A Missionary Miracle

We received a letter in the mail a month ago and it was from a girl that Dave baptized on his mission in Brazil, over ten years ago. She is currently serving a mission at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. After writing back to her and letting her know we lived in Utah and would love to come see her she replied and was so excited to see Dave again. We met with her at Temple Square (which was approved by her mission president) and she gave us a tour. It was one of the neatest experience I have had. She was so overwhelmed with graitude towards Dave. She was so grateful he had the spirit with him on the mission, that he found her, that he baptised her and that she got to see him again.

She gave us a great tour and discussed the "Proclamation to the World" with us. We were all strongly touched by the spirit.

Dave was very happy to see that she was still a member of the church and that she was now spreading the gospel. Isn't it amazing what can happen when a seed is planted in someone. When we were saying goodbye she wanted to make sure Dave understood how grateful she was. Not only was she blessed with the gospel in her life but it will continue on with her children and their children and so on. She is also spreading it to those she meets at temple square.

What an incredible experience we have had this last month! We love Sister Pacheco and can't wait to see her again.

New Bike

I know Taylor is not quite big enough or old enough to ride a bike but he loves to play with every bike he sees. So Dad could not resist a good deal on KSL Classifieds and Taylor got his first bike. It is a Huffy and it is pretty sweet. Taylor absolutely loves it. We have to go ride on it every day.

Burrrrr Cold!

We didn't have any plans for Friday night so for a last minute idea we decided to go camping. We had been wanting to go all summer but just hadn't found the right time. Friday afternoon I put together our camping stuff and we headed up American Fork canyon. We found a spot near Cascade Springs, assembled the tent and started a fire. Dave was a good boy scout so he had the fire going quickly but not as quick as I put up the tent. Chalk one up for the women!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. It was Taylor's first camp out. He loved his fire roasted hot dog and our chicken tinfoil dinners were awesome. The best I have had. Taylor fell asleep fairly quickly, all bundled up in his new mummy bag. Around 2am Taylor woke up and flipped out. He was scared to death and couldn't get out of his restricting bag. Poor guy! He eventually went back to sleep and we woke up around 7am. When Dave opened the door of the tent I couldn't believe my eyes, everything was frozen. I just hadn't thought about how cold it was going to be and we were all warm at night. Our tent was frozen over on the outside, our chairs that we left out were covered in frost and the firewood covered in frost. It made for a cold morning but a fun adventure. We ended the morning by stopping at the reservoir. What a great family weekend.

Wasatch 100 Mile Endurance Run

Who would run 100 miles? That is just simply crazy!

Dave has a co-worker/friend, Jeff, who runs a lot. He does a lot of ultra marathons. Dave had mentioned a few times that Jeff was doing the Wasatch 100 but I hadn't asked many questions. Dave also had mentioned that he might go run with him to support him and be a pacer. Once again I didn't ask questions and hadn't heard too much about it. About three days before the race Dave tells me he is going to go run with Jeff. At this point I got curious. So, I asked the questions. What is this race? How far is Jeff running? How far are you running? When are you running? Have you trained? What the heck are you thinking?

Jeff ran 100 miles over the mountain tops of the Wasatch Front on dirt trails for 32 hours. Dave ran the last 25 miles with him from Brighton to Midway. Dave met Jeff at 4:30am and ran until 1:30pm the next day. My amazing (or is crazy a better word) husband did not train for his 25 miles and has only been running up to 6 miles to train for his triathlons. And lets be honest he wasn't been running very often.

They both finished the race (Dave as a pacer) and I was absolutely amazed. Dave had a knee that bothered him but otherwise felt great. He said he wasn't that tired and really enjoyed it. Jeff just blew me away. I don't know how he can run a 100 miles but he did it and he is my hero for doing it.

I love the outdoors and one of my favorite things to do is hike through the mountains so this race caught my attention. I decided this might not be a bad thing to train for. Then reality hit me, they have to finish the race is 36 hours or the participant is pulled off the course, I am not a fast hiker! And one thing is for sure, I would not want to hike/run through the mountains all night in the dark - SCARY!!!

Way to go Jeff!
Dave way to go on running your first ever consecutive 25 miles!

The Nie Nie Story!

If you haven't heard about Nie Nie already take a look at this blog.
http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Wow Animals!

Dave's parents were in town the last couple of weeks and it has been so much fun. We love to have them here and love spending time with them. Taylor really enjoys hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. They spoiled us and took us to dinner a few times, to the Outlet Mall and to the Hogle Zoo. Taylor loves animals and could not stop saying "Wow" at all the amazing creatures. We got to see a white alligator, the cutest baby orangutan (that was so playful, curious, and darling), a leopard (that kept pacing in front of the window scaring Taylor), and so much more.

THANKS Tim and MaryAnn, we will miss you! It was also so much fun to spend time with Bob, Emily, Carter, Cindy, Big Mama and Aunt Suz.

Climbing!!

Taylor has found a new favorite thing to do, CLIMB! He has enjoyed climbing for a long time but he has figured out how to get on all counter tops and now he loves to climb. We took action pictures of him climbing on top of the kitchen counter tops. The part you don't get to experience from the photos are the sounds he makes. He loves to grunt as he climbs, it is so funny.