Disneyland Day 2

Day 2 at Disneyland started with a shorter walk to "Downtown" Disney and a ride on the monorail,

 After going on a Finding Nemo submarine ride Dylan got picked to participate in a Padowan training "class" to learn the Jedi arts.

 At some point one of the children up on stage had a breakdown and Dylan was move up, front and center,

After they were done with some training they each had to face off against Darth Vader, this is pretty hilarious as Dylan's lightsaber fails,

Next we headed for lunch in Mickey's Toontown where there are a bunch of playground like areas for the kids, 

 And of course a city hall since it is a "Town"

Eventually Pluto emerged from City Hall to greet his fans, most notably, Uncle Chris.

 The rain kicked up again in the afternoon and we spent some time cowering under an overhang around a food booth before all the "Big Kids" got to leave the little ones and go on the Star Tours "ride". Ride being generous in that it is more of a moving room that does not go anywhere and a big 3D screen. R2D2 was there,

 as was C3P0,

and us "Big Kids"

 It was pretty cool. Amazing how something that barely moves can feel so real.

Eventually the rain subsided and 

we headed to Disney California Adventure and headed to Radiator Springs. Really looks just like in the movie,

 There were some "stars" out to take pictures with,

And Mater has his own ride with Dylan and my parents enjoyed.

Not so Terribly Late Christmas 2012 Post

For Christmas we headed to California to visit with my family. Amazingly, after 23.5 months my parents had finally moved back into their home, though it still needed some finishing touches and many things were still on boxes of in storage. I've made several post about my parents home and the changes it has gone through.

In other news, we got to meet Jack, the son of my cousin Chad and his wife Melanie. Not sure what his super power is but Jak Jak Attacks, everything goes in his mouth, naturally and he looks good with the turtle shell hat.

 We had a chance to visit with Jing and her family. Dylan really had a good time hanging out with Theo who is 8 and also loves LEGO. Jing and Scott being the extreme outdoor surgeons they are introduced us to URBAN SMORS, who needs a camp fire and cold to have a delicious squishy dessert?

 Dylan and Kailee thrilled to have the Christmas tree up.

 Christmas day, riding uncle Chris or is it Auntie Joy (Dylan used to call Chris and Joy Auntie Joy)

 After Christmas my mom used the grandkids as an excuse for her to go to Disneyland. So we ALL headed down south, my parents, Joy, Chris and Kailee, Chris's parents and us. Naturally the kids were thrilled, that includes Linda who had never been before. Dylan and Linda getting ready to get  on their first Disney ride.....It's a Small World.

 Marketing and sponsorship at its finest, Sylvania must have provided all the lighting.

 The small world boat ride was probably a good choice since it started raining, here Dylan and Linda trek past the Matterhorn,

We headed back to the hotel because the rain was getting to us. Then across the street for some lunch at Coco's, they had a guy making some pretty intricate balloon things, though all Dylan wanted was a sword,

 Linda and Dylan headed back in during the afternoon while everyone else napped and had a blast. Then the rest of us went back in for the night shift. It really is a different place at night,

and every night there are fireworks, we managed to watch them from between the two locations they were launching from, Kailee was a little spooked.

 More night time scenery,

 Well that was day one at Disney.

Very Late Thanksgiving Post, Now With WORDS

Photos from our Thanksgiving travels.

After arriving in Austin we headed with the whole family to San Antonio, apparently in TX the kids get the whole week off. On Sunday night James (bro in-law), Brian (nephew) and I headed to the Spurs game against the Clippers. It was a good game with a lot of star power, CP3, Blake Griffin and The Big Fundamental.

Griffin pretty much does something amazing in every game and he did not disappoint, with several big dunks including one that had TD just stepping out of the way instead of getting plowed through. 

The next morning after breakfast we headed out and strolled along the River Walk.

Mandatory family shot along the river,

The River Walk is pretty cool, with businesses opening right onto the walk on either side and some pretty cool modern architecture and lots of bridges and such.

After walk we headed to Sea World Park. Dylan has gotten in the habit of striking silly posses when his picture is being taken,

Though, here he looks a bit shocked and confused, measuring in for what rides he can go on. He made the yellow, 42" line.

While we did go on several roller coaster the whole point is the animal shows. So we made the dolphin show which was really cool with a lot of human acrobatics as well.

This was incredible. From what I could tell there was no safety line, the lady came out on the hoop and used the piece of fabric to do all sorts of stuff like this over the water,

Here is Dylan with some of the performers after the show was over,

While Linda and I rode all the bigger coasters, the kids had the most fun on the Shamu Express. Here Dylan and Cady ride in the front.

