On Saturday morning, Barbs and I attended Zack's, my nephew, baptism up in Heber. It was a wonderful opportunity to be with family and see Mom give a wonderful talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost directed towards Zack and the other two individuals getting baptized. After the event, we all headed over to the Ellis' home for some scrumptious sandwiches and cookies, but since the baptism started at 11:45 a.m. and the BYU game started at 1:30 p.m. we had to book it down the canyon to make it to the game. We made it to our seats just in time to see the starting of the 2nd quarter where BYU immediately scored their 2nd touchdown. Needless to say, this was only the beginning of UCLA's butt whooping. We all know that BYU football is great, but I totally underestimated what BYU can accomplish. I hope that BYU finally gets the respect and recognition that they deserve on the national level. Just look at the score.....WOW!!! Not only was it fun watching BYU smash UCLA, but it was fun to sit with The Boys and get caught up with everyone. While Barbs enjoyed holding Matt & Katie's beautiful little boy, Ben, the rest of us couldn't stop jumping up and down, screaming and yelling every time
BYU scored a touchdown or forced a turnover. Needless to say, we were jumping and screaming the whole game. Unfortunately Barbs and I didn't scream loud or long enough because on Sunday we had to speak in church AND teach Sunday School. Talk about a double whammy.......ouch! After a long day at the game, Barbs and I were up to about 2 a.m. preparing the talks and lessons for the next day. Since our church now starts at 8:30 a.m. we barely got any sleep. Oh well, the game was worth it :)
This past Saturday, Sept. 20th, Barbs and I had the opportunity to compete in the Saint George Kokopelli Triathlon that is held every year in the fall. After picking up our wetsuits Friday morning, we hit the road. After hitting a few hairy rain storms on the highway we were concerned that we would have to battle a typhoon during the triathlon. Once we got closer to Saint George the skies cleared and the weather was impeccable. A balmy 85 degrees with a slight breeze, mmmmmmmm...nice. After signing in at registration and picking up our packets and numbers, we headed to the Red Cliff Inn. To our surprise, the Red Cliff Inn was located right across the street from the new In-N-Out Burger joint. Barbara was in heaven :) She couldn't wait to go there. I had to restrain here from immediately running across the street and grabbing a #2 cheeseburger combo. It just wouldn't set well during the triathlon. Latter on in the evening we met up with Weston & Becky and Kyler & Jen at the local Pizza Factory. We gobbled down as many carbs and we could handle for the traithlon. That evening we prep'd the bikes and hit the sacks early. The following day started way to early. We woke up at 5:20 a.m. and quickly loaded all of out gear and bikes on the car and headed to Sand Hollow Reservoir where the competition would take place. We set up our transition areas with our bikes, biking gear and running shoes and quickly squeezed into our wetsuits. The water was perfect! 
About 64 degrees and smooth as glass. The swim was as intense and we anticipated but the steep hill that we had to bike up during the bike portion of the race was brutal. It's about 3/4 mile long and has about a 90% grade. DANG!!! The run was as good as it could have gone, considering that you're running in the desert, on dirt and in 94 degree heat. Why do people willfully put their bodies through such pain and torture? BECAUSE WE LOVE IT!!! Whaaaawhooooo :) Barbs and I were very pleased with our overall standings and finishing statistics. I finished 19th in my division with an overall time of 1:34:96. Out of the 1200 competitors, I was able to finish the about the top 30%. For anyone who is up to the challenge, we would love to have you join us next year and we make this a yearly tradition.
