What is Robin Wearing?

Here's a hint:







If you guessed Crack Climbing Gloves- good job!

Stan made these from a used bike tire inner tube. One thing we discovered pretty quickly moving to 29 P is that crack climbing is very painful- we cut our hands (and sometimes ankles) pretty often. Taping works, but it takes a lot of time and tape, so Stan determined that crack climbing gloves have to exist. He was right- but we didn't want to pay $40 for them, so he found this tutorial click here

They work great, the only thing we're trying to figure out is a better way of attaching. Taking off the tape is pretty painful- especially if you're as hairy as Stan.

What an adventure

So, we thought, let's go to City of Rocks, we've heard so much about it, and this is the best time of year to do it. Yes, a Father's Day trip (originally planned once we found out that bishopric meeting would still be held that day) to celebrate Stan and our love of the outdoors, camping, star gazing, climbing with our new trad!!!! and bird watching to boot. What we hadn't planned on was the rain followed by more rain, followed by more rain. If you ask Israel about our camping trip he'll tell you it rained the whole time. We actually had hours here and there without rain and Monday was blue sky beautiful, but that rain had an impact. We even had an exciting booming thunderstorm that turned into a hail storm as we all hovered in the "parent" tent, stayed dry, tried to stay warm, and munched and munched on all the goodies we'd bought at the store.
Even though the trip didn't turn out as we'd planned (such as our air mattress getting a fast leak and the kids tent no being as waterproof as needed), we did some really fun bird watching, seeing 10 species we'd never even seen before including my favorites the Lewis's woodpecker, hooded oriole, and night hawks. We saw altogether 5 long eared owls. (Did I ever tell you how much I love seeing owls?) I'm the spotter and Stan usually the identifier when it comes to our birding trips. You'd think after 8 years of marriage I'd be better at birding, but it takes a lot of work. Getting my own set of binoculars 2 Christmas's ago really has helped. Okay, enough of my yapping, here's some great pictures of the trip and yes, we did get to do play with our trad on Monday, and no we didn't fall on it, but we think we placed it well. We had to find routes that were anchored on top as we don't know how to make trad anchors, and getting down is a little important:)

Israel named this one the cupcake rock- see the wrapper markings on the left and the obvious rounding - you can even see a cherry on top.

Our first night there. We stayed in the Smoky Mountain Campgrounds (flushing toilets, each site had water and electricity. They even had showers. City of Rocks was full) The dots are rain, in case you were wondering

Sunday Morning- isn't it gorgeous. This was some of our best birding time.
Why am I including a picture of the Almo Ward building? This is the first church I've ever been to so off the beaten path. It's on a dirt road with impressive pot holes and notice the cattle guards over the entrance.

Eliza found this hole in the rock and actually smiled in a picture (instead of her usual fish face)
We found a rainbow on our last day. We could see both ends, but couldn't get it in the picture. We love rainbows and took probably 10 pictures of this one. After all that rain, it was so wonderful to behold.

Julia, chilling in her kid chair

the kids learning about being yoked

Israel "this is a BIG piece of chicken" he said of his ground beef tinfoil dinner

Another incredible view

Israel became quite good at placing trad and he used them for aid climbing. He liked our wallnuts. We can totally see him becoming a really powerful climber one day.

Tomorrow I'm off on my next adventure- house hunting! Wish me luck (and safety)

"Those Rocks Aren't Real"

What Eliza calmly told us when we first entered Arches Nat'l Park near Moab, UT.
The one family shot we got the entire trip. Here we are in view of Delicate Arch.

What Provo looked like when we left and why we couldn't drive thru Price Canyon until 7:30 (wish we'd known that before we left at 5:30- we ended up coming back home to wait)
Because of high winds and our late arrival plan, the first night we staying in luxury, a cabin with bunk beds, a queen bed, electricity, and heat. The next 2 nights were spent at Upper Big Bend (no water, electricity, or flushing toilets-much to Eliza's disappointment) This campground had lots of amenities including a really good playground, a huge checkers board, and my favorite: showers. The first day we drove all over Arches and did 2 hikes- this one to Skyline Arch, and the next to Landscape Arch.

Day 2 was really windy and cold- we spent it mainly in the car touring Dead Horse Point and Canyonland's Nat'l Park. The views were amazing, but our pictures didn't do it justice. At Canyonlands we hiked to Upheaval Point-just incredible (you'll have to go see it for yourself)

We climbed that evening at Big Bend Boulders- here's Israel packing the bouldering pad.

A star Trek Enterprise-ish rock at B B Boulders

Crossing a bridge over the Colorado River on that super cold and windy 2nd day.

Because of the weather we saved the Delicate Arch for our last day. We hiked the most popular hike on a Saturday with all the other Spring Break tourists. We were the only ones pushing a stroller:) It's hard to tell, but Israel, Eliza, and I are standing under the Arch.

My paleontologists seeing real dinosaur tracks during a quick stop on our way back home.

Triassic Bouldering Family Adventure

Me working a V4 on the Hammerhead boulder at the Petrogliph area.

Julia had a great time climbing and being independant. It helped that we packed lots of goodies. She eventually ended up without her clothes because of the heat. We slathered on the sunscreen and thankfully she didn't burn.

We had so much fun together climbing rocks, playing in the dirt, enjoying the surprising heat, and conquering some fun problems. We're going again next weekend. I think we're getting addicted to bouldering.
Israel was our good helper

Climbing Trip with the Robbins

On the 25th we went climbing up in Ogden on 9th St. with my sister Michele and her family. Here's some pictures from our fun trip. My strength still isn't back from my mono fun, so it was a bit frustrating for me, but fun to see Konner my nephew climbing so well. It also felt good to have my hands hurt so much after a climbing trip.

Maple Canyon just Stan and Me

We had such a fun trip- climbing and camping and eating quick cold food so we could do more climbing. A HUGE thank you to Carrie, Allison, Brie, and Katie for watching our children so we could go. Here's some pictures of our fun. It even rained during the night- I love camping when it rains just a little in the night- hearing the rain tap tap tapping on the tent, knowing you're safe and warm and blessedly dry.



The Zen Garden that we finally found after a bit of an adventurous drive up the canyon. We loved it here and are planning to come back soon!

This is a picture of our serious faces. Don't we look tough.

Summer Fun

We went to the Natural History Museum at BYU. Tthe kids had a great time seeing all the dinosaurs and running in circles. We didn't even see any staff until we'd already been there for a full hour. A nice old man took us behind the scenes to see pieces of a new dinosaur BYU's team just found in New Mexico or Arizona I can't remember which. Great morning diversion for a rainy day.
Israel finished his swimming lessons. He was happy to be done with them though- not liking to put his entire face in the water. Have you ever tried to get pictures at an indoor pool? Most were blurry or the lighting was off. This is one of the okay pictures, but he's giving me a silly face since he knows I'm taking pictures:)
Today we played in Maple Canyon. My sister Amanda came with us and all us adults were talking about the unique rock- cobblestone, it looks like round rock cemented in. We're all wondering HOW it was made, and Israel starts giggling, gives us a HUGE grin and says, "Silly, Jesus made it like that"
Camouflage- can you find Israel? He blends in quite well.