Welcome Fall

Fall is my favorite season. I'm not a summer guy. I love the vacations and time around friends and family, but the humidity hits here the worst in mid August and I'm a goner. Its too hot to go to the beach, and by this time we've used up all of our vacation time. We can't go running unless its we go really early or really late. There is no interesting TV. August seems to throw the rest of its energy at you right at the end and break your spirits.

Well, We've all made it through it! I'm officially calling summer over as of now. You heard it here first.

And, the other reason we love fall Cougar fans?


Wait, wait wait wrong video...this is the right one...

In honor of the return of football season we've turned our blog Blue. Last August I predicted a two loss team and was off by a game. We made it out for the TCU game last year and it was their worst loss of the season. To help the team this year we probably wont go to a game in person.
This year expect another great BYU football team. I expect them to finish in the top 25 for the fourth year in a row and again predict a two loss season. So here is your chance blog readers to go on record and predict BYU's record in the comments. And if any of our friends that are Ute fans are reading this blog, 1.I'm surprised you can read 2. I know you had a great season last year, but good luck coming to Provo this year, cause you'll need it.

Whatever happens, expect a great season of Football, leaves changing color, Halloween, and great weather. Welcome Fall.

Peachtree City Triathlon

Taylor, Jamie, April Giddens

End of Race with Ruby and Julie
Hill kids sacrificing their Saturday morning to cheer us on

So, I am a little slow at blogging about the triathlon last weekend. It was a good race that I am happy to have behind me but look forward to doing again. The scariest part for me is the swim. I am scared of cold water and being kicked in the face which neither occured. And I didn't run into any water moccasins, which is always a plus. The biking was not my favorite mostly because my bike is ghetto. I was tired of every person passing me and saying "on your left." Thanks for rubbing it in! Next time I will invest in a road bike; hopefully, that will help. I was a little slower on the run this go round. But all in all, it was a good race. The highlights were seeing Ape and Jules in the race (getting pinched on the bum as they passed me) and having friends and family cheer us along.

It was so much fun hangin' with the Giddens. Everytime I leave them, my face hurts from laughing. Taylor was kind enough to spend the entire race taking pictures. 

Painting with the Nephew and Nieces

We were down in Atlanta area over the weekend to see friends and family and for Cheyn to do another triathlon. We'll save the recap on the triathlon for another post, and continue with another post on our new pot painting hobby.

We got Friday off from work so we drove to to Atlanta on Thursday night. The next day Wendy was nice enough to let us take her kids out of school and go to the pottery painting store. We spent three hours there, so naturally the kids created masterpieces under our beneficent tutelage. Here are a few pics of the painters and Alexander's finished product.



Were excited to see how they will look after they get fired up.

Our Pride and Joy

We have two new special additions to the Lindgren family. After one of our primary kids was baptized today we were invited to go with the family to breakfast and the Paint Your Own store.

Worm with book, C. Lindgren 2009

Jack-o-lantern, R. Lindgren 2009

Anyone who makes comments on this post that do not contain the words "Genius" or "Masterpiece" will be forever banned from this blog.

Tap dancing

After a 16 year hiatus, I have decided to take a tap dancing class. (Cheyney speaking.... not Ryan. HA)

I went to my 2nd class last night and I love it. I remember the good ol' days when I first was exposed to tap as an orphan in the play Annie. I was 12. We learned a little tap number for "Your never fully dressed without a smile." After that, I took lessons from Miss Amelia.

My biggest influence was probably Traci, who was a real tap dancer. On the weekends, we would make up tap dances to Beatles songs and the Pretty Woman Soundtrack. I still remember the routine. I think we were dorks and would preform it at church dances.

Since I have such fond memories, I thought why not beef up on those old skills. I hope I can be like Ryan's grandmother who is in her 80's and still clogs!

Smoky Mountains Trip

This past weekend we drove to western North Carolina to meet our friends, the Thompsons, and enjoy the outdoors. We shared a posh cabin.
Here is a view of the sunset from the deck:We delighted in having cute little Ruby around on the trip. Here is Cheyney showing her future parenting skills:
The next day went went up to Smoky Mountains National Park and hiked on the Appalachian trail for about 8 miles. We met Trevor and Ruby at the end.
Along the trail we saw a lot of wildflowers...
And berries. We also saw some black bear poop on the trail, which I decided against recording. Bears don't digest berries well.
It was wonderful to be up in nature and be around good friends.

Stop

Cheyney snapped this picture as we were pulling out of the parking lot of a park in Waynesville, NC. It made us giggle.

The West Wing

Ryan and I have just finished 7 seasons of The West Wing. It was 115 hours completed in 5 months. Lots of T.V., I know. Thank heavens for our subscription to Netflix. It was always a good day when we got a disc in the mail. I was never interested in it several years ago when it was on. When I lived with my grandma, she would watch it and I thought all it was was people walking down halls talking quickly. Oh, there is so much more.
Now that it is over, I feel like high school graduation. The old gang will never be together again. To say it lightly, I was obsessed. What a great series! It was intelligent, fast paced, thought provoking, clean, and with filled with dry humor. The characters are flawed but you grow to love them all. Now I feel like I am an expert in politics and working for the President. When things happen in the real world, I think "that is just like in the Bartlett administration when...." I think I may be going through withdrawals.