From Search Parties to Craft Parties

I bet you are wondering how our day went from this:

To this:

Well, it all started when dad said, "Let's take the quads out on Saturday!" So bright and early Saturday morning we load up the quads and head up to Saguaro Lake to ride for a couple hours. We got there at about 9:20 (like I said, "bright and early") and around 9:35 my brother in law Mike took off on one of the quads. My family doesn't ride hard...we usually take the quad out on a trail or two for about 10 minutes, then head back so someone else could have a turn. At this point, I should mention that this is the one time we forgot to bring walkie talkies to attach to the 

quads.

 Anyway, around 10:00 we start to wonder where Mike is...he's been gone an awfully long time. We assumed he was just off exploring different trails and whatnot. Well, when we still hadn't seen Mike by 10:30 my dad jumped onto the other quad to go look for him, thinking that maybe the other quad at died or whatnot as it was prone to do. 30 minutes later, dad comes back with no Mike. So TJ jumps on the quad to go look in another area. When TJ comes back without Mike, we all start to worry a little bit (and Lindsey was worrying a lot!). Just as dad was getting in his truck to go chat with the Sherriff, the rangers truck rolled in. So we ran to catch the ranger, he phoned the sherriff's office and pretty soon we had not one but three Sherriff's Department guys pulling up (including the K-9 unit...just in case Mike was smuggling drugs, I guess).

Questions were answered about Mike, what he was wearing, how long he had been gone, whether or not he had been paying his tithing (because of course Mike was last seen sporting BYU and Utah State paraphenelia so it wasn't hard to assume that we were LDS). 

Just as the Sherriff's guys were putting in a call for a helicopter to search the area (because by now Mike had been gone for THREE hours!), a Suburban rolls up with Mike in the back seat! Apparantly, Mike had been out riding around, lost all sense of directions (therefore driving in the wrong direction for quite a while), and eventually was able to find some people who could help him out. 

We were so glad that Mike made it back safe and sound, without any of the broken limbs we were all assuming he had! So after our crazy morning adventures, we headed home to make these adorable Countdown to Christmas magnet boards. The little containers will be filled with candy for TJ to eat each day as we countdown the days until Christmas.