Seminary

Wow, hard to believe school starts next week. Both Kyle and Brandon will both be in high school. Along with that is seminary. Here, they go early morning which kind of stinks. But it's good for them. Anyway, tonight was the seminary fireside. Sounds like they'll have a fun year. At the fireside they showed a short film of Christ's life. I loved the pictures. I highly recommend it, it is awesome.  (If you click on "Christ" above, it will take you to the pictures)

Lisa's Birthday Fun

Lisa Gonzalez having fun for her birthday dinner at On the Border

Denise doesn't like getting her picture taken, so is being difficult. She gave us a peek.

Andrea trying to help me out.

Guess this is the best we'll get, but don't think she was expecting this either.

Andrea, presents for Rob? Are you sure those are the right size? Got glue?

As you can tell we had a fun girls night out for Lisa's Birthday. I don't remember which birthday, seemed irrelevant since I was the oldest one there. The advantage to being the one with the camera is I didn't have to have my picture taken. Love you Denise!! (even though you wouldn't let me take your picture)

Kyle's 16!!!

16 things about Kyle...

1. My shortest delivery. 3 hours start to finish.

2. He use to translate what Brandon would say, when Brandon had speech problems.

3. Very laid back

4. Sarcastic

5. Loveable

6. Cute (at least that's what the girl's say (I'm not allowed to))

7. Good self control

8. Self motivated

9. Responsible, most of the time.

10. Good student, when he tries.

11. Loves church

12. Loves seminary

13. Likes to let you know if he's good at something.

14. He is pretty good at most things.

15. Loves Mountain Biking (which makes Dad happy)

16. He's sensitive to other's feelings.

Kyle, we love you and are glad you came to be part of our family. We love your willingness to serve and to make people happy. We enjoy your love of the gospel and ability to share it with others.  Love you!!

It's about time!!

Well, as you know I haven't posted in a LONG time. So, figured I would try to catch everyone up on our lives. July, Chris and I were almost empty nesters. With Ryan on a mission, that leaves only Kyle and Brandon at home. So, when they're gone, it's very strange. Late June, they spent a few days at their cousins house before they (Chris' brothers family) left for Malaysia. They arrived home on Wed. then the following Monday, they had High Adventure, canoeing down the James River. Sorry, no photos to post as I couldn't even get them to take a camera. They arrived home on Thurs. the 4th. Then 10 days later they were off again, for EFY. They had a blast, they came home saying "it was the best week of the whole year" and begged to go again next year. Glad they enjoyed it so much. They arrived home that Saturday, the same day that their cousins arrived in town. One of them was staying with us and the other stayed in DC with his mom. he had won an essay contest for Utah and got to come out and do some fun things. While they were here we did some fun things. We went to the Battlefield, where we saw a cool looking insect and couldn't figure out what it was. It looked like a giant fuzzy ant. So the next day we went to the zoo, and then to the Natural History Museum and in the gift shop there was a book on insects and found the insect is actually a wingless wasp, but called a "velvet ant". Saturday, we had to take Robyn and Scott to the airport, but were able to convince her to let her other son Christian stay with us another week.  I think he had a fun filled week of X-Box and we got him hooked on Settlers of Catan. I've never won that game as much as I did when he was here. Guess I need him here for luck. Sure my winning streak is over now.  Oh, I forgot Kyle and Brandon had left again that Thursday, before taking Robyn and Scott to the airport for Youth Conference. They didn't think that was as much fun. Not sure if it really wasn't or if they were spoiled from EFY. So, you would think while they were gone so much that Chris and I would have done something. But, we didn't. Went out a few times, but that's about it. Kept busy. Chris worked on bikes and it seemed like I always had something going on, even though I have no idea what now. Last Sunday, I started the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers. I was really enjoying them a lot. I read the first three by Wed. night. Started the 4th one on Thurs. morning. For some reason it was harder for me to get into. It didn't help that I had a readers headache. Teach me to read without my glasses. But, it took me longer to read it. I finished it last night. I'm not going to say what I thought here for those who haven't read it yet. So, if you want to discuss, just ask me. Last week was also Kyle's 16th birthday. He went on two dates on Thursday. One in the afternoon and then another one late that night. They went to see the premier of the Star Wars Clone Wars at midnight with some other people. We threw a surprise party for him on Sat. night. Not too many people came. Most people out of town. Oh well. Think he had fun anyway.  Can you believe he's 16? I'll do another post on Kyle. So, that's about it. The pictures go with this, so I'm not going to label them. That never works for me too well. 

