LONG DAY - MANY MILES

SATURDAY, August 28, 2010 I admit this is a disjointed entry! Jim has Austin and Molly this weekend and had a couple of fun things planned to do with them. The first was tubing down the Provo River; Austin opted out of this one. The other was go-cart riding up north; Kaysville or Layton or that area somewhere. First thing this morning I went to Jayden’s first football game and Bailey’s first soccer game. Jayden’s game was against American Fork’s fifth graders. The West Lake Thunder; Jayden’s team won thirteen to six. Bailey played some other local team. Bailey’s team lost five to one. Grandpa Wayne, Stacey’s father was at the games. He was also at Jayden’s scrimmage last Saturday. As I was riding home from the games, Jim called and asked if I would drive up Provo Canyon so they could drop one car off down stream and I take him and Molly up to the drop off point to float downstream. I said OK. About that time Corey called and said they were hungry. We all ended up going to DP Cheesecake in American Fork for Philly sandwiches. From there we went home so Jim and Molly could get ready for rafting. Austin rode with me on the way from home to dropping Jim and Molly off. He did the driving from our house to the sandwich place with Jim and Molly. As we were going to the canyon, I queried Austin on his driving ability, how much, what kind of roads etc. I came to the conclusion that at least he was confident in his abilities so when we dropped them off, I let Austin take over the driving. He has his “permit”. I had him drive the Alpine loop which is about forty-six miles of somewhat steep up—then down narrow windy mountain road. I for the most part kept my mouth shut as far his driving goes and let him do his thing. He did very well. After coming out of the canyon there were miles of stop and go traffic and he did well with that. From there he drove on I-15; again, no problem. He parked at Costco and later backed out of the parking spot and drove home. In all, he drove sixty-five to seventy miles of all sorts of conditions. That doesn’t count the seven somewhat miles driving with Jim and Molly. He mentioned and I agree that he does better when no one is freaking out and telling him what to do. All I did was tell him where/when to turn and that sort of necessary stuff. I did matter-of-factly point out that on the canyon road he did sometimes go over the center line (unpainted) when there was no way of knowing if there were cars coming from the other direction. Alexa had her first soccer game at eight this morning. We haven’t been able to get hold of Niki to see how that went. Nike told me earlier that since it is four year olds, not to bother to come. It would have been a stretch to get in all the games. As it is I only got in the last couple of minutes of Bailey’s game.