Halloween 2024

Halloween was amazing! Merril was a luchador.

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Juliet was a cat.

Maxine with strawberry shortcake and Leighna was Charlotte from The Princess and the Frog. Maxine and Leighna went to a Halloween party at the university.

Mark wanted one of those inflatable alien costumes. There were probably five at his school and they were all adorable

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Mikayla used my old Red Riding Hood costume.

I was just a generic Renaissance era lady. 

This is us carving pumpkins. We tried using a Sawzall but it was really only good for the top.

The pumpkins still turned out cute.

Mark got so much candy this year. Mikayla just wasn't as interested in getting candy so she trick or treated for the amount that she wanted and then she quit. Good times.

 

End of Mountain Bike Season

Juliet was able to be a captain this year on the mountain bike eam. She's a senior and now we won't have a mountain bike eligible age kid next year. It's going to be weird because we've been helping with the mountain bike team for 8 or so years. She got a nice hoodie and got the all-in award for being at all the races. She also got a cool yearbook that's just for mountain bike stuff.

Jack and Elder Marigza messing around. He's doing well on his mission. He's been in the Philippines for about a month. He's not starving so that's a relief for me.

 

Maxine and Tam

Maxine met Tam on Instagram years ago when she was still in high school. They've met in real life once before when Merril and Max were close to Canada, where she lives. She was born in South Africa and can't come to the United States because of some visa issue. So Maxine when to Canada to visit her and her girlfriend.

They hiked.

They also carved pumpkins and put them on their heads and descended on a random 7-11.

They glammed up and listened to live music. Cutesy!

Road to State Mountain Bike

Juliet has been sick with a little fever and just not feeling very well. She wanted to go to mountain bike practice but still wasn't feeling 100%. Thankfully, Merril went with her and after they unloaded bikes in the parking lot, she told her ride leader that she might throw up during the ride. Then they were separating into tiers and she passed out. She opened her eyes and she was on the ground. Merril went to get the truck and left her with a ride coach, she sat down, and passed out again. Ummmmm, what is happening? So Merril got her in the truck and the coaches gave her some gummies and she couldn't see very well. As they drove away, she felt like she needed to throw up and Merril pulled over. Juliet said she threw up a lot. Merril took her to some of his ambulance friends from rampage and search and rescue and they checked her all out. They gave her a gatorade but said she was the picture of health. Except she was passing out. They said she was probably just sick and needed to rest. This was on Wednesday.

State championships were a few days later. She was supposed to race on Friday but it snowed at the venue in Cedar City. All races were cancelled that day. We were relieved because Juliet needed another day to rest and now she didn't even need to decide whether to ride or stay home. She threw up again that day. On Saturday, she was given the opportunity to race at the end of the day because she's a senior. So even though she was a little weak, we set off for Cedar. It was still cold. 

Juliet had a million layers on because she was cold.

She had a chill race.

She said she felt fine when she got off the bike, which is awesome. I was a little concerned she would pass out on her bike, fall and get hurt but she made it without injury. Good job Juliet!

All these boys came to support Juliet. I'm sure they're there to support other people too. 

Same Same

Mikayla is a little taller than Juliet but my girls are basically all the same height. Mikayla has the potential to get a little taller but Max and Juliet are done growing. Maxine is still barely the tallest!

 

Elder's Groceries

I follow some missionary facebook groups for southern Utah and one day I saw a Mom from Ohio that was trying to get groceries to her missionary son in Hurricane. I messaged her and said that I'd met him on Sunday and he was the new Elder in our stake. I told her I'd be happy to help if I could. She was afraid her son was starving and he and his companion were not able to get groceries this week. We arranged for her to do a Walmart pickup order and then I'd take it to the missionaries. It worked out seamlessly. Mikayla helped me deliver a ton of groceries to these two elders. 

When Maxine was on her mission, there were so many times that a member was looking out for her! I'm grateful that I could be that helping hand today. There's a Mom out there who was stressing about her son and I was able to ease her burden. Godspeed Elder Cindric!

Glow In the Dark Fun Run and Rampage

The little kids joined me at the Hurricane Glow in the Dark Fun Run. Mark's friend, Beckham, wanted his friends to do it so Mark had friends there.

Mikayla's up for the goofy pics.

We did our little mile and felt good about it. We only signed up for the 1 mile fun run but Mark ended up staying with Beckham and ran the whole 5k. 

Merril was out at rampage and he couldn't come run. He did get a fun helicopter ride home though! Rampage has been a little hard this year. The helicopters that Merril arranged suddenly had to back out so he was scrambling to get new arrangements made. There's only so many helicopter companies that will work for rampage and it made it stressful for Merril. But he got it figured out in time. 

 

I know he loves it but at the end of this year he wasn't sure if he wanted to be the medical coordinator next year. We'll see how he feels next year. Time heals. It's a cool experience.

Northern Lights

The Northern Lights dipped down close enough for us to see them. I say see but I could barely see them. The phone camera picked it up better than my eyes but it was still cool to almost see them. :)

 

Maxine and the St. George Half Marathon

Maxine's half marathon!

I think drone shows are going to be the fireworks of the future. I think they're cool and reusable and nothing catches on fire!

How cool is this sunrise?

Maxine's hip was freaking out at mile 9 and it wouldn't let her stop running. We found her at mile 10 and cheered her on.

At this point, she said she was fighting for her life!

She's almost there!

Her finish time was 2:48:14, setting her pace at 12:50. Dang, that's so hard! I can only sprint. Such a long time to be running! That's amazing to me and I'm proud of her! Can you imagine that she wasn't even that sore for the rest of the week? She didn't grumble going up and down stairs or anything! 

As a fun side note, we bumped into my friend Angie Maynes from college. She's the one that set me up on a blind date with Merril! She's the one who's responsible for setting in motion the path of so much goodness in my life. I will forever be grateful! 

Gunnison MTB Race and a Tahoe Story

Maxine's half marathon was the same weekend at Juliet's mountain bike race in Gunnison, UT. Gunnison is about 3 hours away. Merril was busy with rampage and I wanted to be at both places but just couldn't. On Friday, I drove up to Gunnison with Juliet for the pre-ride and checked her into a hotel. Danielle Jones and her family was staying at the same hotel and she was going to hang out with them and then hitch a ride home.

Team dinner the night before!

Juliet and the bike tucked safely into the hotel!

Danielle took care of her during the day and got her home safe!

Side story coming: We suspected that the Tahoe was a fire department vehicle and when I drove on the dirt roads for the Gunnison race, this ghost of the past made itself apparent on the window of the Tahoe. 

I sent this to Merril and he sent me this is response. He did a quick google search and found out that our car was once a part of the Philadelphia Fire Department. RC means reserve car-228. 

There it is! RC-228.

Here's a youtube video of our baby in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFuOdmbBoPs