Wedding Party
Claire | Cousin Sister Friends
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Libby Osterbauer (Maid of Honor) Katie Asplund (Maid of Honor) Molly Schreiber Sometimes you get lucky enough to have a sibling or a cousin similar in age who you naturally become close with. In my case I got three! We were all born within 8 months of each other and I consider these ladies more like sisters than cousins. Libby and Katie grew up with me in Rice Lake, WI, and we spent ages 0-21 together (well, I guess Katie was alone for 2 months before Libby showed up). From elementary school through college, we were always in the same town (usually living together!). Simply put, these two know me inside and out and we have countless memories together. These two ladies are my co-maids of honor! Molly grew up in Virginia, and even though we've lived a time zone or two apart our whole lives we've always been close. From her occasional trips back to Wisconsin or family vacations in Puerto Vallarta, every time we get together we have a time to remember. This girl is a ball of energy who can light up any room, and make you laugh the whole time!
Derek | Family
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Elliot Smith (Best Man) Sam Poethke Years ago I would pride myself in my ability to annoy my older brother Elliot to no end. Over the years, though, I have come to realize that perfecting the skill of pushing his buttons doesn't have the best ROI. As it turns out, life is better when we meet up to enjoy our mutual interests. Here's to a lifetime of climbing trips, skiing trips, whitewater, and beer snobbery. When Claire first told me about her older brother Sam, I thought she was at least 50% making things up. But it seems she wasn't lying. His sense of adventure combined with an occasional lack of sense for self preservation has led him to have a number of friends, enemies, and interesting stories from around the world. How many of you have had a run-in with a pack of potentially radioactive wolves or bribed your way out of a Russian detention center? I'm looking forward to his memoir(s), if he has the patience to write one.
Claire | RL/College ladies!
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Anna Lehman Emily Olund Megan Landes-Murphy Amanda Meyer These ladies were with me through most of my schooling days and were close friends the whole way! Anna and I were good friends in middle school and high school, but we really bonded over ski team. As you could imagine, downhill race skiing wasn't the most popular sport in a Wisconsin high school. We spent numerous weeknights and weekends together during that time and became as close as we are today! Megan and Emily share a similar background with me. These two ladies were dear friends in Rice Lake, and we became even closer when we lived together at UW. Megan and I first met in traveler's basketball? (I don't remember it's been so long!) Not too recently she and her husband moved from Bozeman to Nebraska, but while she was in Bozeman we would take turns making the 9-hour drive just to see each other for the occasional weekend! Emily and I first met in preschool so I can't really remember not knowing her. She's an adventurer and a planner to the core, so when our old hometown friends get together for a spontaneous weekend she's always to thank for it! Amanda and I met Sophomore year of college in the dorms. She ended up coming to live with the Rice Lake girls in our house junior year, and immediately fit in with a tight knit group who had already been friends for years! We were all lucky to find another girl who shared the same sense of humor and love for Sunday Lifetime tv days as much as the rest of us!
Derek | College peeps
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Kyle Ripley Dan Katz Tommy Wolinski I can't believe my 10 year Stevens reunion is right around the corner...ooof WILD Kyle! What a guy! When we met freshman year at the beginning of the swim season, I don't think either of us knew Kyle would be stuck dragging me through cell bio, organic chem, and senior design. He also may or may not have dragged me home from at least one Hoboken bar. Don't tell my parents. Since college I have enjoyed meeting up with Kyle for ski trips! My first memory of Dan Katz is playing ping pong with him my freshman year at a reslife event in the since demolished Jacobus Lounge. We met again a year later and have been good friends since. I got to show Dan around the City of Rocks in Idaho and he has shown me around the Gunks just outside of New Paltz. He also introduced me to the surprisingly good bouldering in Central Park, NYC. I'm looking forward to many more climbing trips! The Stevens delegation wouldn't be complete without Tommy. While he may have been one of the most frustrating people to be next to in the last 50 of a 200 free, he's not such a bad guy. Turns out he is a pretty good skier and is one of the only people I know to have have successfully rolled a kayak in class III rapids on his first day in a kayak. Maybe someday I'll convince him to move out here from NJ.
