Organ Pipe National Park

So Craig, Brent, Kyle and Brad left Thursday for Organ Pipe National Park in Arizona, it borders Mexico and is famous for snakes and illegal alien crossings. Sometimes there are as many as 1000 illegal aliens per night crossing through the park. There were orange lights and helicopters out searching. The boys didn't see any illegals but plenty of rattlesnakes, which they poked and prodded all for getting a great picture. Hmmm.....have you ever seen that slide show of the rattlesnake bite victim, it apparently didn't bother the boys enough to leave the snakes alone!!!
And should you wonder, how I managed alone--well I got in a long ride on my bike, a swim and a major amount of laundry and a dinner out at Macaroni Grill with Rosemary, Jennifer, Lisa C. and Jill, the time passed way too quickly!

Brent, Kyle, Brad and Craig

Kyle climbing.

Kyle


Brent, Brad and Kyle

Edgie Wedgie

I bought an edgie wedgie on E-Bay today, should be here this weekend. We can't wait for you guys to get here so we can go skiing!
-Ker

Brad's Birthday

Brad's Birthday was a success!!! He got (because he needed )a cell phone, he picked out the "Rumor" it has a flip-out keyboard, and lucky for Kyle they had a buy one, get one free sale. Brad lost Kyle's cell phone right after we had just replaced the one Kyle lost at the beach, so Kyle had been using an old phone of Brents. Brad also got a tech deck skate park and boards, a new backpack and some new Sunday clothes. He had his birthday interview with the Bishop tonight and will be ordained a deacon by his dad on Sunday. Brad chose Chipotle for dinner.
The boys are packing and they are off to Organ Pipe for an adventure until Saturday. Sunday after church we're going back to Utah for the last week of spring break.

Easter Sunday

On the way up to Utah on Friday Brad shared some very sad news with me, it seems that he has never had an Easter basket, now this is a very sad commentary on our parenting when our youngest child states he has never had an Easter basket, and to be honest you can't remember whether or not that is true. Our Easter egg hunts have deteriorated to scattering candy chocolate eggs around the house and the kids picking them up. Well this Sunday, the Easter Bunny finally came, after almost 12 years, Brad got a visit from the Easter bunny. He received an Easter basket with new sunglasses, socks, shorts and lots and lots of Easter candy.
We went to church today with Sherrie and Sam, they both had solo parts in an Easter cantata, it was very good, and went over to their house afterwards to barbeque. Kerri and Kendall and the boys came over after that and we had Easter baskets for Kyle J and Kael. Kevin was here too. It was a really nice day. Tomorrow the boys are skiing.

Honduran Jail--a fun week!! Brian's last e-mail

Well family, this has been an interesting week. I think about every other day I've been too busy to even go to our area to work (actually more than that now that I think about it) but such is life.... On Tuesday we went to the airport to get the new missionaries coming from the Peru MTC... we waited...and waited...and waited... and they never showed up. After a bunch of calls we found out that they were unable to get on the plane in the morning because they hadnt gotten visas.... so they were reassigned to the Lima Peru North mission until (if) they get visas.... so that was fun. We had announced all the changes for the new trainers and everything in the morning and were going to have 5 trios in the mission.... then at night we had to call and unannounce changes.... that was a mess. That and three of the zone leaders had their phone line cut, so we had to make the calls for them... FUN TIMES!!! so yeah, then on thursday we didnt get to the area because we went to do more audits in the pueblos on the pretty side of the mission... marcala, la esperanza, jesus de otoro.... In La Esperanza, some random guy on a motorcycle yelled out my name... went over and found he was a kid from an investigator family I had taught... that was an awesome family... surprised he remembered me. On Friday, we didnt go to the area because we planned changes ALL day long, from 10:00 AM to about 7:30 PM and we're not even close to done... We're changing a LOT around, changing zone leader's areas to put them in the same wards as the stake presidents.... It's crazy.... Last night I almost went to jail... thats a cool story... One of our headlights is out right now so a fake transit police guy stopped me to give me a ticket and it happened to be the only day I didnt have my license on me... after a while I convinced him tp not take me to jail but to let me take him to my house to get the license (we were a few blocks away) We took him to our house, talked to him about the church.... As he went to write the ticket he realized that next week the transit place isnt open, so its impossible to pay the ticket and if they pull us over again, I go to jail. He told us to the fee of 1500 lps. right there but we only had 300 lps on us... He quickly changed the fee to a 300 lps fee and as a favor to us was going to reduce the charge... so he pocketed the money and we dropped him off where he needed to go... so that was fun. Dont worry mom, Im not in jail... here if you just pay the cop 15 dollars he gets off your case and doesnt throw you in jail for what should be a fix-it ticket... so thats Honduras for you... So there are a few events in my week this week.... Im working on improving my attitude and finding ways to stay happy with my companion... He's a great guy, but we have different personalities, different backgrounds and ideas.... its fun, but im doing a lot better than last week. I found out who my next companion is probably going to be next change and that will be nice for me to end the mission.... Oh yeah, Elder Ahlstrom found a place for us to live... apparently its not the prettiest place in the world, but a little house thats dirt cheap ($125, summer and $200 fall) Looks nice on the outside and probably a lot better than honduras, as long as it has hot water, carpet and light i think its a lot better than most apartments here... so if you could forward this e-mail to him again, that would be nice... and find out how far off campus it is.... sma986@hotmail.com SO this week is change week... hopefully the new missionaries show up this time... If not, I suppose we eat all the great food Sister Gomez makes like we did this week.... Jeff is AP in Michigan? That's awesome! I'd write him, but we'll be home soon anyways... speaking of which, I got my flight itinery this week... kinda sad. Ill be in Ontario Int. at about 7:28 PM on June 10th. If you see DSG again, tell her I said hi, and I'll definitely have to pass by... Shes another person I mean to write but never find time to write... so yeah family, I love you all. Have a great week
Elder Brian Wright
P.S. Elder Clarke, our area president, says he keeps trying to call you guys but you're never home... so he might still call...
PPS As for Romney's mission being more dangerous than Honduras.... Well, he can think that if he wants. Mom, I'll talk to you more about that AFTER i get home on June 10th... until then, just remember my patriarchal blessing said I'd be protected... :) love you mom

