Dylan Starts School

No pictures this time.

Dylan started school this past Thursday, yippie.

The previous Thursday his teacher came by the house in the evening to meet him on his turff and he seemed to like her.

Then on Tuesday we went to the school for an orientation and Dylan got to check out the classroom, playground and meet some of his classmates.

Then on Thursday I dropped him off in the morning and he did not even care that I was leaving. They had a big tub on legs set up outside with water and some dinosaurs in it and when I asked for a kiss goodby Dylan picked up a dinosaur and gave it a kiss, well at least I did not have to put up with a screaming clingy child, OH well.

Dylan will be going two days a week for most if not all day. The main challenge, and I told the teacher this, is going to be getting him to nap. He did not nap his first day, but at least he did not loose it and wake the other kids up. Other than that his first day was a success.

Another Attempt at Camping

Well last weekend we headed to Datil to try camping with Dylan again. The first try resulted in several hours of crying and me sleeping in the front seat of the car with no sleeping bag. The second attempt ended with about 45 minutes of crying at 2 AM when Dylan got cold because he will not sleep with a blanket on and he was in his pack and play. This time was maybe more successful, Dylan slept in the tent with Linda and while he did not get to sleep at his usual time, he spent about an hour looking at the stars and playing with a headlamp, he did eventually fall asleep. Through out the night he kept kicking the sleepingbag off and would wake up unhappy but never out right crying and Linda would quickly bundle him and warm him back up.

We had a whole crew out to climb with and for Dylan to play with. Chris, Jo(anna) and Trinity got to try out their new tent, Betty and Eric came out but wisely took a different camp spot down the canyon. On Sunday Jodie and her daughter Livia came out to climb as well. We also ran into Debi Evens and Mark Ondrias from the gym. Linda climbed we and managed to send Technowitch 5.12-, which for her is more of a mental break through. She has tried the route off and on over several years and always proclaimed it too hard or too reachy. Finally on that weekend and the previous one she commited to just getting it done and in the end it only took her a handful of tries to figure out the moves and send, though on Saturday she fell from 1 move before the anchors because she could not find the hold that you clip from.

Since I'm still nursing the sprained thumb I did just a few routes on Saturday, then on Sunday morning Joanna and I rode our bikes from the entrance to Datil to Pie Town and back. Upon returning we broke down camp and I headed up to do a couple of routes, just taking it easy but hopefully doing enough to maintain some amount of fitness.

Here is a shot of Dylan passed out in the tent in the morning.

And a shot of him waking up.

Finally hanging at the crag with Livia and Trinity on Sunday.

Chris and Joe's Playground and Datil

Here is some video of Dylan enjoying the play equipment in Chris and Joanna's backyard.

Our backyard on the other hand is a weed infested mess, well except for the patio. We'll get around to finishing up the backyard eventually. Probably after we build a garage back there so that there is less to maintain and we don't need to destroy something that we put in when we do the garage.

This weekend we headed to Datil on Saturday with Kyle and Emily. Emily is an intern at the gym and was working the kids camps, she finally admitted that she was happy to see the kids walk out the door for the last ime after dealing with them for 2 1/2 months straight. Sadly they are headed back to Idaho for school later this week. Anyway, Kyle sent Technowitch 5.12a and both Emily and Linda gave it a good try as well. I climed 2 routes, one with a thumb brace on which I was constantly pushing against, BAD (see below), and one with nothing on so I held the thumb back which put some stress on the joint, also BAD. So I'll be taking another week off and try again next weekend.

This morning I tried out riding to see how my thumb would put up with it. I sprained my thumb a week and a half ago holding a swing in the Crystal Cave, so I have not been able to climb since then and went for a run while in Datil which was not very good. My right knee is still giving me troubles, felt like someone was stabing an ice pick into the side of my knee if I did not land just right on my stride. Anyway, riding went well as I can keep weight off the joint that hurts and drink with the other hand. I just need to be careful that I don't run into any rough patches without being aware. So I headed up S14 from Tijeras since the pavement is really smooth up there and not so nice on Route 66. Then at teh top since the thumb was feeling pretty good I headed around the race loop out Oak Flat to NM 217. Loads of cyclists out and pretty great weather.

What Else

We went to a new area in the Jemez after I got back from the OR Trade Show while Linda's mom was still here. The area was really pretty, you hike from the road up over a low ridge and drop down into a little river valley on the other side. The area is called the Upper East Fork, of some river presumably and is just up from Las Conchas. The routes are nice, mostly slightly overhanging and the 2 main walls are pretty tall. The Monster Wall which has mostly 5.11 and 5.12 routes is about 60-70 feet tall and the Spegetti Westtern Wall, mostly 5.10 and 5.11 is maybe 90 feet or so, pretty tall for the Jemez. We headed out with Marc Ripper.. and had a good time climbing on new stuff, it is getting hard to find new routes to get on that are not pretty terrible or extreamly hard, so it was nice to climb some new, good 5.11's and 5.12's.

When we first got to the wall Marc and I headed to the base to figure out which routes were which and check the hang for Dylan. As we wandered along the base of the wall there was a bunch of chirping and we almost stepped on some very small birds. They did not take off and fly away but at times they tried. I'm guessing that they had been booted from or something happened to the nest. Marc and I each scooped a bird up to show Dylan, the one I was carrying finally took flight, sort of falling toward the ground in a controled glide then all of a sudden really took off. The bird Marc was carrying just stayed put and Dylan got to check it out up close.

After Dylan had some time with the bird we returned it to where we found them and an hour or so later they were gone. Later in the afternoon we got rained on pretty hard for a bit, pretty typical when your in the mountains at about 10k feet. Here is a shot of Dylan goofing with Popo under the shelter of the wall.

I did not hear him say it but apparently Dylan was saying "Thunder, dangerous, go home" in Cantonees, which was way beyond me, although now I might be able to follow. Needless to say we all did another route to the sound of distant thunder after the rain let up. We hiked out in a light rain and Dylan fell asleep in the Sherpini. All in all a fun day out.

A couple quick videos of Dylan

Here are a couple of quick videos of Dylan. This first one is when I was trying to get him to greet Linda's mom at the airport when she was coming out to watch him so I could go to the OR Trade Show.

Needless to say, it did not go over real well with her, but he eventually warmed up to her after a day or so.

The next is of one of Dylan's new "skills"

He still usually lands off to one side, but he still loves it and then likes to just lay there and wallow in the glory of success.