Two posts in one week. It must be summer! I need to do it though, because starting tomorrow we are off to new adventures and keeping up will be impossible unless I get this out there.

The main reason for this post is our weekend camping trip in Washington. Lots of hiking, swimming, climbing, and just playing around. Also, on our way out, with a car overflowing with all of our stuff, Rachel and I had a casual conversation about how we might be able to be even more spontaneous (as if that's needed with us), and extend our effective "weekend range" with an RV or camper trailer. At the time it was just an offhanded idea.

Three days later, after work, Rachel and I took a five hour drive to pick up our new trailer. Evelyn had a sleepover in it last night. Impulsive? Probably. I prefer spontaneous though. I think we'll have a good time with it. As I write this I don't even have any photos, but I'm sure it will show up on the blog as we continue our summer activities.

Ok. On to our camping trip.

We were lucky to get a wonderful site on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Vantage. We have been out here a lot this spring, but this is probably our last family trip out here this year. The desert gets hot in the summer. The days we were there were perfect though. Probably our best trip yet.

This picture of Jack roasting his hot dog makes me smile.

Campfire fun

Beautiful sunsets are one of the regular features at Vantage

Of course, if we are at Vantage, we are going to be climbing. Here I am organizing our rack before a particularly good morning.

Rachel has discovered the many joys of crack climbing, and has sort of made this her "specialty."

At the beginning of the year, I printed off a list of all the most difficult traditional (placing your own gear) climbs in the area and set out to do each one of them. On Monday I completed the list. It feels good to accomplish a goal.

Google found this photo comparison for me. I know I shared the picture on the right just last week and I wrote a lot about Jackson and his climbing. Seeing these two photos together makes me incredibly proud though. On this most recent trip, I watched him redpoint his first climb with amazing style. It was a reachy 5.10 for most adults, but for him there were parts where he had to do full-on dynos to reach the holds. Watching him work out the moves, rehearse them, and then finally stick them for a clean send on lead was probably the most rewarding part of this trip for both of us. I was belaying him, and I seriously got chills as he coolly launched himself through the crux with poise that belies his age. I like to think the confidence he is gaining with this will carry through to other parts of his life as well.

Also, to be honest, I am really glad that him and I can connect with climbing. We are two very different people in a lot of ways, and sometimes we don't get along real great. Climbing might just prove to be a sort of glue though for us to come back to. Here's to many more great trips in the future!

Also, even though I don't have a picture of her, I need to mention Maren here. She developed a deep love of climbing chimneys. She did her fourth one this weekend and as soon as she got down she asked to go up again. I think she just loves the feeling of exposure. Also, at the top of pretty much any climb, she will ask to just sit there and take in the view for 5-10 minutes before coming down.

Climbing isn't the only thing we did. Like I said before, the desert gets hot in the summer. Generally, we climbed in the cool of early morning or evening, and did other things during the day. Here we are on a picnic.

Playing at a local park

Swimming at the beach.

Overall, a great Memorial Day weekend.

Have a good week!

So much has happened, and so much is going to happen, that I feel a little bit overwhelmed with the blog right now. This happens every summer, and I need to just remind myself to keep up on top of it during times like this. As our family grows older it is increasingly easier to do more and more things, but as we do more and more things, the time to record these things goes down. But I really really want to have a this family journal. It's a conundrum, but one I am happy to deal with.

One of the best conversations I overheard this week was with our kids in the car. They were arguing/discussing which was a better family activity: Rock climbing, backpacking, skiing, or boating. Each activity has its reasons, and its seasons, and I love that we do all this stuff. We are living EXACTLY the family lifestyle that we always hoped we would, and it's only getting better.

But again, if we are going to be as active as we are, and actually have a record of any of this, I have got to write more. My plan here is to do two posts this week, and probably two next week as well. After that, we'll just have to see what happens...

*****

To start out this post, you get a bunch of pictures of us in Rexburg. Times have been weird with Covid and everything, but as life starts getting back to normal, people are creeping out of their self-imposed exiles with more confidence. This means that a trip that was planned for several weeks ago was finally able to happen. The only difference? Instead of cross country skiing, we went hiking in the same place. Also, Griffin was able to come up with his family for some much needed cousin time.

Harriman State Park. A great place no matter the season.

These two fell in the creek while playing. Jackson was convinced that leeches were hiding inside his shoes, and in the face of logic, he persisted in his refusal to put them back on. The result? He did the last mile and a half of the hike barefoot. To his credit, there was no complaining. He just moved a little slower.