Linda bought a chocolate ice cream cone for the family to share that Dylan would not let go of with out major coaxing.

Later in the day we headed to the orca show with Shamu, at this point Dylan was getting pretty tired.

It is so impressive seeing what the huge animals can do.

Here, after the show, one of the trainers is working with an animal. It is blurred in this shot but she is holding a stuffed whale and using it to show the orca what she wants them to do, pretty cool. Of course, since the accident with Shamu, the trainers did not get in the water with the animals.

Big Snake

Candy cane trees with all the cousins, Dylan and Cady showing off their penguins.

Another family shot with Shamu Santa, a little weird really,

Christmas Mariachi??? These guys were at it all day, impressive.

The entrance at night.

After a long day we made the drive home to Austin with tired children and quiet cars.

Monkey See

Just for Matt and Katie, it was great to see you guys. Some shots of Katie with Tyler at Riemer's Ranch.

Monkey SEE, not yet 2 year old Tyler watching,

 And then doing...

Be careful...

More to come on our fun filled Austin trip soon.

Maple Canyon Climbing over Halloween

The first day we were in Maple Canyon we headed up to the Pipedream Cave. Having just finished setting a bouldering competition the massive lines out the cave with 20+ bolts were not all that appealing knowing I would just get completely shelled. Instead Mark and I warmed up on a couple of routes right of the main cave then headed to the furthest left route that gets regular action, Orgasmo. This 5.12+ was a fun route for sure but it also made it quite obvious that my endurance needed a bit of work, although I did manage to fight through the pump and finish, that one route pretty much ended my day of climbing.

Half way up Orgasmo 5.12c, photo by Kate Anderson

 Linda did several warm-ups including this one, The Waterfall Route

Linda on The Waterfall Route 5.11b

 Before trying Dry Times which follows a fun corner up a steep wall. I finished the day by getting beat down on The Diggler, which by now seems like ritual for me when I head up to the Pipedream. The route used to be graded at least 5.13b and now people call it at easy as 5.12d because there is a near no-hands knee-bar in the middle of the route. Well I suck at knee-barring and can't rest there to save my life, making the route feel harder than anything I've done at Maple.

The next day Linda, Kate and I climbed at the Low Standard Cave while Mark took a rest day. This is a wall I had looked at at least a few times over the years but never actually climbed at. To the left and right of the cave are a few very long routes from 5.10- to 5.12- while the cave hosts several 5.13's long with a few variations. We did a couple of the long routes to warm up before I decided, what the heck and gave the most obvious and traveled of the 5.13's, Welcome to Fitness, a burn. Being a shorter route I figured I had a shot at sending it. The start went pretty smoothly and I was quickly at what appeared to be the crux, 2 moves into it a hold appeared that I had not seen from the ground, to use it or not to...I decided that while it was not as good as the hold I was on it would make the next move shorter so I moved my feet quickly and fired through to an obvious rest in a big horizontal break. After camping out I romped up the final head wall to the anchor, always a nervous point for me since you can't see the holds as well from the ground and you are more flying by feel. I was happy to clip the chains and redeem myself somewhat.

The following day Linda and I rested while Mark and Kate climbed. We headed to the cliff with them to help watch Logan, their little boy, or belay while Kate of Mark watched him. They chose to climb in The Box which was one of the first areas developed and a spot I had first climbed at 15 or 16 years ago on my first visit to Maple Canyon. Here is Dylan hanging out,

 When Logan was occupied with food or toys and Kate was able to belay Mark I took the opportunity to set up a fixed line and shoot some photos. Here is Mark attempting a short but very powerful 5.13- in The Box called, Meathook Sodomy.

Mark Anderson on Meathook Sodomy 5.13a

 And here he is on Captain Bullet, another 5.13- that overhangs the road. Sadly, on this route he skipped a clip at the lip of the roof hoping for better holds above that did not materialize. This meant he had to make a choice between going for the anchors and risking a ground fall if he blew it or jumping off before he got too high which he opted for.

Mark Anderson on Captain Bullet 5.13a

 On the last day, everyone was climbing again. We started the day at The Minimum and headed to Cragganmore to finish. We mostly took the opportunity to get on bunch of long routes but nothing much too hard, except for Linda who managed to on-sight Zoaster Toaster, 5.11+ at The Minimum. Even though I've climbed several times at The Minimum I managed to only climb routes that I had not been on before which was great. I always try to make it a goal to at least do one new route each day I'm out, and on this day I managed to climb only routes I'd not done before. The afternoon at Cragganmore was great and I got the chance to climb the big routes of Daddy and Popcorn, pictured below.

Climbing Popcorn 5.12b at Cragganmore, photo by, Mark Anderson