Richard's blog

We spent a great week with the Frees hiking, swimming at the Panaca Pond, geocaching, riding four-wheelers, picnicking at Yankee Meadows, riding bikes, eating from the garden, attending the St. George Temple, shooting Grandpa's new pistol, chopping a bow from just the right kind of stick, and plain ol' hanging around.

In case you don't have Facebook, here is a link to some pictures from our week with Grandpa and Grandma back in July.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113740&id=652162857&l=ed87243590

We have some pictures from Thanksgiving with John/Jen and Ryan/Stacy. Plus pictures from Holly's, Jordan's and my birthdays.

2008 Thanksgiving and Birthdays

Just in case the above link does not work for you.

Lauren and Audrey had twin t-shirts on Sunday. (I don't know the whole story, but I posted it anyway.)

-Richard

Turtle Shirts

I have yet some more pictures from Saturday's activities. They are on my Picasa site.

Enjoy.

Free Family pre-Thanksgiving dinner and Testimony

In case you did not see it, Manoel was quoted in the Daily Herald on Saturday talking about the Brazilian bicycle rider that he had met in Paragonah at Grandpa's house. Here is the text of the article with a link to full thing.

Brazilian biker shares his love of nature
Joe Pyrah - Daily Herald

He doesn't have corporate sponsors. He's not protesting a war. He doesn't have cancer.

What Renato Campinho does have is a bike and a love of nature that has driven him tens of thousands of miles from his home in Sao Raimundo Nonato, Brazil.

"For some people, this sounds crazy," Campinho said through an interpreter. "But it's not."

A wiry 5-foot 7-inches, the Brazilian is lighter than his old Italian 5-gear bicycle loaded down with gear. Newspaper clippings sheathed in plastic about his journey through South and Central America cover the tarp that now shrouds his bike. It was installed by well-wishers in Arizona.

Leaving home with little money, he has made his way mostly by the kindness of strangers to spread a message about preserving the environment. After getting a six-month visa to enter the country, he has been through Arizona and is now making his way through Utah. In Provo, the Silvas have taken him in.

The Brazilian family heard about Campinho when a nephew, Manoel, met him pedaling through Paragonah in southern Utah. Manoel told him to stop by in Provo when he came through. While here he's received free bike service (thousands of miles means hundreds of tires) and will be getting his rear brake pads replaced.

"Everybody helps him," says Rosana Silva. "It doesn't matter if he speaks the language or not."

The air-conditioned Silva home, with its big-screen TV and pool in the backyard, is a far cry from the rocky overhangs where Campinho has spent nights in a tent. Pictures and choppy video on a donated digital camera show country after country and hill after hill. One video shows the bike speeding down a steep decline.

It's on the upswing that the traveler has had problems. Though he's so far avoided traffic accidents, the weight of the bike has brought him over backward several times when a hill gets too steep.

He doesn't have what would be considered an education in this country. He can read Portuguese, but can't write it very well and was a beekeeper in Brazil. While he doesn't have a family of his own, he is one of 16 siblings.

"He's very humble. Very humble," said Rosana Silva, who doubled as a translator on Thursday.

How does he keep the legs pumping over the long miles? A large bowl of rolled oats (oatmeal) every morning and a lot of fruits and vegetables. He won't drink soda or alcohol.

He doesn't have a specific itinerary to follow, only hoping to now get to Canada, Alaska and then to Russia, Japan and beyond. Brushing off the heat or nights asleep on the ground, his hardest times have been the "crazy winds" of Arizona, he said.

"He's a very little guy and he goes with the wind," said Silva with a laugh. Did You Know:

• Renato Campinho has biked through every country in South and Central America and is now in the United States.

• Days on the road: 484

• Age: 37

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/273206/17/

Audrey did a great job at her choir's concert. Here is the first song (I had hard time keeping the teacher out of the way of Audrey).
-Richard

We (Elizabeth, Mandy, Brandon, Marilee, Richard, Jordan, Jen, Audrey, Savannah) watched Lauren perform at the Scera Theater for her singing group, the Headliners. She did a great job, much better than my cellphone could capture. Anyway, enjoy within the limits of hand-held technology. :-)

Here is some cell-phone-video of the concert.

-Richard

click to see slideshow->

Jordan really jazzed the season up with his first improv solo for the Jazz Band. Check out a clip of his solo. It was great!

(Though to be politically correct (PC) this was called the Winter Band Concert, you can't fool me. With every number being a Christmas song, it was really a Christmas Band Concert. ;-)

NOTE: Joe said that this URL will work better for Jordan's solo clip

Two writeups of Holly's play were in the Orem Geneva Times, and the Deseret News this week. I added links for those interested in reading them. (The Orem Geneva Times article does mention Holly by name, but it is not exemplary journalism.)

Uncle Lori's daughter, LaRae Free Kerr, mentions this web site in her Daily Herald weekly column, "It's All Relatives". You can read the column here: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/174241/

Just thought you'd like to know.

Pictures from Labor Day. Click on the picture to see more and the individual comments on each one.

Rebecca skipped out of FHE to go on a date with Reid. They returned while we were playing Phase 10 to show us THE RING. Yes, they are officially engaged. We, Richard and Marilee, already knew that is was going to happen Monday because Reid had talked to us alone on Sunday while Rebecca was at the Singles' Ward. ;-) But we did not know how. We'll let Rebecca make her own blog entry about how he proposed. Anyway, we are very excited for them.

What more could a bunch of teens want: fancy clothes, good friends, great hair, hot date, and plenty of food to much on? A place to dance. And they got it at Thanksgiving Point.

Holly sported great hair from her personal stylist, Stacy!

You may not know it, but Uncle Duane's daughter, Rachel and her husband, Ryan Wells have lived in our ward since September. They sing in the ward choir with us and Rachel was just called to serve as a Young Womens' Music Leader. Holly is excited to work with her. We had them over to eat with us along with our Ryan and Stacy. Rachel, Ryan, and Chad beat us all in Cranium. (And they said that did so poorly the last time they played it. Yeah, sure. ;-)

Jordan took this picure today of, what Holly calls, the "Baby's House". Stacy is now about 21 weeks along and the baby is about 7-1/2 inches long.