Weekend Warriors

I don't think I'll get back to this in the next few days, so I wanted to post a few pics of last weekend's adventures. We made a quick run up to Strawberry Canyon to camp with Jer's family. It was our annual campout with Jer's parents, grandparents, brother's fam, and aunts and uncles. We weren't able to attend the whole thing this year, but we had fun while we were there. The kids were great. Seth even had fun despite the tough terrain with his new walking skills. Luke, K'Lee, and Addison played great together and had so much fun. They went on 4-wheeler rides with grandpa, played games in camp, did lots of hide-and-seek and exploring, and had fun around the campfire. They were extremely dirty and loved every minute of it. Jer's mom puts tons of work into this trip. She has crafts and all sorts of cute things for the kids to do. Jer calls her the "camp director." Neither Luke or I are too crafty but this year he had fun dumping tons of paint on the suncatchers she brought. All the kids loved Rod and Sherry's dog, Oz, they pretty much ran the poor thing ragged.


Anyone call a plumber? Poor Seth spent a lot of time in this position.


This game eventually turned to attempting to catch the water in their mouths. The day after they played this game, the forest service guy came to camp and told us the tests on the water had just come back and it was safe to drink. Well, that was good to know. I later saw a tiny sign informing campers that the water may not be drinkable!


Seth and his Grandpa Boyd. In case you're wondering about that mustache, so is everyone else. Boyd has been growing it since he was unsuccessful hunting down a grizzly bear in Alaska with his bow last year. (I did not make that up.) He claims it's staying until he bags the prize, possibly this August. Oh well, we love him anyway.


Tree climbing or something.

We left early on Friday to get cleaned up and head south really early Saturday morning for Jer's big event. Jer's friend Brian approached him about running in the Wahsatch Steeplechase a few months ago. Despite the fact that Jer has never been into distance running of any kind, he signed himself up and has been working to get ready while juggling his family and his job! This race was not for the faint of heart. Most of the people who enter are hard-core, distance runners. The run is an 18-mile foot race through the mountains. It climbed about 4500 feet in the first six miles. That's intense! Jer said the trail was so steep in some parts it was hard to even keep your footing. Once you get to the top there are "crags" to negotiate which involve rated rock-climbing moves and some exposure.

Jer felt like he climbed at a good pace and loved the crags and the first intense downhill part. He's very agile and daring and had no problems there. He really slowed down the last about 7 miles which definitely favor the traditional distance runner. He wasn't a big fan of just pounding out the trail to head back to the finish. He said lots of the tentative people he blew past on the technical parts were able to catch and pass him easily on the flat run to the finish. His goal was to do it in under 4 hours and he did! I'm so proud of him. This run is seriously hard-core. Our ultra-marathoning friend who has done it several times says it's harder than most marathons he has done. The day was also very hot and there are apparently lots of rattlesnakes in the area to add to the fun. Lots of the people crossing the finish line were bloody and didn't look like the crags treated them so well. They even gave out the award to "the bloodiest" runner. (Just a note: The incredibly insane guys like our running friend do this event in just over 2 hours. That's just not human!) Anyway, it was fun to be there and see him finish. He did great. I am amazed at what he's done with so little time to train. It would take me a year to get ready for that. There were some crazy women there so maybe someday.

In traditional Jer fashion he was entertaining on the hill. I guess at one point on the climb it gets a bit bottle-necked and everyone was bunched up waiting their turn to climb a small section. Jer had "Good Vibrations" (I know that right there should be a crime) on his iPod and broke into the "running man" while waiting. I'm sure those of you who know Jer can picture it. Needless to say some of his fellow participants thought he had way too much energy!

Running out of City Creek Canyon to the finish.


Jer and his friend Brian. They look like they're on a date or something, but I guess this is just the post-race love. They both did awesome but neither committed to doing it again next year!