Caitlyn's 9th Birthday

Yesterday was my baby's birthday...okay, so she's actually nine now. Her birthday was a pretty quiet affair. It was a school day so we didn't do anything big. She had special meals waiting for her. After school, her dad took her around and spent some time with her.

Her birthday dinner that she requested was shrimp tempera again. So we had that with some white rice and mixed stir fried vegetables. Very simple, thank goodness.

After dinner, was present time...what she was waiting for all day. Auntie Marian left some gifts here for her from when she visited for Easter.

She got some fancy new shoes and clothes.

Grandma Cheri sent her a care package from Hawaii. She got the new Tinker Bell movie and a whole bunch of treats for us to take on all our adventures.

I had a tough time getting her a gift this year and ended up with just a big mish mash of little things that I hoped that she would like or wanted including one of those Rainbow Loom things that everyone has now.

Her sister actually made her a rubber band bracelet as well. We didn't do anything big but I think that she pretty happy with her haul. She's been making bracelets non stop since she got it and reading her books and stuff so I guess it was a pretty successful birthday.

We didn't have an extra birthday party this year for her an no one else could really make it. We had her favorite carrot cake after and sang happy birthday to her.

Auntie Marian called to wish her a happy birthday and then we sat down to watch her new movie and then called it a night since she had school again the next day.

Big Bear

Every year we make a trip to Big Bear for the kids to play in the snow. We were not expecting any snow again this year so we took our climbing equipment instead. The night before, however, we had a freak storm that blew in. We got some much needed rain but we did not know quite what to expect in the mountains and preceded with our plans.

We were surprised to find a decent amount of snow on the ground.

The kids got to play in the fluffiest snow they have ever experienced since it just fell that night. Fresh snow coated the trees and there was at least a couple of inches on the ground. It was a really beautiful sight. There was not enough snow for us to have brought the sled or anything but the kids still had fun.

We did a bit of exploring and climbing in the Holcomb Valley area.

It was quite windy on top of the rock formation we had lunch on but we took shelter behind a big boulder and we had a fabulous view.

By mid afternoon though, most of the snow had already melted from most of the trees. Even a lot of the snow on the ground was gone. It was a really nice day. We had the whole valley to ourselves except for an hour or so when we were having lunch, a big group of really loud and obnoxious people came out for a while. Luckily, they didn't stay too long.

The main reason that we make this trip every year though is to celebrate our sealing anniversary. So we stop to have the kids visit the grounds of the temple, have dinner and spend time together as a family.

We generally come some time after the actual sealing date because Easter is always around the corner and they always close down the temple that time of year for cleaning and maintenance.

Easter

On Saturday, we went to our friends' annual Easter egg hunt. They had something like 1700 eggs filled and hidden. It's pretty crazy.

Our girls' look forward to it every year but this will probably be Emily's last year as she is getting too old for egg hunts, so it's good that the main reason that they like going is just to get to play with their friends.

On Sunday, after church, Auntie Marian came to visit. She has her own egg hunt for the girls...luckily, no candy involved as they have more than we will let them eat anyway.

It was a nice day out, so we stayed outside to make paella and eat.

It's not exactly a traditional easter feast, but definitely delicious.

Joshua Tree - April Edition

We finally got to Joshua Tree a week later than anticipated. I was third in the family to catch Emily's cold but it was supposed to be a nice warm day in Joshua Tree so we decided to just go anyway.

Christian and I climbed a rather challenging 2 pitch climb on the east face of the Sentinel called "Fote Hog." It is only supposed to be a 5.6 climb but has this scary traverse to this overhang. The overhang was so big that I could not reach the knobs to hall my butt up. Christian had to find a way around it for me. It was pretty scary.

We took the kids back to the Thin Wall to climb "Up Chuck" after lunch.

It's a fairly short climb but rather challenging at the top.

Emily and I saw a desert tortoise while Caitlyn was doing her climb.

