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!

It was the first week of school! Holy Moly! Were we ready for that? I suppose as ready as we could. Of course, for Mariah, Chey, and Cali, since they've been doing school sports ALL summer, it didn't feel that different. Beth and Ben were excited to see their friends again!

I took this picture on a hike the day before. That's the junior high and off to the left behind it is the high school. Even farther you can see Sage Creek Elementary. All in line! Really not that far away from me all day!

Savannah got in almost a perfect 40 hour work week! Classes don't start for her until after Labor Day but she did pay for her tuition completely out of her own bank account and she is raring to go! Ok, she may not be quite that eager, but she's determined to make it a good semester and we are proud of her.

Sarah had a good week at work. She even got a day off and went to Zion's with a couple of girls who also had the day off. We think she likes it!

Megan is gone on a mission. *sob!* No, we are thrilled that she gets this awesome opportunity and love getting her enthusiastic letters. She has already grown so much.

Mariah went to Lagoon Friday night on a triple date. They had a great time, but someone (?) forgot to check the train schedules back to Provo. So, they missed the last train and guess who got a call at 12:15am and got asked to drive to Salt Lake and rescue them? Kevin B. And he's just such a great dad that he did!

The next day Mariah, Chey, and Cali had grass relays in Highland for Cross Country. This is where they race as several relay teams and also jump over hay bales as part of the race. They had a lot of fun! Mariah (even though she was working on four hours of sleep) ran on the Varsity relay team and they placed 4th! They were pretty excited!

Cali and Chey have been pretty exhausted going from school to cross country to tennis practice. We've changed dinner time to 7:00pm to accommodate late tennis practice and that is how long they are gone everyday! Tennis season in only one month. We are hoping they survive!

Bethany likes her new teacher, Mr. Wright, and her substitute who will teach until her Chinese teacher arrives from Asia. She doesn't sit by any of her friends, though, and reports being lonely. She plays with her friends at recess though and I took her to the pool on Saturday where she played completely alone and completely contented for over an hour! She is just a happy little thing.

Benjamin likes his new teachers, Mrs. Taylor and Ms. Wong. He has come home with a reading challenge for the year and he is revved up and ready to READ! He also had his first flag football scrimmage game. It looks like it is going to be fun! He had two other practices this week and I also took him to the pool twice during the week with Beth in hopes of tiring them out enough to get them to bed early enough for school. It's only kind of working. . . Oh, they had karate twice this week, too! They are hard to tire out.

Kevin and I are going to try to hike Timpanogos this coming Friday, so I have been trying to be extra diligent in getting miles in on the mountain (though it is nowhere near the amount I will need to do on Timp! *groan*) Still, I'm seeing beautiful views and growing strength in my legs!

Sarah left us this week! She went to the movies with Savannah and I, visited her Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik, and played a last game of Pandemic with her dad and Savannah and I. Then she packed up her little car and took off for Jacob Lake Inn near the north rim of the Grand Canyon! She got there safe and sound and started work in the gift shop the next day selling Indian rugs and jewelry. She will work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. They split up the day into four hour shifts, though, and then all the kids get together to do stuff every night at 10:30pm! So far, Sarah is exhausted! She is looking forward to when the rest of the fall staff move in and she will make some permanent friends. It is definitely a new adventure!

Savannah worked all week and went to institute and took her friend's 5:30am Saturday shift at the temple. She also went to the movies with Sarah and I and played Pandemic! 

Mariah had her first cross country meet this week on Friday. She did awesome, running second for her team and placing 20th overall in a field of 216. THEN her team placed 2nd out of 26 teams and got a TROPHY. Mariah was very excited! As she should be! That represents a lot of hard work and hundreds of summer miles run. Way to go girl!

Cheyenne and Cali had their first tennis matches this week! On Tuesday they went up to Logan for a match they both played doubles with different partners and both won! On Friday and Saturday they played in a JV tournament at our high school. Teams from as far away as Vernal came for the tourney! On Friday they played four games to determine brackets. Saturday they played a double-elimination tournament. CC played as a doubles team. They lost their first match Saturday and then won and won and won... They played seven straight sets each to six. They ended up taking second in their bracket, had a great time, and were completely exhausted by the end of the day!

Beth and Ben had swim lessons every morning this week! Why the last week of summer instead of the first week as in previous years? I don't know! That's just how it worked out. I feel like they learned a lot of good things about strokes and form. Hopefully, even with school starting, we'll find some time to swim and practice the things they've learned! Beth and Ben also had karate this week and Ben had football practice and a birthday party. They still had plenty of free time to invite friends over and to institute a couple "Night Games" nights with--get this--kids in the neighborhood! That last week of summer can be a real winner!

Bethany also had a dance recital Saturday night. A young woman in our ward held dance class once a week on the grass by the church during the summer. Saturday night all us parents and family came to watch their dances. Bethany had great fun and we loved it!

Afterwards, I went to the store with my two favorite boys who happened to be in matching clothes! I found it very entertaining as they fought over who would push the cart. "Ben, I am going to push the cart." "No! Dad! I got it!" Ha, ha! I've had that conversation with everyone of my young children! It was fun to watch Kevin have it, too with his little boy.