Crazy for Cross Country

We love watching our boys run on the cross-coutry team. Our good friend Mac Lane is the head coach at the high school, and he does a great job whipping these kids into shape. At the middle school, two of Theo's former runners, now a married couple, are the coaches. It is certainly a tradition of excellence here in Page and it's alive and well.

Homecoming Handsomeness

One of the challenges of having sons is that when they go out on a date, they don't come back with the young lady for pictures. These four teammates and friends went to Homecoming with some lovely girls (not pictured). Aren't these guys good lookin!

San Diego Adventure

Last fall, I got a really unusual request from my good friend, Shandiin. Her husband is the bishop in another ward, and they had received a phone call from a family in San Diego. The people said they were calling bishops in Page to see if they could find someone to do a house swap with them the following summer. Long story short, we agreed to do it! So out of our comfort zone! For a whole week we stayed in a lovely home in the San Diego foothills exploring beaches and trying surfing in the ocean.

Something else that was an absolute must see for me was Harry Potter World at Universal Studios! This is somewhere I have wanted to go for a long time! If we were going to be that close, I was not going to miss it! We had to make a long trip north of where we were staying to get there and traffic was horrendous! But is was all worth it when I got to taste my first butterbeer and when Rex had a wand choose him in Ollivanders and when we got to play Quidditch, and when I wore the Sorting Hat!

I am a nerd!

 The rest of the park was good too. Haha! We also spent a day in Old Town San Diego and got to visit the historical Mormon Battalion stuff there. Very cool. We also spent a day where we split up. Theo and Corbin went back to the beach to perfect their surfing skills while Bo and Rex came with me to Sea World. It was our third time there, and we finally got to see a Shamu show! This is the last summer they will have it, so we felt lucky to get to see it. We capped off the trip with a visit to the San Diego temple to do some baptisms. That was awesome! Since school starts in a very short time, this was a great way to end our summer.

Ross Reunion '16

At the beginning of July, we were lucky enough to partner with our friend Otis to purchase our very own boat! Even better, this was just in time for the annual Ross Reunion which was being held at Lake Powell this year hosted by the Gillelands.

Literally days before the reunion was scheduled to begin, we had just finished our basement. This had been a year long project since we moved into our new house a year ago. Theo did the majority of the work only hiring out stuff that he was not able to do. It was a mammoth undertaking since it is over 2000 square feet down there including four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big family room. Not only was the reunion a big motivator for getting it done, we also learned that Theo's brother Tim was moving back to Page from Indiana. He and his family are unsure about where their permanent living space will be, so they will move in with us in the interim. The basement will be perfect for them.

For the reunion, we spread out between our house and John and Michelle's rental properties. It was great!

Once again, Corbin's best friend Jacob came to visit us for a couple of weeks and got to enjoy the Ross shenanigans. We went to the lake, surfed, swam, took in Horseshoe Bend, played night golf, hiked, ate, and enjoyed the fireworks on the 4th. It was fantastic!

Stylin

This kid decided to get himself a new suit. Looking sharp. Preachin the gospel.

Tough Mudder

We have a new couple in our ward and the husband, Joe, just happens to be the manager at NGS. He heard about Theo and his running history and so he invited Theo to join a team he was putting together for an event called a Tough Mudder. I had heard of it, but I didn't know much about the details. I looked it up online and found out it is a wonderful event in which you complete obstacles like slogging through huge mud pits, scaling walls, immersing yourself in ice water, and being shocked with electricity. Fun!

We traveled to Phoenix for this event, and when we arrived at the venue and met up with Joe and his other teammates, Theo asked him about how they score it (he is always thinking about winning). Joe looked at him very seriously and shook his head. He told Theo, it is NOT about winning. It is the EXPERIENCE!

Okay.

This is not something that I understand. It is not something I have any desire to participate in myself. I was astonished to see how many people were at this thing (and many had done it multiple times), and they were pumped. I watched Theo complete the obstacles along with Joe and the team. They loved it!

Weirdos!

These are some Tough Mudders!

Teen Takeover

So it is official, we have ALL teenagers! This kid is 13 and loving it. Happy birthday, Rex.