Christmas

Marian joined us for our annual Christmas Eve feast. She provided the roast beast. We started pretty late though so dinner was pretty late. Christian wasn't feeling very well so we were not even sure that he would be able to eat.

Marian usually brings crafts for the girls and plays games with them while we cook, which is nice so that we aren't tripping over the kids in their excitement. After dinner, we sent the kids to bed and finished wrapping a few presents.

Everyone was up bright and early Christmas morning. The kids were pretty excited considering we didn't get them very many gifts this year but Marian probably more than made up for that. She got them a bunch of cute clothes, trinkets and treats.

There was some more climbing stuff thrown in there somewhere ; )

We had our annual Belgian waffle breakfast and went our separate ways. Marian went home and we started to cook and prepare for the Christmas dinner and my brother's house. It was just our family, my brother's family and my sister's family this year. Our parents didn't make it over. It was kind of weird without them.

My mom did end up showing up some time after dinner though. We had not done the presents yet or dessert so she joined us for that. She crocheted a bunch of stuff for all the little kids. They were really cute. The girls will be able to use them on our trip to Death Valley this year.

Caldwell Christmas

With Christian's side of the family, we decided to do away with a lot of the stress and costs of getting everyone gifts. We decided that instead of gifts, we would go and do something together as a family...something that the kids would enjoy and have memories of. Last year, we took them all ice skating.

This year, we took them to the climbing gym. Although, our family has been climbing every chance we got, we have never actually tried a climbing gym. We thought about it briefly, but the thought of those crowded, stinky make believe plastic nobs in ugly warehouses made us think twice. I mean, afterall, what real rock is like that? It's just not realistic.

But as our nephews and niece was interested and there is not any way to take them otherwise because of equipment issues and stuff, it seemed a good place as any.

It was actually pretty fun. The place we went to was really big and clean and we had the place practically to ourselves half the day! The kids enjoyed themselves a lot and even a few of us adults. It's still not a place I would want to spend all my time, but we finally get an idea of what it is good for...namely, for a gym (I know, duh)! It is really great exercise. It works all those muscles that you need for climbing but don't normally use. So many people these days use it for the end in itself and you forget what it was probably created for. That's okay, they can stay in the gym. The outdoors is crowded enough already.

Everybody took to climbing pretty well...except for Caitlyn, of course. She is still hesitant to embrace it.  She only climbed around a little and left it to everyone else. We tried not to bother her too much as she seemed to find her own fun in it. We only required her to try one or two of the climbs just so that she has tried it.

We usually only have enough time to hang out and have dinner with their cousins, so they love to be able to do other things with their cousins. They all get along pretty well for the most part...at least with the cousins that are around their age. 

When we were pretty tuckered out, we called it a day and returned to their house to spend more time together. Aunt Erin always prepares stuff for the kids to put together gingerbread houses.

I think that as all the kids get older, the patience to make nice gingerbread houses seem to diminish. Only half of the kids managed to actually complete their projects this year.

At some point, dinner is put together and a few gifts are passed out as Grandpa doesn't usually join in the activities in the day. Then the kids are loaded back into the car and we head out as the kids pass out from their full day of activities. The kids didn't actually get that much sleep the night before either as we came out early so that the girls can sleepover with their cousins....they were all really excited so not a lot of sleep was to be had.

Joshua Tree in December

I haven't really gotten into the spirit of the holidays this year. We have not put up the tree (which we usually do the weekend right after Thanksgiving). Consequently, we did not take the girls' annual Christmas picture in front of the tree. As a result, we did not have a picture for our Christmas cards. I just barely started Christmas shopping this past week. I'm usually done before Thanksgiving. One year, I finished before Halloween!

We did manage to put up our Christmas lights outside of our house. That's about all we managed to do.

We've been going to Joshua Tree at least once every month since we got our passes and I think Christian wants to keep it that way! It is getting super cold though. If you are climbing in the shadow, even in the middle of the day, it feels like you are standing in a walk in freezer.

