We had a great family weekend preparing for Halloween. It’s amazing how much more fun carving pumkins is when you don’t have to carve all 5 by yourself! The kids are becoming so much more independent! The boys did everthing for theirs and Grace gave very specific instructions as to how she wanted hers to be. What a surprise.

Grace skipped home on Friday thrilled, excited overjoyed that she gets to be superstar of the week! This entails a personal poster, being the teachers helper and getting to be first all the time without butting.

We’re going to our annual friend Halloween party tomorrow. There will be about 12 families and the kids will get to go trick or treating with their friends!

Gavin had his last game on Saturday in the pouring rain. He really loves the game. Dylan was bummed he has one more game.

These signs literally make me want to throw up. Cedar Mill is drastically changing. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the increase in home construction. They are putting 10 homes at the end of our dead end street. What scares me is what will happen after that. We will attend a neighborhood meeting on Nov. 10. As far as Walmart goes, it would be a traffic nightmare.

I think I mentioned that our family minus Rick were driving down to California with my mom and dad for Tanner’s baptism. We drove down in one day and the kids did awesome! We took turns sitting in the back with them. My mom was back there most of the time. She is was great to play games and entertain them! It was great to have so much chatting time with my dad. My mom and I get traveling time when I talk her into driving down with me to Maria’s right after school gets out.

We had all day Friday there so we went to the pumkin patch. The weather was perfect and the day couldn’t have been better! Don had the day off so he came too! We got lots of fun pictures and great memories. Don did a great job capturing all the best ones.

The baptism was 9:30 Sat. morning. Tanner was the only one in the ward getting baptised so he was able to plan the whole program. Dylan and Gavin gave the prayers, Robby his big brother gave the baptism talk and my mom gave the Holy Ghost talk. My dad was witness. Maria made the programs along with blank cards for people to write personal notes to Tanner. It was a really great program. There were about 60 people there.

We had to hit In-N-Out Burger afterwards. I think I was the only one really excited about it, but I had to have it! The kids played outside the rest of the day. Dylan and Robby rode motorcycles for the next 5 hours. Everyone else rode for a good 2 or 3 hours. Don is always so good helping out and making sure all the motor vehicles were working well.

The big milestone was that we were able to go to dinner in Lincoln and leave the kids home alone. They did really well for the hour and a half we were gone.

We left Sunday pm thinking we would stay in Medford but felt awake enough to drive through. We got home @ 2:00 AM. My mom and Dad stayed until Wednesday morning. I felt very spoiled having them with me the whole time Rick was gone. It was a fun time.

The White Rim trail is a 100 mile off-road loop through Canyonlands National Park. If you’ve been to Dead Horse Point you’ve seen the trail from above. It plunges straight down the canyon wall, circles the Island-In-The-Sky, runs along the Green River, then climbs back out of the canyon on the Horsethief Trail. There was a ram waiting for us at the top of the trail. It wasn’t as impressed by us as we were by it. It trotted along a sheer cliff right by us and went on its way. We had a camping permit for Potato Bottom Monday night, so we covered ~66 miles Monday. Everyone took turns driving the Expedition. The riding wasn’t too technical, but the scenery was spectacular, like a mini Grand Canyon. We took a refreshing dip in the brownish Green River at the end of the day. That night was a full moon. The canyon walls were clearly visible all night long.
Tuesday we got up and rode down the river and back up to the canyon rim. After the bikes were loaded it started sprinkling a little. By the time we were back in Moab it was a full-on downpour. We cleaned up at the hotel and headed to SLC/ Bountiful where we spent the night. Saw my brother Mike, nephew Chase, brother-in-law Trace and his new wife Amy. Trace and Amy were just back from their honeymoon in Cancun where they just missed hurricane Wilma by a few days. Wednesday we drove back to Portland.

