GT Relay 2016

Here is the race report of the Grand Teton Relay.  This year Shauna and I were both able to do it because we now have no newborns.  Shauna's parents flew in just to watch our kids while we were racing on Friday and Saturday.

We had six couples who ran the race most from Kaysville and us from Sandy.  They are a fun group of people to spend some time with.  We don't spend a lot of time hanging out these days, but when we do it is fun to be with this group.

It was a fun race even though I have been battling bronchitis the last few weeks.  Shauna and I ran legs 10 and 9 respectively.  Shauna did switch one of her easier legs for a much harder one so both legs turned out to be pretty hard.

We finished with a time of 25 hours and 22 minutes which was good enough for fifth place over all. We were about 45 minutes faster this year.  This is actually quite a feat given the number of problems we had.  One runner dropped out the night before, and Thad and John picked up those legs.  As a consequence, Thad had to drop out as he was running his last leg.  Scott also could not finish due to IT band problems so car 1 picked up his last leg.

My last leg going up over the pass from Idaho to Wyoming was brutal.  Because of my bronchitis I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen.  I have felt like this for several weeks and thought it would clear up before the race.

The weather was great and not too hot.  We started at noon and car 2 hung with car 1 for the first part of the race because Thad had picked up a spare leg.  We went an ate a Big Juds and then went and met car 1 for their final leg.

Again this year there was supposedly a bear sighting, but I think that is just an excuse for some teams to collect there runner and just skip a leg or two.

John had King of the Hill this year and bested my time by nearly four minutes finishing around 54 minutes.  The fastest guy did it in 46 minutes.  That is flying.

After the race we had a couple of masseurs come to the cabin and rub us down.  It felt really good but my soreness persisted for a couple of days.

Midsummer Night's Dream

The summer has flown by pretty fast.  The kids start school in just over a week.  I cannot believe our kids are growing up so fast.  What is the saying by Dr. Seuss:  "Don't cry that it is over, smile because it happened."  Well, nothing is really over yet, our kids are young and healthy, summer has a few weeks left and we are very blessed and have every reason to give thanks to our Heavenly Father.

Last week we were invited to camp with the Arvidsons at Lost Lake in the Unitas.  Lost Lake is about 10,000 feet in elevation.  It was cool and nice the entire time.  I was loving it, rather than sweating which is what I have been doing most of the summer.  It has been really hot and continues that way. I think we need to take climate change a little more serious and do what we can to conserve and be prudent with what we have.  Shauna went with the Scouts to the Salt Lake County landfill and found that it only has about 50 years left--which may seem like along time, but in reality it is not.  We are required to care for the earth and treat it as stewards should.  I estimate that we have avoided putting hundreds of pounds of garbage in the landfill by composting our kitchen scraps (excluding meat).  It is really cool to see that waste turn into compost that can be turned into the garden.

Anyway back to camping, when we got there I promptly backed into a post denting and breaking the back light.  However, after that things got better and we had a fun time with the Petersons and Arvidsons.  The Petersons did not stay the night and left around 5 pm.  We fished, played cards, and ate.  Shauna and I went for a run on Saturday that just about killed me given the altitude and my recovery from a cold.

Joaquin is play competition soccer with the Blue Knights and has been practicing quite a bit.  We went to the park after his coach told us the kids need to practice more on their own.  He is getting better and more practice will help.  The other kids are doing well with Laney making art projects all over the place, Ruby getting into everything and Sam starting to walk around.  You cannot stop the progress of man, you can only hope to channel it for good.

Nice move Paul

Chocolate face.

I am cool and relaxed at Pack Meeting.  I have a tank top on under my Scout shirt.

Enjoying summer.

Dirty Sam at Lost Creek.

It is cold!

Taking a hike.

Love ya Honey!

Flirting with disaster.

Keeping the home fire burning.

Made some friends and found a dead fish.

Laney holding the dead fish.

Watch out all you bastards. Laney has warned you.

Practicing.

Time to call it a night. Love those mountains though.

Happy B-Day Sam!

It is always hard to believe we grow up so fast. I can imagine my own parents thinking the same thing about me as a baby.  They come home in such a small package and then it is all up hill from there.  Sam came to us one year ago as an awesome little dude.  He shares a birthday with my mom which is pretty cool.  He sort of got the shaft this year with birthdays, but we don't love the guy any less.  Happy Birthday sweet kid.  We all love you.  

Big Dude with Little Dude.

Learning to crawl.

Learning to eat.

Learning to enjoy the game.

Paltry first piece of birthday cake.  Sorry!