That was the first time we ever saw one there...but we've been seeing a lot of wild life out and about lately. We saw the chuckwalla on our last trip to Joshua Tree. We saw a Kit Fox in Red Rock, NV. We had even seen deer in the Box Spring Mtns. 

I went around with Caitlyn to look for the tortoise while Emily was climbing but we lost track of it. It is a lot faster than you would expect and quite nimble on uneven terrain as well. We couldn't find it but I found a lot of other new wildflowers to add to my growing collection.

We brought our camping stove and heat up some soup for dinner while Christian and Emily climbed up this off width crack up on the Cyclops Rock. We had just enough time afterwards to jet over to a night program that the rangers put on in another part of the park. It was about the night creatures in Joshua Tree and the effects of light pollution. It was pretty interesting. It was late by the time it finished. The kids slept most of the way back.

More on Spring Break

We spent the rest of Spring Break at home...more or less. We went on short outtings in the Box Springs Mtns. here in our backyard.

On one of our little hikes, we found a big slab wall to practice on. It is difficult to get up to it as there is no real trail and is up quite high up the mountain side.

On another afternoon, we went up to the northern ridge to practice aid climbing. We would rappel down and jumar back up.

The hill is covered in wild flowers this time of year. I tried to find flowers that I have not taken pictures of yet. Apparently, a lot of the areas that we have been to lately has had a lot of the same type of wild flowers.

We took a hike up to the "C" on another day and came back down the long way by way of the ranger station on the other side. 

We had originally planned to go to Joshua Tree at the end of the week to make up for not being able to do any real climbing in Red Rock before having to leave, but that didn't quite work out as Emily was still sick by the end of the week. Christian started coming down with it as well by then and it was expected to be another cold and windy day in Joshua Tree. That was something that we all had enough of from Red Rock.

Spring Break - Red Rock, NV

For Spring Break, we decided to join my brother and his kids to go camping in Red Rock, NV. His kids have never been camping before (unless you count camping in my sister's backyard). We took my brother on a backpacking trip many years ago. That was his first time camping.

We started off Monday morning and arrived in time for a late lunch in Red Rock. It was pretty crowded and super windy...it did not bode well for us.

We had lunch at the look out and proceeded to go find a suitable campsite for all of us. It took us a few tries but eventually settled on an area that we thought might work out. We were then free to get out and stretch. We went for a hike and came back with just enough light to have our dinner and set up our tents. The wind never stopped and really only got worse. The wind chill really added to the misery of it all.

My brother borrowed a tent from my sister. It was not very durable and was bending in the wind. In the end, I don't think that it is good for anything except camping out in the backyard or in some other very mild and controlled environment.

We actually got a new tent as well. A few weeks back, the kids were airing out the tent in the driveway after one of our other trips so that we can clean it out and put it away properly, when a gust of wind came through and it must have pulled the tent out into the street. We were in the backyard celebrating Emily's birthday. We went out at some point in the afternoon to find our tent at our doorstep crumpled in an odd angle. Apparently, some idiot ran it over, broke a tent pole and dragged it on the asphalt enough to tear a hole through the rain fly as well as the tent itself. We live in a little cul-de-sac. We don't get a lot of traffic and you can't go very fast. It would be easy to drive around the tent if it got pulled into the middle of the street. Someone also knew that it was ours as they bothered to drag it back up to our doorstep. We were pretty upset about the whole thing and have a sneaking suspicion that it was our mail man since we heard him go by a little before. We felt bad that we didn't have the kids stake down the tent or something to prevent it from getting dragged out into the street, but regardless, I think that any accident and resulting damage could have been easily avoided...had they tried.

