Random Happenings Around Our House

Watching early morning cartoons.Tyler is never this happy in the morning.

Sweet Smiles

Tyler's hangout spot in the backyard.

Homework (Meagan included!)

Reading logs take the fun out of reading.

Possession of the remote - a coveted thing.
We train them young.

Erin graduated from her highchair to the table.

She is a big girl now.The kids playing Legos.Too tired to go to bed - the hallway works just fine.

Lead Climbing

After a year and a half of climbing, I finally took the opportunity to lead. Up to this point, I have top-roped everything I have climbed. Top-roping is when the rope is already attached to the anchors at the top of the climb, and both ends of the rope are at the ground. The climber ties in to one end, and the belayer has the other end. When top-roping any fall that you take is only as far as the amount of slack that your belayer allows you to have. When lead climbing, the climber takes the rope with him to the top, clipping in to protection points along the way. When a lead climber falls, he falls twice the distance between him and the last place he clipped in. Leading a route can often be a lot more difficult than top-roping the same route. Some of that difficulty comes from the games that your mind plays on you, knowing that there is no protection above you.

Rik and I went to Prison Camp. It seems that anytime it is just the two of us, that is where we end up. It is close to the bottom of Mt. Lemmon, has an easy approach, and there are a lot of climbs in all abilities. We started the day on the route Cell Block 6. Rik led it first and set up a top-rope. I top-roped it once to get a feel for the climb. When I came down, I left all of the quickdraws in the bolts. Then I led the climb, not having to worry about clipping the quickdraw to the bolt. I only had to worry about clipping the rope into the quickdraw. On the way down, I cleaned the quickdraws from the bolts. Then, I led it for a second time, having to clip the quickdraw to the bolt and the rope into the quickdraw.

It was a great rush. I thought that I would be more nervous than I actually was. It is a relatively easy climb (5.6) and has a lot of good holds and ledges for feet. It is where a lot of people first lead climb.

Here I am tying into the rope to get ready to lead this climb.


I am half way up the route. Notice the good ledge that I have to stand on? This was a great place to stand on my own and have my belayer free up his hands to get a picture.




This is the full route Cell Block 6.


After leading Cell Block 6 twice we went around the corner to lead two other routes. This is Solitary (5.7). Rik led it and I watched him. He cleaned it all on his way down, except for the first bolt. We left the rope through the quickdraw on the first bolt.


Then I did Machine Gun (5.7).


Here I am at the anchors of Machine Gun.


I had such a great time that day. After leading those three routes we stuck around and I top-roped four others. I came home that day with one of those grins that just wouldn't stop.

Easter Morning

The Easter Bunny hid plastic eggs filled with candy and

the kid's baskets around the family room and kitchen this year.

Meagan turned out to be our expert finder. The tough finds this year were a tan egg hidden in the middle of the bunny rolls and Tyler's basket in the hall closet behind the vacuum. Meagan found both. Way to go Meagan!

Rebecca pleased with her basket.

Erin

Easter Bunny brought flip flops, sunglasses, swimming goggles, and Gatorade.

Easter Breakfast: Grandma Joyce's Bunny Rolls and candy, of course!

Easter Eve at Wendi's

The festivities began with an Easter Egg Hunt with Wendi's ward.

Tyler pleased with his efforts!

Brett dragging Erin along.

Wendi checking out Meagan's loot.

After the egg hunt, Brett and I went to the temple.
Then we came back to Wendi's to make Grandma Joyce's bunny rolls.
The kids dyed eggs.

Rebecca, Mitchell, Garrett, Meagan, and Tyler.

We ended our day at the Mesa Temple Pagent.
I didn't get any pictures.
I spent most of the time with Erin going up and down some steps near the visitor center.
It was a fun day!

I don't know what to say

Michelle has always given me a hard time about how I can't seem to keep my feet still. I am always moving my feet when I'm laying down, or bouncing my knee when I am sitting. I have a really hard time just being still. This habit extends even to the bed. I am always rubbing my feet or toes against the sheets and she is always telling me to just lay still. Well, this week I woke up and I had ripped the sheets during the night. Looking at the sheets down by my feet, they are totally worn through and thin. It would be one thing if this was the first set of sheets that I had done this to, but this is the third set. Anyone know of some industrial strength sheets we should buy?

I've got shingles...

...and not the kind that you put on the roof. You can read about what shingles is on Wikipedia. It is from the same virus family as chicken pox and you can only get it if you have had chicken pox. The two doctors that I saw this morning (primary care and opthomologist) both were surprised that I got it at my age. I guess that it is usually elderly or sickly people who get it. Michelle blames stress in my life. I can't argue with that one. It is really itchy and swollen and I just want to rub my face all the time. But, I am being really good and avoiding touching it. I was using a hot compress on it several times yesterday and that felt good, but the doctor told me this morning that I should use an ice pack. The heat increases circulation and causes the leasions to spread. The good news is that it hasn't spread to my eye. I just need to carefully watch it to make sure that it doesn't. Here are some photos of what I looked like Sunday morning:

And this is what I looked like this morning:

I started to get the red rash on Thursday and so I probably should have gone to the doctor on Friday morning, but I was too stubborn. Plus, I had plans to go to the climbing gym and I didn't want to miss that. (I did end up misssing the gym, but that is a whole different story.)

Track Meet

Rebecca had a track meet today after school. They have been practicing for a few weeks now and today was the first time that they recorded their accomplishments. We went and watched her compete. She did the long jump, softball throw, high jump, shotput and 100 m dash. She did the 400 m before we got there, so we missed seeing that. She had fun and did well.

That is Tyler cheering in the background when Rebecca did the high jump. This video is of 3' 1". She made it up to 3' 2".