August has started off as a challenging month for us.  Hyrum has started football tryouts.  It is a challenge for me to watch him struggle.  My competitive side is struggling to watch him be in the wrong spots.  He still has not gained all the speed he lost the last few years.  He is really strong and competes well once he is engaged.  He is picking up the knowledge piece of football quickly.  He just needs more time.  He got on a large team.  We have 22 kids total.  They had a coach back out.  We have a good team but finding playing time for everyone will be a challenge.

We had the Stake Triathlon last weekend.  This has been a bigger challenge this yea because we have included more stakes and have tried to divide the work.  I woke up around 4:30 so I could be at the church (Transition 2) at 5:00 for a triathlon start at 7:00.  for T2 we needed to have chairs put up for each participant so they had a place to put their bike and start their run.  We need to have the number they were assigned on the chair.  We need to create a bike in and run out from the church to the street and the finish line.  Last year I directed most of this.  we had help setting up all the chairs and providing the numbers.  I created the in and out of the all the signs needed for the run.  This year I was the liason for the other stakes that were assigned this area.  The chairs were out on time.  The numbers that were created were wrong and had to be redone.  We had many people show up to put their running shoes by there chairs and we did not know where they were supposed to be yet.  we had a guy from the Draper Region that had done these in his area trying to help set things up with at T2.  he had not been to any meetings and had a different vision on how things should be.  we needed to tear down everything he did and recreate it.  He explained what we needed to do and left him to it.  He set it up wrong and we needed to tear it down again.  this happened four times before I just took care of it myself.  Once we got the race started I did have much to do.  I received a text that we had an accident.  The text read that the person will require and stitches.  This was followed up with a notice that it was Eve.  I came unglued.  i'm a worrier and immediately thought of the worst.  I contacted the medical people to come to T2 where a I assumed Eve would be taken.  Tiffany drove the van to T2 but had no Eve.  She told me that Eve demanded to finish the race and took Tiffany's bike and continued.  I felt horrible when I heard that Eve's crash was due to an equipment malfunction.  He brakes did not work as she was going down a steep decline.  She crashed into a fence and some bushes.  Pres. Markus had a scooter and took Tiffany to see if they could find Eve.  They found her almost towards the end of the bike.  When I saw Eve I started to cry.  She was banged up.  A lot of road rash up her right side and a large wound on the left by her hairline.  She had a large bruise started on her thigh.  We had a nurse check her out and start attending to her wounds.  Soon a doctor came and made sure the wounds were treated right.  The paramedics came and Eve got to talk to some handsome firemen.  I handed off my responsibilities and we took Eve to the hospital.  The stitched her up and cleaned her wounds.  The girls were still wet from the swim and got very cold.  They brought Eve a warm blanket.  I was very impressed and proud of how Eve handled everything.  She was very positive and upbeat.  She was a great example of how to handle adversity.  We had a large outpouring of love towards Eve when we got home.  Pres. and Sis. Markus asked what her favorite treat was and Eve told the Tomatoes and other veggies.  they raided their garden and brought Eve a large bag of tomatoes.  Pres. and Sis. Saunder came by for a visit.  Eve's YW leaders came by.  Eve was still smiling through it all and still looked beautiful.  The wounds made her look really tough.  We were concerned about Eve's Oakcrest trip this week.  She is starting to heal quickly and is doing well.  She will likely be mostly healed by the time she gets back.

Tiffany is dealing with some problems with her visiting teaching partner. She has a companion that has come out and said she does not like Tiffany.  It seems like every month she has a physiological battle with this lady.  she is known to be a challenge to work with and I guess the RS leaders feel Tiffany can handle it.  I have been very proud of Tiffany and how she has handled this challenge.  She has been very patient and tries to be understanding.  If this had happened to me I would have spoken my mind a long time ago but Tiffany handles things like this better than me.  I learn a lot from her in these situations.  Her companion claims that Tiffany offended a lady they teach by calling to check up on her and to set a VT appointment.  Her companion in flat out crazy.  I know this from the Bishopric days.  She needs meds but does not have any.  Tiffany is a great example of kindness and understanding. 

We just completed a great vacation.  We took the family the Yellowstone.  We were concerned that the trip might not be as fun as some of the trips we have taken in the past.  It was a great trip.  We left Monday mid day and planned to take our time driving up.  We stopped to visit the Idaho Falls Temple.  We ate at Rexburg.  We took a scenic route from Ashton to Island Park.  we saw a great waterfall and some beautiful farm land.  The acres of wheat were impressive.  We stayed in Island Park at a home we rented.  It was on a island which made for a lot of driving.  Once we booked this trip I wondering if having a lease on our van was such a good idea.  Our cabin had a teepee, fire pit, and a trampoline.  We spent two days in Yellowstone and saw everything it had to offer.  We came across a herd of buffalo, saw the geysers, waterfalls.  the best part of our time in Yellowstone was a small stream we came across while hiking between the falls.  it was a picture perfect steam, small falls, cave area.  we spent about 20 min just trying to soak it all in.  We also stopped at a lake and skipped rocks for 30-45 min.  We visited a great wolf/bear museum in West Yellowstone.  We were lucky to be in West Yellowstone the same time they were having a mountain man rendezvous.  We floated the Snake river on a raft.  It was supposed to take 2-3 hours.  it took a little over 4 hours.  We took a side stream and it didn't work out very well.  Tiffany was concerned about us getting lost.  The stream got so slow I had to get out and push.  The stream was heavy in vegetation which was making us slow down.  I was struggling in mud up to my mid thigh and water up to my mid chest.  We eventually got to the mainstream again in time to see a moose and her calf.  We were very late to our lunch we had a Boondocks.  we had reserved some sweet rolls and were concerned if they would keep them for us.  they did.  they were delicious but Tiffany's are better.  Tiffany had us do an activity in the teepee.  she was trying to impress the importance of power of words on the kids.  I was assigned the popcorn but when I made it out to the teepee she was leading the kids one at a time in silence.  We read some poetry from "where the sidewalk ends" and ate the popcorn.  It was a very cool experience.  We did something similar our last night at the cabin.  We read the poetry, ate smores, played a themed song game.  hyrum started singing so loud I had to threaten to with forcing him inside if he can't control his volume.  We had a great experience but I'm grateful to be home.  Hyrum starts football tomorrow.  We just heard the high school needs a boy Hyrum's age to play Michael Banks in Mary poppins.  Hyrum is interested but it will conflict with football.  It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.