Emily got a chance to finish climbing  "The Eye." Caitlyn even climbed almost halfway up. It is a really fun climb. The only problem was that while we were climbing the eye, a group of people came and took the rappelling station we wanted to go on next and monopolized it for the rest of the day. We tried a few other things and ended up smearing up "The Wall" to catch the sunset. It was really beautiful.

The day after we got back, we figured that we really need to do something. We got the tree up as the kids were sorting and organizing all our climbing equipment. We strung the lights and let the kids decide on how they wanted to decorate the tree this year. They chose to make a climbing tree. The tree is decorated with runners, quick draws, stoppers, tricams, camalots, and carabiners. Caitlyn decided to top the tree with her Bakewell climbing glove.

As a last ditch effort, I sent in our Joshua Tree picture in to Costco to have the pictures printed. They came back super dark and unusable. So much for that. I don't think I am getting a Christmas card out this year. 

A Birthday Party

This past weekend, Christian and I attended our friend Brett's 50th birthday party. It was a 1920's murder-mystery surprise dinner party at a victorian home.

We've never did anything like this before. It was an interesting experience. All I know is that I am not good at these impromptu acting situations! I didn't do too well. In the end, I didn't even remember to have a picture taken with Christian in my costume!

We were all supposed to bring a small token of something that reminds us of Brett. That was worth all the pains of the night.

The party was the same night of our Ward Christmas party. A couple of friends from church watched the girls and took them to the Christmas dinner. Because we were not there, Caitlyn didn't even go see Santa. I guess Emily still went which surprises me since her sister wouldn't go. I guess Caitlyn won't be getting presents from Santa this year...

1st School Trimester Awards

The girls' school had their first trimester awards ceremony this past week. The kids are still doing really good in school.

Caitlyn got the principal's honor roll and perfect attendance.

Emily got honor roll and perfect attendance as well.

The new principal changed all the awards around this year so some awards like "citizenship" was cut out while they added and tweaked some of the other awards. I was not too thrilled about some of them and the kids don't like things getting changed on them. They work towards something, only to find out that the rules have been changed on them.

The only kids that were probably happy about the changes are the ones that got awards for "effort" towards their grade level standards...not that they meet the grade level standards yet, but that they are working really hard to get there.

Honor roll used to be if you got all advanced or proficient marks but now it is harder and you have to have at least 75 percent advanced marks in order to get it. If you don't have enough advanced marks, you get a general generic "academic achievement award." The principal's honor roll is just the same as the high honors with a different name. There were a couple of other new misc. awards to try to encourage struggling kids...which is nice for them but seems to diminish the efforts of those who have worked hard to meet and exceed grade level standards.

Should kids be recognized for their achievements and hard work regardless of where they stand, sure. But if my kids were struggling, would I want them to be awarded like the honor roll students when they do not even meet grade level standards? I don't think so. I think parents and teachers should be the ones to encourage their kids for making progress...not make it a school wide event. Will awarding them for mediocrity encourage them to keep working or will they think they are doing fine and not try so hard? If I was a kid who was struggling but working hard to keep up, would I think getting an award next to the honor roll students was a mockery? I might think it was kind of cool to get an award initially, but if I was honestly working hard at studying, I think I would be slightly embarrassed if I thought about it.

I just don't think these "well meaning" things does what they necessarily intend them to do and that they may do more harm than good.

More on our Thanksgiving Break

We spent a few days during the break trying to work up some ideas for the kids' science fair projects. As the school made it mandatory for grades 3-6 this year, we have no choice on whether we want to participate or not. We were not thrilled about it. On top of that, the project is due before the Christmas break this year instead of after, so we have a lot less time to work on it.

We spent Thanksgiving at my brother's house this year. Christian made a ton of his wild rice and onion bread. I made pies and the girls helped me make mashed potatoes. We usually celebrate Thanksgiving with a potluck style meal. All the siblings take part of the meal and my mom makes her traditional sticky rice. We call it our  chinese stuffing as no one in my family cares much for traditional stuffing except for my brother in law.

We actually had Thanksgiving lunch since my sister had big plans with her in-laws for dinner at her house. We went to visit with Christian's friends who had their baby the week before so that we can meet the new baby and play with his feet.

