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!