Mid Mountain Marathon 09

Once again I managed to sneak back to Park City Utah for my annual dose of the Mid Mountain Marathon. Perhaps I love it so much because it was my first real trail marathon. Perhaps it is the beautiful course or slew of other trail nuts I get to run it with: but whatever the reason I love this race. For five years running now I have run the race (since the race's inception) and every year we have had fantastic weather. It is cold, slightly chilly at the starting gun, but warms up nicely just about the time I'm finishing.
This year my goals was to go out and race hard. I think I may have pushed the first 5 miles a bit harder than I should have and really had to focus to keep tempo the rest of the day. I managed to stay on my feet, although I did witness several horrible falls. I didn't set a new PR, finishing nearly 3 minutes behind my best time but I had a great race and finished in a respectable 18th out of 160+ runners. Best of all Ricki was there cheering for me at the finish (with Keelyn), like she does every year. This year Becky and Jameson were there as were our dear friends the Hulls (Ryan, Jen, Sadie, and Wade). Afterwards we went to lunch at Cafe Rio and walked around the outlets. Thanks Ricki for supporting me, thanks friends and family who tolerate me. Next year I vow to break my PR and really fly through the course.

Pirates Island

Tonight was a night for pirates. The Angus Clan took us to Pirates Island, a themed restaurant/arcade/entertainment center. We ordered the "Cracken" a huge pizza and let the boys run wild. Grandpa bought Kiwi a cute skull and crossbones bow.

Krevan was all about getting his picture taken with Captain Jack Sparrow, and especially excited to get to hold the gun. Brig managed to duck into the picture before the shutter snapped and then immediatly created some space.

The Kid's menu turns into a hat. The boys had a fantastic time.

Labor Day Campout

I would like to first offer my appreciation to my parents who selflessly took us camping as children. Having now experienced what it entails to take an entire family camping, I have a much greater appreciation for the task.
As Friday afternoon quickly approached Ricki and I hurridly finalized the packing, the coolers, and all the rest of the preparations which were now reaching their greatly anticpated final act. It was nearly 3:30 and Brig would soon be out of school. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Ricki we would be ready on time to make the trek up into the mountains to rendezvous with the Clarks for a weekend of high altitude fun.
Then real life kicked in. Nearly two and a half hours later I merged onto the freeway along with every other idiot in going home/Friday before Labor Day vacation travelers and inched my way towards Denver in order to "escape". As our expected arrival time came and went and my hopes to set up the tent in daylight quickly faded we maintained positive attitudes at the prospect of spending the weekend with the boys.
At nearly 10:30pm we arrived at the campsite to be greeted by Richard who traveled up early to get campsites. His monolithic tent was an inspiration to the boys who quicly settled down..... no wait, scratch that, .... who wasted no time in acquaitning themselves to the campsite.
Now I'm sure you don't want to read an entire report of the trip, but know that we did have a lot of fun. Richard's hotel housed great cooking facilities which they graciously shared with us and the boys were really impressed on the last night when they broke out the generator and watched movies via projector on the side of the tent.
We hiked, had fires, played in the creek, picked and ate Thimbleberries (took a picture in honor of Bonnie) and had a really memorable trip. It was a bit cold at times and frustrating at others but well worth the effort.
Before I knew it I was once again driving.... in the dark.....late at night in order to return to Fort Collins. We left the campsite and the thriving metropolis of Eagle CO about 10:30PM in order to get the kids home and in warm beds, and partially to avoid going home traffic on Monday.