of the college semester and the good news is, she enjoyed it! She likes her classes and still likes her job and even got to work at the temple on Saturday morning. Her friend told her there were 100 days until Christmas, so she did some Christmas shopping, too!

Mariah attended the Senior Sunrise this week. We've been having fires on Nebo all week which is the mountain framing our valley to the south and we can see out our window. Sometimes the wind clears us out, but our mornings especially are like sitting in a bowl of smoke. So . . . it was a different kind of sunrise for the SHS class of 2019! They still made the best of it and had a good time together.

This was on a good day.

On Saturday Mariah, Chey, and Cali ran in the BYU Invitational for cross country. Usually that meet is in Provo but because of the smoke, they changed it last minute to USU's course in Logan (two hours north). Kevin had a free day so he decided to drive up and watch them and visit a friend of his while there. Mariah had a great race, placed 23rd, and got one of the t-shirts given to the top 30 finishers. Chey and Cali are worn down by doing two sports but still managed to have good attitudes and a fun day!

Bethany and Ben had karate on Tuesday and Thursday, Beth had activity days on Monday, Ben had Cub Scouts on Wednesday while Beth had piano, Ben had flag football on Monday and Wednesday evening, and Ben had guitar on Saturday. In between it all, they managed to invite the neighborhood friends over to play pretty regularly and draw an entire city on our driveway with sidewalk chalk (that was before the smoke got too bad to play outside). Ben also was given some Pokémon cards at school, and he has been crazy about that for the last few days. We like how he is trying to earn money to buy more!

We finished our second week of having family breakfast instead of family dinner and it has worked out well! We manage to meet around the table at 7am and I make sure everyone has their fruits and vegetables (green beans with breakfast!). The first week I tried to do mostly breakfast foods, but this week we did have chicken enchiladas for breakfast one day. Guess what? It's good in the morning, too. It's taken a lot of the stress out of the evenings and keeps people free to stay late at school (Savannah) or go to team night dinners (Mariah, Cali, Chey) or even be at flag football practice (Ben) and we still have a meal together every day! More of the leftovers get eaten, too, since kids don't know what to have for dinner. Bonus!

Chey and Cali went to St. George for a tennis tournament this weekend and Kevin, Beth, Ben, and I went to watch! Kevin's partner has a vacation home in St. George that he said we could use, so it made the decision to go down an easy one. It also made it so Grandma and Grandpa Elton could come up from Las Vegas and stay with us AND Sarah could come over from Jacob's Lake and stay with us on her day off, too! It was a party!

The twins played as doubles partners and they did great. They're really playing some great tennis even if they are playing as alternates right now. They placed third in the alternates tournament and the second place team was also from Springville! We had a lot of fun watching them!

It was super fun to see Sarah, too! She is enjoying her job and making new friends at Jacob Lake. Kevin got a new tire on her car and we went out for lunch at the Black Bear Diner (because black bears remind me of Sarah).  We had tacos for dinner and afterwards she applied to be a student at UVU starting in January! She had to go Saturday around noon but first she helped the twins with tennis pointers and morale and was just super fun to be with!

It was super fun to be with Grandma and Grandpa, too! They watched Cali and Chey and cheered them on and did everything with us Friday and took Beth and Ben to lunch on Saturday. Fun bonus, we also got to see Rebecca and Emily who are in St. George going to Dixie College! We hung out at their work place, Fiesta Fun, on Friday for a little bit and when they came to watch some tennis Saturday, we even got to meet their boyfriends. (We approved.) As we were driving out of town, we got to see Maggie and Liz who were down in St. George shopping for a dress for Homecoming. Yay! More hugs! If we'd had a chance to see my brother Dave, and Kevin's brother Jake, the party would have been complete! Who knew St. George was such a happening place?

Back at the homestead, Mariah ran in the Murray Invite and placed just seconds behind SHS's top runner. That's hard to do! On Saturday, Mariah went to a recruiting event for basketball. Girls came from all over the state (and some out of state) to play in front of college coaches. We don't know if anything will come from it, but Mariah had great fun so that's awesome.

Savannah finished her first week of classes on Friday! She decided she wasn't ready for Chinese 201, so she dropped it and she got down to business trying to figure out what a good major for her would be so she'd know what to take instead. She went to the advisement center and then she and I poured over majors and requirements (because I love doing that) and we are tentatively going forward with an English major (and several minors which she will need to narrow down to no more than two)! Ha ha! She just loves so many things! We think this will be a good match for her so we are excited for her.

It's been a great week!

Cheyenne and Calianne turned 14 this week! What beautiful young girls they are! We had Grandma and Grandpa and Anna and Erin over for a birthday dinner Sunday night and we had cake and blew out candles! We knew they would be busy on Tuesday (their REAL birthday) so we went out to eat as a family on Monday and then to the bookstore! On Tuesday, they had yearbook pictures for the cross country team and then their first cross country meet! It was pre-regions with two races. Cali and Chey ran in the rookie race and Chey placed 6th and Cali placed 11th! Woot! Great run!

Prayer before the run.

After the meet, Cali and Chey had tennis pictures and tennis practice until it was too dark to see. Dinner was PBJ between events. They also got awarded their team jackets for having practiced one hundred hours this summer! Cali's birthday present was a new tennis racket (which she got before the season started) and Chey's was that the whole family helped her finish the quilt that she started over the summer. It turned out pretty great!

Mariah also ran in pre-regions for cross country on Tuesday. She ran in the Varsity race and placed 2nd overall and 2nd for SHS. She ran a great race! She is looking really good. In other news, her internship for this semester will be with Springville recreation. They are even paying her for after school work. She loves it!

Bethany and Benjamin had a good week settling into their school routine and continuing with karate and piano for Beth and guitar for Ben. We've been having dinner at 7pm because tennis practice is until 6:30 so our evenings have been feeling really short!

Savannah is gearing up for her school year and did a little shopping in preparation. One of the things she bought was a Mulan rain jacket. It is pretty cool! She also got the kids ready for school on Friday and did the driving for me. She is a great help.

We needed the help because Kevin and I hiked Mount Timpanogos on Friday! Ahh! We made it! Finally accomplished this from my "Before I turn 40" bucket list. Good thing I still had some years after 40! Ha ha! It was HARD though and I'd been training all summer. We were on the trail at 6:20 am and back to the parking lot at 5:10pm. Besides about 20 minutes at the summit and about 20 minutes at the beginning when we were stopped by a moose, we were walking for almost 11 hours straight! Hello! Kevin's watch clocked us at 15 miles. My legs clocked us at "Are you crazy? I was done three miles ago." I am super grateful to Kevin because I really wanted to do it with him and he hadn't felt well most of the summer. He did great, though, of course! I was so happy to be there at the summit together!

We spot the moose!

The moose blocks the trail!

We watched the sunrise . . .

There's me!

At four miles we spot the peak in the distance. We're going there!

Timpanogos ahead.

Looking back...

The saddle! Our first view of the valley on the other side. Amazing.

Continuing on! We still had to make it to that little house on the summit. See it? I wasn't really feeling like we were "almost there!"

It's a little closer!

There she is!

Inside!

Here we are in the house on the summit! We made it!

Top of the world, baby!

Awarded "Best view from a toilet ever!" on the way down.

One more on the way down. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and look what you can do!