Coming back from CA

As many of you know, my parents home got burned in January 2011. They finally got trusses put up and it is almost dried in, only took 15 months.

 I'm always impressed with the food in the Oakland airport. Tasty tacos from near gate 29?, I think.

 On Friday we had a Stone Cup competition in the evening. Linda was climbing and I was working so Dylan hung out with the gyms C-team as they were out slack lining in front go the gym.

 The next day we ran a USA Climbing SCS competition. Here Curran gives the competitor intro.

Dylan also had testing for his orange belt. He did not behave during most of it and refused to pay attention, so he did not get to upgrade, he will get another chance though this week, I think. Here though he gets to "fight" off Sensei Anna.

The laughing is because Anna had told the kids to punch her just above her belt and of course Dylan goes for the middle of the chest the first time.

Farewell Grandma, Great Grandma

This past weekend we headed to California to scatter my Grandmothers ashes. She passed shortly after Thanksgiving at the tender age of 93.

Dylan travels really well when he has someone to play with. We met this boy in the ABQ airport and Dylan asked to sit with him on the plane so he did, for the entire flight. Linda and I shared the next row back so we could keep an eye on him and make sure things did not get out of hand for Lucas's mom, though they really played well together and did not require much from any of the adults.

 Years ago my Grandfather, having served in the Navy (?) during WWII was scattered at sea, so naturally that is where Grandma wanted to be as well. One of my dad's friends, Uncle Steve (not really an uncle), who officiated Linda's and my wedding, lives on the water and has a nice 40+ foot sail boat that he was kind enough to take the family out on for the occasion.

 Dylan and Linda on the ride out.

 Captain Steve and my dad. Steve is busy holding the boat in position where Grandpa was scattered while my dad gives the eulogy.

 As you can see it was a bit foggy but not terribly cold. Uncle Nelson in the background with the flowers.

 Bidding a last farewell.

 Dylan scattering flower petals while being held by my cousin Tana.

 Dad and his brothers and sister.

Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother,

You are missed...

Spring is in the air, at least at the Zoo

Went to REI to replace a stolen piece of luggage the other day and figured out how to make those family trips a little cheaper. As you can see there is still a ton of extra space in the bag and on SouthWest you get 2 free bags per person.

Today Dylan and I headed for the Zoo. It was nice to get out in the beautiful weather after all the wind over the weekend. Spring is definitely in the air as evidenced by the animal behavior.

Here our lion tries to impress his new lady friend, she is new to the zoo as of this winter I think.

 This guy was out sniffing around, well, stuff you and I would not sniff, but getting ignored.

 Usually there is only one polar bear pacing on the wall, today it was both in tandem.

 The peacocks were out doing their thing. Dylan wanted to get a closer look, maybe not the best idea for a little guy. This peacock actually half charged or faked a charge at Dylan, it got him to back away.

 And the ever popular ducks with Dylan and his new trucker hat.

More of Dylan Fighting

More video from Dylan's sparring match.

There is only one other kid in the class close to his age so they are paired up pretty often, though, Brandon, has been doing karate a little longer and already had a colored belt when Dylan started. It is interesting watching the "older" kids, 5-7 years old, spar. They all seem to pull their punches, it is really hard to connect if you are backing away when you throw your punch. At this age it does not seem as though they could hurt each other with their fists, one of the kids was kicking pretty hard though.

Dylan Pulls Punches

Some video of Dylan's first sparing match in an informal class competition.

Easter and Christmas

We've gotten busy lately. Dylan started soccer on Wednesday evenings to go along with karate 2 days a week after school.

 Linda did not get injured like myself and is in her "peak" for climbing. After finishing off the route at Socorro she moved on to Straight on Till Morning which she sent 2 weekends ago. It is just her second 5.12c ever, her first coming when we were on a 2 month road trip, so not bad results for one training cycle. She has since moved on to this route, Rubber Mission.

 I've been bolting a few things down at the tower as well. Most still need a bit more cleaning, though one is finished and I lead another on one bolt and a couple of sketchy cams, just to get it done, it could use about 4 more bolts.

So since Easter rolled around we decided it would be a good time to take down...

 Christmas decorations.

Linda dressed Dylan up for the day and was quite pleased with results.

 I took Dylan to the aquarium so Linda could have some quiet time to work on taxes. They were feeding the animals in the shark tank while wearing rabbit ears.

 Later on Sunday we had a nice dinner with the Eckstein family. Dylan loves all of them and the dogs.

Trinity, their daughter set up an Easter egg hunt for him and they repeated the hiding and finding several times.

On another note, this past weekend was Open Nationals for route climbing in Boulder, CO. Our local hard woman, Page Brown headed out and made finals.