Classic Lindsey pose

Maren and Darcy get along so well

 Besides spending time at Harriman, we had lots of quality family time back at the house. Lots of playing. A little working. Some relaxing. It was a good trip.

Addy spent hours reading her book in this hammock.

The kids (but mostly Jack) helped grandpa put the garden in.

Campfire hot dog and s'mores night.

*****

You will notice that Rachel doesn't appear in any of the pictures of Rexburg. That is because she was in Las Vegas visiting her sister. I don't really know all the things they did, but I know she had a great time.  Here are a few of the pictures she sent me of her trip.

Flying on a plane in the age of Covid. These masks were required for all passengers.

Hanging out with new baby

A few walks with the kids. It looks like it was hot there.

Out to eat.

*****

When Rachel got home, we celebrated her birthday with a party that was mostly planned by Lindsey. Actually, I think everyone planned it, but Lindsey was BY FAR the most excited. We had presents and cake and everything. Oh boy.

A blue canary night light to help watch over us at night :)

Gee, thanks Ev!

Alright- that's it for this one. In a few days I'll do a post on our Memorial day camping trip. Stay tuned, and have a good week!

We are well into May now, a month which, in our family, is known as "Rachel's month." In the span of just a few weeks, we get to celebrate our wedding anniversary (5th), Mother's day (10th), and Rachel's birthday (18th). In past years we have kicked off the month by hosting a large outdoor cookout with a campfire and lots of families and kids and everything. This year, obviously, we didn't get to do that. We did do some stuff as a family though. We had our BBQ with a campfire. We also tried something new and pitched tents inside the family room so we could have a "camping movie night." That was interesting.

For our anniversary we typically get all dressed up and go out to a nicer restaurant followed by whatever touring Broadway play is in town (not that we need an excuse for nights like that). Again, that couldn't happen though. There are no restaurants that are open and no shows that are running. Instead, we ordered takeout and enjoyed a sunset dinner on our deck while the kids watched a movie downstairs.

Oh, our kids. They are so sweet. The day after our anniversary I came home from work to see a completely cleaned and rearranged living room. The curtains were low, and a perfectly set table was placed in the middle of the empty space. All sorts of photos of Rachel and I were hanging on the walls, music from our courtship played softly on the stereo, and gentle candlelight created a romantic atmosphere. The kids were all dressed as chefs and servers, and they spoke in fake British accents, because that just makes everything fancier. They wanted to take a part in our anniversary too, and they had been working all afternoon for this. And actually, the home-made meal they came up ended up being pretty delicious. I feel like a lucky man.

*****

For Mother's day, Rachel suggested that we go on a two day climbing trip with the kids. Can I just say, this was one for the books. Everyone did an amazing job climbing and had a great time. This is better shared in photos than words.

But first, a few noteworthy things that you don't see in the pictures. For starters, before going with the kids, Rach and I went alone to a local crag called Dishman, where I finally sent a climb on toprope that I have been working on. It is called Return of the King, and I have put almost three hours into this single pitch, and I think I am getting really close to being able to lead it. Basically, it was a good climbing day for me too.

The second thing is that after driving over two hours with the kids, we took the climbing stuff out of the van only to realize that I had left both of our belay devices in the other car. Ironically, I had taken them out of the "little pack" after our morning climb so that we wouldn't forget to move them to the "big pack" we were bringing on our trip. Turns out we just grabbed the whole "little pack" instead though, leaving some important items behind. Oops. Good thing I learned how to belay off of a Munter Hitch from that random Italian guy in the alps a few years ago.

And finally, Rachel approached this trip with a very specific goal in mind for her own climbing, and she totally rocked it. On her first try! Her scream of joy at the top probably scared all the other climbers in the area, and her happy-tears at the bottom elicited warm hugs from all the kids. So yeah, we all had our victories.


Enjoy the photos :).

Happy mother's day! Here we are walking up the trail. Lindsey strikes a pose in her high heels. Maren carries a teddy bear. Jackson is leading the way to the climb he has already scoped out in the guidebook. This has all become so typical. I love it! 

Addy did her first lead today. Easy climbing for her, but if you make the picture big (click on it) you can see that it actually has a pretty significant runnout before the first clip. She did great!

She made it up with no problem. I was waiting at the top to help her set up the anchors. Proud dad moment, for sure.

