October

 We finished up the bike season in October.  By the end of the season we're all pretty tired, so we're enjoying the break.  We had a race in Manti and then the state competition in Cedar.  Sage had a great race in Manti.  This whole year she and two other girls have finished really close to each other.  At the Manti race she was feeling really good the second lap, but for some reason decided she should stick with her to teammates.  They got to the section leading to the finish line and Sage slowed down, reached for her friend's hand, and they crossed the finish line holding hands.  I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see this.  Sage is a pretty intense, competitive girl.  But good for her I thought.  When race times were posted turns out the friend that she slowed down for actually crossed the line before Sage.  Of course.  On the way home Sage was very upset with herself.  She said, "Being kind does not feel good.  I'm never doing that again!"  Jake was happy to hear this;)  I would rather see her racing like that than taking everyone out so she can win.  Lessons were learned.  Just not sure what kind of lessons...

Kate got her tonsils out over fall break.  Poor girl.  She got them out in same day surgery in PC, where I work, so that was kind of fun.  For me at least.  Everything went well and the doctor said they definitely needed to come out.  Right after surgery we headed to St George so we could hang out there for the break.  Getting her tonsils out was definitely not fun, but Kate handled it really well.  Towards the end of her recovery she got pretty tired of it all, but I'd say her recovery was about as good as you can get for her age.

Sage had her state race in Cedar over fall break.  Our fall breaks mostly consist of mountain bike races these days.  I guess that won't last forever, so I'll try to enjoy it.  The race was in Cedar this year, and the league went out of their way to make this course difficult.  Sage did a great job.  She didn't have the race she was hoping for, which is a bummer, but her season overall was amazing.  She made huge improvements from the beginning to end of the season.  It was fun to see her hard work pay off.

Zack dumped his Jeep in a ditch.  By himself, in the evening, when no one knew where he was.  Miraculously he got out and made it home.  Not so miraculously he messed his axle up and spent most of fall break in St George trying to fix it.  

We made it to the St George temple open house.  Beautiful!

We road Gooseberry Mesa.  It was beautiful, but too technical for me.  And Sage.

Sage got an MRI because she was having sinus headaches.  But then her sinuses looked good.  So now she's just having headaches.

Reaching for the hand

The trio that road together all season

All the freshman girls.  They're fast!

My birthday bike ride.  All I'm going to say about my birthday is that it's not super fun having it over fall break, right before a race.  That is all.

The coaches Jake works with all year on the team.  They hang out in the finish zone to catch the kids before they fall off their bikes.

We actually carved pumpkins this year.

Kate had a Halloween piano recital for her students.  It was so great!  It's pretty amazing what she's done as a piano teacher.  I was so impressed that all of her students nailed their pieces.  Even the counting!

Kate's dance group.  Fun group of kids, but I think Kate's ready to be done with dances for a while.

September

 September was full of Swiss Days, bike races, and a trip to Washington.  Swiss Days was crazy as usual.  But at least this year we didn't have to make tacos in 100 degree temperatures.  Thank heavens.  My friend Audrey and I got matching shirts because we figured out we've been doing Swiss Days together for 10 years now.  Most people come and spend all day wandering around, buying tons.  We walk over Friday morning, quickly walk by all the booths, and are enjoying a scone by 10:30.  Thus our shirts say, '10 years of let's skip this row.  Swiss Days our way.  It's a pretty awesome tradition I think.

We had our second race at Eagle Mountain.  Sage had a great race and managed to move up a couple of spots again.  The crazy wind held off until after she finished, thank heavens.  

The fall leaves were amazing, as usual this year.  Definitely my favorite time to mountain bike.  I even decided to be social and rode the Wow trail with a bunch of other ladies.  

Jake had a builder group in Anacortes, Washington that we were excited to go to.  Of course, it happened to be the same weekend Sage had a race in Vernal.  It killed me to miss her race, but we've been looking forward to going to this location for a long time.  Some good mountain bike friends were super nice to take her and make sure she was ready for the race.  They even fixed the flat she had the day before the race (of course that happened when we were gone).  Sage killed it and finally met her goal of finishing in the top 10!  I was a worried mess until I knew she made it across the finish line.

Jake and I really enjoyed Anacortes.  Such a beautiful spot.  I really enjoyed exploring while Jake was in his meetings.  Then we did a bunch of fun mountain bike trails.  Mountain biking is pretty big there too.  It was fun to ride on new trails and try out a different bike.  Our last night there we decided to go on a little hike later in the afternoon.  On the way there the low tire light came on in the rental car.  I figured it was probably fine, but when I got out of the car I could hear air leaking out of the tire.  So Jake got to change a tire in a parking lot.  Luckily he's really good at that and we were good to go in like 10 minutes.  But definitely not ideal.  We've not had good luck with tires this year.  The rain mostly held off until the day we left, when it was dumping rain and freezing cold.  Thank heavens we had some good weather days first. 

August Happenings

 Maybe someday I'll do more than just a monthly recap.  But let's face it, these days I'm doing well just posting at all.  Trying hard to make sure at least some of the things get documented.

August kept us hopping, as usual.  We celebrated Kate and Sage.  Kate had her cute friends over.  Sage decided she wanted hair, eyebrows, and lashes done.  All in all, fairly low-key birthdays.  I will say I'm grateful every day for my girls.  I love talking to them and seeing their amazing personalities shine as they get older.  It's the best.

School started.  How is it that my youngest is in high school?!  And how can I have another senior?  I'm not ready for either of those things.  Zack came home from his internship, was here for 2 days, and left for school again.  Would have been nice to have him home more, just sayin.  Sage took a few days to adjust to high school (there were lots of naps) but now she's handling it like a champ.  Kate sometimes goes to school.  It seems like she has a lot of open classes.  So different than back in the olden days.

Race season started for mountain bike team.  This always makes our business like double because every other weekend we head somewhere to race.  It feels like a lot.  Good thing we enjoy it!  Sage is killing it this year and so far has moved up a couple of spots at every race.  I don't know how she does it.

As always I'll let the pictures do most of the story telling.

The preride of the race course in Manti was so so dusty.  And then I wrecked, which just added to the dust.  This picture does not adequately show how dusty I was.

Kate and our neighbor coached little kid mountain bikers for their job all summer.  They had some great stories.

Sage's birthday extravaganza

Sage made Kate a fancy lunch for her birthday

Kate's cute friends - Rachel, Presley, and Morgan

Scenic Jeep drive

Sage's birthday cheesecake

Sometimes we have lots of bikes on our car

Fun at the Manti pre-ride

Sage used her organizing skills to make a little bag that has everything in it she could possibly need at school.  She should sell them.

Freshman year!

Senior year!

Every once in a while Sage will ride with us

First race of the season