We basically skipped dinner since we were still full from lunch!

We went to the Quarry again Friday morning for a short time. It rained lightly on and off so we couldn't do much but the kids love just walking around in the rain. The rock is pretty slippery when it gets wet but we managed to do a little climbing still.

On Saturday, we met up with Marian and her sister for a service project of hers. They have been volunteering each year to provide and serve a meal at the local shelters. The one we went to was called the Door of Hope. It is a faith based family shelter where they house and help struggling families get back on their feet.

Since Thanksgiving just passed and we are coming upon Christmas, we thought that it might be a great idea to take the girls so that they can see how much they have and should be thankful for while learning to give service to others.

I don't know how much of that they got from the experience. It was a little frustrating because it was chaotic. The kitchen was being remodeled so we had no where to work (and they did not inform Marian of this situation). The girls got to actually help cook and serve some of the food.

After serving the families, we sat down and ate with them. Even though the families are supposed to be struggling, we still saw them wasting about half of the food. Well, that's not exactly right, they ate most of the desserts (of which there was plenty). Meanwhile, we made our kids sit quietly and eat what they took and didn't really have room for dessert. The other kids were so noisy that Caitlyn was complaining that her head hurt as the screams echoed through the house.

There were a couple of genuinely grateful families there that enjoyed the food we provided and said that it was the best meal they had all week. We made spiral sliced ham sandwiches and tri-tip sandwiches with coleslaw and mashed potatoes. Plus we had all sorts of cookies, cake and pie for dessert. I guess considering the fact that Thanksgiving was two days ago, that is pretty good.

But all things considered, it's difficult to feel that we made much of a difference for those people or for our children.

More Joshua Tree

The kids are off for the week for their Thanksgiving break. We drove out to Joshua Tree to go climbing  first thing Monday morning. We were hoping that it would be less crowded since it is a weekday and not quite a holiday yet. It was nice when we got there but as the morning wore on, it was just as crowded as the Veteran's Day weekend!

We went back to "Trashcan Rock" first since it has a really easy climb for Caitlyn. It was pretty cold. The rock just sucks all the warmth from your hands!

When it got too unbearably crowded there, we moved on to "Cyclops Rock."

We set out to climb a 150 foot route called "The Eye." It looked really neat but seemed really scary. I wasn't too sure about it but it wasn't too bad in the end. Christian always leads and sets up an anchor at the top for us.

Emily got to climb about halfway up after Christian came back down to get more equipment.

I made it all the way up to the top (but just barely...as there were other climbers impatiently waiting for our route by the time Christian set up our anchor).

We ended up just letting them have it after I made it to the top. Emily didn't get a chance to finish the route. We'll have to go again next time. I think we all agreed that it was by far the most fun route we have ever been on. It was not overly difficult but just challenging enough to keep it interesting and it was beautiful.

There is an easier way up from the backside and the girls played on that half the time. When we finished with the Eye, we decided to rappel off an overhang next to where we were climbing. It looked super scary from the top. It took some time for Christian to set up an anchor for us. He was trying to teach Emily how to set up an anchor at the same time. By the time it was ready, the sun was getting pretty low in the sky and it was getting really cold. The girls decided that they were not going to do it afterall at this point. Christian had it all set up so he decided to give it a try. I went next. It is crazy scary if you look down but it was super fun and the view was spectacular. It is a 100 foot drop. Christian convinced Emily to just give it a try when I got down.

It was almost entirely dark by the time Emily started down but I managed to get a couple of shots with my flash. She had a blast. I think Caitlyn would really like it as well, if she can get up the courage to go over the edge.

We will be doing that again next time as well, but hopefully during the day, with the sun out and while it is warm!

Pinnacles - Anniversary Weekend

The kids had Thursday and Friday off for parent/teacher conferences and since it was our anniversary weekend, we decided to go somewhere to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary at the Pinnacles National Monument Park.

We met with the kids teachers on Thursday morning and left directly from the school. It is quite a drive. The kids have not gone up the 5 before so it was neat showing the kids all the fruit and nut trees and cotton plants in the great central valley. It's important that they know where their food is coming from.

