San Bernardino Sheriff's Department: Mud Run

A few weeks ago (Sept 12th), I went to the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department Mud Run with some friends. We found many people in our ward who were going to run in the race (which made it even more fun to watch). The race started out with S.W.A.T. jumping out of a helicopter into red smoke and then lighting fireworks.
They made sure to hose down all the runners to make the race even muddier. There was a 10k, 5k and a 1k for children.
After running for about 4k on nice dry ground, the runners came into the pits where they had a very muddy stretch.
The kids even had a blast. J.T. in this picture (nephew of a friend) really loved it and didn't even slow down for his dad to run next to him.
Hills and other obstacles were also included in the last 1k.
They are looking to do it again next year...you all should come down and give it a go! For more information, go here.

California State-Wide Activity

So a few weeks ago there was a California state-wide activity that we were all invited to. Some of the activities included:

Quilt tying with people in our ward and in other wards in the Redlands Temple district -
Us cheering for the 20thing time that we were finished, and then looking under the quilt and realizing that we had to untie a few and fix them:Pretending to be happy, when we really didn't want to be there...we may have slipped out for a shake at In-N-Out (sanity check of course):
We attended workshops, that at times felt like 5 hours of Sunday School, but we made it through...at least we are still smiling for the picture, right?
We even found time to hang out on the stage and just hang out after we ate before the next round of activities:
There were many things that I would have done different, but the best part was getting to know so many new people, even if I thought I knew them before. Hopefully next year we will get the pizza we were promised!

Please Ignore the Weeds

So a little while ago, I talked about planting a garden. I was given some good advice and tailored it to what worked for area I had been given. Supplies were purchased and after a minor disagreement between Beth's pick and the sprinkler (the sprinkler won in the beginning, but after a few hours, Beth resolved that minor altercation).
Digging in the dirt found many, many, many more rocks than there should have been, but with some Miracle Grow soil and a few shovels, I think the ground turned out pretty good.
Next I placed out the plants and started digging some more. I did half seed and half plant to see which grew the best and also for experimental purposes.
A few weeks later, many different plants were shooting to wonderful heights (those peas are crazy!)
And today, I can report that many of the plants are doing well, while some of the others are not doing so hot. It did appear that some bugs were trying to move in, but I did find a remedy for that. Any other ideas?
We also had some grass issues, and I had a friend from work (who had just fixed up his yard) who offered me some sod to fill in the bad patches. A few strips of grass and some manual labor and viola!
And now the grass is growing and blending in very well! (I also fixed a few other patches in the back yard, but you can't tell where from these pictures - but it looks great!)
Around the same time the grass went in, I planted some strawberry plants that already have some berries showing:

And some other lovely plants (forgot what they are...iris?) surrounded by bark that complete the majority of the back yard makeover. Not too bad, even if I do say so myself! Now I need to find my next project!

Pizza, Baseball and Fireworks!

So with Maria in town and on Moritz's recommendation, we took a night on the town to Gourmet Pizza where they put just about anything you can think of on their pizzas. We tried two different kinds. The first (seen on the left) had mashed potatoes, country gravy, fried chicken and mozzarella cheese. The second (seen on the right) had cream cheese, pesto, sausage, angel hair pasta, green onions, cashews (we had those taken off) and mozzarella cheese. MMMMMMM Good!
And what goes better with pizza than a good ole baseball game!! So off the Arrowhead Park to see the 66ers (an affiliate of the Dodgers) and the Storm play 9 long innings.
We had great seats behind the backstop (3rd row), but moved in the second inning just off to the side so we could see with out obstruction of the netting. (Do you see me down below in the red shirt with the gray hat?)
Unfortunately, the home team couldn't pull it out and went down swinging 6 to 1. Better luck next time!
And of course the mascot Bernie entertained us much of the time, with his dancing and cheering.
After the game we stayed for the firework show, where Maria caught one of the best parts on video: