Going to the Zoo with JaxonWest

Today was beautiful, sunny and 80 degrees, a great day to go to the Zoo and Dylan is 18 months old. After slathering on sun screen and a few failed attempts at getting the hat to stay we met up with Jason and his boy, Jaxon West. The boys had fun looking at the animals and saying names and making sounds. Dylan was particularly enthralled by the pink flamingos.

While the Rio Grande Zoo is not a petting zoo, that did not stop the boys from trying. Jaxon was almost successful at petting the duck, he's a bit faster than Dylan at this point. Here they are trying to corner the duck.

We fed the kids in the Zoo cafeteria, some fries and chicken tenders to go along with a sandwich and a banana. Jaxon might be more fleet afoot but Dylan would take him down in a chow contest, is that something I should be psyched about?
Afterwards we headed out to the Slate Street Cafe to get some real food for the dads. The place is pretty difficult to find since Slate St is discontinuous, but it is between 5th and 6th st and Lomas and Mountain. The lunch menu is mostly sandwiches and salads. So we got a couple of sandwiches, the food was quite good and the boys ate some more to supplement their lunch. Later Dylan tried on Jaxon's hat, and since we were inside and there was no sun, naturally he made no effort to take it off.

After coming home and taking a nice long nap and running some errands, mom made it home and Dylan had a blast playing with her.

After a good mommy play session he had dinner and was pooped, maybe a bit full as well. I did a weight check and got him at 29.1 lbs dressed so he is probably about 28.5 or more, not bad for 18 months.

All in all it was a fun day for all. Last but not least, here is a shot of what Dylan looks like when mommy is feeding him or he is trying to feed himself.

Tax week and weekend

Well it's been some interesting times since our trip to Hueco.

We found out that it snowed in ABQ Easter morning which is weird and then again on Friday. I took Dylan out to play in it and he loved it, waving his hands around at the big fat snow flakes. What is going on, snow twice in April and once after taxes were due. Speaking of taxes we actually got some back this year and filed federal on the 13th and mailed state on...the 15th, we never seem to be able to get our act together sooner. Linda got really sick on Tuesday night and through Wednesday. On Friday Dylan and I went out to lunch with Chris, Joanna and Trinity for pizza and Dylan proved he could put it away, 3 pieces by himself. On Thursday Dylan took a couple of shuffling steps backwards for the first time which was pretty cool to see. OH and I don't remember when but we got some real shoes for Dylan this past week as well, fake Crocs and some velcro tennis shoes.

On Saturday the Shreadfest, a bouldering competition at U-mound (a local bouldering area) was held. I rode my bike up from the gym with a couple of others and Linda competed. Dylan hung out with several "older" ladies and had a blast playing with a cell phone and locking it out, I don't know if Anna has managed to unlock it yet. The event started with a clean up and some trail building and then moved on to climbing. It was cool enough to actually be good temps for pulling down which is a rarity for the foothills in April. Linda climbed well repeating a couple of problems that she can't always do and ended up in 1st place among women! Afterwards there was food and a raffle of prizes, everyone got something with prizes left over. All in all it was a good event put on by Stone Age Climbing Gym, Suntoucher Mountain Guides and Fat Tire Cycles.

On Sunday we headed to Diablo Canyon with John and Carolyn. John managed to do Ventarete which is really fun and I got on a route that Bryan Pletta bolted several years ago but had yet to be climbed. I managed to figure out the moves pretty quickly and sent it for the First Ascent on my second try. The route has some god 5.11 climbing surrounding a V7ish boulder problem crux. Dylan had a blast with Soulame, John and Carolyn's dog, petting her and watching her snap at bees and just in general being a 10 month old dog all be it a very large one.

Here is a shot of Dylan eating Linda's lunch at Diablo Canyon.

Eating a waffle with dad before bedtime.

Brushing teeth with mom just before bed.

Weekend at Hueco

The trip to Hueco Tanks was pretty good. We stayed at a Hawthorne Inn and Suites, got a pretty good room rate. The hotel had a great hot breakfast with waffles, eggs, potatos and some meat along with everything else you'd expect from a normal hotel breakfast.

On Saturday we went out on a tour with everyone, Mike T, Lori, Chris and Treva, Jake, JC, Vino and Dane. We started out at the Maze where everyone gave Jiggsaw Puzzle a load of tries with a few sends. Then we headed up to Flower Power which several people got on. I did Je Suis Wedge which is one move to a difficult nut crunching mantle and Pirrelli which is another mantle. Next up was Moonshine Roof which Linda spent some time working on with everyone. We finished the day off at Meddle Detector which I managed to repeat, great problem with big moves on big holds out a 45 degree overhang. Dylan was very good all day, just playing and having a blast. The wind picked up towards the end of the day as is usual for the time of year and was pretty brutal as we were walking out. Dylan only managed to nap once we were back in the car driving to the hotel.

