Well, we haven't been so up on keeping this blog current, forgive us, we are rookies.
We have been busy with just life. Karisa volunteered to be a cross country coach for James's school. The kids are in Kindergarten through 5th grade. James got signed up for the running club because we were too late for fall soccer, but he really enjoyed it. His parents hope that he will get the bug and run with them. David secretly hopes that James will want to run the BolderBoulder 10K next memorial day with his parents (gives us an excuse to go a bit slower). It was an great experience for the both of them and David loved hearing the kids calling Karisa, "Coach". David has been busy with his new Harley and trying to ride it when we get those perfect Colorado days with those great blue skies.
We just got back from a wonderful trip up to Washington state to visit David's sister and family. Before we left James and Karisa went with the primary to the Denver temple to teach the kids about the temple. Its great to see the reverence of the primary children when they can feel the spirit. That was on the Saturday before we left on the following Wednesday after James got out of school. We drove to Ogden, Ut around 1 am the next morning for a well deserved sleep, (at least for David, since everyone else was already asleep). We got up the next morning for the rest of the trip to Mattawa. We wanted to get there a full day before the half marathon. We have been planning and training for this trip to run this half marathon for months. Well, with all the running, a few weeks before the race, David and Karisa went for a nine mile run. Karisa finished it, David didn't. He stopped at the six mile mark with knee pain and got introduced to the wonderful world of the IT Band, with the only cure is rest and stretching. He thought that if he laid off of running for a couple of weeks he would be well enough to run the half marathon. The Tuesday before we left, he went for a short three mile run and couldn't complete two miles due to the pain and had to pull out of the race.
So, we were able to spend Friday with Jef and Jeannie's family and got acquainted with Mattawa once again. For those who know us and our family, Mattawa plays an important part of our life. We can't thank those involved in bringing James into our life enough, and it all came through the hands of the Lord for having Jef ask David to come up to Mattawa for a visit. Well, to get on with our trip, the weather changed and it became cooler and it began to rain. From everyone that lived there, they were saying they got their yearly rain total all in that day. We went to the Waluke high school homecoming football game to watch David's nephew Jack to play football. He is a two way started and is one of the studs on their team. The rain kept up for the whole game, so David took Karisa and Adaley back to the house at half time. For being cold and wet, Adaley took it very well. David and James got very wet, but stayed to watch them win in overtime. It was fun.
Race day came and David, Karisa and Jeannie piled into Jeannie's suburban to head off to Leavenworth, WA (no not the Leavenworth prison that's in Kansas). What a cool little town Leavenworth is. It's a Bavarian town with all of the businesses with a Bavarian facade, even the McDonald's and Starbucks. The marathon also co-incited with Oktoberfest, so the town was full of tourists. The rain kept up that morning and it was cold before the race, but as the race started the rain stopped and it became perfect running weather. Karisa and Jeannie took off to tackle 13.1 miles while David became the support team and photographer. David was proud of both his wife and sister for taking on that task and both completing it. Jeannie had a very painful hip giving her problems and had a breakfast of Advil before and during the race. Karisa found out about five minutes before the race started that her iPod got completely erased and ended up running without music for motivation. Her motivation she said afterwards came from such a beautiful setting and thoughts of her Mom. Running can bring out pure emotions in people and you could see that in Karisa when she crossed that finish lin
e. What a great moment.
Adaley fell in love with her cousins, James Dallin and Jonah. She would even want out of both of her parents arms to be with them both, she especially found a soft spot for James Dallin. We aren't sure if she even walked anywhere when those two were around because she had them wrap around her little finger and got what ever she wanted from them.
Our James had a great time too. He got to see the whole process of harvesting potatoes from the ground all the way into the box at the
packing shed and thought it was 
pretty cool. He got to dig in the dirt and get all dirty without getting in trouble. He went to the dairy to see where milk comes from and found out where cow patties come from too! He saw the baby cows and saw all the flies that were around them, he didn't think the flies and cow patties were too cool, since the cow patties come out wet and hit him before the ground! He got to collect chicken eggs and saw a bunch of Golden Doddle puppies. James also got to drive an earth mover with Uncle Jef. What an experience for a little boy from the suburbs. 
We all had a great time, and look forward to coming back next year to Mattawa and the Leavenworth
race again. 
