Bodick Road

It was Memorial Day weekend and we had planned to go camping and climbing at Heller Rocks in the Eastern Sierras. Unfortunately, there was a major heat wave that came in just in time for our trip. It was going to be a scorcher.

We ended up cancelling the trip. Instead, we went on a couple of day trips closer to home. On Saturday, we drove out to Bodick Road near Joshua Tree to do some aid climbing and jumar practice.
The last couple of times I tried to jumar didn't go so well. It was incredibly difficult for me. I just have not been able to figure it out. We have also been doing them on slightly overhanging routes which adds to the difficulty of the task. So, Christian found this place that has some A0 climbs to do some aid practice on. He would fix a rope for me and I would attempt to jumar up it.

The first route was called Dude's The Mack. Christian and Emily did the aid climb up the bolt ladder.

The climbs are not too long but quite good. Unfortunately, the place is a total dump. Trash  and graffiti everywhere. We've been to some pretty trashy places but this one is the worst. 

After Christian fixed the rope, Caitlyn and I jumared up. Christian and Emily took a turn as well.

It was still pretty difficult and I did manage to get up, but I know that I am still not doing it right because it is still quite difficult. I am putting too much strain on my arms instead of my legs in order to get up.

Next, we went up a route called "17." Christian and Emily went up again. Caitlyn climbed the bolt ladder this time but only up to the roof. She was a bit hesitant at first but she did great.

Then we all jumared up a couple of times for practice (up to the roof). This route was a bit easier as it was not overhanging. The first route was a little overhanging at the start.

When we were done, Christian and Emily did a free climb on the back side of the rock called Dude's The Mack Crack (5.8). Christian led. Emily followed to clean. I belayed Christian literally from a pile of trash. It was pretty disgusting.

I'd like to say that we will not be returning but the climbs are too useful (and becoming too rare) to pass up, so we will most likely be back.

Emily's Year End Award Ceremony

The school year is almost over. The kids have about a week and a half left of school. Caitlyn already went on her year end field trip to Fiesta Village. This week Emily has minimum day all week...not even sure why. Last week Emily had her year end award ceremony.

She got two awards. She got one for doing well in working towards a second language (Spanish).

And she got a President's Education Award for doing well in school overall.

The verdict is still out on her final grades for the year. She is borderline in a lot of her classes and until the teachers account for all the final assignments, we will not know what she will end up with. I don't know if she will pull it off in the end but we are not too thrilled at her lack of real effort in being more responsible. We know that she is capable of so much more than the borderline results that she has ended up with.

66ers

On Saturday night, we were invited to a baseball game. It isn't something we normally attend. In fact, we have never gone to a baseball game before. However, our friend reserved a skybox for a private  surprise birthday party for his wife, so how could we say no?

The Inland Empire 66ers were playing the Modesto Nuts at the San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino. I guess they are considered minor league teams.

They had all you can eat burgers, hot dogs and chicken along with drinks and sides in our box.  Plus bounce houses for the kids to play in.

Our team started off well but fell behind after the second inning. They managed to tie with the visiting team by the 7th inning and finally won by one run in the 9th.

The game itself wasn't too bad but since most people view baseball as a pretty boring sport, they have turned it into quite a circus (trying to "entertain" people). Although, I am not a sports fan, I can see how it could have been a nice family outing at one point in time. But since they have resorted to "entertain" the audience in between innings, they have taken all respectability out of the experience. It is very annoying and distracting. You wonder how many people there actually care about the game supposedly going on.

The kids had a great time though. It was a new experience for them. Plus, they just spent most of their time running around and playing. 

Porteledge Practice

On Friday evening, after dinner, we headed up into the hills in back of our house to do some more Porteledge practice. Christian has taken each girl up on a different porteledge so far, but this time, all four of us our going up with both porteledges.

Christian started out with the most troublesome one, the Black Diamond porteledge. Everyone seems to prefer this ledge over the other because of the size and features, but it is a serious problem to set up.

Each time he has set it up though, he has learned some things to make it easier the next time. So, hopefully, it will be easy to set up at some point! It took him an hour and a half to set up. Last time, he went up with Caitlyn, it was more like 2 hours.

The Metolius porteledge took probably less than half an hour. 

We just about ran out of twilight when everything was set up. We were getting a little nervous though, as we did not have a fly on either ledge and the rain clouds were gathering.

Luckily, we did not get rained upon. The rock face gave us a bit of protection from the wind for the most part but we did still have some 18 mph gusts during the night.

