Brian Has Six Weeks Left

well dad, I still have six weeks left, so the cute girl will have to wait a bit longer. Today was a very busy day. My companion said goodbye to all his areas in the city today, so that took a long time. President had a priesthood leadership meeting with elder Falabella and Elder Christiansen of the Seventy today and they didn't have a pianist, so I was there at the end to play the piano and meet some general authorities. Really nice people. SO yeah, sounds like things are well for Elms for summer. We'll see what happens when i get back as for fall... Tell Shane that the house for fall sounds like a good idea, but we'll work it out when i get back... So it sounds like Im going to stay in the office this next change. Most of the zone leaders are training this next change and my new companion is Elder Branch from Idaho if things don't change... No one in the mission knows that yet, but I figure you guys won't tell anyone... haha... It's kinda weird seeing Elder Chinn go home seeing as he came to Honduras with me, but I have another 6 weeks to work hard and get a lot done. Oh, tell Debbie that I got her package with the calander... grandma and grandpa keep asking me if I got it... So I gotta speak on High council sunday huh? That's good news. It means everyone comes to sacrament meeting prepared with a pillow to fall asleep for the talks. I think it's cool Ill be home for Fathers day. It'll be nice to see the family again, but its crazy how fast its all coming up. I hope all is going well back in Redlands. I love you family! Dad, i got your letter. Thanks! Have a great week family! Cuidense mucho!
Elder Brian Wright

Kyle's Piano Recital

 
This evening was Kyle's piano recital, he did really well, click on the video and hopefully you can hear his piece. EDIT: Ok after waiting forever for the video to upload it didn't post. Maybe I'll try one more time.  Yay!!  It worked this time.
Well no e-mail from Brian today, maybe he was changed?! Or maybe just too busy, if he got changed we'll probably hear from him on Monday, that is everyone else's p-day. Oops, Brian's e-mail just came in, I'll post it.
Brent qualified for CBL in the 800, the meet is Thursday at Colton. He has SAT's next Saturday. The end of Junior year is a lot of work, AP tests are also coming up, as well as the prom, he is going with Justine.
Dad is running the marathon with Brad if he gets in. (Brad wrote that).
I'm still obsessed with training for Vikingman, I got a ten mile run in on Friday, it was actually one of the best runs I've had, but this is the sorry part, I wore my running Garmin and it said I only burned 200 calories on a ten mile run--so what's with that!!! I checked it, it seems to have been set right and my weight is in right-go figure. Craig and I were headed out for a ride this morning and he noticed a slit in his tire with the tube bulging through, he flatted on our last ride and that is probably why so he decided to run with Brad and I rode with Kyle. Kyle's bike shoes are getting too small and his feet started bothering him, so it was off to the bike store to get some new shoes, his new pair is a little on the big side so there's some growing room there. We looked at new tires for Craig's bike but they were out of what he wanted so he's going to order them. I'm hoping they won't take long to get here.

Skimboarding

At the beach, no wait it's Redlands Country Club, who knew? Certainly not mom!!! I sat down at the computer this evening to pay bills and iPhoto was open with this roll of film. Hmm this is certainly a case of parents not knowing what their children are doing. Apparently it was after a good rain, the golf course was desserted and the boys were off to have some fun. I have to admit it's pretty ingenious.

Brian's Homecoming Talk is June 15

We got Brian's homecoming talk scheduled today for June 15, then we zoom him back off to school to catch the start of summer term. No rest for the poor boy, just enough time to buy him some normal clothes and get a few hugs and kisses. His actual homecoming is June 10 (that's a Tuesday) at 7:28pm, he arrives at Ontario International. Here is his last e-mail.
Well family, things are going along as normal, crazy.... This week flew by really fast. On tuesday we went out to one side of the mission pueblos for presidents interviews with missionaries. We got a little behind schedule so he didnt finish 8 of them. We started a 3 hour trip back to teguc at 9:00 PM. We got home at 12:00 AM exactly. The next day (or really the same day) I went out to Comayagua for divisions with the zone leaders. I started the mission in that area, so it was nice to see a few of the members that surprisingly remembered me. While I was gone, the country went on strike again (i think the taxis?). At the same time we had a missionary come back to the mission and another that had to leave. So Thursday was driving around the mission for all the emergency changes... Friday was the evaluation meeting with the newbies and taking the Elder to the airport that went home. Finally I got to my area on Friday for a baptism interview. We have a baptism today at 6:00... one named Cherry who was a referral from the counselor in the bishopric. The Bishop is going to baptize her. The other is a guy named David. He was my companions first member referral in the mission, but he lived outside of his area so he couldnt do any follow up. We found out he lives in our area so we taught him and he's getting baptized today by his friend who is the high priest group leader in our ward (I think the only high priest group leader in honduras... there really arent many high priests) So thats exciting. Today President also invited us over for an asado... Agentinian barbeque to celebrate my birthday and Elder Ayau's birthday (general secretary)... Both of our bithdays passed a little while ago, but its been a crazy, hectic last couple weeks. This next week is the last full week for my companion. I still don't know what I'll do next change. If I leave to train, that leaves the assistants starting from scratch again and without any training, so that's hard. I'd love to train, but we'll see what President Gómez has in mind. We start to plan changes this friday, so I could have an idea by my next e-mail.
Oh, remember how I compained about that dumb law in Honduras where you have to choose one day of the week not to drive... It lasted 3 days before the supreme court determined it was unconstitutional and illogical... That's Honduras for you....
Tell Grammy I love her a lot and to get well soon. Kevin, congrats on the marathon... I assume you survived. What are you up to these days kev? Brad, running a marathon at 12 years old is crazy!!! I'll be there to cheer you on. I'll be sure to make a sign to put at the 18-mile mark saying "Brad, keep going, Brittney Davis is waiting for you at the finish" Haha. Brent, good luck with your girlfriend. Just remember that girls are up to no good. Mom, dad I love you a lot! Take care. Let me know any updates on housing for summer, fall etc... thank you! I love you all very much. Have a great week!!! ¡Cuidense!
Elder Brian Wright

