Running Weekend

We spent the weekend in Missoula Montana at the Moutain West Classic XC race. Both Jaren and Darbi traveled with the team on the charter bus but only Darbi ran in the race because Jaren is still recovering from surgery this week. Darbi did well but was disappointed in the results. Her heel has been hurting and it was difficult for her to give it her all.

Jaren is recovering nicely. We took off the bandages yesterday and Nikki had to go in the other room because she was feeling quizy watching. He has about a 3 inch incision on his shoulder. He goes into the doctor on Friday to see how he is doing.

We have received a few letters from Nick and he is doing well. He loves the MTC and the spirit that he feels there. He is very busy but likes the experience overall. He will leave for Nova Scotia on October 7.

I am staying busy painting with everyone realizing that winter is coming and knowing that they have limited time to get it done before the cold weather hits. It is good for me but makes for busy days.

Temple Pictures

Here are a few pictures we took the day before Nick went into the MTC.

Lots of news

Well we have lots of news this weekend; some good, some bad. Which do you want first? Okay, sounds good. Nikki took Jaren to the doctor on Friday and they said he will have to have surgery to repair his broken coller bone. He is scheduled to go in Wednesday for the proceedure. It should take about an hour to install a plate and reallign the bones.

He traveled with cross country team today to their meet and called us and asked if he could run. Yeah right. It just kills him that he can't be running.

Darbi had her meet today at a different location. She was pretty nervous because she is on the varsity team. The race has a freshman race, a jv race and the varsity heat. She asked her coach if she could run the freshman race, he told her "no". Her heat had about 200 kids in it. She did really well and ran a fast enough time to letter. She was thrilled to do so well even though it was quite intimidating.

The race goes from 200 kids across the starting line down to a shoot about 6 people wide. There is a lot of pushing and shoving. The good news is that during the race a was able to polish off a pulled pork sandwich in record time. I was an inspiration to all the dads there. Unfortunetly my time was just off record pace so I didn't letter.

MTC

Well, Nick was officially delivered to the MTC. We have heard all the horror stories of sadness about the experience with oceans of tears, hours of goodbyes and mothers being drug by the ankles out the doors but ours was a peaceful, happy time. Sure....there were some tears shed, but we gave him a few quick hugs, teared up, and let him walk out the "Missionary Exit Only" doors. He turned around just before leaving and gave his mom the "I love you" sign with the pinky slightly bent. Nikki was thrilled.

He was so excited to start. We spent the day before at the SLC temple and grounds. He loved going to the temple but especially liked the LDS museum. We saw the watch that was shot when Willard Richards had it in Carthage jail. We saw the original death masks of Joseph and Hyrum and many more great things I didn't know were available to everyone to see.

But what a spirit there was in the MTC as 600 young people prepared to leave by hugging their parents and then leaving and being embraced by the love of the Savior. It was surreal as the last speaker said they would have a closing prayer and then would say our goodbyes. As the prayer was ending you could hear a few quite sobs as everyone realized this was it. I was okay until I heard the man in front of my start to cry as the prayer came to a close.

I looked over at Nick and his eyes were red. He hugged me, then Hilary and finally his mom. He was all smiles when he left, excited to begin this new adventure in his life. I'm sure he'd love to hear from each of you. He has read this blog and knows you all from your blogs.

His address is:

Elder Nick Novakovich
MTC Mailbox #98
CAN-HAL 1007
2005 N. 900E.
Provo, UTAH 84604-1793

Schools in Good Hands

Well with the new school year starting, I thought I would post a picture to let you all know our children's education is in good hands.

Zoe and the cousins swimming.

Family Pictures

Nick is less than a week away for departing to the MTC and so we had to do the obligatory famiy pictures before he left. Tell us what you think. I think they turned out pretty well.

Nick is excited to be on his last leg before heading out. He has put his room into storage. Zoe has been measuring space to plan her take over. We are now into the reminders like, "This is your last Sunday in the house." I think he is pretty excited to leave.

Darbi and Jaren have started cross country running practice and are doing well. It looks like Darbi will make the varsity team so she is excited about that. She has her first race and Saturday to determine placing for the upcoming season.

Mountain Biking

In celebration of Labor Day, Jaren and I went up to Silver Mountain in Kellogg Idaho and did our first foray into downhill mountain biking. Suffice it to say that if you would have placed a large lump of coal on my bike seat, I would have produced you a diamond by the end of the day. I can't believe how crazy it was. We road the gondola up to the top of the mountain and then went to the start of the 3 trails. The "beginner trail" was just the road back down the mountain. No way we were going to take that! We went over to the expert trail and it began with a 6 foot drop off. Okay, so that was out of the question. The intermediate trail was straight down but at least there was no drop off.

We chose to go intermediate and let me tell you......diamonds in the making. I put my brakes on, (both front and back locked up) and was picking up speed as I went down! I would have been able to concentrate better but I noticed a high pitched squeeling noise coming from somewhere that was very distracting. After 5 minutes I realized it was me screaming and crying.

It took us two hours to reach the bottom of the mountain from our first run. (Mind you, this was at the speed of light) I can't say it was fun but it was thrilling. We headed back up for round two but decided to have lunch, and let my tears dry. Our waitress asked how the first run went and I broke down sobbing.

Run two was more exciting for Jaren because he went over his handle bars twice. We were the only ones on the mountain that weren't in full body armor. We did go to the back shop after to check the prices on the stuff. The salesman told us right off that it less expensive than a trip to the emergency room.

So if anyone wants to come to Spokane and experience downhill mountain biking, Nikki would be more than happy to tag along.