The kids slept like rocks mostly, but we were still up pretty early. It wasn't quite as quiet as I had hoped it would be out there as we can still hear the train and the freeway in the background. The owls would hoot during the night and the roosters would crow all morning. Plus, I don't think I leveled out my side of the ledge too well so it wasn't the most comfortable sleep I've had. Everyone was pretty cozy and warm in their sleeping bags though.

There were still some clouds lingering around by morning but a lot of the thicker cloud cover disbursed by morning.

Christian brought the GoPro up to take some wide angle shots of us on the ledges.

Metolius

Black Diamond

When the sun came up over the ridge, it was time to pack up all our gear and head home for breakfast.

On the hike back home, Caitlyn discovered a bobcat on the trail. They are usually a lot more skittish and will stay away from people but this one didn't seem to be too wary of us.

It was neat to see one up so close!

Joshua Tree

Our climbing practice this weekend, took us back to Joshua Tree. Our destination, Wonderland of Rocks (North), on Gilligan's Island. Our main objective was an obvious right leaning 100' crack up Mary Ann's face called Route 66 (5.4). We were all supposed to do lead practice on it.

Emily actually did it twice! Unfortunately, Caitlyn wasn't feeling it that day. She even had some trouble with the fourth class approach to the climb. She seemed too afraid to even get off the ground so she didn't end up climbing anything on this trip. 

The wildflowers were blooming, so the beautiful flowers tucked in between the rocks are always a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately, we were also plagued by swarms of gnats the entire time, which made it a pretty unpleasant experience. The only time you were given a little respite from the annoying gnats was when you were in the shade (of which there was very little) and when you were at the top of the route where there might have been more wind.

After we each climbed Route 66 and we gave up on trying to get Caitlyn to climb, Christian tried a climb to the right, another 100' climb called Hit it Ethel (5.8).

It started up fine at the bottom, climbing up the steeper crack to a bit of a bulge. Pass the bulge was some really run out, steep face climbing. There was nothing to protect and the bolts were few and far between. Christian decided to retreat and come back down after he saw what the face climbing was like. He wasn't too happy about the situation. It was too risky.

Emily wanted to go back up Route 66, so she led the route a second time with Christian following. They rappelled down from the anchors at the top of Hit It Ethel and Christian top roped Hit It Ethel.

It is also getting pretty hot in Joshua Tree. Between the heat and the gnats, we had had enough of Gilligan's Island and decided to head back. I might also add, that there were vultures circling above us for a while. At first, we were excited because we thought that they were eagles,  but upon closer inspection, we found that they were actually vultures! After we hiked most of the way back to the car, Christian thought that we might try a route on in a different area, closer to the car, to see if the conditions were better, since we still had a good amount of daylight left. 

Unfortunately, we ran into some other plagues on the way, namely rattlesnakes. They were sitting right next to the trail, one after the other. The first one rattled at Christian and he stopped abruptly and jumped back. It was right on the edge of the trail. The girls had already gone by, so we did not know if they even saw it!

The second was just off the trail a bit further up. Some other hikers had warned the girls of them and they stopped to alert us. 

Our nerves were a bit frazzled at that point and we decided to just call it a day.

Mother's Day Weekend

The kids gave me my Mother's Day gifts friday night, as we would be pretty busy over the weekend. I didnt manage to get anyone to get any pictures, since we also had some friends over for dinner that evening.

On Saturday, we went to visit my mother. We all brought food for lunch. The kids get to visit and play with their cousins while the rest of us visit and chat. We took some family pictures.

The grandkids were pretty young still when we took our last one, so we thought that it was a good time to get an updated picture.

Christian made videos of the kids for the grandmothers on both sides of the family for Mother's Day. We originally started them to show on the kids' birthdays but he keeps putting more work into them and they are getting pretty fancy with music tracks and audio commentaries and everything!

--------

The next day, we headed down to San Diego to visit with Christian's mom. Since they were out of town for Caitlyn's birthday, they had gifts for her as well.

Christian's mom has been spoiling the girls like crazy because she is probably going to be living in Oregon this time next year. She asked for a couple of ideas for things to get her. Christian suggested art supplies or a push scooter (since Caitlyn has broken hers). She got all of them for her and then some. But instead of a simple push scooter, she got her an electric one. And instead of just one, she bought a second one for Emily as well!

She also made the girls' a beading loom and got them both a mess of beads and tools. They are so excited, it is like Christmas and their birthdays all in one.

She even had a little mother's day gift for her daughter and myself!

Christian's dad's birthday generally a week before Caitlyn's and we normally just celebrate them together (except that they were out of town as well this year). We got him a funny Idiocracy gift package that consisted of the movie, a Camacho for Prezident t-shirt and a bottle of Brawndo, all in a Carl's Jr gift bag. The girls were very excited to give it to him.

I baked a cake for all the occasions.

