Happy 17th Birthday Emily

 Happy 17th birthday, Emily!  I can't believe how grown up you are getting and what a great friend you are to everyone including your mom.

I think I'm getting old.  This year my birthday was pretty chill with just the family.

A few days before my actual birthday we went to Toads, a fun park down south.  I went there for the Homecoming day date a couple weeks before and thought it would be fun to go for my birthday since we had passes to it.  It was a lot of fun to go with the family.

The first thing we did was the go carts.  We had fun driving really fast around the track.  I also beat them all.  After that we played laser tag. After having fun with the go carts and laser tag we tried our luck at the arcade games.  

We tried all sorts of games and got lots of points to turn in for prizes.  We all got some pretty cool prizes.  At first I got a cool mini Nerf gun but when I opened it and tried it, it was broken.  Dad and I went back to exchange it.  Instead of getting a new one, I got some other prizes.  After having fun at Toads, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner.

The day before my birthday was a mountain bike race in Vernal and then we traveled home that night to be home for my birthday.  On my birthday, we had Tyler and Ashley over with their kids. We had ribs for dinner and cake and ice cream after.

Then it was present time.  I got a new swimsuit, a Lego camera, and a new water bottle cage.

I had a really fun birthday just having fun and spending time with family.

I am glad you had a good birthday, Emily.  It is always fun to celebrate our oldest.  We hope you enjoy your last year as a kid because next year you will be considered an adult!  Happy Birthday!  We love you!

MTB Race #4: Vernal

Mountain Bike Race #4 was a good race for the high school riders. This race was in Vernal and on a course we had never ridden before.  It was a good flowy course though a little long.  It had several good flat areas to go fast and pass people.  The weather was great so each race got to do their full laps.  The second lap helped the kids pass more people.  

After the rough finish on the last race, this race was Emily last opportunity to dig in and get her spot back to get to state. Since she had a cross country meet the day before, she was not able to pre-ride the course.  This made her a little nervous because she didn't know the course but we told her to just ride hard and pick the riders off one at a time. She got her good luck tattoos on and good fortunes done too. She had a big smile on her face at the beginning. 

She rode hard and was able to pass many people.  After starting at the end of the pack in 41st position, she was able to finish strong and come in 30th place. This position was able to secure her position and qualified her for state. Emily was so excited to get her goal! I am proud of her and the hard work she put in the whole season. 

Colby was so in the zone for this race. He wanted to maintain his podium spot and possibly move up if he could. His goal was to beat his friend Rhett Gunnell from Logan High. Rhett and Colby have been on the podium the whole season battling out with each other. 

Colby rode hard and finally got passed Rhett to take 3rd place and secure his spot on the podium again. Rhett and Colby were both great sports about it though and congratulated each other in the finish zone.

Colby and I were so excited when he came across the finish line. He has come a long way this whole season. He was also very happy to qualify for state his Freshman year. 

It was awesome to see Colby on the podium again this race.  The whole race was awesome for the whole team. We had a handful of racers podium and many qualify for state. I was a proud Dad and Coach.  

Colby is loving all of the bling he has earned this season.  Emily and Colby are both excited to be racing at State in a few weeks.  Good job and good luck!

September

 September has been another whirl wind of a month.  We are in the thick of mountain bike season, cross country season, and various other school activities.  We still managed to find some time to do some other fun things as well.

Early in the month, Brooklyn and I headed out on a hike while the other kids were in school.  I decided to hike Leatham Hollow.  The distance up to the spring is a mile and a half so it would be a good 3 mile hike.  We strapped on our Camelbaks and grabbed some snacks and headed out.

The trail was pretty nice but I had forgotten how long a mile and a half is for little legs on rough terrain.  Brooklyn did amazing though and was a real trooper.  There was only one point that was quite rocky and steep that I had to hold her.  

