Trip to the cabin and Dane's first day of school!!!!!

Last weekend, we headed to the cabin for a couple nights and had an awesome time!

 Almost had a couple new pets, but I decided against it at the last minute!!!!  

 This is Dewey!

 The cutthroat were biting up at Wood Lake!  Here is a nice one that Dane landed!

 Playing with Dewey (Kimber's) and Buddy (Dane's)

 Dane's first day of Kindergarten!!!!  (Or Kimbergarten as little Kimber likes to say!)

 Walking to school with Daddy!

 Elvis was at Morningside to greet us!

 Our big boy!

The Bridger Ridge Run

This is how the "Official Website" describes the Bridger Ridge...

The Ed Anacker Bridger Ridge Run is one of the most technical trail runs in the United States. In 2012, Runner’s World Magazine named the Ridge Run one of it’s top 31 trail races in the country, giving it the title of “Most Raw Exposure.” In 2013, Outside Online named the Ridge Run one of its Top 10 Bucket List trail runs in the WORLD. The Ridge Run is 19.65 miles of brutal climbing and descending, complete with unstable footing, unpredictable weather, and, of course, miles of exposure along the ridge line of the Bridger Mountain range. Think you have what it takes to be one of the 250 runners allowed in each year?

Well, you all know that a Hauptmann/Houston can't turn down a good challenge, so my Dad, my brother (Erik) and I decided to try to get in to the run.  You can't just sign up, there is a lottery process because they can't let more than a certain amount on the trail.  When you apply for the lottery, you can write a sentence or two about why you want to be chosen.  So, I put on there that we all wanted to run it (father/son/daughter) and we crossed our fingers.  (and started running)

We got the news in June that we were accepted and we were stoked!  So, Erik flew in from  Hawaii, Dad and Marsha drove over from Oregon and we headed to Bozeman (with Grandma as well) on Friday for the pre-race briefing.  (Clint and the kids came over Saturday morning)  That night we all crashed early and were up at o'dark thirty on Saturday morning to get our coffee, breakfast, and head up to the trailhead.  On the way they have you carpool since there is very limited parking and the road up there is really bad.  In fact, it is so bad that we got stuck and had to get out and push the car up the hill!!!!

We made it to the starting line and looked on with excitement!

This was the line to the porta pottys...  I was hoping not to have to use them, but this picture was taken from my place in line!

Here are the three of us feeling all sassy, energetic, and a little nervous before the run started.  At least I was nervous as I looked up at the mountains surrounding us and realized that I had signed up to run 20 miles!  I think the guys were cool as cucumbers!

On a trail, they can't have all 250+ people start at once, so they started us in waves.  We were in wave number four.

13 seconds until go time!!!!  

This was one of the last times we saw Dad in the run!  He was off like a shot and did a fantastic job with a really strong finish.  Erik and I took more pictures and were a little slower with our run!  Dad is the one in dark blue!

After the first climb (approx. 2,000 feet elevation gain) we got a great view of the Ridge...  Holy crap, are we really running along the whole thing?

The run was awesome with some really technical spots.  

Erik is amazing with his ability to come from sea level and do such a great job on a run like this!

There were people who hiked up from some of the other trails and were along the route cheering us on!  It was actually really nice and helped keep our spirits up!  Here is one group!

At about mile 10 we got to this aid station (where they told us we had finished the "hard half")

This one had a ski lift coming to the top so they had plenty of water, snacks, etc.  Although I had packed most of my own food, it was great to refill my water and enjoy a quick break.

But, as we left that station and I got a glimpse of what was coming, I felt a little discouraged that we were only halfway through.  I'm not sure how they qualify hard and easy, but we still had some hard climbs ahead of us...  so, I didn't quite have it in me to smile for this one!

But, Erik is the happiest guy alive and snapped this "selfie"...  he is still smiling!

Still a long ways to go!

But, with fresh water and a little time, I found my smile again!  

A little dramatic???  

and after a killer downhill part, there is the finish line!!!!  Woooo hooooo!  It was so great to know that Clint, Kimber, Dane, Grandma, and Grammy were all waiting for us with smiles!

