Fieldtrip!

The 4th grade went to This is the Place Heritage State Park on one of the chilliest days of the year. (of course!) We had a wonderful time learning about the early pioneers and seeing the Halloween decorations...well, some anyway :)

Lily is our next door neighbor! They love being in the same class together!

Emily was really nervous about pushing a handcart. She was happily surprised to see it wasn't so bad! Of course it only had one bag in it but hey, they enjoyed pretending!

They even had to go up and down ditches!

School time! Mrs. Rivera wishes she could make the kids put their noses to the wall when they are bad and do a curtsy and bow as they walk in the classroom each morning :)

Emily LOVED square dancing! She is a fast learner and loved getting new partners as they danced around!

This is Jared, one of Emily's best buds! He was a good sport and let us take a picture of him with Em's hat on. Doesn't he look adorable?!

I sure do LOVE this girl!

1st Place...

Thomas took 1st place overall for the Kiwanis Park cross country running series! Winning the most races in his age group!

The whole team has had so much fun racing... this is at Cottonwood. YES, LEHI Jr. XC is AWESOME!

Way to go LEHI!

Fall Break

We got lucky this year and Matt stayed home for Fall break! We enjoyed 

sleeping in

going on runs

watching CARS 2 (very cute by the way)

Hiking in Rock Canyon

Ice-skating...

SO BEAUTIFUL!

Ice-skating in October? Why not when you've got a pass! :)

Emily loved using the "walker" It was nice for us too!

To cap off the weekend, The "Boys" went to the BYU game!
BYU against Idaho State...We won!
It was a nice break from the craziness of life :)

XC STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

How do you get ready for a BIG race?

#1 Have cool signs on your house and lockers...and quotes with carb-loading bread

#2 SLEEP IN... DON'T go to school and eat breakfast with FRIENDS!
#3 Dance or "rock out" to EFY music after studying the scriptures with your friends :)

You have to go to the meet in STYLE so decorating the bus is a MUST!

These girls are READY!

Jac had a plan... don't start out too fast, which has worked really well in the past few races. This race the start pace was a little too slow...

Jac did her best to catch up to the front group but the gap was larger than she hoped... 

Right before the last stretch this girl passed Jac... NOT for long though! Jac passed her and took her spot in 10th place which is 1st TEAM ALL-STATE!

Not to mention she took 40 seconds off last years time!

The top 10 (8 pictured) in the STATE!

Lehi girls brought home the 2nd place trophy!

This has been a SWEEET season!

Jac may not have come in at the place she wanted but she did amazing! She has already learned so many lessons and knows what to do differently next year. She is looking forward to nationals in a few weeks to work on her strategy :)

We are so proud of the amazing person you are! Coach Rowe was quoted in the newspaper talking about what a great leader Jac is, and that she has the personality that draws you to her...

so so TRUE!

Congrats Lehi! and Congrats Jacqueline!

Did you know...

The Lehi Jr. High Cross Country team is AWESOME?!
This has been their first season and these kids have really made their mark!

It has been so fun to watch all of them improve their times  and have so much fun together!

They have a BLAST being CRAZY!

I must say that our favorite part has been watching THOMAS...I can be a little biased right?!

Thomas has more drive, determination and SURE WILL in his little pinky finger than I could ever dream of having!

With each new challenge, he makes a plan and IMPLEMENTS it! He has been training so hard and it is paying off! He is stronger with each race.

Jac is in the right hand corner cheering her bro on... what a fun, strong bond these two have!

See what I mean by DETERMINATION?! He is never afraid to give it EVERYTHING he's got!

Thomas' cheering squad!

These boys have come to know each other as they have competed for first place.

When one of them has beat Thomas he has not let it discourage him, instead he has made a game plan, prepared himself and come in first the following race! 

What's so great is that they have become friends! ONLY in cross country do you see this kind of friendship! Even though they all want to get 1st place, they have been good losers and gracious winners; making you love each one of them!

Katlyn Struthers, Matthew Jones and Thomas... forever friends!

This is a picture of their race at Cottonwood Complex...
Thomas went out strong as always and PASSED THE RABBIT!!!  A rabbit is a older runner, usually a faster runner;  who runs ahead to show the kids where to go. This rabbit was about 19 but was no match for Thomas! He passed him about 1/2 way through the race!
Thomas, YOU are AMAZING!

We love you :)