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!