The sun was already starting to set by the time we got close to our destination and we ended up setting up our tent in the dark.

It is a really beautiful drive. I wish that we had more daylight to see everything when we got closer to our destination.

We got up fairly early the next morning to start our adventures. We couldn't believe how many facilities they had for the rangers working in the park. For such a small park, I don't understand why they have a veritable army working up there. For the life of us, we couldn't figure out what they actually did. I think we saw two or three actually working on our entire extended weekend. One was working in the visitor center collecting fees and selling souvenirs, the other was actually picking up trash and cleaning the bathrooms, the last one was cleaning a pool. Why they are cleaning and maintaining a concrete pool in the middle of the wilderness filled with thousands of gallons of water when there is a drought and gets down to below freezing at night, I can't tell you. As a matter of fact, it is so dry out there that open flames were forbidden. So I guess they used a couple of the army they have assembled there to screw on metal signs to every fire grate, bbq pit and fire pit in the park...which was considerable.

As we parked near the nature center to get ready for our hike, we saw 8 different park rangers pull into the parking lot (each in a different vehicle) before we headed out. We checked on and off for the next 3 days. They never opened the nature center once.

We started out our trip hiking up to the Bear Gulch caves.

The kids had so much fun. There is enough light in most of the cave from the light streaming between boulders and such but there are darker sections here and there where we needed our headlights to see where we were going. A small section of the cave was closed since it was under water. When we emerged from the cave, we were greeted by the sight of the Bear Gulch Reservoir. It is really beautiful.

While there is water still in the reservoir, you can see that the level is quite low.

The kids couldn't get enough of the caves so we headed back through the Bear Gulch Cave and went in search of the Balconies Cave.

From there, Christian decided that we would hike around and take the High Peaks trail. We saw some of the endangered Condors flying off in the distance.

It was quite a hike. By the time we made the loop back around, we were pretty tired and cold. It was basically dark by the time we made it back down to the parking lot. We still had our headlights but walked mostly in the light of the near full moon.

We had no trouble getting to sleep at the end of the day as we were pretty tuckered out. We were a little worried though because it was considerably colder that night. The previous night, we had a nice cloud cover that kept us fairly warm, but it was all gone now and it got down to at least 30 degrees this night. When we woke up, there was ice all over our tent. We brought in extra blankets from the car for the kids so it wasn't that bad in the end. We got up with the sun again the next day as we planned a full day of climbing.

We were a little worried about the rock crumbling beneath us but we didn't have too much trouble. We finally got helmets for the girls as well so that we didn't have to worry so much. In the end, we did some pretty fun climbs. Caitlyn didn't even seem to have too much trouble climbing on these rocks. The biggest problem was getting a nice easy route to climb when there are so many other climbers and the hoards of tourists that streamed out once the sun was high in the sky.

We had gone back up to the Bear Gulch area to climb and continued again until the sun went down. There was a full moon so you could see pretty well and the kids had fun going back through the cave in the dark with only their headlights to light their way.

All in all, we all had a pretty fun trip. None of us had ever been here before so it is always fun to explore new place. The only problem is finding a place to camp in an unknown area. We don't do camp grounds for obvious reasons. 

San Dimas Nature Center

On Veteran's Day, we went to meet up with an old friend and colleague of Christian's and her family. We met up at the San Dimas Nature Center for a picnic lunch.

They have a few animals on display that are mostly rescues. Of course, because of the area we live in, a lot of the animals were things like snakes and spiders and such. But there were also owl's, deer and tortoises. They had a raccoon but it attacked one of the caretakers and almost killed him, so it got sent away!

There was also a playground there that the kids could play at and they had a lot of fun.

There are also many acres of nature trails but we didn't get a chance to explore those as Christian's friend is expecting her 2nd son very shortly but the kids played until the sun went down anyway.

Husband's Birthday

Christian's birthday this year landed on a Saturday this year. We decided to make a day of it in Joshua Tree (climbing of course), so we had his birthday dinner on Friday night as soon as he got back from work.

We had to have him open his presents before the trip since we got him a bunch of climbing equipment!

