More cell phone photos

Here is an old shot of Dylan on his last day of school. You know, when the kids get sent home at noon. They had a nice pizza party and after lunch the teachers gave them ice cream...right before sending them home. Something tells me that the kids don't usually get the full sugar infusion right after lunch, unless the one giving it does not have to deal with the consequences. Here is Dylan "finishing" his ice cream.
We had a good weekend.

On Saturday Dylan and Linda went to the children's music class while Chris broke my legs on a bike ride up south 14 and the crest.

On Sunday we headed out climbing with John and Carolyn. We started out at Las Conchas in the Jemez Mountains with the hopes of getting on a couple of routes that overhang the creek which is a pretty cool setting. When we arrived it was 74 degrees and just before 11am. We managed to get 1 or 2 warm ups in, depending on the person, before it started to rain, then freezing rain and finally hail. Anyway that got us to run for the car at which point the temperature had dropped to 46 degrees and this at noon when it is supposed to be getting warmer. We headed down the hill to the Crystal Cave since it is completely sheltered, but it was not raining there anyway. This was both Linda and Carolyn's first times to the cave. I think that they enjoyed the climbing well enough. John worked on and came close to doing Minutia which is surprisingly long for how close to the ground you are the whole time. I did Minutia and the short (5.13-) version of the Leper. All in all we had a good day climbing.

The cactus on the approach to the Crystal Cave are in bloom. They are quite pretty.Dylan liked both areas. There is a great creek and meadow area for him to play in at Conchas. He enjoyed "feeding the snakes" (throwing small rocks) in the river. He had to run back and forth through the meadow to get pebbles from the trail and take them back to the river. The Crystal Cave is so steep that we could set up a rope for him to swing on just about anywhere. Eventually John just hoisted him up and tied him off to a bolt so he could swing and swing and nobody had to hold him.

Here is a dragonfly by one of the creeks we hung out near during the day.

Crystal Cave Last Week, New Toy

Dylan and I headed up to the Crystal Cave on Wednesday of last week with Matt, Doug and Richard. Doug kept working on the short version of the Lepor 5.12a, Matt tried Dope 5.13b, Richard was just getting on whatever and I managed to send Faith 5.13c.

Here are some shots of Matt on Dope, passing the first bolt,
and entering the 3rd and final crux, which is shared with Faith.I got Dylan a new toy. Every little kid needs a TONKA truck. Dylan really likes the Dump Truck.

Not only can he load and dump it,

but it can also function as a high chair at the crag for feeding him.

As soon as we got home in the afternoon I started to pack the truck and we headed to Intel to pick Linda up and it was off to CO for the Triple By Pass with my parents and Chris and Joanna. More on that later.

Happy 4th

So, naturally it has been awhile since I last posted.

On Wednesday the 24th Dylan and I went back to the Sandias to climb with John Kear and Carolyn. We all had a good time and miraculously the weather held out and we did not get rained on, just a little spit. I made the probable second ascent of John's route, Insane Clown Posse 5.12+ and John and Carolyn did two routes for the first time, that I bolted with the help of Rip and Pletta a few years ago.

Then over the weekend Linda and I rode to the crest from town and back while Chris and Joanna watched Dylan who had a blast in their yard playing with Triny (Trinity) their 5 year old daughter.

Last week Dylan and I made it out to Big Block on Monday with Richard of Team Mojo and Jeff Leads of Prana and had a good time. On Wednesday we headed out to the Crystal Cave with Doug and 3 kids from Team Mojo, Richard, Liam and Rachel. Richard managed to send Dope 5.13b, not bad for a 14 year old, maybe he's 13. I came very close to doing the full version of Faith 5.13c but will have to live with the short version a couple of times as a workout.

Dylan, seeing all the climbing is starting to trian his open hand strength on the edge of the table as well as his core by holding L-sits. Well at least he is having fun swinging around.

The flowers have been out in force lately at the higher elevations. We saw some great ones up in the Sandias the past couple of weeks and blooming cactus at the Crystal Cave in the Jemez foothills.

On the 3rd we went up to Chris and Joanna's to hang out and celebrate the 4th and Chris' Bday a little early for both. Dylan again had fun with Triny and would follow her everywhere even when she went to brush her teeth.

Today we went to Datil for the day and met up with Carolyn and Anna B. along with Mick and Kari Shien. Mick being the author of the Sandia Rock guide book. It seemed as though everyone had a good time. Linda did The Raven 5.11d on her first try on TR and proptly lead it, which is quite good for her. Carolyn also managed The Raven on TR and plans to try leading it tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well for her.

Well Happy 4th.