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.

School days

I can't believe it's that time again. Brig started first grade this year and he is very excited about it! Kre on the other hand was not excited for Brig to go to school and not him. So we put him in a 2 days a week Pre-school and he loves it but would rather it be 5 days a week because he gets bored with out Brig. So here are some pictures of there first day.

Keelyn's Blessing

So here are some quick pictures from the blessing today! It was a beautiful day and everything was perfect!

Fat lips, cute dresses, and lego ships!

I realized it's been a while since we've done a post with the kids. So here it is. Kre had a little mishap with a tramp the other day and we thought we should capture it on film. That was a nice sized fat lip!

Keelyn got this cute dress from her aunt Kristen and I thought she looked so cute in it. It's still a little big but I had to get a picture of her in it because it's just so cute!

Brig has been very in to building lego ships lately and he is very good at it I might add. So here is his current ship with his cute new smile!
Brig sporting his new G.I Joe "snake eye's" Pj's with his ship.

Good Times

Man life is good! I can't even begin to count all the wonderful aspects to my life. In fact tonight's migraine is most likely a result of my effort to count all of my blessings. It is just too much for me to deal with it. No.... I'm not being sarcastic, I am blessed and greatful for the "full spectrum" experience I'm getting in this life. I am however a little disappointed that there just aren't many funny blog posts for me to read right now....Bonnie....Bex....somebody, Please?

Post Event Slum

You know how after you go on a great trip or do something really fun it is always hard to get back to reality? This last trip was especially hard for me to come home from. Ricki and I took Keelyn to Washington for my little sister's wedding. All of my brothers and sisters were there with their spouses...and prospective spouse. Ken and Kris also brought their new kid, Cole. We had a blast. Yes it was a bit crazy getting ready for and conducting all the wedding activities. Yes I hurt both of my arms wakeboarding and I still can't fully use either of my hands. Yes I managed to eat way too much, but I absolutly loved being there and hanging out with everyone; late night Thai, boating, soda runs, cards, brownies......,the wedding, meeting Kirk's "sexy shad" ;) Then I come home. I had just talked myself into being happy to be home when I found out my hot water heater was broken. So now I'm home and I'll tell you that cold showers do not help the mood any. But work is picking up, I'm going for a long run tomorrow, and family will be joining us in two weeks for the baby blessing. Plus the boys were very excited to see us, or at least to see Keelyn and their surprises.

Mt Timpanogos

I got to run Mt Timpanogos in Utah today. It was supposed to be 105 Degrees today so I was up at 5, on the Timpooneke trail (which is my favorite) by 6:30. Despite the early start the parking lot was completely full with people parked all over the place. Someone must have just left and luckily there was an open spot.

I had to pass several large groups of boyscouts and others but it was worth it to be out on the trail and running hard. The trailhead is near 7000 feet and the peak tops out at 11,750 so it is just under 5000 feet of climb over the 7.5 miles to the top.

I got lots of comments as I ran by, some nice and encouraging, others less thoughtfull. But how can you get mad at anyone while enjoying trail like this. Despite the occasional bottlenecks (the ranger told me when I finished there were nearly 200 people on the mountain) I still set a personal record for the run up to the top and back to the parking lot.
It was a fantastic day and beautiful at the top.