We got up early and headed out to Joshua Tree as soon as the sun came up. We wanted to get out there as early has possible as it is a holiday weekend and it would be extra crowded...and it definitely was.

There were lots of people climbing next to us and plenty of sight seers taking pictures of the climbers like we were part of the park attraction. It is weird. But it wasn't too bad for the most part. You can get away from the people somewhat if you go for a rock that has a long approach. The problem is finding a place to park.

It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect. The climbing was good and we continued until the sun went down. It gets cold pretty fast though.

We forgot our jackets in the car so the kids wrapped the rope tarps around themselves and I stole Christian's jacket. Luckily, we had our headlights since we had to hike back to our car in the dark!

Halloween 2013

I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog posts this month. The month seemed to have gone by in a blur of busy nothings.

The girls had to start packing their lunch again...or, that is, I had to start packing their lunch again. We didn't qualify after all. I don't know which one of us was more disappointed.

Caitlyn's classroom has sent home two notices since school has started regarding a student with head lice (seriously?). Once last month and another this month. I am not a happy camper. I'm wondering if this is still the same student or a different one and why no one is on top of this situation. I don't know who the student involved was in the first incident, but I do know who was involved the second time. The whole row of students sitting together had to go to the health office to get checked out. I do not want to have to deal with this.

But I know all the new rules with the new principal has come to naught because there is another student in Caitlyn's class that is always in trouble and he never gets expelled. He is the Hannibal Lecter of the class and is kept in an island all by himself as he does not play well with others. His kindergarten teacher eventually started video taping his classroom because nobody would believe the crap this kid did. Of course, he notified all the families in his class about it...not that it did any good as the child didn't act any differently and nothing resulted in it.

Their bus is always late and I contacted the principal about it but she just ignored my complaints. The parking and traffic problem is still a complete mess and the school is always locked down now. I know that that is a district wide policy for the most part but our school is especially strict about it. It's like a prison there now and I don't feel welcome, so I do not volunteer any more. I let the teacher know that if she needs me, she could contact me but I always do that and they never call.

I went to the prison yard today though, because they were letting the inmates have a Halloween parade.  I went early so that I could get parking, I fought the crowds and stood in the sun only to have other parents breaking the rules and stepping past the designated yellow line so that I could not see who was coming until they were already upon us. I ended up with a quick picture of Caitlyn giving me her usual bashful/surly look...and all I thought was, "why did I bother coming?"

Luckily, as the younger children passed some of the parents started to clear off and by the time the 6th graders came by, I was able to get in a better position that was not blocked by selfish, oblivious and otherwise, rude parents. Also, Emily was a lot more obliging of my picture taking. I didn't bother trying to stay for the parties in the classroom afterwards. I promptly took myself off the premises.

Caitlyn dressed up as Betsy Ross. Emily dressed up as a vampire again. I say again, because we went to our friends' annual Halloween party on Saturday, but I did not take my camera and have absolutely no pictures. I don't know what I was thinking. Caitlyn went as a witch. Christian and I even dressed up. I went as a gypsy and Christian went as a gypsy's curse (i.e. death). Sorry, no pictures.

We didn't even carve pumpkins this year.

In the evening, I took the girls to the Trunk-or-Treat at our church. Emily went as Cleopatra and Caitlyn went as a princess. I know, they are so girly. They get the opportunity to wear three different costumes every year and sometimes takes full advantage of that fact. It was smaller than usual as the other ward that shares our building bailed on us for something bigger and better at the last minute.

We didn't get a single trick-or-treater down our street this year...pretty sad. Christian got tired of waiting for no one to show up at our house and ended up coming to meet us at the church as we were wrapping up for the night. Our girls went trick or treating at two of our neighbors houses and got handfuls of candy as no one came to their house either, except for us.

School House Rock

We've been going to the Riverside Quary recently to practice our rock climbing skills instead of our local rocks up in the Box Springs Mountain this month. The climbs are a lot higher so it give us practice with having to deal with the exposure as well.

It's kind of a dump as all kinds of people go there. I don't know if the quarry is still in operation because they have set routes all up and down the side of the wall with permanent anchors everywhere. Apparently, it is a very popular place to go in the Inland Empire because we don't have a whole lot of options without traveling. It's easy to get to without having to resort to a climbing gym.