Along the way though, I kept having the saying "Never hike alone." in my head.  So to combat that, I tried to keep talking or singing with Brooklyn to hopefully scare away any wild animals that might want to eat us.  At one point I heard what sounded footsteps in the bushes.  I have no idea what it was but I just kept telling myself it was birds.  Yeah definitely birds.  

We finally made it up to the springs and unfortunately, this late in the season, there was no water at all... Oh well... After munching on a granola bar, Brooklyn as ready to start heading back down the trail.  I was very watchful going back down the trail but I did not hear anymore "birds" on the way down.  

As we were driving home from the hike, we saw a real live cattle drive!

It was actually pretty cool to watch all of the cows walking down the canyon road.  The guy helping with the drive was Colby's orthodontist so when I asked him about it later, he said it was a tradition of their family to push the cattle down like this each fall/winter.  He said people either get really mad about it or start taking pictures.  I told him I was taking pictures because we thought it was awesome. 

Later, Russell, Emily and I participated in a 5K fun run for all of the Logan City employees.  

Emily cooked in the race and finished third overall and first female.  I tried to keep up for a while but then she left me in the dust.  I was also one of the top female finishers and Russell was not far behind either.  Too bad there were no medals or anything or we would have brought them home.  We did get a nice Yeti lunch cooler as gift though and some good finish line snacks.  

We also got to meet our newest nephew and cousin, Henry David Farnsworth.  Tyler and Ashley's newest baby.  He is so small and adorable!

Henry was born on August 24, 2025 and weighed 5 lbs 5 oz.  He is a cutie and we all had a good time holding him.

Emily is in the middle of cross country season and doing really well.  Her most recent race was Cache Box. 

This race took place on the official USU cross country course.  Emily placed third on her team and had a good race.  She finished in 22:32.  She keeps improving each race.  Her goal for the year is to get under 22 minutes.

September is the optimal time to view the salmon run at Porcupine Reservoir.  This is a tradition of ours every fall.  

Watching the salmon is always fascinating to me.  Grandma and Grandpa Morwood came up to visit for the weekend so it was fun to take them with us to see the salmon as well.  While they were here, we also took a drive up to Bear Lake and around Idaho.  Neither of them had ever been to Bear Lake before so that was fun to stop at the Lake and have a picnic as well as show them the sites.  

Emily's next cross country meet was the TwiKnight Invite in American Fork.  This was a varsity invitational so there were a lot of runners.

Emily did really well.  Running with all of those other fast runners, was able to push her to get a new PR!  She finished with a time of 22:12.  Because of this, she was able to ring the PR bell at the end!  She said the best part of this race was the bus ride down.  After she finished, we headed to Vernal for another mountain bike race the next day.  

September also included Charlotte and Emily's birthdays, homecoming and a couple more mountain bike races.  Becca also moved up to Logan to go to school so we get to see her a lot more now.

Definitely a busy month!

Homecoming

 Homecoming 2025!

Homecoming this year was very fun and super eventful.  This year I got asked to the Homecoming dance by a guy on the cross country team named Ethan Jenks.  He is a really nice guy and a was super fun date.

We had a lot of fun people in our group.  For the day date we went to Toads, a fun center in Ogden.  We played arcade games and laser tag.  Nate, a guy in our group, was really proud that he had the highest score out of all of us in laser tag.  Also from the arcade games we got giant bouncy balls.  The coolest part of the day-date was the go-carts.  I won everyone by a long shot and even lapped a couple people.  Ethan was mad that he got ran into by the other girls on our group.  We all had a blast.  After having fun a Toads we went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch.

Getting ready for the dance was definitely a group effort with grandparents and cousin over visiting. Mom, Grandma and Becca helped me get dressed up  and hair done pretty. It took Dad, Grandma, and I just to put on Ethan's boutonniere. It was so embarrassing.  Poor Ethan was blushing and so was I...

It was a blast to dress up so pretty for the dance, I felt like a princess.

We then did pictures by the Hyrum Library.  The lady who did out pictures did a really good job. I really liked how they turned out.

