apAdventures

Today is my birthday. 38 years young, baby! And this morning I got one of the best birthday gifts EVER. EVER!! It all started at breakfast. Silas mentioned his loose tooth hurting more than usual while chewing.

This is Silas’ first loose tooth – a much anticipated event. He’s been eager to lose his teeth for about 2 years now. I’ve heard him ask many of his older-kid friends when they started losing their teeth. About a year ago, apparently feeling that he was behind schedule, Silas asked his dentist when his teeth would finally start getting loose and begin falling out and was utterly devastated when she told him that girls typically loose their teeth before boys and he still may have a while to wait. I watched him visibly deflate with her response. Devastated I tell ya, completely devastated. Over the course of the school year Silas has kept track of every classmate that has lost a tooth – their age, gender, what time of day the tooth came out, if there was risk of swallowing it with their food, etc. (details, details, details).

So finally, Silas’ day arrived. Smack dab on my birthday. At the breakfast table I ask him to show me the tooth’s wiggle status. Whoa! Significant progress from our last check a couple days ago. This tooth is ready to come out. I don’t make a big deal about it and simply say “Ooooo. It’s getting’ close!” We finish getting ready for school – get dressed, brush teeth, come hair, wash faces. At the end of this morning ritual Silas always gives me a big smacker of a kiss after I’m done washing his face. After the smacker, I move my face in real close to his and say with a bit of a hushed mischievous tone “What d’ya say we try an give that tooth a ‘lil tug?” I grin. He practically jumps out of his pants with excitement and before I can blink takes his pointer finger and yards the tooth right out of his mouth! It goes flying and we lose it momentarily (it somehow got stuck to the bottom of his sock), all the while the both of us yipping and cheering ecstatically. Ivan comes running into the bathroom and joins the celebration.

It was freakin’ awesome.

We finally contain ourselves and pile into the van to go to school: Silas gripping his ziplock baggy with the still-bloody tooth inside so he can show his teacher and classmates, Ivan shaking his head in disbelief in his adult-mannered way, and me grinning ear to ear with joy.

How the loss of a little tiny baby tooth can make a birthday mama so fulfilled with a sense of achievement? …..I’m not even going to try to understand, let alone explain. We might as well have summited Mt. Everest this morning. 🙂

posted by arr

A few weeks ago Tucson celebrated its annual Rodeo Days. This is such a big deal here in the southwest that the kids actually have two days off from school during which time the rodeo is happening! City pride I suppose…kinda like the Pittsburgh kiddos getting the day off when the Steelers won the Super Bowl, haha.

Silas’ class had their very own rodeo celebration. They made stick ponies and learned all about cowboy / cowgirl life. Then had a “shindig” out back behind the school in the wash, where they built a campfire, sang songs, ate flapjacks and had a barrel racing competition with their stick ponies. Silas is now officially the cowboy of the family 🙂

Silas’ class riding their ponies down to the wash. (A 13 minute ride by stick pony!)

Ponies in their corral at the wash

Around the tissue-paper campfire. Flapjacks being cooked by the parent volunteers in the background

click here to listen to Silas playing ‘Home on the Range’ on his harmonica

Our cowboy displaying his record barrel racing time on his pony, “Summer” – 15 seconds!

The cowboy teams up with a sidekick

The Birthday Girl: Linda
The Mission: 35 pitches in a day (for her 35th year of awesomeness on this planet)
The Support Crew: Her fiance Ty, friend Cat, and Me, Paul, Silas & Ivan

Joshua Tree, California

First stop, The Hemingway area

Ivan is confident in Linda’s hardcoreness

Silas is psyched on J-tree’s endless supply of fun play areas

Ty and Linda scope routes and Cat hydrates while Paul tries to remember what the heck an ATC is

Linda rockin’ the trad

Next stop, The Real Hidden Valley

Linda banging out routes on The Thin Wall

My cute boys observe

Silas studies the guidebook

…and then can’t take it anymore. He needs to climb too so Paul runs back to the van to grab his gear. If the kids are psyched to climb, we jump on it! 🙂
Meanwhile, Linda still crushing in the upper left of the photo.

