RAGNAR!

Brandon and I had the opportunity to run in the Napa Valley Ragnar Relay Race a few weeks a ago. We had a blast! We did this with 10 other extended family members. The race was 186 miles and went from San Francisco to Calistoga. It was beautiful. The last part of the race was all through wine country and beautiful vineyards. For those who aren't familiar with ragnar races, you run as a team about 30 hours+ straight through the night. It is an exhausting race but so worth it.

The Team Name: The Clark Family Whinery

Starting bright and early. We started at 5:30 am which meant we had to be there at 4:30 am. Yawn!

Sleep.

My super amazing dad who also ran. He ran a total of over 16 miles. Yeah I'll say it again...He's amazing!

Almost done...

...and Done!

We ended up finishing about 2 hours earlier than we had predicted. Everyone ran super fast and we had a few glitches that held us back a little. So we may have finished ever earlier. Great experience!

So. Cal. Ragnar 2012??? Quite possibly!

Sunglasses

Lately Hailey has been really into her sunglasses. Sometimes she will keep them on for five minutes and other times much longer. Here are some cute shots I've gotten to far...

6 Years of Bliss

Brandon and I had our 6th wedding anniversary on August 20th. So crazy how time flies. We decided to try and have a little "Get Away" and went up to Idaho Falls. We left Hailey with Jeff and Kathy overnight and we went to Jackson Hole for a day.

We planned a white water rafter trip for the afternoon. It had been years since I have been rafting down the snake (shout out to Jaime H.!). This trip was quite a different experience. As it turns out, our boat flipped while going over one of the bigger rapids and everyone fell out. We had to climb on top of our upside down raft and ride to next rapid before we could pull over to shore and flip it back over. Never in all my rafting experiences have I fallen out of the raft or flipped in a raft. But we survived and now have a great story to tell.

Click HERE if you want to see the pics from the ride. They are pretty funny!

Here is a map of where this all happened. We fell off at Big Kahuna and had maybe just a couple minutes to get everyone back on the boat before we hit the next rapid, Lunch Counter. We did this successfully and only lost one ore. I saved three ores thank you very much! But I did loose my sunglasses. Bummer.

6 Years and counting! Happy Anniversary!

Nana Time

My mom came and stayed with us for 5 days back at the beginning of the month. We had lots of fun going new places like the Treehouse museum, Hogle Zoo and we went to a new splash pad. Unfortunately Brandon was super busy working at the Outdoor Retailer Convention in SLC Thurs- Sat. But we managed to find the time to slip in a couple of date nights! Thanks mom! We miss you!

Riverdale Splash Pad:

Nana Feeding me a chocolate bar... Yum!

Treehouse Museum:

Hailey was so excited about everything she could hardly stand still. She was on the go the whole time! I tried to get a few photos but half of them turned out blurry. Boo.

Hogle Zoo:

 Not wanting to ride the carousel...

 The famous drinking fountain!

This last picture kind of sums up how Hailey was all day... cranky! It was soooo hot the day we went, so I can understand the crankiness. But we did the best we could. Saw some animals too!

Selling the wheelers :(

So my (Brandon) first blog has to be a sad one... we're letting our wheelers go! It's kind of bitter sweet. So here is what I have been posting on the two.


1987 Honda TRX250R
I just got done doing a ground up rebuild of the entire 4-wheeler. The bike is very near stock, but with some minor tweaks that make it run very well. There are a few aftermarket/not stock parts, but I do still have possession of the majority of the original parts. To give a good idea of what has been done here's a list of modifications.

Top-end: Fresh rebuild, slightly bored over, milled head, and race porting. All motor work was done by Lindsey Machine in SLC. If you know who they are you know they are the best at what they do.

Intake: Has a new 38mm flat slide carb (34mm is stock)to increase breathing and significantly increase power. Boysen carbon fiber reeds have been installed as well. It is all topped off with a K&N air filter and a Outerwears filter gaurd.

Exhaust: FMF Gold Series "Fatty" pipe with a FMF Power Core Silencer. New exhaust springs.

Bottom end: Fresh clutch & new oil. New water-pump seals.

Frame: Cleaned with no cracks or dents. New pivot bolt, bushings, & spacers for the swing arm. A-Arms and swing-arm have been repainted to silver. New TAG handlebars were installed to increase handling and maneuverability.

Lines: New clutch and throttle cables. New stainless steel/braided brake lines.

Wheels/Tires: All are in great condition. Front set are stock tire/rim. There are two rear sets: A set of Holeshots and a set of Skat-Trak 8 paddle haulers. Both in excellent condition.

This thing is an animal. I have had it for the past 10 years or so and have babied it. I purchased it from the original owner and he barley rode it. Let me know if you have any other questions... I will be happy to answer.