But I digress, our new tent seemed to hold up to the elements a bit better. We got a pretty good deal on the tent so we were pleasantly pleased with it. During the night, it started to rain. It rained pretty good for a good hour or more. The only time the wind stopped blowing seemed to be when it rained and as soon as it stopped raining, the wind kicked right back up. We were a bit worried about how my brother was doing in his tent. We were not actually next to him as we decided that camping in the wash would give us a little more protection from the wind (although, if it rained too much, we would have had to make a hasty retreat). My brother and his kids were cold and tired and wanted to just park next to the car. We angled the cars to give him as much protection as we could manage. Apparently, it didn't work out too well. They woke up before midnight with dust and sand blowing in their faces and the tent flopping all over the place. They eventually retreated back into their vehicle for the rest of the night as the elements proved a bit much for them and their tent.

When it was light out, we packed up to go back to our car and check up on my brother and his kids.

It was a beautiful morning, although, still extremely windy. We took some pictures and had breakfast while Christian set up his Go Pro for some time lapse pictures of the clouds going by. At some point, we were in our car and we were looking over at my brother's tent. It was really flopping all over the place and we figured that we should just help him take it down because we didn't think that it would last much longer in the wind. He still had a bunch of their stuff in the tent, including a big air mattress. When we looked over, we saw that Christian's Go Pro and tripod had also gotten blown over. He went to retrieve his camera, came back to take a picture before starting to take down the tent when the tent pole snapped all of a sudden. So much for our plan to save then tent. We still took down the rest of the poles so that it wouldn't blow around so much. My brother managed to get a little sleep (a very little) and came out to help pack up the stuff.

Afterwards, Christian and I went down to take down our tent as well. We had packed up all the stuff in it earlier. As we were taking the stakes out, a gust of wind came through and almost pulled the tent out of our hands. It would have flown halfway down the valley if we had not caught it. 

After all was cleaned up and packed up, we headed into the Red Rock visitor center to get maps of the trail and start our day. We headed out to Calico Hills to start our hike. 

It was pretty neat but I think my brother was a bit overwhelmed as we did not stick to the easy tourists' hiking trail, but headed up the hill itself. We didn't do any real rock climbing but the height combined with the exposure is not easy to get used to. His daughter seemed to fit right in with us. I think she enjoyed the climb a great deal. 

We had lunch at the top of Calico Rocks. As usual, it was a bit windy. Fortunately, Christian found a nice spot on top where we didn't get much wind and was able to soak in some of the warm sun while we rested and got something to eat.

We hiked back down and found some neat climbing routes we wanted to try the next day. We then went to the Willow Springs Picnic area to explore a little more and have a snack. My brother's knee was giving him trouble so we knew that he wouldn't want to do any more hiking.

Christian set up and anchor at the top of a rock near the parking lot and we played around on it for the rest of the day.

Jumar practice

We did some rappelling. The kids and Christian practiced ascending up the rope with some aid climbing gear. My brother, his daughter and I climbed up for the rappel as ascending with the rope was a little more than we wanted to try.

The sun was going down fast. We had our dinner on a shelf of rock before parting ways. Because my brother's tent was broken, he went into Las Vegas for a hotel for him and the kids. We headed back out to our campsite. We arrived without any problems to set up camp in the dark...only to find that our tent pole had also broken in that last gust of wind. It was our first time using the tent. Ours did not snap as his did but split down one of the sides. It would not take much wind to rip it apart. It was still blowing out. We decided to just cut our losses and go home. 

We went to gas up while driving through Las Vegas and got a hold of my brother to let him know what we planned to do. He tried to convince us to stay at the hotel as well, but we were more comfortable just going home. We actually considered getting some duct tape to hold our tent pole together and stay, but while we were at the gas station, we saw that there was a 50 percent chance of rain for the next day and finally gave up. Emily started showing signs of being sick that first morning and it was only getting worse. It didn't help that Emily actually forgot her jacket at home. All she had with her was her shell. She had her jacket on in the morning before leaving but when her cousins arrived, she threw the jacket off to play with them and forgot it...not for the first time, by the way.

Christian and I took turns driving home and finally made it back at 2:am.