Mayan Miracle 5k

Before I get to the race there's a few other things I want to mention that's been happening at our house. Weren't we surprised to wake up one morning to find Mrs. Bones in the bathroom? (lid up an all). How embarrassing!

 Kate came home from school one day and had won the pumpkin decorating contest! She had to decorate a pumpkin for a book report so it had to look like a book character. She chose the book "Pigeon needs a bath." She chose out a gourd (because it's definitely more pigeon-like) and did the whole thing by herself....even the mud spots on pigeon. I did find the eyes for her but she glued them on and did all the rest. I was so proud of her for doing it all by herself because I've gotta say, most of the pumpkins look like they were professionally done (or at least parent-done). Her teacher entered all the book report pumpkins in the school contest and she won for 2nd grade! I'm glad they chose one that a student did by themselves. Plus....it was super cute.

 She came home with a ribbon and a big bag of candy. Way to go Kate!!

 Uncle Alan won a bubble machine in the raffle after the race (I'll get to the race in a minute), but he gave it to us. The kids loved it and I have to admit it made some pretty awesome bubbles!

 I had to get a picture of Josh's Dodger blue hair. We did all we could Dodgers.....too bad you didn't pull through in the end.

 We also carved our pumpkins a few days before Halloween. It doesn't feel like Halloween until you get those pumpkins carved.

 We had a lot this year because we had some rogue pumpkins growing in the garden. I love how creative everyone is.

 So this fall, Josh has been doing this race circuit called Racecats. It's been a fun way for him to get to know how to run faster and race better. They'd run twice a week and hold races with another school. The first race he got 1st place out of everyone!! (He runs the 3k)

 Then we come to the 2nd race...

 He got 1st place again and beat his time by a full minute!

 Jared Ward (the Olympian) came to give a motivational speech at the end of the race. It was SO cool. He is a really cool guy and very inspiring. I loved it. We had to get a pic with our speedster with another speedster.

 Jami (the coach) caught this cute picture of them racing down in the hollow. Josh is plowing ahead. It's been really fun and I'm glad Josh got to do it. They had their big final race last week against kids from all over the state. I'll have to write about it on a different post.

Okay, now we're finally to our race! A few days before Halloween we ran in one of our newer favorite traditions...the Mayan Miracle 5k. It's such a fun race and this year we even convinced some of the Maynes to run in it with us.
 Here we are pre-race smiles.

 We also need to document Rachel's Dodger blue hair. Aunt Wendy got a hold of them at the Dodger World Series party the night before.

 Aaaaand.....here's the results!

 Rachel got 1st
Josh got 2nd
Kate got 1st
Trav got 1st
Em got 2nd

Ummmmm....it was kind of a Maughan sweep.

Now we're enjoying our victory breakfast burritos.

 So we ALL got skull trophies!

 Then even more amazing....all of the Maynes kids that ran got trophies too! Brad got 3rd, Luke got 1st, Noah got 3rd and Erika got 3rd! So it was a total Maughan and Maynes sweep.

 It was really nice to have grandpa and grandma Schick come to cheer us on and watch the little boys. Fun to share our fun moment in. It was a fun race!

 And the trophies look really nice all lined up on the bookshelf by my Jack Skellington picture.

Cedar City

For fall break this year we took a short little trip to Cedar City. Trav's firm was invited to go tour the new temple down there before the general public so we thought we'd make a little trip out of it. On the way down there we stopped at Cove Fort.

 Jonah did not think the rooms were very interesting. He just wanted to run around and play outside in the courtyard. I kinda wish I had a courtyard at our house. A place to contain him.

 Unfortunately  while we were there a storm rolled in. It was FREEZING and started snowing! What the?!? So we rushed through and back into the van. We were all kind of bummed and wanted to stay longer and see more. I guess we'll have to go back another time.

 Even though it was cold it was beautiful!

 We swam, went out to dinner, let our brains rot from watching t.v. Then on Saturday we woke up, ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel and went through the temple. It was beautiful! My favorite moment of the whole trip was this: I prepped the kids ahead of time to focus on how they feel as we are in the temple, and especially the Celestial Room. The tour was great but when we walked into the Celestial room I said "Now how do you feel?" They all said really good and they could feel the Holy Ghost. Kate just had this look of amazement on her face and said "I feel the Holy Ghost SO strong! It's like Jesus is right here in the room with us!" She couldn't stop talking about it. That right there made the whole trip worth it.

We decided to take the scenic route home and drive through Cedar Breaks. Again...it was beautiful but COLD! We didn't end up doing the hike we originally planned on because we were all freezing.

 I really love these pictures with the shadows. I think they are so cool! And I didn't even plan it.

Thanks Cedar City, you were good to us!