At the award ceremony my brother got an award for traveling the furthest to run.  There were runners from the East coast, San Francisco and Alaska.  But, Hawaii was the furthest!

and our rockstar Dad got second in his age group!  What a stud!

and here we are sportin' the shirt and the medal!

So, is there another run in our future???  Well, let's just say that we may have started discussing what next summer might hold!  :)

First Day of a Fun Visit!

Grammy, Gramps and Uncle Erik are all here for a visit right now and we are having a great time!  Today we hung out, went for a short run and then went out to Ryan Dam for a while.  Fun was had by all!

HURL Elkhorn 23k

Today Jill and I did the HURL Elkhorn 23k trail run.  It was beautiful, fun, and a perfect day for a run!    

 Nice views!

 Good company!

Now Dad, Erik, and I are one week away from the Bridger Ridge Run!  Everyone arrives on Wednesday and then we head to Bozeman on Friday!

They weren't big, but we were with Nana and Grandpa and it was fun!

 We are fortunate enough to have Nana and Grandpa visiting right now, and we are having a great time!  Yesterday, we headed out to Bynum Reservoir to see if we couldn't catch some perch.  

Fortunately, we did find some perch and they were super fun to catch; although as you can see from the picture below, they weren't exactly monsters!!!!

 Look at those guys!  Two of a kind!

 Lookin' good Nana and Grandpa!

It was pretty warm out there, so we did enjoy a nice dip in the water!  Great way to cool off on a hot day!

Fishing trips and a fourth of July Celebration!

Even with all the work on the yard and Clint on overnights, we still have had some opportunities for fun!  The day after Kimber's birthday we headed out to Holter to see if we could find some trout.  After some experimenting, Clint figured out what they wanted and we started hooking some nice ones!

 This was kind of a cool opportunity for a picture; there is the pelican, and then look in the background...

 Dane loves to pose...  Kimber wanted to wash her hands! :)

 Wooo hooo!  Nice double boys!  

 Our little greeter!  She is very friendly!

 Last weekend, started with Clint and Noah getting the sprinklers all set up and going on Friday night.  Then Saturday we got up early and laid sod.

 Noah took pity on us and came over to help!  We seriously owe him dinner for all the help he has given us on this project!

 We ended up doing about 2/3 of the yard that day; they are tearing up the sidewalk for a City project and then we need to pour a sidewalk from our pad to the porch, so we will wait until that's done to finish the sod.  But, what we laid looks awesome, and I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the front yard!

So, Sunday we packed up super early and headed up to Francis Lake for some fishing.  I have such amazing memories of Francis from when we lived in Conrad, and it certainly did not disappoint.  Kimber had a great time reeling in this monster fish!  (it was the perfect size for her!)

 Dane was quite the little stud and sat on the bow fishing.  (literally for hours) He had a rod with a jig on it and just casted/reeled, casted/reeled, over and over.  All the sudden, he sets the hook on a pike!  Although it broke off right at the boat, he was thrilled (as were we, we actually didn't expect him to catch anything!).  So, he just sat up there and fished the whole time!  It was great to see him enjoying himself so much!

 We caught some nice walleye...  Clint had to work that night, but we really started to figure them out just when we had to leave.  (isn't that always the way!) But, we still caught enough to have a great time and enjoy a couple walleye dinners!  :)

 Dane's second fish from his place on the bow!

 Of course yesterday was the Fourth of July!  Noah and Amy graciously invited us to spend the day with them, and it was such a great time.  We started it with the parade...  Kimber is in her favorite spot, sporting the super cute outfit she got from Nana.

 Kimber is a little timid when it comes to loud noises, so we came prepared and put her ear muffs on her!  She ended up wearing them pretty much the whole day (between the parade and fireworks, it was a noisy day!), and even slept in them!  But, it worked like a dream and she truly enjoyed everything since the noise wasn't bothering her.

 This helicopter kept circling and doing really fast "fly-bys" with it's sirens on...  it was kind of cool!

 The boys sat on the curb with the kids...  

 Then there was a BBQ and some pool time!

 Followed by lots of fireworks!  

It was a really nice day with friends...  Clint had to work but came for the parade/BBQ/Pool time so that was really great.  It also was his last overnight on this rotation, so now he will be on dayshift for 3 months!  AWESOME!