More Wakefield

Those first Pictures are by Gary Ryan, a local photographer that shoots many of the races.

So another week brought another race at Wakefield Park. The weather made things look doubtful for the race this week but good weather won the day. The boys did not have YM's activities due to Goshen so I took them with me to race this week. I also brought Scott Harris to race and his cousin Jeffery who is visiting with the Harris'. Mike got a friend from the Gym to come out also so we had a good crowd of racers with us. 

Lia came to watch this week since we were all racing and fortunately when she got there and realized she did not know how to find us she got lucky and saw Mike who told her where to go to watch. 

The race was good this week though I had several problems on my first lap. I still ended up with a decent time and finished 19 out of 33. Middle of the pack is pretty normal for me and my time was improved so I was happy with the result despite my issues at the start. Kyle mistakenly raced with his front gear set to the easy pedal gear which cost him a lot of time so his time is not too bad considering that. Brandon raced with his clipless pedals, new for him, and he had never seen the race course before so all things considered he did fine. I know they could both do much better with a little more preparedness and thought. Scott did great and finished third in his class. He got a medal and a juicebox as a prize. The prizes do seem a bit more lame this year but I did not pay attention to the kid prizes last year. 

Below are some pictures from the day at Wakefield. Sorry many of the photos are out of focus. I had the camera on the wrong setting for fast moving objects and we were all BLAZING! :-) 

Brandon and Scott at the starting line & Scott's crazy jersey

Scott, finishing

Scott all tuckered out

Brandon, finishing

Mike, mid-race

Mike's friend from the gym, mid-race

Kyle, mid-race

Me, finishing

Scott on the podium

Lion King

Well, I have been really bad about posting. It feels like we have been so busy and nothing exciting has been happening. But in reality, exciting things have been happening. Chris and I got to be empty nesters for a few days two weeks in a row, and will have a couple more opportunities before the month is over.  Shortly after Chris came home we were on the search for a new car. Which we got. We bought an 08 Toyota Highlander Limited. We love it. It is awesome. Has some nice things on it.  Kyle and Brandon went to their cousins house for a few days. So this was our first experience this month with no children at home. They just returned on the 4th from High Adventure canoeing down the James River. They had a great time. While they were away, we had a rare opportunity for us. We went to see the broadway version of Lion King. This was amazing. The costumes were incredible. I couldn't take any pictures inside, but if you click on the link you can watch a small preview. We went with Mike and Linda Warner, Keith and Tamee Jones, and two single girls from the singles ward, sorry I don't remember their names. They are here as nannies. If you ever have the chance to go I strongly recommend it. Hopefully next will be Les Miserables playing at Wolftrap this summer. Tamee keep us in mind if you decide to go. Well, these are the highlights of the last couple of weeks. More exciting things coming up, so will be posting soon.

Riding at Wakefield

Well, it has been quite a while since we have blogged. We have been quite busy since I arrived home from Iraq. We have been catching up on tons of stuff and and trying to do stuff with my brother who is leaving soon for a few years. In all this madness I have gotten back to racing at Wakefield Park on Wednesday nights. Last year Mike Bletzacker mentioned that he wanted to do these races and I thought that it sounded really fun. So Mike, Greg and I signed up for the races last year. Mike was in my category then (35+ Masters) but this year he has moved up and only has to do two laps. I was a lot of fun. we have had two races this year and the weather has been perfect. Mike starts two minutes after me but on the first race day he still managed to catch and pass me before he finished his second lap. Well, I was not expecting too much even on my new Ellsworth Epiphany. I have not ridden a bike more than a handful of times since the end of the races last year (not much riding available in Iraq). I still had a pretty good race thank in good part to my new bike. It is really smooth on the rail and uses carbon fiber in key places to help deliver more energy to pedaling. I did much better in the second race this past week though and even had one lap of about 4 miles in under 18 minutes.  My overall time according to my timer was 57 minutes. That is much faster than I did last year. Here are some pics from the first day of races. The three photos in the middle are by photographer Gary Ryan who covers many of the races. I am planning on getting one nice print from one of the races.

Mike and I pre-race.

A potentially scary jump that I slow down to ride.

Me getting a little out of control and looking a little SCARED!

Mike doing it right.

Mike and I with Craig (a friend from biking) waiting for the race results.