Had a great mountain biking trip to Moab. Big thanks to our wives (one each) and kids (28 between the 6 of us) for letting us get away. We left Portland Thursday morning and 12 hours later arrived in Bountiful, UT where we spent the night with Rick “Half-life” ‘s parents Tom and Elaine. As always, they were great hosts: dinner waiting for us, private bedrooms for everyone and Tom’s famous whole wheat pancakes, sausage, eggs and fruit for breakfast. We had 7 bikes and a roof box on the Expedition. Dale “Superior” dropped off 3 bikes at his sister’s house in Lehi. I took off the Expo’s skirt (running boards) to give us more clearance off-road.
Kevin “the Bishop” from Medford and Keith “Gnarly” Varley from Bountiful met us Friday AM and we drove to Moab. We rode the Slickrock trail Friday afternoon. It is a 13 mile trail over sand dune shaped sandstone. Bikes get amazing traction on sandstone, so as long as you can hold the wheels down and your bike upright you can climb/ descend almost anything. The trail is marked by white stripes. We donated some blood to the red rock, but didn’t suffer any casualties. Keith is an official member of the Moab Bike Patrol and has ridden the trail over 40 times.
On Saturday we rode the 18 mile Porcupine Rim trail. After a decent 3 mile climb it was all down hill. Great trail (described in a local bike shop as “Hardcore/Advanced”) with fun drops and amazing views of Castle Valley and the Colorado river. There was a lot of loose rocks on the trail. Almost everyone took some “soil samples” from the trail to examine later. The zipper on my bike shorts broke, so I had to improvise with some tape.
I didn’t get the memo that we were going to church on Sunday, so I went in jeans. Brian “Lyle” lived in Moab for several years a few decades ago. After hearing stories of his old girlfriends we were anxious to track them down and find out where they are now. A lady at the Hogi Yogi told us that one of his old flames died of a heroin overdose in Las Vegas two years ago. We got sandwiches at Hogi Yogi and went to Arches National Park. We hiked to Delicate Arch, checked out the Firey Furnace, hiked to Sand Dune Arch, Tunnel Arch, Lone Pine Arch and Landscape Arch. The weather was perfect the whole time: 70-80 degrees and sunny.

Margo’s youngest, Will, turns 5 today. We have our own “Will and Grace” in the family.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Our brother in law Tracy got remarried today! Welcome the family Amy. Chase is really excited to call her Mom.

Shannon and the kids are driving to Lincoln with her parents for Tanner’s baptism. This was a spontaneous trip as the baptism was going to take place in December when Bob and Lois were going there for Christmas. Things were rescheduled when they posponed their family relations class for another week. (This is their official mission call from SLC.) I will be moutain biking in Moab.

Maria and Don surprised their kids with a weekend in the desert, They have a blast with all their motor toys.

We caught a tree frog. It’s offical name is Superfrog as it has super frog powers.

Jim and Margo rode around Colorado with their motorcycle gang.

JT, my nephew, competed in a triathalon and let some guy take his girlfriend to the school dance that night.

Jake, my nephew, is recovering from crashing his bike into a car. A week later he rode with his brother JT in 100 mile ride in Heber City, UT. Apparently they aren’t sure which teeth he gets to keep.

They are giving dogs another chance with their puppy Molly (see above).

Margo has started a home business and is taking harp lessons.

Another parent dubbed Gracie the “Barry Sanders of Soccer” last night. Barry Sanders was a running back for the Detroit Lions in the 90s. At 5’8″ he was the smallest guy on the field, but once he got moving he was unstoppable. He would bounce off defenders, evade defenders and do impossible moves to get the ball down the field. That was Gracie last night. It was hysterical. She was the smallest, by far, against a team of all boys. She’d go right up to the boys, steal the ball and drive it all the way down the field, weaving in and out of defenders, then shoot and score. She scored 3 goals. Her defense needs some work, though.

Had fun at the beach. Despite an ominous forecast, Saturday ended up being a nice day. We flew kites, went swiming in Lincoln City and then went to the tidepools at Yaquina Head. Got there at low tide and saw a wide variety of sea creatures: sea anemones, star fish, hermit crabs, etc. Saw one we hadn’t seen before: gumboot chiton. The sea anemones feel sticky and engulf your finger when you touch them. As we were leaving we saw a gray whale the size of a school bus spout and surface. Very cool. They are migrating to Baja for the winter. Sunday was cold and rainy. Stayed dry in the campervan then went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center.