On Sunday, we had a birthday dinner for Sarah in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard in their pavilion. The weather was beautiful! Also, we picked up Mandy from BYU and got to visit with her, too! It was so fun to be with everybody and enjoy good food and good weather and celebrate Sarah!

This week was varsity regional finals for tennis! Cheyenne competed at first doubles with Maisie, and Calianne competed at second doubles with Elizabella. On Wednesday, Chey won her first match but lost her second in the third set after they had been up 4-1! It was a hard loss emotionally and meant that their first match on Thursday was super important and could mean no state. 

Cali won both sets on Wednesday but went to three sets both times! Her second match was against the first seeded team who they had lost to on the last day of region last week. After that match, she had pleaded for a new partner (someone she had played with the week before when her partner had been sick). It was a hard decision for coach and we were surprised he did it, but their win on Wednesday proved it had been the right decision. Plus, it guaranteed that they get to go to state. Cali was so happy!

On Thursday, in the very important first match, Chey and her partner won the first set but then lost the second set 0-6! It seemed like they had lost the ability to get a point against this team. They lost the first point of the third set, too! Ahhhh! We were all so scared. Incredibly, they started to come back! The third set ended 6-6 and went to a tiebreaker. This, they won 7-4. Yay! They qualified for the play-in game for state next week! They played another match that day and won much more easily. They finished at third place.

Calianne split sets and ended up losing her match on Thursday. The outcome was that she was second place instead of first in the region. We can deal with that! She played great! We had a great time watching tennis for two days straight! Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came and Kevin took off work and Sarah even came on Thursday. Such fun!

Benjamin had running club and karate this week. He also had activity days! On Saturday, while watching conference, he made himself some Ramen and then accidentally dropped it on his foot! The water had been boiling less than a minute before. There was much screaming. He has an impressive blister and he spent the next hour with his foot in cool water, but we think he will survive. Poor kid!

Bethany had karate this week and also cross country. She ran at Spanish Fork Jr. High on Friday and she did great! It is so fun to watch her!

The weather in Utah has been beautiful (well, apart from Wednesday morning when watching tennis was cloudy and freezing!). The mountains are taking on patchworks of color from the changing leaves and the sky is so BLUE! I just really needed to go hiking and I couldn't on Saturday because of conference (so hiking with my family was out) and my friend, Robin, has been sick, so I asked my new neighbors and Lesa was excited to come! We hiked Rock Canyon (behind the Provo temple) and it was beautiful!! I didn't get many pictures because Lesa doesn't stop as often as Robin! But it was great fun and I'm so glad I asked and she came and we went!

On Saturday, we did indeed watch conference! In the morning, before it started, I cleared out our front pumpkin patch for the season and Bethany helped me plant 40 daffodils! Will they all grow?? I sure hope so!

Megan and Ammon came for the afternoon session of conference and hooray for us because Cheyenne was going on another homecoming date--this time with Jens to his high school in SLC--and Meg did Chey's hair! Meg and Ammon stayed for hamburgers eaten at our picnic table amongst the acorns and beautiful view (have I mentioned the great weather?) and Chey left for great fun, looking amazing!!