25K El Vaquero Loco Trail Race

This weekend Luke and I ran a trail race in Afton Wyoming with a few friends from Pocatello. Luke ran the 50K race last year and loved the course, so when it fell on my birthday I thought it would be a great way to celebrate by running the 25k. The other reason why I wanted to run the race was for a race sweatshirt. Usually I get a t-shirt that I don't wear, but with this race you get a sweatshirt and a hamburger and huckleberry soda when you finish.... (yes, it was awesome to have at then end of the race).

I had never ran 16 miles before and the only trail race experience was on the 4th of July running a 5 mile Kelly Canyon trail that did not gain much vertical. The Vaquero gained over 4,000 vertical feet and reach 10,000 feet twice so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Kathleen, a friend from Pocatello, agreed to run it with me which was great because we saw amazing mountains, waterfalls, creeks, and wild flowers along the way. It was a great experience and I hope to run it again.

This past week we were de-compressing from a great week vacation and Brynlee learned a new trick. She can now stand on top of her dresser by climbing up the front. She was very proud of herself, but I hope it doesn't continue.

Summer Vacation

New Mexico here we come.....

Luke had one week off for summer break between his didactic and clinical year, so we decided to get away and not think about school and work for a while. We headed to New Mexico to see Luke's parents in Cimarron (Philmont Boy Scout Ranch). It is a 14 hour drive that we spit up in 2 days. Our first destination was Cortex, CO. We drove through Utah, which made the drive go by very quickly. (last time we drove across Wyoming and it seemed to last forever). We camped the first night in Cortez and then got up early the next morning and went through Costa Mesa National Forest and went on a tour to see ancient cave dwellings. It was very interesting to see and quite amazing to see how people set up their homes in the side of a canyon wall.

After Cortez we headed down south to New Mexico.

It was good to spend time with Luke's parents. We went on an early morning bike ride, drove around to several camps, and hiked to the top of Mt. Baldy. Brynlee was great on the trip, she was quite a "big girl." She rode a pony named Butter scotch, and did amazing. She is usually a bit scared around animals, but she did great. We really enjoyed our time in New Mexico and were sad when we had to leave, but Luke had a race in Park City, Ut. On the way home we retraced our path, but this time spent time in Moab at Arches National Park. It was amazing to see the huge arches and rock formations. It was quite impressive.

We arrived in Park City after a week of being gone from home. Luke was able to run the Jupiter Peak 16 mile race representing La Sportiva. He did well and placed 8th overall against very talented runners. Finally, later that night we made it home to finally see first hand our newly painted house.

Painting House

Luke and I decided to have our house painted. It was looking a bit shabby from the weather, plus getting tagged didn't help our curb appeal. We hired our friend Todd - and what a task he had. It took over a week to finish the work, but I think it turned out nicely so far. We are going to add cedar shutters and put up a new flower box to add more character to the house. In the future cedar shakes will go in the eve above the window and we will add a new front porch. It looks a bit plain right now, but over time I think it will come together nicely. We really like our small home and hope to stay in it for many more years. Here are a few photos of the house in the phases we were here for. (We left on vacation to New Mexico before any of the paint went on the house- so I was a bit worried to see what we would come home to find).