Thanksgiving

We had a beautiful Thanksgving!

We started the day off by running the 10 K Turkey Trot. We all finished! Matthew said that he had never run more than 1 mile before this!



We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at our home with Grandma Geri, Grandma & Grandpa, the Clarks and the Glenns.








The Browns came over later for pie and icecream.


We are so thankful for ALL of our blessings! Our wonderful family is right at the top of our list!

Pictures from Ecuador

Mom and Dad were in Quito over the weekend.

Here they are at the "Middle of the World."


These are the first photos they've sent from Ecuador and I think they both look great!


We miss them!

City Cross Country Meet

The City Meet was held Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 at Red Mountain Park.

Max ran with the freshmen boys and did great!



Carie ran with the JV girls and finished strong - 8th place.



Grandma & Grandpa and lots of family were there to cheer them on!



They both medaled!
Somehow they survived the grueling season and can now take a well deserved break!

FAMILY

We spent our October break visiting family!
Our first stop was Zions National Park with the Grobergs.
We had a wonderful time all being together and enjoying the amazing scenery.

Court of the Patriarchs



All of us in front of the Narrows (except Pam, Alex, AJ and Breeyana who were not able to come)




These photos were taken right before Mom and Dad left for their temple training in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, October 11. 2011.

We then drove up to Provo to take Kimberly back to school. While Kimberly studied, we enjoyed visiting the Museum of Art and doing the usual BYU things. ET, Matthew, Courtney & Carie had Jdogs, went bowling and bought books at the BYU bookstore. Katie took a tour of BYU.

On Wednesday, we headed North to Boise to visit the Estes family. It was a long drive!

We stopped at Promontory Point where a golden spike was driven into the transcontinental railroad when it was completed in May of 1869.




Then it was onto Boise to see the Estes Family!



They have a beautiful home and we think Boise is a great city. We enjoyed visiting the beautiful rose gardens downtown, shopping and eating "the world's best bagels" (according to Carie). E.T. golfed and Katie and Abby even took a tour of BSU.



The girls loved going for drives in Abby and Lydia's blue pinto.

We then drove back to Salt Lake where we met Mom and Dad at Temple Square. We hiked to Ensign Peak with the Odidas and again had fun being together.



We drove back to Provo that evening to spend the rest of the weekend with Kimberly. We enjoyed driving through Provo Canyon, seeing the beautiful autumn leaves, eating at Granny's in Heber and shopping and playing at Park City.



We enjoyed a short visit with the Snows - we would have loved to spend more time with them, but the flu intervened!

We drove back to Mesa on Sunday in record time - 9 hours, 40 minutes - just in time for Sunday dinner! One of the children said, "Wow, we saw ALL of our cousins this week except Hilary and Hannah! (They were busy with a school project)

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

September

Courtney turned 9 years old!

And...
Matthew went from nerd (on Poston spirit day)



to



GQ at the Poston Choir concert!

Homecoming

Katie and Carie were very busy with Homecoming this last week - but I think that they had a lot of fun too!

Carie helped with the Sophomore float and had fun riding in the parade and throwing candy (eating it too)!

Katie had fun riding on the Senior float - her big job this year was to pick up In 'n Out! (Katie was happy that she wasn't in charge of the float and ET and I were just really happy that we weren't trying to drive a float down Brown Road at 5:30am)
Somehow Carie managed to get up early Saturday morning and run a cross country race out in Scottsdale - I think she came in 10th! She did awesome!


Katie had a great time at the dance and looked beautiful!

Cross Country Meet

Cross Country has been a totally new experience for our family! Carie practices six days a week at 5am and then every day after school in the 110 degree weather. We think she and Max and the other 100 plus members of the team are amazing!

The first meet of the season was held on September 3, 2011 in Scottsdale. It was quite the event!

The boys ran first -- Max did great!



The girls started a minute later.



Carie stayed toward the front of the pack...



and finished the race.



She was happy that she medaled!

I thought a lot about races this week and Paul's message to the Hebrews kept coming to my mind...

"Let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1)

We are all involved in the great race called LIFE. If we keep the commandments and endure to the end we are all promised the greatest prize of all - Eternal Life.