Assessing the day’s progress. I think she has something like 19 routes to go at this point, and it’s late afternoon.

Decision made to push on and see how far she can get

Final stop, Trash Can wall for some easy climbs that she can run up quickly

…the sun is waning…

…and she calls it a night. Decision made to party with friends versus push on in the cold and wind and darkness. Here we are huddled in the warm van feasting on chips & salsa, fresh salad, stew, bread and birthday cake.
Total pitches climbed: 24
Total amount of agave spirits drank that night: LOTS

The next morning we rise to sunny skies despite a threatening forecast

We light a campfire, fix up some french toast

and then the promised forecast moves in

We hike and play around on the boulders a bit after breakfast

…as the storm approaches

And then the wind and rain engulf us and we all run top speed back to our vehicles, soaking wet and laughing hysterically. What a birthday adventure!

posted by arr

How lucky can one be to climb on warm and sunny boulders in the morning and build a snowman in the afternoon?

Me warming up on the Marble Cake boulder at Hairpin

Silas finds a climb of his own

Ivan finds a feathery piece of nature that matches his hair

and Paul finds a project

The sitstart Tough Landing

Higher up the mountain we dive into the white stuff and have a blast

And as if this day couldn’t possibly get any better, Mother Nature treats us with a gorgeous sunset as we drive back down the mountain toward home

posted by arr

Now that we’ve finally reached this glorious phase of parenthood where both kids can walk on their own two legs for more than 100 feet, I’ve been taking advantage of the gorgeous winter temps here in the desert to bang out some local hikes with the kiddos. Tucson is loaded with trails and it’s amazing how far these two little boys are willing to walk! Excellent combo. I love it.

posted by arr

I’ve somehow only managed to snap pics of the kids lovin’ up Hueco this winter. None of climbing! Whoops. I’ll try to mend that soon…and hopefully with some sending pics. I’ve officially committed myself to getting the Bloody Flapper Traverse, v9 finished. Paul’s grade-breaking send has got me a bit envious. I really want one of my own! Wish me some cold-temperature days please (this climb bakes in the sun). 🙂

posted by arr

Some cute photos from our travels east over the holidays.

Fishing with Papa in upstate New York

…and Hazel

Got one!

Hike in the woods

Hike up to the Tree Fort

…and teepee

Show off

Silas finds a bird’s nest near the sugar shack

Ivan finds Uncle Joel’s old tractor that he had as a kid

Perhaps the most important thing about Christmas for Silas is (well, besides getting to be with family) is candy canes.

Ivan on the other hand, just plain loves it all

Now in Pittsburgh. Silas and Ivan have a bit of growing still to do to catch up with cousin Luke

Ivan twirling amongst the holiday trees in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

While Silas and Grandma check out The Nativity display

Dinasour bones!

And a very cute bear

posted by arr

Posted by arr

It’s official, people. Paul sent Slashface!!! Yesterday afternoon, after what started off as a nightmare of a day due to our radio being dead as a doornail because of accidentally being left on all weekend, we finally got things working and bolted up to East Mountain around 2pm. Paul pulled on, and was topping out not three minutes later….first try of the day. It was just us and the kids and we all went nuts when it was over. Paul’s first v13: Slashface.

And although Paul finally doing Slashface is very big news, he wasn’t the only one who cranked hard this fall. We’ve also got some honorable mentions to report:

During the last year of all those Slashface attempts, I had found myself a project nearby to try. Ultramega, v8. Done!

Jen rolled in all the way from Pittsburgh and made very quick work of Hector in a Blender, v7. Done!

….and also Tri Hard, v4. Done!

Brian came heartbreakingly close to completing Mojo, v10.

And a similar story for Jen on Big Iron on his Hip, v7. Next year for sure you two!!

And finally, my last big send of the year was Greasy Kid Stuff, v4. This is HUGE NEWS! Cause Greasy Kid Stuff might very well rank as Hueco’s WORST and HARDEST v4 EVER!!!!!! Woohoo!

And of course let’s not forget these handsome boys. Honorable mentions for good looking boys all around! It won’t be too long before these little crushers start sending hard boulders too.