Diet Coke Free Day Number 2!!!

This is headline news for our family newspaper. Yes it is true, I have once again stopped drinking diet coke. But this time for some reason I have just lost the taste for it and have no desire to drink it. Don't know how this happened after so many years of my addiction, but---ok, well it is only day 2, I guess we'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow we are off to Utah to hang out at the condo for a few days. The boys want to ski and we're bringing the bikes (bicycles) too. I am hoping to get a few long rides in and maybe a few bricks. Spring break this year is two weeks (good news) bad news is the boys start back to school Aug. 12. We are coming home from Utah on Tuesday, Craig and the boys are going to Organ Pipe till Saturday, should be fun. We are also going to spend the second week of spring break back in Utah,the boys hopefully will ski and ski and ski. It was so cold this year at Christmas that spring skiing sounds much more fun. Maybe we'll get to the cabin for part of the break and get some snowmobiling in. Brent has a track meet this Saturday so he's not going on the first trip, he thinks his team can qualify in the 4 X 400.

I was going to post Brian's last e-mail here too, but can't get the computer to open a second window, hmmm. The official countdown is 82 days until he's home!! He's going to start back to school summer term.

Old Mom Learning New Tricks

Well Kerri and Kevin have both started blogs and it is so much fun to check their blogs and see what is happening I wanted to try one too. The problem is I am techno-savvy challenged. I thought I would put a fun picture on the first blog to start but oops, photo library got erased from the computer, I'll have to check on Craig's and see what I can post that might be fun for our "newspaper".
The most consuming thought in my head for the next few months is training for the Vikingman Half Ironman. I don't know what possessed me to register for this event, but I did and have definitely bitten off more than I can chew. I started training in January and was doing ok till the last few weeks, I've just been kinda burnt out. I've got to ramp it back up, I went to spin class this morning and my legs felt like noodles, but this evening I finally got back on the road, it was a gorgeous evening and since the boys had a minimum day and had homework done I was able to sneak out for a ride, got one 10 mile Sunset Loop in, felt nice to be back on the bike even though I probably should have ran or swam. Oh well....
We are also doing Spudman which is really my "A" race for the year. Vikingman I will just be happy to survive, but since I have a time from last year to beat at Spudman I am looking forward to it. It will also be fun because Kerri is doing it again, and Kevin, Brian, and Brad are entered as a team. Craig will be doing Mt. Whitney the same week with Brent and Kyle, another divide and conquer situation--I'm not liking being an expert on dividing.
Kerri said there is a way that everyone can post and keep us all up to date on the family. I'll have to figure that out--then we can get Kerri, Kevin and hopefully soon Brian updates directly from them. I guess I'll have to do the "news" for Craig and I, Brent, Kyle and Brad.