The only part that is easy enough for us to climb is called School House Rock. All the routes are named  with this theme in mind. Caitlyn climbed "My Hero Zero." Emily climbed "TaxMan Max." I climbed "The Energy Blues" and Christian climbed "Tyrannosaurus Debt".

The girls even set up their own traditional route (with the help of Dad) and called it, "Lolly Lolly Lolly."

There is a pretty good hole in the wall taco stand nearby that we went to for lunch. We came home afterwards to watch our old School House Rock VHS. It was kind of fun.

Alabama Hills

Stake Conference weekend is not vacation...except for when it is. Christian and I both have callings that make it difficult for us to take time off so it's not so easy to go anywhere on some random weekend. So, when General Conference came around, we thought we would take advantage of the fact that we watch conference on the internet after the fact anyway and take a holiday. Unfortunately, a family that Christian home teaches needed help moving that weekend and the next day we had a baptism of a friend to attend. We really needed to get away so that just left the weekend of stake conference.

We seem to have been making up for lost time this year in camping. We used to go at least every month or so before the kids came along. We had a eight year hiatus until we were able to go again because of various reasons. Now we can't seem to get enough of it again and have been taking every opportunity to ditch "civilization" to rough it out somewhere...the more remote, the better. Maybe we are just burnt out on everything.

It didn't quite work out the way we had hoped (as usual). That particular weekend ended up to be this big film festival weekend in Lone Pine. We packed up and left shortly after the kids got home from school and got to our destination at 7:pm. The town was packed! I have never seen so many people in that little town in all the years of going there. We were planning to camp in the Alabama Hills so that we can get up early in the morning to go climbing, but the place was just filled with people and we were barely able to get a place to stop to set up camp so that we could get some rest after driving for about another hour or hour and a half. It didn't help that some of the areas were closed because they were doing tours out in the Alabama Hills in the morning. It is way too cold up in the mountains for the kids. We had a horrible feeling about the next day but tried to get some rest to deal with it in the morning.

Lost Eye to the Moon, Alabama Hills

We got up as the sun started coming up and packed up at our pathetic make-shift campsite to find our climbing route. The rock we picked out is called "Lost Eye to the Moon." The person that set up the route named the wall after the greek myth of Horus who lost his eye trying to avenge the death of Osiris which became the moon.

We spent the first part of the morning on the little stuff so that the kids can get some practice and get comfortable on the rock. We've been having trouble getting Caitlyn to progress in her climbing skills. She seems to have developed a fear of heights but only occasionally when we want her to make some progress. She has never slipped or fallen and she is hooked up to a rope with a harness, so there is no real danger, but sometimes she allows the fear to immobilize her. I can't quite say that she is really afraid of heights because you can let her rappel down a huge wall and she will have no problem walking and jumping down and swinging around...but that's because it doesn't require her to use any climbing skills or techniques.

They spent a lot of time going up "Fiddlin' Buckaroo" which you can basically smear up without a rope. Emily did manage to motivate herself to go up "Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm" which is a little harder before lunch but she didn't seem as eager to push herself to climb either.

Christian and I were waiting to get on a bigger route which was occupied by other climbers so we took a break for lunch. As soon as the other climbers left, we left the kids to their own devices to try our hand at some of the harder climbs.

"Riders of the Purple Sage" was our first full length pitch and is rated 5.7. I made it up but Christian helped me a bit on a couple of difficult spots. We didn't have quite enough draws for protection so Christian ended up climbing the last leg of the route without really any real protection to set up the top rope on the anchors at the top. We have been slowly accumulating equipment but can never seem to get enough for every possibility. We certainly had not prepared very well for these "sport climbs" but these rocks did not have any features on it that would allow us to use the other equipment we did have.

"Eye for an Eye" was next. It was a two pitch route but we only made it up to the top of the first pitch. We were not quite ready to do two. We need more practice and more equipment.

