Odds and ends

I know this is from almost a million years ago, but I've gotta add these pics. On the night of my birthday, I made the non-vegetarian kids try raw fish. Elijah loves poke, so had no problem. Sybil regurgitated and ate her sushi several times. Iris contemplating her sacrifice:

Sybil got braces on her bottom teeth. Within a few days, she had pulled most of the brackets off her teeth, so back into the chair she went:

Elijah getting a facial, which I'm pretty sure is what has been going on for the past hour. 

They are both in Sybil's room and she keeps sprinting out for supplies.

Sybil and Mila hot-tubbing in the rainy winter. Even since Mila moved out, these two remain BFFs.

At LSMSA, the week after Christmas break is Special Projects week. When I went there, I did fencing (which actually turned into me teaching soccer since the fencing teacher had a death in the family and had to travel. I did Habitat for Humanity my senior year. Claire chose golfing:

We traveled to St George for the Red Cliffs Temple Open house where 

Jon was able to give a small group a private tour.

Iris at her violin recital:

Sybil's friends have been receiving the missionary discussions at our house:

We took a quick trip to BYU so Iris could attend a 1-day writing camp 

where one of her favorite authors, Brandon Mull, presented.

David, Sybil and I hung out and hiked the Y:

Hiking with family:

And then there's the marathon. My sister said a year ago that she wanted to run her first marathon. I, who vowed never to run another one, said I'd be a supportive sister and run with her. Then I roped my younger sister into joining us. My brother even said he'd join. But the jaws of hell opened the week before. Alexis gat a stress fracture, Hunt got in a pretty serious bike accident, and I would up here for a heart arrythmia that I've had for several years, but got a little more scary:

My troponin was high, but I was cleared to run after it started coming down.

Right before we drove down for the marathon, we celebrated 55 years since Hector came to USA. 

Every year we go to Burger King to commemorate "the best meal he had ever eaten" as a 14 year old Cuban.

The marathoners before:

Marathoners and half-marathoners after:

Iris, Esie, and my mom all walked the half together.

And the biggest news of all! 

With a whole lot of brush and water gymnastics, we parted Elijah's hair!

His mission papers were submitted on Valentines day.