A few weeks back Emily and I ran in a 10k mud run and despite my fears and extreme “out of shape-ness”, we had quite a bit of fun. We stayed overnight up near Midway and then drove up to Soldier Hollow and met up with several other couples who were also part of our team… The Dirty Hippies. Technically our name was something else, but The Dirty Hippies fit better.

Unfortunately, due to the extreme muddiness, we didn’t take our camera on the run with us so we were only able to get a few pre-race photos prior to getting utterly filthy. By the end of the race though, I don’t think there was a single clean spot on either of us. The race weaved back and forth around the Soldier Hollow bowl and consisted of tons of sloppy mud, several snow machines to ensure that the mud didn’t dry up and lots of obstacles. We proceeded to slip, slide and crawl over, under and through multiple challenges which ended in us being muddier and wetter than we were before each. A portion of the race even went out into a pond and consisted of “running” about a quarter mile in waste deep water. We climbed rope towers, played on a rope swing, climbed through large drain pipes and ended the race by sliding down about a hundred yard water slide.

At the end of the race, Emily donated her shoes to charity and I donated mine to the trash (Nike shoe foam apparently has about a 20 year shelf life and my high school track shoes decided to give it up about 3/4′s of the way through the race). We also got to take a group shower in water which was apparently piped directly from the arctic ocean. It was actually cold enough to cause a brain freeze from the outside and the end result was a severe lack of cleanliness because we couldn’t stand it in long enough to actually get clean without fear of losing extremities to frostbite. We made up for it by having lunch in Midway though. All in all it was a fun outing and I was only sore for about a week afterward. Hopefully we’ll find some muddy photos, but until then, here’s our pre-race outfits.

About mid-August Jack and I got to head up to go camping with our ward for the fathers and sons campout. After working all day on Friday we threw our stuff in the Jeep and drove up Parleys canyon to the same camp site our ward has been to for the last several years. We stayed in Wanship at the base of the Rockport dam. It’s a fairly small campground, but there are lots of good size trees and the dam runoff river runs along the border.

As we got a bit of a late start we stopped off in Park City for some Wendy’s (and to let the Jeep cool off a bit). After finishing our Frostys, we arrived at the campground and setup our tent. Jack played with Cutwer and the rest of the boys while I got things set up and then we sat around the fire and roasted some marshmallows. After a short fireside we went to lay down in our tent. Luckily I had good coverage on my phone and we got to watch a few episodes of the old 1960′s Spiderman series on Netflix.

The next morning we woke up and had an excellent breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. After taking the tent down Jack and I went on a walk around the campground and spent some time throwing rocks in the river. We then proceeded to wade into the river and Jack ended up on his can in the water after trying to stand on a rather mossy rock. Once Jack was in some dry clothes we played some frisbee with the Tomers and threw his football around for a bit. Even though it was a short outing, we had fun sleeping in the tent and sitting around the fire.

A few weeks back I went with my Dad and my brother to go Jeepin’ up American Fork canyon. I had recently repaired the radiator fan in the Jeep so I was hoping it would hold out and stay cool for the whole day. It did well for most of the day, but the ride home was a long one.

Regardless of the overheating issues though we had some good times putting the Jeeps through their paces and using them for the purpose the great creator intended. We forged rivers, played in dirt holes and climbed the lower portion of The Rock Garden. It was a great outing and one which I wish I had time to enjoy more often.

So the Saturday before Labor Day morning, Ben and I decided to head up to Snowbird with our bikes and ride the tram a few times. It’s been a long time since my last lift assisted bike day, but Deer Valley is nothing like Snowbird. The first run down was pretty intense coming down the loose and rocky cat tracks in the Peruvian bowl. But once we were warmed up, the speed and confidence increased and it was much more fun. We made a total of 3 runs which took us about an hour each and traveled a total of about 35 miles (thanks endomondo). We didn’t get many pictures because we were riding (and I don’t have a helmet mounted camera), but we did get a few shots when we stopped for water and flat tire breaks. We found some excellent single track near the bottom of Big Emma and had an all around great day. And to top it off, neither of us crashed.

So, I’m again late with the post, but I was able to make it out on an adventure with Jack a few weeks ago. This was part of our ongoing “date night” series, but in an effort to make it sound less… weird, we decided that Jack and I will participate in an adventure instead of a date. Seems less… ya’know…

Anyway, in an effort to be fair, Jack and I also went to Yogurtland. His choice was very similar to Annie’s and he ended up with strawberry yogurt with blueberries (cause I had some) and gummy bears. It was an interesting choice, but I respect his ability to make wise decisions (I was actually just curious to see if he’d eat it). We had a face making contest and then ran around on the playground in the cold afterward. It was a fun outing.