Meanwhile, the kids were happily wandering around somewhere down below, climbing small boulders. Big caravans of vehicles and bus loads full of people were driving up and down the roads for the tours and film re-enactments. We can hear their fake gun fire in the distance.

Emily eventually came back to climb "Rhythm of the Range" which was her biggest climb yet. We tried to get Caitlyn on "Rootin' Tootin' Rhythm" but with no avail. The sun was starting to go down so we did not have a whole lot of time left. Plus I was pretty tired and my were hurting. You would not believe how rough that rock is. Christian didn't let it stop him though, we was still energized and got in a couple more climbs on the Sunday Matinee Wall. I don't think I could have even attempted one of those, even if I was not tired and sore. He did the two shorter routes on either end of the wall that was a little easier than the rest...and that's a very relative term here when you are talking about a big wall of rock.

We called it a day after that and went in search of that ever elusive campsite again. We did not want to camp in the same spot we slept at the night before. We went out a lot farther this time and found a decent spot this time. We were even happier with it in the morning when we went out to explore the area in the light of the day. I think we will definitely be going back there again. 

As the last day was Sunday, we took it easy and just walked around and did a bit of exploring. We wanted to find out what our other options were in the area since we can see a lot more in the day.

We also drove around to a few of the more prominent arches that some of the people were touring.

Heart Rock, Mobius Arch and Lathe Arch

Aside from the crowds and the lack of camping spots, it wasn't as bad up there as we had initially feared. There were a lot of climbers out with us as well but most of them were fairly pleasant and respectful except for a couple of big rowdy groups in the distance. Most of the people out for the film festival were elderly and relatively quiet so in the end, it was quieter there in the evenings than when we were last out there which was a big relief.

We had a late lunch and headed home. We had our fun but we still had a long drive ahead of us.

Birthday

I had a birthday this past weekend...I won't say which birthday it is. We decided to spend the day out in Big Bear together on Saturday. Overall, it had it's ups and downs.

First the downs:

• I am another year older.
• Caitlyn threw up on the way to Big Bear.
• People were trying to run us off the road constantly.
• We got lost trying to find a spot we read about because we got some bad directions and had no map and wasted a couple of hours driving around.
• We almost ran out of gas while driving around.
• The place we originally planned to go was really crowded.
• When we finally got to where we decided to go, it was cold and windy.
• One of the things Christian got me was something that I was planning to give to him too.
• A certain someone won't acknowledge birthdays any more since we helped her sister throw a surprise birthday party for her.

On the upside:

• I am in better health than I have been for many a year now.
• My visiting teacher came by with yummy donut holes.
• My sister surprised me by sending me some beautiful roses.
• I got to spend the day with my family.
• We saw some beautiful views.
• I got some nice presents (music, book, movie and a more portable monopod)...and what can I say but great minds must think alike!
• We found a another nice climbing rock that was not crawling with people.
• We got a free map of the area from the ranger station.
• We had a nice dinner at A&W on our way home.
• We made it home without any incidents.
• Christian made me a tasty birthday dinner on Sunday.

After we found that our original destination was totally crawling with people, we went with plan B which was not too far away. Tanglewood slab is a 5.3 pitch which was great for the kids and I to do some top rope climbing on. The hardest part was just a little too much for Caitlyn but perfect for Emily and myself. It's a bit easy for Christian so he usually climbs without a rope and sets up the top rope for the rest of us and tries to coax Caitlyn up the more difficult spots. Apparently there is another good spot a little above and beyond this spot that we can try some time in the future.

The highlight for the trip for the kids was when we had to pass through a mud puddle (or two) on our way to and from Tanglewood. Okay, it might have been one of the highlights of their lives from how they tell it.

We might have relished in it a little and the mud was a bit deeper than we initially thought. I must admit that it was pretty fun too but man, cleaning it up was (is) not a picnic. The mud just penetrated everything. Even the engine bay was completely caked in mud. We gave it an initial wash on Monday but it will take some time to get all the mud off of everything. Plus it sucked up all the wax that was on my car so after we give it another cleaning, we will have to spend some hours polishing and waxing the car to return it to it's previous condition.

It was crazy and fun but maybe something we would have to think twice about ever doing again!