On Sunday we stayed on North Mountain and met up with everyone at the Warm-up boulder an quickly headed to Asylum Crack which is fun except that the crux is not lowering yourself into the boulder behind the problem halfway up. I finished off a project that I started a few years ago which is a low start to a V2 to the right of Asylum Crack and is possibly an FA though I doubt it because it is on North, it's not that hard and it is listed as a project in the guide book, but who knows. Anyway, it is really fun and somewhat intimidating as the crux section comes with the same boulder that you have to avoid on Asylum looming behind you if you blow it. Next we headed to Donkey Head which is a problem that Linda had done in the past but it took a lot of work. She managed to repeat it this time in just a few tries. We left a little early so that Dylan could get a good nap in, leaving the park at about 3 in the afternoon, Dylan napped all the way to Socorro, a good 3hr+ away, only waking up to glare at the boarder patrol check point guard.

We made it home a resonable time after stopping in Socorro for dinner and to let Dylan walk around a bit. Yesterday the busy weekend showed as Dylan took another 3 hour nap in the afternoon.

Here are some shots of Dylan as we are getting ready to thead to the car,

And walking to the car to head home.

Here is a quick video that shows Dylan re enforcing his tough guy image with his daily work out. He is using a 10 pound kettle bell to do dead lifts, this is what I use to do some rotator cuff exercises so Dylan is always trying to play with it as well. He used to be able to just drag the weight around with him even when he was just crawling or pull it into his lap. Now he tries to walk with it.

We are mostly recovered from our trip back from Austin. Sometimes the traveling is so difficult it makes you wonder if it is even worth going anywhere for such a short time. It is when it comes down to it since Dylan does not get to see his cousins or aunts and uncles any other way. It would just be easier to justify if the trip was longer, yeah that's it, all our trip should just be at least a week and we should take just as many.

Right now we still have yet to do our taxes, are working on trying to plan for Linda's sabbatical and talking about a new vehicle possibly to replace my Tacoma. Replacing the truck would be hard, I've had it for 10 years and it has 230,000 miles on it and has never really had a problem. Super reliable, but it just does not work very well with a kid, when I was in college or just out though it made perfect sense. I guess it is time to move on, maybe to a 4 door Tacoma, or maybe something a bit more domestic, I don't know.

Weekend in Austin, Cousins and Climbing

So the main point of the trip to Austin was to visit family. Most important in this is getting together with the cousins and Popo

All the cousins loved playing with Dylan and there were so many toys in the house tha Dylan had no idea where to even start and was constantly occupied to the point that Linda and I really did not need to do anything. Popo took care of all the eating, bathing and diapers so we were free.We also got to get together with some friends as well. Matt and Katie who move from ABQ to Austin about a year ago, we make sure to visit and climb with them every time we are in Austin which is good.


Thu and Nat as well, friends through Matt and Katie, they have a 10 month old named Noah who we like to try and get Dylan to play with. All six plus Noah went out to Riemers to climb on Saturday. It was pretty nice in the morning but got pretty warm for a couple of hours during the middle of the day, then nice again in the evening. We warmed up at the Prototype wall where Linda on-sighted a 5.11-. Then headed over to the Insect Wall where I finished up Scorpion Child which I had failed to on-sight last time out. Next up was House of Pain Wall and a fun traversing route called Bastard in the Brothel which Linda, Matt, Katie and I all climbed on. Then Linda got on Jade 5.12 on top rope to work on the moves and I finished off Block Party 5.13a, another route that I left undone from our Thanksgiving trip. Matt got on Block Party as well to start working out the moves. At this point it got pretty hot so we just hung out for awhile and looked at some walls way down at the left end of the cliff line that we had not been to before. Linda saw some stuff down there that she wanted to do so I belayed her on a couple of routes that she actually took some falls on which is good for her. As things cooled off Nat and Thu both got on Elephant Man 5.13a, yet another route that I'd tried to on-sight over Thanksgiving and was not successful on. Thu sent it as usual, in the 3 or 4 times I've climbed with im at Riemers he always does this route and never seems to have any trouble with it. Nat came very close to red-pointing the route for the first time as well, falling above the last bolt. Prpoerly psyced and now armed with beta I sent to clean up a third route from our Thanksgiving trip.

