The Colter Run

Clint has run the Colter Run every year he's been in Chadron since 199-something.  This is the race that started it all.  Clint ran the race and won it in high school.  The track coach at the college came to see him after that race.  This race led to the offer from Chadron State to run track.  Clint lost the race once in 1999, but other than that, he's won it every year that he's run it.

Friday afternoon, about 3:00 PM, Clint asked if I wanted to go to Chadron for the race.  I've been asking him if he wanted to go to Chadron for this for about a month.  He kept telling me no.  So when he suggested it, I said sure.  We quickly packed a bag and flew out the door.  Clint's grandma was a great sport on such short notice to put us up. It was fast in and out, since we had an obligation in Cheyenne Saturday evening.

This is the first time that Clint has just showed up without them knowing he was coming.  More than once there has been a write up in the small town paper about who will be running, featuring Clint and the other regulars.  He's like a local hero.  So he ran the race, and won.  You can read all the details here.  I'm hoping to get some pictures from the contributor to the story soon.  After the race, these high school kids came up to talk to Clint.  They were totally star struck.  It was funny.  They were asking how long it had been since he ran for Chadron, and holy cow, he was older than 30!

After the race we ran downtown to watch the parade at the car lot.  It's a Chadron tradition too.  Paris Fisher always grills hot dogs and has lots of cold drinks.  It was fun to see lots of our friends from the branch.  Time keeps moving and kids keep growing up.  It was strange to see how old the kids are getting!

The kids with Grandma Betty

Emery found a garter snake at the race in the grass.  He followed it for a long time.  The highlight was when some guy picked it up so the kids could touch it.

Quandary Peak

Last Monday night, Clint asked me if we wanted to go to Colorado with him so he could climb his first 14er.  He set a goal this year to climb 3 14,000 foot mountain peaks in Colorado.  He hadn't done any at this point, and the year is half over.  Very early on July 10, 2012, we drove down I-70, through the Eisenhower Tunnel to the beautiful town of Breckenridge.  It is a fun little town with lots of touristy things to do.  We drove straight up to the Quandary Peak trailhead and dumped Clint out.  We arrived there about 8:15 AM and there were cars about 1/2 a mile deep up the road.  Clint was glad he didn't have to park.  The kids and I went back down into town.  We checked out the City Welcome Center first, and after using the bathrooms and getting a map, we wandered.  We walked down Main Street to the donut shop and then we went and found a great little park to play at.  At about 11:00 AM, we went back up the hill to wait for Clint.  He came out about half an hour later.  He climbed it the second fastest time on record.  He said there were at least 150 people climbing, and he passed all he saw.  On the way back down, he was stopped by some people who were having a hard time.  The man was obviously suffering from altitude sickness.  Clint gave them all his water and continued down the trail.  He felt like he had run a race for the rest of the day.  He was tired, but glad that he has one under his belt.  We walked around, did a little shopping, and ate lunch at Extreme Pizza where we ate the most delicious Chicken Ranch Pizza.  It was so good!

It was a fun day.  The funniest thing was that while we were wandering we found Clint's Bakery.  It was the only picture I took on the whole trip, shame on me!

Idaho

The Larsen Family Reunion was in Blackfoot, so we were able to do lots of fun things there while we were in town for that.  My sister, Cathrynn, had her baby boy P while we were in town.  It wasn't planned, I really lucked out.  Thanks again for that, sis!  Saya loved him, he really is a sweet baby (I don't have the picture of this, Cathrynn has it on her phone).

Clint took the kids backpacking overnight with his dad.  The kids had a blast.  We didn't tell them they were going until they were on the way.  Chani has been bugging Grandpa for months about the fishing pole he said he would buy her.  He thought she would forget, but she never did.  They got said fishing poles, and headed out to Bellis Lake.  It was a three mile hike in.  Clint and Grandpa carried all the gear, the kids carried their own clothes and dad and grandpas jackets in their backpacks.  When I say clothes, I mean a change of socks and underwear and a jacket for themselves.  Clint assured me that they wouldn't need anything more than that.  When they got to the lake, Chani promptly fell in and was soaked.  The kids reported that it was cold and windy, but she didn't really whine about being cold.  They ate dinner and tried out those fishing poles.  No fish were caught at the lake. Early the next morning they were up, and since Chani was cold, Grandpa put his wool jacket on her.  When she took it off so it could be packed, they realized she had had an accident.  I'm sure it was because she was cold.  Again, no clean clothes to change into. 

After hiking back down the trail, they drove to the fish hatchery near Mackey.  The kids each caught a fish, and Clint realized they had a flat tire on the car.  He changed the flat to the donut.  Funny side story, Chani was telling someone about the flat tire and said, "someone let us use their donut."  She was fishing and didn't realize that it came out of our own car.  Despite a few hiccups, the kids had a blast.  On the way up the trail (about 1/4 of a mile) Chani turned to Clint and said, "I'm tired, I need a rest."  He told her no, they needed to keep moving.  She turned around and said, running up the trail, "This is the best surprise ever!" 

Clint took some fun pictures before Church on Sunday. The kids are getting so big. It's fun to see pictures in places where my dad took my picture when I was little. Even though it's not a great shot, I love the one on the porch swing. Classic Stewart house picture!

 It was a great little trip, and it was so fun to see so much of our family!  Grammy was so good to babysit so Clint and I could run here and there and even go to the temple to do some sealings!  Thanks so much.

Larsen Family Reunion

In June, we were able to go to Idaho for the Larsen (Clint's mom and her siblings) Family Reunion.  It was a fun day at Jensen's Grove.  It was a hot one, though, and we all came away with a little too much sun exposure.  The kids loved swimming, geocaching (even though we were unsuccessful), playing with their cousins, crafting, eating, and hanging out. You can read more about it here, and there are more pictures.

 Geocaching

 Coloring cool wooden crafts

 Chani, in the read life jacket, coming up after jumping off the platform.

 Emery, in the yellow tube, jumping off the platform.  I love that you can see his toes in the air.

Uncle Jason, eating.

Saya's first word

Saya has been babbling mama and dada for a while now.  But on Monday night, she said her first real word.  We were sitting at dinner and Clint asked her if something was tasty, and she promptly responded, "Tasty".  She said it over and over when she realized that it drew such a fun response from her brother and sister.