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.

Lots of Photos

So a lot of pictures, first ones from the camera then from my phone.

For this years Intel GPTW event at Cliff's amusement park, Linda again got extra tickets so that "uncle Chris" and family could join us. Trinity driving Dylan, 

 Dylan flying a plane,

 Dylan and I on the little "teacups",

 For the 4th of July we headed to Austin to visit Linda's family, also Brian, Dylan's cousin had his birthday the weekend after so we were there for that as well. We met up with Thu, Nat and Noah to climb at THEIR crag. Dylan had a blast playing around with Noah and for much of the day they did not require any supervision,

 Thus pulling some hard moves on a 5.13

 We've been climbing at the Dungeon, outside of Los Alamos, a lot lately since it has a really nice setting for kids. Here Dylan relaxes in the Daddy chair,

 and putting his Monster Trucks through their paces,

 I took Dylan for a hike on the Crest Trail in the Sandias this past week. Here he is, about to disturb the wilderness,

 Having a snack at a nice overlook 5,000 feet above the city, (don't worry he is not as close to the edge as he looks)

 Ok, now to phone photos.

A day at the Dungeon with Matty Moore who is holding another friends young son,

 Los Alamos was burned pretty bad in the Las Conchas fire last year leaving the approach trail to the Dungeon looking like this,

 And naturally we had a fire break out in the Bosque, the heavily treed area along the Rio Grande river, last month sometime. This is a shot from the aquarium parking lot about an hour after it started. Luckily no homes were lost and it was controlled pretty quickly. We got lucky with the wind direction.

 Seeing the thermostat reading in the mid to high eighties even with the windows open and fans on finally got me to hook up our swamp cooler.

 Dylan swimmimg in his cousins new pool,

 How much stuff can you fit in a Prius, two bike boxes and a bike on top, yes the hatch closed, though the back seats were folded down.

 Hard to argue with the gas milage,

 This past weekend we headed to Upper East Fork in the Jemez Mountains and naturally, hiked out in the rain at the end of the day.

A video of Dylan playing with a blow up hammer that "uncle" Chris? won at Cliff's when we were over there for dinner and watching the final Time Trial of Le Tour De France.

Chinese New Year, more than a bit late

We headed to Austin to celebrate Chinese New Year and Linda's mothers birthday. We also managed to get a day of climbing in at Flat Creek with Thu and Noah, then caught up with Matt, Katie and Tyler (their little one). Climbing went pretty well, Linda finally managed to do all the moves on Scapegoat without too much difficulty and I finally got back on and sent the only route I fell off of the first day I climbed there, Four Legs Good. We spent lots of time with Linda's family as well, having nice family meals and Dylan getting loads of attention from his cousins. Whenever the cousins are around we don't read him bed time stories because he wants one of them to do it. Here is Dylan being read too by Cady his youngest cousin on Linda's side, besides him of course, probably before we head out for dinner.

 Not sure what it was, but Dylan had a light allergic reaction to something.

 Avery was celebrating a winning basket in HORSE over cousin Brian in the living room and jumped off the sofa, landing on his hand and breaking it, Excessive Celebration.....

 The family at dinner for Chinese New Year.

Dylan dancing to the music in the car.

Weekend in Austin

This past weekend we headed to Austin to visit with Linda's family. Dylan had not seen his cousins since sometime early this year before we headed to China. 

Dylan checking out the cockpit of the Southwest  plane that we flew out on.

On Saturday after the cousins were ready to head off to their respective weekend activities we met up with Thu, Nat, Noah, Matt and Katie to climb at Flat Creek. In the past there has been plenty of water for the kids to play in and for us to cool down in between burns right in front of the cave. Right now there is almost no water.

Thu walking with the boys in the dry stream bed.

Anyway, Linda continued to work on Scapegoat, a very steep 5.12. I ran a couple of laps on a 5.11+ so that Katie could work it on TR, it was her first time climbing at Flat and her first time on a rope since she had Tyler.

Katie with Tyler, who has amazingly fat thighs, you have to fight to get the pants on and off.

Katie managed to get the route down to one hang on her second try, not bad for someone that gave birth less than 7 months ago. Though she climbed her first 5.11 when she was 7 month pregnant so it really is not a surprise, probably won't be long before she climbs 5.12 as long as she and Matt manage to get out regularly. After the warm up I surprised myself by fighting my way up a new route for the flash. It is a route Vinnie put up this year and I don't remember the name but the climbing was good and thankfully had a jug and a good rest right before the top out or I surely would have fallen trying to top out. After that I struggled my way up Scapegoat  hanging on pretty much every bolt, my skin but mostly forearms, had had enough.

Overall t was a promising day of climbing for me. After the rush to get in shape for Paris-Brest-Paris I am not desperately trying to get into climbing shape to set for a competition in the middle of next month. As a setter I don't need to be able to climb the boulder problems but I do need to be able to do the moves. Needless to say, being able to peddle a bike forever has not helped my ability to climb. While climbing Vinnie's route would have been a given on many other occasions that I've visited Flat, it is at this time the first route I've done of that grade in at least 6 months and a good marker for where I stand as far as getting back into climbing shape.

On Sunday I borrowed a bike  from Pam (one of Patricia's friends) and rode with a group for the "cream cheese ride" which starts at an Einstein's Bagels and goes about 60 miles. I felt pretty good for the first 50 miles or so until the 100 degree heat got to me and I hit the wall and went into survival mode. Jason, the group leader was nice enough to slow up and pull me in to the finish where I started lunch with chocolate milk and a cookie followed by chips, bagel sandwich and juice then more water in about 15 minutes.

Monday was a lazy day. Linda and I found a pool that was open in James' subdivision and hung out there for a bit then got lunch with her mom and sister before heading to the airport. At this point without Monday the week seems to be going pretty fast, nice.

Pictures, no Words