Kyle is 14!!!

Happy Birthday Kyle. Wow, 14, soon to finish Middle School and start at Redlands High School, hard to believe how fast the time goes. He got some great gifts.




When I asked Kyle what his favorite present was it was, "bike, duh!"
The triumphant pose!
He actually had a sneak peak, ok sneak use of this present before his birthday, see my previous post on the family room furniture. He got a new cell phone, sneak use of that one too, see Brad's birthday post. But he also got some new jeans and some money from both sets of grandparents (always a favorite). He wanted a very specific backpack also but I couldn't find it so I will have to take him to pick it out.

Congratulations Kevin!!!

Woo Hoo, looking good son!!
Kevin ran the Salt Lake City Marathon today. Congrats Kev. Hope the knee is feeling better soon. How would it be to be able just to say, "I think I want to run a marathon." No training!!!
Craig and I got in two good rides this weekend. Friday we did the Airport/Loma Linda ride and today we did Oak Glen/Bryant/Greenspot. All is going well with the new bike. I got a Garmin for it and love it, it is so much easier to use than my Flight Deck. I was going to try to import my ride from Motion Based but I haven't figured that out yet. I took my camera so I could get some pictures, but my battery went dead soooo.....I'll have to post more stuff later.

Can You Read the Shirt?

Can you read Brent's shirt? Just in case you can't it says, "The One and Only 08-09 Photog Editor". The back says "Makio" which is the name of the RHS yearbook. Congrats Brent we are all so proud, the competition was stiff and he thought he might be the Sports Editor. He got surprised with the shirt and a balloon congratulating him during 4th period.

Brian comes home in 52 days!!

Bri's latest e-mail--I am so sad I missed his call!!
Well family, thank you for your birthday package.... I'm trying to work on this
juggling thing, but not too successfull so far. I'd totally forgotten about the
pick up sticks game... I've found its more difficult on tile than carpet, but
its a lot of fun.... Honduras has an interesting tradition of cracking eggs on
someone's head on their birthday so after the prayer with the new missionaries
and president's family on tuesday, i got about 5 eggs cracked on my head.
hopefully that will come out of my suit pants. In reality my suits still in
really good shape, so im doing well... It was nice to get some new socks and
that awesome tie. Well, if I can't get into Elms, then oh well... whatever ends
up happening, I'll be fine with it. This week was really busy. We had a
missionary couple come this week and then the new missionaries and the last two
days i've been on divisions with zone leaders (president left for Guatemala, so
we finally have some time to work with the zone leaders... he gets back today)
So my birthday went well. the office elders bought me a nice cake and some
people called be in the morning to sing happy birthday. Yeah, we were planning
changes in the morning and President remembered it was my birthday so he said
"call your mom" in English.... So I called home, but Mom had left to drop off
kyle at school and off to work, so I talked with Brad for about a minute... and
we kept planning changes. He was going to have me call back later in the day,
but a ton of things happened that day, so we never got around to it. But I'll be
calling home in about a month any ways, so it all works out well... Wednesday
we had the training meeting for trainers and took some stuff out to open a new
house in Comayagua (where I started the mission)... On Thurday I was in
Toncontin on divisions and yesterday in Siguatepeque ( and area where we dont
send gringos right now because of some gang problems... its calm now though).
Thanks for your birthday card via e-mail... That picture of mom and me seems
like so long ago... craziness... Well family, life is going well for me I
suppose... busy as usual but nothing very exciting. I may end up finishing in
the office.... we'll see in a few weeks. Tell everyone back home I said hi and
all is well. I love you!
Elder Brian Wright
P.S. Brent, good luck on ACTs! they're not fun, but Im sure you'll do well