On Sunday Matt, Thu, Nat and I headed out to a crag that is on some private land but the land owner allows climbing. To get to the cliff though you have to have the code to get into the gated community where the trail starts. Only a handful of people have this code and if it got out, which it has, problems arise from too many people having access.
Needless to say the climbing, while limited is quite good. There are maybe 20-25 lines and I'm sure countless link-ups. The cliff is only about 25 feet tall but it is so steep that many of the routes are 40-50 feet long, you top out as there are no anchors and jump off the top to send. Most of the routes are between 5.12c and 5.13b and the climbing is really fun on mostly good holds but you can tear you skin up pretty good as well since you are hanging off your arms so much.

Here is a shot looking at the left side of the cliff
And a short looking right, the guy in the black shirt is at the same route in each photo to give you an idea of how short the sectin of cliff is.

Saddly Noah got sick and Thu and Nat had to leave early. Matt finished up a 5.12+ that he had worked on some previously and tried a couple of routes that he is excited to get back on soon. I had a great day. After a quick warm up I on-sighted the classic 5.13a on the cliff, then a 5.13b on-sight followed. After resting and watching some folks on another 5.13b I managed to flash that as well. Then I moved on and on-sighted a 5.12d, though I butchered the sequence down low which cost me on the next route I got on. I tried to finish up by flashing the 5.12+ that Matt had started the day on but was just out of gas, I fell about 3 moves from topping it out, it was a good effort though and I really fought for it even if I did not make it. I'm psyced to get back a do some more of the routes there

Turns out we picked a pretty poor time to fly back, not because of traffic, but because it interfered with Dylans nap time. He went down just before we got to the airport so we let him sleep before going through security.

Doesn't look all that comfortable but it was the best we could do without waking him up.

He did not get enough sleep though and was pretty difficult on the flights. So even though we had a good and pretty relaxing vacation we were quickly brought back to reality on the trip home. The little moster is sleeping as I type this, he needs the rest, to catch up on his sleep.

End with some video I got of Dylan the day before we left for Austin.

Hope everyone had a good weekend

Weekend Quickie

For those of you with your minds in the gutter the title does not imply what you think.

We are still in Austin, about ready to head to lunch with Linda's sister then to the airport to go home. The weekend has been good, visiting with family and friends and getting to climb at Riemer's and a "private" area (you access it through a private gated community so the locals that have the gate code are pretty protective of it and rightfully so I think). Good food, good times, good friends, good climbing. Can't ask for much more.

Will post photos and video later.

End of March weekend and walking

So on the bike front, turns out the frame is cracked and needs to be replaced. I'm working on that. But Dad is OK so that is good.

The weekend was good. I worked a bunch on nights last week to help get ready for the competiton that was at the gym. On Saturday morning I went for a ride with Chris and Joanna around their house. In the afternoon Linda competed in the competition and Lance said she climbed really well except for the grabbing of quickdraws when she got nervous.

On Sunday Chris and I made it back out to Socorro with Jesse so we could finish up the project on North Wall. After a quick warm up on the Bankruptsy Wall which was pretty bad we headed over to North Wall. The wal was surprisingly calm considering how windy it was in the canyon. I headed up with the stick clip to hang the draws and move the 7th bolt while also brushing the holds. Chris then gave it a run and did it with hangs on the 5th and 6th bolts. Then it was my turn and I managed to pull through for the send on what was my 3rd try, 2 from the previous day. Chris took a few more go's to clip the chains but managed to do the route later in the afternoon.

While we were out climbing Linda was home with Dylan. So they went to the park both before and after his nap. There was a slight accident, Dylan really enjoys the slide and Linda was encouraging him to go down sitting up, which he has done before but always with someone catching him at the bottom. Well Linda did not catch him on this occasion and he planted. Just a little something to supplement his tough guy image.

But he is still perfectly happy and enjoys carrying stuff around in his Zoo Happy Meal pail that Popo and Yeah-Yeah got for him when they were in town.

On another note, I keep telling Dylan that he is a little chunker or that he got an extra serving of chubbies. Linda thinks this is going to make him self-concious which I think is rediculous.
.....On the other hand, maybe she is right, he does spend a fair bit of time on the scale.

Here is a little video of how the walking is going.

Pretty good for only a few weeks and he really has not wrecked hard yet, though I'm sure that is coming.

Anyway, we are off to see Linda's family this weekend in Austin then next weekend we're headed to Hueco with a bunch of folks so we have a pretty full schedule.