The girls got to get their new fancy scooters out for the first time yesterday. We had to assemble them and charge the batteries. Unfortunately, we found out that Caitlyn's was previously used and broken. She was so upset. Luckily, Christian's mom gave us the receipt (just in case) so Caitlyn and I had to make a quick dash to the local Target to demand an exchange. Luckily, they had one in stock and we were able to exchange it.

The kids got to take it out for the first time today and they had a blast.

Island Ohana Show

Saturday evening, the girls had a small show at a fundraising dinner the boy scout troop was doing at the church.

They were supposed to do four numbers but ended up only doing three because the bake auctions were taking too long. The other girls did another two numbers without them because our girls didn't learn them.

The first two numbers they did was the poi routine (from New Zealand) and then the Otea (Tahitian).

They were supposed to have a break while the auction went on but then they kept going and going. When the girls got back out to begin the second half of their dances, a lot of people were not even paying attention anymore because they were also doing a silent auction down the middle of the cultural hall. So, people were just kind of milling about.

The girls performed Pate Pate as their last number and cut their Samoan routine.

The girls had some friends in the audience, so they were pretty excited to see them. We did not stay to chat though as the whole thing ran long and we were tired and hungry. The girls did pretty well over all. Most of the girls were not too happy with their performance during the poi ball routine except for Caitlyn. Everything went swimmingly for her.

Caitlyn's Birthday

Caitlyn had a birthday this past Friday. She turned 11 this year. Only one year of Primary left...so sad.

We were originally going to have Caitlyn's party the next day (on Saturday), but Christian's family was out of town. My mom stopped coming for the grandkids birthday parties a few years ago. She has cataracts and they won't operate on her until it worsens. Anyway, she is not that familiar with the area in which we live, so she doesn't like to drive out here on her own.

When the kids' birthday lands on a weekday, we usually will have a small special dinner for them and then a bigger party with Marian and the grandparents on the weekend closest to their birthday or the one most convenient for everyone. Since none of the grandparents were going to make it, Marian decided to just save us the trouble and get off early on Friday to make it down for her actual birthday dinner on Friday instead. Thanks Marian, you are always so thoughtful!

Caitlyn loves to choose shrimp tempura for her special dinner. Usually, I just cheat and get the ready made stuff from Costco. You just pop it in the oven and you are done. This year Marian brought us some bags of jumbo shrimp, so we decided to make it from scratch. We also cut up some vegetables to make into tempura as well. Deep frying is not something I do very often, as it is a messy affair. I decided to just make it outside on the porch to try not to get my kitchen covered in oil.

Caitlyn also requested BLTs the previous night since Emily was out with the youth group doing baptisms at the temple. She is not as big of a fan of BLTs so we don't do it that often. When her sister is away, Caitlyn usually requests it. Anyway, the bacon already made a pretty big mess in the kitchen and I didn't want to deep fry on top of that!

We had some miso soup to start and made some steamed rice. We made tempura in small batches as we ate. We still made too much and everyone was stuffed before we finished it all.

We went in for presents after that. Marian brought a ton as usual.

It is torture for Emily to watch Caitlyn open gifts. She is so slow and methodical. Plus, it is worse since none of the presents are for her. It isn't so bad when she gets gifts in between like on Christmas.

By the time Caitlyn finished all her gifts, everyone was ready for cake again.

This year, I made her a pink grapefruit and wheat ombre cake. It turned out pretty good! Caitlyn has been enamored with scented soaps and lotions this past year, especially grapefruit scented ones. I finally got her some pink grapefruit bath gel and body butter for her birthday and I made the cake to match!

It was pretty late when we were all done but we let the kids stay up a bit longer to watch Caitlyn's First Year video that Christian made. He made a video of her 10th year as well but we had to save it for the next day since it was pretty late. Unfortunately, the rest of us stayed up talking until 2:am still after the kids went to bed! Marian had planned to spend the night and spend some more time with the kids in the morning and afternoon but we didn't get much sleep.

We had leftover birthday cake for breakfast. Hey, don't judge! It's made with whole wheat and eggs! Then we got to watch Caitlyn's video and worked on some projects. Marian went out with the kids and brought back some supplies for lunch. We grilled some tasty prime rib steaks for a late lunch before Marian would have to go home.

It would have been a pleasant day, but the stupid Frat house down the street were having some raging party all afternoon and evening. It is hard to enjoy yourself in your own home when they have loud speakers blaring music and people screaming. It is like living next to a night club except that they are open day and night. 

After Marian took off, I had to work on getting the girls' costumes together and have them practice a bit. Marian actually watched some of it. The girls were supposed to perform at church for some fund raiser for the boy scout troupe that evening.