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.