apAdventures

Posted by arr

Posted by arr

Fall? What’s that? Still summer here in Tucson. Still trying to keep our cool. Silas doesn’t seem to mind….the heat, that is. From the looks of his face when I snapped these pics, he sure seems to mind being photographed naked. Ah, such a modest little boy.

Posted by arr

We headed up to our old stomping grounds last weekend for the long weekend, Priest Draw in Flagstaff, AZ. The mission was 3 days of hard bouldering on the limestone roofs. The reality was only 2 days of bouldering (whew! those pockets!) followed by a “rest day” summit bid of Mt. Humphreys.

Yah, rest day, haha. The original intent was just a nice little walk up the Mt. Humphrey’s trail with little Silas and Morgan. Just a couple miles, short and easy, and when we got tired we’d just turn around. We weren’t even all that prepared to be out hiking in the first place. We had no formal footwear (just our chacos), we didn’t have Silas’ big, bad Sherpani hiking backpack (just the little ergobaby carrier, primarily reserved for short grocery store jaunts), and once again we found ourselves without Morgan’s backpack so that she could carry her own water (reference The Playpen (34.5lbs) Goes to Maple…). Oh yeah, and it was well past noon and we had planned to be back home in Tucson (4 hours away) at some sort of reasonable hour.

I’m sure you all already know where this story is headed. You’ve heard it from us before. And shouldn’t be surprised. Yeppers, so in typical apAdventures style, no more than 20 minutes into the uphill slog, we declared we were going for at least the saddle below the summit. After all, it’s just a “hike.” It’s not like we’re trying to summit the North Face of the Eiger or something.

So Paul, myself, baby Silas and brown dog Morgan trudged uphill in our sandals all the way to the saddle in between Humphreys and Agassiz at 11,800 feet. The hike turned out to be quite pleasant and not as insane as originally imagined (or intended, haha). I’ll admit though, we were a bit weary of popping out above treeline onto the saddle in front of the Labor Day hordes with a little 10 month old in tow: the crazies strike again. But those thoughts quickly vanished as we rounded the saddle and saw another couple posing for pictures with a 2 year old and a 4 month old. Amusingly, the mother immediately acknowledged our presence as a confirmation that she too was not crazy.

Paul and Silas at the Priest Draw boulders

Silas loving the green stuff

Our campsite up on Mt. Humphreys

Fueling up for the day

Resting between go’s

Getting a power-spot from dad on Floor Pie, v7

Discussing beta

Now dad’s turn on Lolita, v10. Beta sequence.

Silas isn’t impressed

Chillin’ by the fire after a hard day of climbing

Let’s hike!

The saddle. Note Silas’ disappointment that we decided against the full summit.

The whole family at the saddle. Morgan too – she’s just off making friends with the other hikers.

Another saddle shot and the view of the Mt. Humphreys summit

Pit stop on the trail

Playing with dirt above 11,000 feet….

…is fun!

Boulder field on the trail. On a good day you can see the Grand Canyon.

Morgan posing for the camera, again pleased that she didn’t need to carry her own backpack

Posted by arr

It’s high time we showed this cute baby boy off to the family and friends back east. So show him off we did. Silas got to see both sets of his grandparents, 2 great grandmas, 1 set of grand-godparents, 3 aunts, 2 uncles, 4 cousins, and 12 other little baby/kid buddies under the age of 13…most under the age of 5 (yah – the east is a baby-happy place lemme tell ya), and let’s not forget the parents of all those babies and kids, and then a sprinkling of even more Silas admirers that don’t fall into any of the above categories. All of this visiting spanned between both Pittsburgh PA and Marathon NY. Little Silas took all these new faces in stride. Well, with the exception of an unwanted sloppy kiss planted smack on his lips by a fellow 9 month old little gal. Hey – a kids gotta have his limits.

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

We traveled east last week to visit family. Update coming soon.

Posted by arr

Posted by arr

…of a mama and her babe that recently learned how to crawl. No sooner do I sit his bum down on the floor and he’s off:

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

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Silas got to meet one of his cousins last week: Luke! Francine and Luke from Pittsburgh joined us for a nice relaxing, quality-Silas-time week. We showed them the Tucson sites, did a little climbing at Rocks & Ropes with Luke, but mostly just swam in the pool….and played with Silas of course. Silas is quite thrilled with the aspect of getting to show off his new crawling skills to everyone.

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

Yesterday he wasn’t crawling. Today he is. Just like that. I’m not even kidding.

Posted by arr