Greenspot Ride

Craig and I did the Greenspot ride yesterday, it was the first real ride on my new bike, just short of thirty miles according to map my ride. The bike did great, I really think it likes living in California. I do need to get a computer for the bike and a tune up for the engine!!! Vikingman Triathlon is giving me a serious scare. I ran nine miles this morning, I knew if I rode first I would never get around to my run. I really need to get some more miles on the bike, I need the bike to give me enough time that I can take the run easy, since I'm such a slow runner and have no choice but to take the run easy. The cut off times have me worried, well I guess there is only one final cut off time 8 1/2 hours, but I'm concerned. I did Spudman Triathlon in 3:09 last year, so one would think you could simply double the time and I would be fine at 6:18, it doesn't work that way though. I would be thrilled to do anything under 7:00 but I'm counting on using the whole dang 8:30.
My Mom called this morning while I was running, it was a nice little break to talk to her, unfortunately we talked about her nice little break, she fell and broke her arm yesterday. She was on the balcony off of their bedroom trying to swat down a swallow nest and fell off a chair. I offered to come and cook for her, I owe her and dad bigtime after coming to take care of all of us when I broke my leg.

Onslaught

Brent is applying for photog editor for Makio (yearbook) next year. He had to submit a picture representing "onslaught" this is a great picture he took of Kyle while they were at Organ Pipe.

Small Spaces

The Cabin!!!

Well it is Sunday afternoon and we are back home, what a great trip, we managed to squeeze in a couple cabin days too, the spring snow was great for snowmobiling. We took Kyle J and Kael with us too, Kerri had her first year nursing boards on Saturday (she passed with flying colors!!) so we are very excited about that.
It's interesting to come home to our too big house and think about all the fun we have in small spaces, our little condo is warm and cozy (ok, well maybe the "bike/family room" still needs a little warming up) but it is plenty of space even when the gang is all there, and then there's the cabin, I think any one of my kids would vote for the cabin as their favorite place on earth (or almost). So maybe small spaces are fun because they are our vacation/play places, but maybe, just maybe that's all we need in life. Something to think about.
We got home in time to see the last few laps of the Redlands Bicycle Classic which was fun, it was a nice cool day for racing.
Tomorrow it is back to real life, school for the boys, training for me (did I mention I'm going into my race on the "it's better to be undertrained than overtrained" theory.

Craig, he's pretty cute huh!

Kyle J and Brent

Brent getting some air

Family Room Furniture!!!

Last summer when we bought this cute condo, one of the reasons we picked this one was for the garage. It has a nice 2 car garage and most of the condos we looked at only had car ports. We wanted the garage as a place for all the toys, skis in the winter, bikes and motorcycles in the summer, etc. but.... this is the problem, we didn't try parking our cars in the garage before we bought it. Guess what? The cars don't fit in the garage, the Yukon XL is too XL, and so is the truck. You also can't park on the street here, therefore often we put the cars in the garage and have to leave the door open, so it's not a very secure place to leave the toys.
So what does the garage have to do with the title of this post "Family Room Furniture" you might ask. Well we've got the condo pretty well furnished and comfy, except for the downstairs family room, it needs a pull out sofa, chair or two and some kind of gigantic TV which will make the boys very happy. It was my full intention to work on this room while we were here, but I kinda got sidetracked. I got sidetracked to the Trek Store.

Notice the red bike in front (my new big girl bike!) the other black one in front is Kyle's new bike. Kyle and Brad have started cycling and the Trek KDR wasn't working out. Kyle was liking my blue bike and so was Brad, I thought the best solution was to get Kyle a new bike larger than mine to give him some growing room and Brad could use my blue bike. But...we ended up leaving the store with a new bike for me and for Kyle and Brad will ride his new (to him) blue bike. I got a Trek Project One, it is very cool, a larger frame, full carbon, SRAM, and new Speedplay pedals, I also went with a compact double instead of my trusty triple, I have the regular double if I want to switch it out for a flatter ride. To be honest, I am a little intimidated by this bike, but I'm loving it, it is so smooth. We'll see how I do on the hills when we get home, I also have gone from 650's to 700's so lots of changes. Kyle got the Madone 4.5, it's a little on the big side, but the top tube is slightly slanted, and it's adjusted pretty well for him, he also got Speedplay pedals and is doing much better with them than I am. I guess it would an insult to put my old, scarred, SPD's on this gorgeous bike.
Anyway, back to the family room furniture. Well the bikes are the family room furniure, can't keep them out in the garage!!! The sofa, chairs and tv will just have to wait. I have blown the decorating budget on way more fun toys.

Five out of Six Is Pretty Lucky!!!

This picture was taken this morning at Canyons, wow, I got five out of six kids all together for a picture, that's pretty spectacular. My next challenge will be to get a new family picture when Brian is home so we can have everyone. I think I will have to bribe Kendall, but that's ok, Kendall I will think of something good!!! 68 days till Bri is home, but who's counting. It's been a fun week in Utah, we've been keeping busy. Yesterday we went to Jump On It, it's a very cool place, the whole place is solid trampolines.
Kerri and Kael at Jump On It
Kyle J. had his first day skiing Tuesday at Sundance, his favorite part was "riding in the sky".