Claire | Idaho Adventure Babes
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Hailey Tatum Emily Romero Shannon Montaño I met these three ladies specifically through climbing, which has become one of my favorite activities since moving to Boise. They may have had something to do with it. I originally met Hailey and Emily because their significant others at the time were Derek's friends, but that quickly ceased to matter. I remember Hailey asking me to go to a ladies' ski movie a week after we met, hardly knowing her, just the two of us. Since then she's stood out as one of the friendliest women I know, and not to mention a badass climber and mountain biker! Emily is someone who's always down to try something new and is usually the best at it (don't challenge her to a game of beer darts). We got along quickly because of how sweet, easy going, and incredibly adventurous she is. There aren't many other people who would sit in the front of a raft on high water Cataract Canyon with you! When I first started climbing I saw Shannon at the gym and was in awe of what a powerhouse she was (and is)! She was strong, friendly, bubbly; I knew I wanted to get to know and become friends with this girl! We started climbing together and learned we had a similar love for whitewater activities as well and have gone on many trips together since.
Derek | Boise Climbing Crew
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Travis Nielson Jesse Tatum Reggie Walters Mark Robertson* When I moved back to Boise after school these were some of the first people I became friends with. While most of them have left town in recent years, we still meet up for various adventures. Travis was one of the first climbing friends that I met in Boise. It was through Travis that I met most of the Boise climbing community, including a few of the other folks in the wedding party. Travis has always been the one in the group to bring people together through delicious food, whether it as at JoesGiving, a random weekend, or flying to Boise on a whim to surprise me. I met Jesse shortly after meeting Travis. Over the years we have had a lot of good times. I always enjoy meeting up with him for climbing trips, skiing trips, and the occasional rafting and mountain biking. It takes more effort now that we live in different states, but we still make it happen. Reggie is one of the most humbly strong climbers that I know. He has also shown to be the most effective paddler in my raft. The smoothest lines I've had in my raft on the SF Payette have been when Reggie is in the boat. He moved away from Boise a few years ago but we still make time to catch up, whether climbing or rafting. *Mark may or may not be wise, but he is the oldest in our respective wedding parties so that makes him the obvious choice to be our officiant.
Claire | Food Science Besties
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Sarah Colbert Mary Melkovitz Both of these badass women are easily also considered Idaho adventure babes, but we met specifically because of our careers in Food Science. Sarah came out to Idaho from Kansas a few months after I did and was my first friend in Boise. Both coming from the Midwest we wanted to learn what Idaho had to offer, and together we tried everything from swing dancing nights at the Buffalo club to whitewater kayaking. We fell in love with Idaho together and became very quick, close friends! Sarah was in Boise three years before she and her husband the C man moved to Seattle, but fortunately that's worth an occasional weekend trip! Mary and I first met in our Food Science program at UW Madison. We were even in the same study group but were only acquaintances at the time! It wasn't until Mary was looking for a change after her first job in Wisconsin that we connected, and she decided to come out to Boise to work for Happy Family Organics too. We reconnected while I showed her around Boise and realized our similar passions for the outdoors, wellness and dogs, which made us easy friends :)
Derek | The 'Cronvicts
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Gage Sowell Drew Butler Seth Goicoechea Trevor Timm Since meeting through work, I have gone on plenty of climbing, skiing and whitewater adventures will all of these fine folks. The first few trips with Gage were climbing trips the summer that we met. That winter it became clear that we would be good skiing friends. We were both on the same shift and spent a lot of Mondays driving up to the Sawtooths to ski. A few years ago he went to grad school in Colorado and then moved back to Bozeman, but we still go on multiple trips every year! Drew and I met shortly before he started working at the 'Cron. We have gone on a lot of river and climbing trips together, the most intense of which was Cataract Canyon at high water. Thankfully Drew, Claire, and Emily got the raft through the massive whitewater unscathed. Now we just have to get him into skiing... Seth and I started on the same shift within a couple months of each other. We quickly found out that we had a lot of mutual interests and have gone on a lot of adventures over the years. Knowing Seth has also greatly increased our Boise friend group. We have met a lot of great people through him, many of whom will be at the Clarek wedding! I'm fairly certain that I first met Trevor when he and his wife Anna were wandering around Swan Falls looking for boulders. Sometime after that we met at work and have been good friends since. Whether he is heckling or helping me swim across the SF Payette in February it's always a good time.
Mark Robertson
Officiant