September 17, 2006

Hello friends and family. Things are good here in Colorado. The weather is perfect… cool, crisp and sunny. The skies are blue and clear during the day and at night they are full of stars. We live in an area by the mountains away from the city. We do not have very many street lamps so the view at night is amazing.

I was just released from the primary presidency and am now the new young women’s president. I am looking forward to working with the young women. They are all kind, good girls. I will miss the primary terribly. When I was first called to the primary I didn’t think that I would enjoy it as much as I did. I’ve never really spent much time around children and I didn’t enjoy them like other people. I think that working in the primary presidency has been my all time favorite calling. I love the children; they set such a good example and love unconditionally. The Sunday that I was released the primary chorister asked the entire junior primary to come up and hug me. They mobbed me all at once and took turns hugging me. I was kneeling on the floor and was covered in little kids. I could see their sweet faces so excited to come and hug me that I started to cry. (I don’t like to cry in public) This made the chorister cry and all of the other primary leaders. I was surprised at how willing the children were to express love and gratitude.

We just had our first combined young men/ young women activity the other weekend. We took the youth to the ‘Taste of Littleton’. The Taste of Littleton is a community event where many local restaurants line Main Street in Littleton and provide samples of their food to the public. We purchased wrist bands for $5 which allowed us unlimited samples. It was a lot of fun. I do not have a counselor yet, so Eric came along and drove some of the kids in his car. My folks would have loved this event. They loooooove free samples.

Eric here. The taste of Littleton was fun, but I had to deal with young punks making fun of my Subaru. As Hannah pointed out, I had to drive some of the kids in my car. The kids I happen to get were gear heads. They all drove big trucks, and couldn’t fathom buying anything but American. Of course they also get 9 miles to the gallon, so by the time they get to the movies they don’t have enough money to get in, and I definitely highlighted that fact. In the end they came to respect the Sub. I floored it a couple of times, and let them feel the awesome power of its mighty four banger.

I was only able to ride twice this week. On Tuesday I rode the Apex trail, which was fun, but technically difficult. One of the keys to getting over technical terrain is to have momentum, witch requires power, and generating quick bursts of power every fifty feet wears you (me) out pretty quickly. The down hill was, as always, extremely fun. It drops down the Front Range with beautiful views of the city.

On Friday, Hannah and I met at the Chimney Gulch trail head, which goes up to look out mountain. This is one of my favorite trails. There are a few rocky sections, but for the most part it’s a steady climb for about five miles. The trail isn’t a loop so you have to watch out for riders coming up as your going down, but you can see far enough ahead to be able to get some decent speed.

Your moment of ZEN......