The other 4-wheeler that you see in the last photo is Dayna's. It's 1991 Yamaha Blaster YFS200. It is in great shape, and have know all of the owners since new. We are the 3rd owners and have taken care of the bike really well. The top-end has been just rebuilt. It has a FMF pipe and silencer and it is one of the peppiest Blasters that I have ever ridden. It doesn't have as many modifications as the Honda, but is super reliable. 

I would like to get $2100 out of the Honda and $1100 out of the Blaster. I would let them go together for $3000. (Sorry the trailer isn't for sale.)

Let us know if you would like to know any more about them.

Seattle

On our way back from Whistler we decided to stay an extra day in Seattle and see the sites. This was fun because Brandon had never been really anywhere in the Pacific Northwest as we would call it. We went to the top of the Space Needle, Pike's Marketplace, and took a boat ride along the Puget Sound and saw the Locks. And of course it rained most of the day, but that didn't stop us!

The Space Needle.

It was actually pretty nice weather the day we arrived in Seattle. And that's when we went up the Space Needle. Great views of the city. Really windy though. Hailey was a trooper and stayed outside for a while with us. 

Pike's.
We had to go to the infamous Pike's Place Market. This place was unbelievable. So much fresh food. If I lived here, there is no question that I would come here to get fresh fruit and produce. I had the best peach of my life from here! It is crazy crowded inside. Not so easy to maneuver a stroller. I think it had like 4-6 levels. The other levels had all kinds of different shops.

Boat Ride.
We took a boat ride around the Puget Sound and through the Locks. The Locks are where the salt water meets the fresh water. Really cool to see how this works. But we also cruised through cute little houseboat communities. Got the see the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat!

Whistler

Ok so last month we went up to Whistler Canada in B.C. for our Clark family reunion. It was a blast as always and it went by way too fast. I'll try to recap this as quickly as possible but it may be a longer post.

Hiking.
A lot of the fam took a beautiful hike the first day. Gorgeous trees, but the bear poop on the trail was a little eerie. All the locals who were out there had bear bells on their dogs and what not. But beautiful suspension bridge to cross.

Hailey & Sammy.

Hailey and Samantha are about 4 months apart and they both started walking just before the reunion. It was fun to see the two of them interact together. It was our first time meeting Samantha. She is such a cute happy baby!

Bearded Men.

Months before the reunion, someone had a great idea to have a beard growing contest for the men. Unfortunately some of the guys could not compete due to lame excuses and work reasons. But here the competitors. They were all judged by 3 women on different aspects of the beard. Good sports!

Bike Rides.

Bike riding is the bomb in Whistler! We went for a nice family ride around Lost Lake one evening. Hailey did great in the trailer. We also went mountain biking another day. If I lived in Whistler I would be obsessed with mountain biking! The trails are amazing, as well as the scenery. Brandon did some extreme downhill biking in the mud and rain one day and had a blast. Crankworx was there the weekend we left. Pure awesomeness.

Horses.

Last time we were up in Whistler we went on this amazingly fun horse back riding adventure. So we decided to try it again. It wasn't the same, but fun none the less. I rode trusty old Bucket.

Cousins.
Hailey loves her cousin Lucas. When we met up with Andrea, Lucas and my dad at the airport, she just lit up when she saw him. After the reunion and all was said and done, Andrea asked Lucas what his favorite part of his vacation was. His reply was, "playing with Hailey." So cute! She would follow him around everywhere.

Deliciousness.
We stayed right in the Village at Whistler in the Pan Pacific. It was so fun to just go walk around for a while if there wasn't anything going on or just to go shopping. It was quite the happening place. They had lots of great restaurants everywhere as well. One morning we decided to go to this little waffle place. Chocolate and banana waffles...need I say more!

Zip lines.
Another fun thing we did was go on a zip line tour. We flew through the trees and learned about the surroundings. I'm pretty sure it's probably some of the cleanest air I have ever been in.

Ladies Night.

We started a new tradition this year. We decided that the women need a night out. We are always home with the kids without cars when the men decide to go golfing. So this night the men stayed home with the kids and babysat. We went to a really nice restaurant that was way too expensive. But we enjoyed our time together.

Fishing.

Lucas went fishing for the first time. He didn't catch anything but he had a great time trying.

Skiing.

Just kidding! But I'm sure Brandon would have if he could have. There were still some runs open up there. Green = open, Red = closed.

The Weather.

It was actually pretty cool up there. It was in the 60's and rained a few days. But what can you expect for the Northwest. Here are the Olympic rings in Whistler Village. There is a big stage behind us and they had bands playing while we were there for the Crankworx festivities.

Miss you Whistler! 

Note: Yes, Brandon has a nasty mustache in some of these photos. Small pieces of the beard came off day by day.