July

Well, we love getting outside and although it was warm this summer, we did find a couple opportunities to explore.

First, we did some hiking on the backside of Mt. Lemmon. It was really fun until Landon got curious. He decided he wanted to run up this little hillside to see what was beyond it. As he did, he began running up the hill, only to immediately stop, yell, jump back, and come running back down the hill. Melissa found this humorous until Landon cautiously went back up the hill with the camera to get proof he wasn't scared by nothing. Turns out, as Landon was climbing the hill, he almost put his hand right on top of....

Yep, Landon doesn't mind bullsnakes but he almost grabbed this 4-5 ft. rattlesnake and that's why he acted how he did -- we're just glad the snake didn't try to bite -- Landon's hand was only a few inches from it before he saw the snake.

We also went camping on Mt. Lemmon one night by Rose Canyon Lake and had a great time.

Melissa also got to go back to Provo for a Mission reunion where she was able to see Pres. Antunes and many of her mission friends (I would write something in Portuguese but I don't know any!).

That about sums up July -- can you believe we're only a couple months behind!! We'll keep catching up so thanks for hanging in there!

Where did the summer go? (Part 4)

All right -- let's see if I can finish our summer trip.

One of the things the guys love to do when we get together is play golf and we were able to get a round in -- our scores aren't quite good enough for the PGA tour but we have a great time.

Now for one of the main events of this trip. In February, I was thinking about doing a triathlon and asked all the guys if they wanted to join in. While I didn't expect any to be interested, David and Dad said they'd join in. So, from February until June, we all trained for the Provo Tri and on June 20th, it was race day. It was a really fun experience and even more fun because the three of us did it together. It was our first time swimming in wetsuits, David and Dad's first triathlon, and we all survived. Now, enjoy some pics (and don't laugh)!!!

Here we are in our wetsuits just before the race!


Here we are doing our last minute race strategy meeting -- it went something like this, "Where do we swim? Well, I hope we all survive. Dad, don't kill yourself. Landon, why did you make Dad and David do this? (That was Mom). All right, let's do it!!!" And then the race began and it was a blast!

Here are the three Mauler Triathletes!!!!!Hopefully this will become a tradition -- triathlons are so fun because you only compete against yourself and it is great motivation to exercise and train. I had a great time and it was so fun to have David and Dad do it as well -- they are now TRIATHLETES!

This was the last big event of our trip and then we headed back to Arizona -- it was such a great trip and so fun to see so many friends and family!