My heels in the grass were annoying though. They kept poking holes in the grass.

A girl in our group does nails and she did the girls' nails so we would all have super cute nails.  She did a really good job.

This group was such a fun group because we all knew each other from cross country and they are all so fun to hangout with.

After pictures we went to Beehive Grill and had some really good food.  We were all stuffed.  After dinner getting out of the small parking lot was a struggle because Ethan's mini van had no power steering.  On the drive over to the dance we were all tired and full of food and we saw Ethan's true side.  He was super funny and acting like Gru from Despicable Me because he really wanted to beat the others in our group to the dance.  Our group was split into two cars, Ethan's and Nate's.  Nate's car always beat us to the different places we were going but after dinner we were finally a head of them going to the dance.  We joked that we thought someone put something in Ethan's food at Beehive he was acting so competitive and funny.

At the dance it was super fun.  We met up with others on the cross country team and we all hung out and danced together.  There was a mash pit for one of the songs and I almost got trampled.  So after that I stayed out and just danced away from the mash pits.

The Homecoming dance was a lot of fun with a super fun group and a really nice date.  We had fun hanging out and getting to know each other better.  I really glad that I was asked by Ethan.

During the homecoming week we had the homecoming parade.  Before the homecoming parade though Lily, Ethan, Heidi, and I were able to sneak off before the parade started and go to Ethan's house for some Creamies. Yum!

The parade was fun and we threw lots of candy.  I was in the parade wearing my highlighter orange on the cross country float, and Logan and Colby were on their bikes with the mountain bike team. Afterwards we went back to the school and watched the powder puff game.  I was bummed because they only let Seniors play in the Powder-puff game this year.  Usually they let Juniors so I was looking forward to it.  Oh well, next year.  Homecoming was really fun!

MTB Race #3: Beaver Mountain

Mountain Bike Race number #3 was in Beaver Mountain. This course is our home course and another one of everyone's favorites.  We generally do really well here. All of the kids got to start in a great positions this go around. However, the weather was trying to be nice but then changed it mind. We also had some big bike malfunctions at this race.  In the end though, things worked out.

Logan started the day off with his race.  As a Junior Devo, this was Logan's last race of the season so he wanted to have a good race.

Logan finished strong and had a great ending time setting a PR for himself on this course.  He was also able to maintain his top ten finish overall!  Way to go Logan! It has been an amazing season for you!

By the time the high school riders started racing, the weather had turned and there were a few lightning delays.  Because of this, all the high school racers were told they were only doing one lap instead of two.  Emily was excited for this but in the rush and confusion, she forgot her tattoos...  She started in a great position and was excited to possibly move up some more and get in the top 20.

 

 Emily's bike was shifting weird before the race and I was a bad Dad and told her the bike would be fine. She started the race on the hill was really doing great with one of her best starts. Then, as she got to the top about a half mile into the race, her bike stopped shifting down to the hard gears. Her gear shifter broke so she was stuck in a gear that did not allow her to go as fast as she would have liked. She did the whole race in the easiest gear. She cried the whole way because of it but still finished strong and actually still beat her previous record by a minute. Who knows how she would have killed it under better circumstances. Sadly this affected her placement and was moved back to 41. I felt horrible. Needless to say she got a brand new shifter and cables for the next race. 

Colby was excited for his race as well.  He was glad to only be doing one lap but also kind of bummed because he uses the second lap to pass a lot of people.  The best part was that because of his third place finish last race, he got to be right on the front line for the start of this race.  You can't get better than that!

Colby raced his heart out and beat his previous record by 9 minutes! He finished #4 and got to return to the podium for another medal.

A podium and medal is totally worth it for him. He doesn't care which place.  Next time though, he wants to come in before his friend, Rhett.  These two have been playfully competing the whole season.

The Mountain Crest team also did great and took home another 3rd place victory.

Way to go kids!