New faces means new toys. Blocks from Great Grandma, woohoo!

Showing off his strut to grandma

Great Grandma making him giggle

Paul’s Pittsburgh fam

Warming up to cousin Jacob

Well that didn’t take long

Cousin Carley

Cousin Lily

My Marathon clan

Silas with another Great Grandma

Silas’ first kiss

She’s going in for the kill

Smooch! Got him!

Silas wanting to play with Hazel

(squeal!)

Paul swimming in my parent’s pond

A walk with Grandpa and Grandpa

A quick stop in Scranton, PA to meet little Jack and Emily

Remember these Hueco buddies? Another stop at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh for a quick hi to Jen, Seb, Oren and Brian

Whew.

Posted by arr

Posted by arr

Posted by arr

Today’s destination: The Bathroom

No wait, on second thought, perhaps mama and her camera might be more fun than the dark bathroom

Snap a pic now, mom. Froggie style.

Ok that was fun. Now let’s hit up Mama’s and Dad’s Bedroom

A couple seconds of jabbering to the pretty stained glass colors on the bedroom door…

…and moving on

Short little detour at The Bookshelf

I said short! We’ve got places to go and toys to see, people.

Ahh, Baby’s Room. Now we’re talkin’

Duckie’s hat. My favorite.

Got it!

Now some books? Hmmm. No, not nap time yet.

Quick before mama gets any ideas! A mad dash to the changing table!

Ahh, the jackpot. Let’s see if we can find something good before mama whisks me away from here.

Burp cloths….these will do.

(squeal!)

Yeah, this crawling thing is pretty fun

Posted by arr

Next week will be filled with more family time back east. Stay tuned for the PA / NY drive-by Silas show.

Cool cousin Luke’s in town!

What’s a visit to Tucson without a Mt. Lemmon hike? Luke, Silas, myself and Francine

The Meadow trail is in full bloom

Posted by arr

Posted by arr

Add to that the standard sport climbing gear: 70m rope (11.24lbs), 21 quickdraws (5lbs), harnesses, chalkbags, shoes, food (~2lbs), water (~2lbs),

Add to that 1 extra gal. of water for the dog because we didn’t think to bring her doggie backpack (~8.35lbs).

Grand total = 90.09lbs

Split that between April and I = 45.05lbs/person

Then carry that for about a 1 hour hike (from the lowest Maple Canyon campsite because all the others were booked), uphill to the Pipe Dream Cave in 80 degree 100% humidity heat at 7AM to beat the crowds.

Then try to send.

Throughout my 14 years of climbing I’ve often been faced with undesirable circumstances when wanting to climb. I’ve sat 4 hrs in a car with a dog drooling on my back (without the recommended raincoat) on the way to the NRG, walked around all day in dress shoes and shorts at Hueco in the winter because I forgot my approach shoes and pants, sat for 24 hrs continuously in seats that didn’t recline on a flight to South Africa, climbed with chills and a fever in France because there were only 4 days left in the climbing trip (cuz if it ain’t rainin’ in Font you better be climbin’), shared a shot of whiskey with a good old West Virginia local sporting a fishing rod and a pistol just to make sure I was on his good side in order to feel at home at the crag…just to name a few.

So as my cotton underwear sagged from sweat and the thin straps of the playpen bag started to rub my shoulders raw, I noticed a slight smile creep onto my face, the smile of insanity. And then I looked back at April to check her upward progress. When our eyes met we couldn’t hold in the chuckle of a madman. “What the hell are we doing?” No sooner did we notice our extreme situation when two people hiked up and asked us if we were backpacking. “Nope, climbing” we both replied without hesitation, in unison. And that sums it up. We’re simply climbing. Climbing in crappy circumstances is better than not climbing at all, as April would say. As soon as my feet leave the ground it no longer matters how far I drove, how long I hiked, or how much weight I carried to get here. We love it, all three of us!

Rest stop on the 15 hr drive to Maple Canyon, Utah

Silas stretching his chubby legs

Two days in campsite #9 before we got booted to the bottom of the canyon

The 34.5lb playpen

Silas doesn’t seem to mind its weight

Chillin’ at the Zen Garden

Chillin’ at the Pipe Dream Cave

The Pipe Dream

Morgan without doggie backpack. Lucky dog

Resting after a day of insanity

Pancakes for fuel after day of insanity

Maple Canyon

Silas loving the Pipe Dream

The campsite at the bottom of the canyon

April’s sister Holly in the Schoolroom. She and Joe joined us for two days from SLC

Me onsighting Sweet Peas, 5.12a

April on Sweet Peas, 5.12a

Aunt Holly and baby Silas checking out the cobbles

Joe on Sweet Peas

Me onsighting the soft 50, 5.13a

Joe leading a 5.9 at the Oxygen Wall

Silas is #1

An interesting stop on the way home

The Colorado River below the Navajo Bridge

Posted by pjv

Silas’ grandparents (my parents) were here in town last week, just in time for the start of our desert monsoon season. The rain and humidity along with my parent’s presence were all nice reminders of the eastern states that I miss from time to time living here in the starkly contrasting desert. Without trying to pack too much into a short one week visit, we showed off all of Silas’ new tricks (at least 30 times over), went for nice walks, ate delicious home-cooked foods, swam in the pool and even checked out some local wineries in Sonoita (another blast from the east having grown up near the wine-rich Finger Lakes area in NY). It was quite a relaxing week with an abundance of that good ‘ol “quality time”. And the best part was that Silas sprung his first little tooth on the last day my mom was here in town. Can’t top that.

And so in between the family visiting and the heat and the rain, Paul and I have also managed to train a little bit of endurance, both running and climbing…gearing up for our summer climbing vacation (that has been re-written and revised about 10 times now, at least). We’ve finally made up our minds and decided that since we’re kinda enjoying this route climbing thang, well heck, we’ll just keep doing it! And so, our next post will most likely contain photos of flexing pumped-out forearms attached to a boulderer pretending to be a route climber (for the photo, anyway) high, high above the ground on huge walls of conglomerate cobblestones in…..drum roll, please…..Maple Canyon, Utah!!! See ya’s there, peeps. :-)

Goofin’ off with Grandpa

Quite time with Grandma (this boy LOVES books, btw)

Sorry Silas, no wine for you

The vines at Rancho Rossa Vineyards

Silas and and his Grandpa

My mom and I up on Mt. Lemmon

My mom and Paul

Me and my baby

Grandma’s turn

Monsoon blowing in over Tucson

Cuteness

More cuteness

Cuteness cubed

Cuteness to infinity

Silas and his Grandma

posted by arr

The Bouncy Stand

Gearing up for the Crib Lick

The Bouncy Stand with mama (his favorite - and mine. My biceps have never been bigger!)

Taking a break from the exhausting Bouncy Sit

The Table Slap

Making sure the waitress isn’t watching before sneaking in a quick Table Lick

posted by arr

Me wimpering up The Adventures of Nad & Huck, 5.9. Hey! It’s been a while people!

More wimpering

My boys with a front row seat for the wimpering

Matt showing off for wee Elaine (his 7 week newborn!) and wife Liz on Ain’t My First Rodeo, 5.11

Linda and her furry baby, Seana

The Seana looking very majestic

Trying to get Silas to take a nap in his “nest” at the crag

Wee Elaine

Silas & Liz

Hey no crashpads. This is kinda nice.

Posted by arr