Growing Dinosaurs

"Close, but no cigar." Do you know where that phrase originated? Its from the 1900's when fairground stalls gave out cigars as prizes. (What a prize!) So when attempting to win the game and failing, the facilitator would reply, "Close, but no cigar!" Interesting. The same happened for Dan this weekend. He raced Saturday, well I might add. Rushed to catch a flight home only to find his flight had been delayed. Each age category is allotted slots to the World Championships each year. To accept this medal you have to be present at the awards ceremony, AND pay the registration fee to the Championship race upon receiving the invitation. It's highly covetable. Guys you come in 8th. 9th, or 10th come to the awards ceremony hoping that the finishers before them miss the announcement and that the invitation rolls down to them. In Dan's case, he wasn't at the meeting, and the man who got the final slot finished AFTER Dan. It's crazy! So proud of that guy! And he's been so chill about missing the opportunity. It's been one of his goals to qualify for the race, preferably before he turns 40 as he'll enter a new age bracket...

Anyway, a world championship race isn't the pinnacle to his career, nor is it the reason to race. I love that it's the incremental improvement that moves us along.

Abe has been taking family search lessons from Mary, who learned from grandpa. He just finished preparing his first 4 names to take to the temple in January. Has anyone started using Puzilla? It is a companion search engine to Family Search. It has been so helpful in finding names to use as a starting point.

It is the middle of a Hindu festival today, the 4th of 5 days in Dipavalli. Yesterday, Maeser's best friend invited us over for Diwali. It's a good thing it was right after church so we came in church clothes, their whole family was dressed in their best clothes, almost like a wedding. The big holiday also means there is no school today, the house seems full with so many kids rushing to finish work and play with friends.

All of the children, minus Mary, participated in the primary program yesterday. I can't believe it was Abe's last one! He gave a great mini talk for his part.

The last photo is of Moses helping "grow dinosaurs". (Making his Halloween costume.)