Just hangin' out in the shade. Jackson clipped himself to this bolt and sat in his harness for like, 40 minutes. I swear, this kid is going to be an aid climber one day.

Maren climbing a chimney. It was pretty airy underfoot, and the wind was a-blowin' (closeup of her hair in the next photo). Pretty wild!

Embrace the wind! This was probably Maren's best day of climbing of her life. She is usually content to let her older siblings have all the glory, but on this trip she pushed herself and did a wonderful job!

Jackson. I have such mixed feelings about climbing with this kid. He did his first two trad leads today, and a part of me is SUPER proud. He is actually, like, a really good climber for his age, and he absolutely LOVES it. He talks to me after each climb, and I know exactly how he feels up there, when he is eight or ten feet above his last piece and suddenly the climbing gets a little tricky and the forearm pump starts nagging and you just have to keep it together to keep going. Just writing about it brings me that strange combination of fear and focus that I have come to love. And watching him master that fear, forcing himself to stay calm enough to unlock and execute difficult sequences under pressure is both inspiring and exciting. But as a dad, it is also TERRIFYING. Because I also know what it is like to fall. I've suffered two broken noses, countless finger injuries, and a badly sprained ankle because of the kind of falls he is facing. And the thing is, I feel lucky that it hasn't been worse for me! He hasn't taken any bad falls yet, but the day WILL come, and I have to admit to myself that the reason he is up there is because of me. It's also because he loves it, and it is becoming a bigger part of his life, but he wouldn't love it if not for me. It's inevitable though- it's just a part of climbing. Falls happen, even when it's just sport climbing. Most of the time, they are fine. But sometimes they aren't. Any parent who's kids play contact sports can probably understand a little. Just putting them on the field means they might have to be carted off in a brace. If/when that happens, what is that drive to the ER going to feel like for the parent who not only put them out there in the first place, but encouraged them to be there, told them it was cool, and helped them to practice? How much blame will I feel?

But it doesn't stop there. Not really. Because in climbing, the more you push, the more dangerous it gets. And like a drug, the more you do, the more you want to push. Now, I don't know where he will take this, but, especially because of my own background, it is likely he will start having bigger and bigger ambitions if he sticks with the sport. That means letting go of the relative security of bolts and crags and moving into the mountains and onto the walls. It's no longer just a sport at this point; it's an adventure. And almost any long trad route will inevitably have a few places where a fall simply isn't allowed, as it would almost certainly result in lifelong disability or death. In these moments, it is completely up to the climber on the sharp end to judge and manage that risk against his own skill-set. How much do you trust your own gear placements? How confident are you that you can do the moves? What unknown issues, like loose rock or wet cracks, might you come up against? What is ego, or fear, or excitement telling you to do, and how do you get these emotions to shut up? The belayer is helpless in these situations. All they can do is hold the rope and watch things unfold, trusting that their partner has it all together.

For the leader though- the one making these judgement calls- there is little in life that I have personally experienced that can match the euphoric sense of accomplishment when you finally top out or make the move. That was all you. Your skill. Your problem solving. Your focus. Your mastery. It's a sort of high, and I love it, and I personally think it is worth it. But is it worth it for my son? How far do I push him to go down this path?

Tough questions. Why can't he just play video games or something?

Oh yeah. Because I am his dad.

Sigh.

...Well, that was more than I intended to say in this caption.

Found some cool stacks of rocks.

Addy wanted to edit this photo of herself on a pillar climb. Very artistic!

Evelyn is our family nature lover and she did a good job identifying all the birds and snakes and lizards we saw. Here is one of four rattle snakes we came across. Best to be careful in the desert!

 Happy mother's day.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

This feels like our life right now. Things are good, but very repetitive.

Today is Cinco de Mayo. It is also the 15 year anniversary of our marriage (more on that in a different post). For many years, we have taken this time to host springtime backyard barbecues, go on extended family vacations, or head out on fancy dates.

But nothing is open. We can't gather with friends. We are limited with how far we go as a family. No restaurants. No theater. No music.

But we are trying to keep it interesting, and still doing pretty well.

Here are some photos:

Home School

Hiking

Climbing

Here's something new- rafting on a lake on a cold windy day. Kids actually planned and executed this outing all on their own. I was at work, but I'm pretty sure Rach sat in the car with a warm beverage and a book while the kids were out there. Part of me loves that they did this. Part of me thinks they are crazy.