Greetings from our beautiful oasis in Tucson! The weather has been phenomenal lately but it is slowly creeping into hotter temperatures. I expect it to hit a 100 by the end of the month. Just got back from a really fun Flagstaff trip…and didn’t take ONE picture! Woops! No worries though…we’re planning on going back again in 3 weeks to crush some projects and enjoy the cool weather. I have a lot to update everyone on, so this will be my first of 3 posts.
Easter was awesome – Joe was down visiting for a week and helped us take some really good pictures. The boys of course had a blast hunting eggs and we invited Grandpa up to get in on the action. I love having a huge back yard along with an acre of property. Although a lot of it is cactus, there’s still plenty of room for us to hide eggs. =) I hope everyone else had a great Easter and got some yummy candy.
The gang before we went out to hunt for eggsThe two turdsAnd they’re off!Most of them were super easy to findNot obvious at all! So we’ll start with Will’s hunt…
Climbing onto the pads…In a squirrel hole!In the holds!
There it is!Um…that woodpile is a little sketchy…On the air conditioner…that we finally own! Hahaha!
These are mine, fool…Ah, behind the shed…where snakes probably hang out. Gah!He was afraid he was gonna get bit by the cactus…Almoooosssttt…Victory!In the shoes…that prolly have a brown recluse in themAny more?One more!Doing a once over…Henry’s turn!! Hurry!!
In the trees!
Again…obvious.
Taking a quick inventory
Climbing the wall!
Now I gotcha!Some more on the pad…Here I come!Oh yeah…
In the tree!
Too easy…Haha!!All done!Enjoying their spoils..A little OCD…We also celebrated my birthday that morning… =)
Per our annual tradition, went to Grandpa’s last night for our delicious Irish feast. As always, everything was delectable and we stuffed our faces again. Thank God this is only once a year. Between the crazy bread (that is truly to DIE for, seriously) and the wacky cake, I could easily weigh 600 pounds. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
Getting the goodies ready…Henry and Gpa…William trying to weasel some candy from GrandpaFamily shotPicking some lemonsNow for some Blood Oranges…delicious!Henry and his goofy smileScarfing down some wacky cake…All of us! Love you Grandpa!
Hey all!! Sorry it’s been a couple months since you last had an update. As usual, I have NO excuses other than laziness and spending all of my free time climbing out on our new woody. =) Not too much has happened other than the weather warming up and our yard exploding in weeds which was an all day affair cleaning up yesterday. Haha! Beautiful day though and it was pleasant spending it outside cuz it won’t last for too much longer. =( I hope all is well with everyone out there and you’re enjoying your spring. Here are some pictures to catch you up on our adventures…
Back in February we held a Valentine Woody Party and all our friends came over to climb and enjoy a copious amount of sweet treats. We had donuts, cupcakes, ice cream, cake and chocolate candies and I made everyone wear red, pink or purple and some valentine themed accessories. It was a hilariously good time and we all had fun!
Our valentine crewAfter everyone came off and didn’t realize that the camera was still snapping…haha!My little heart hero! He stole a dish towel and made it his cape…Not happy…Showing some teeth…
At the end of February, the boys went up to NM to stay with Oma and Tommy and I enjoyed a long weekend together. We went out to eat pretty much every night and watched a movie and went up the mountain for a fun bouldering session on some real rock. It was fun, but really windy and cold. Still, it was nice to get outside. =)
Hiking the trail up to Wilderness of Rocks with our 40 pound pads on…it was about a 45 minute hikeIt was a beautiful hike
We hopped on a problem called Bees Knees. It was a fun little V2
Tommy working his way into the double knee bar…No hands!My turn to try…Getting on a super fun traverse at the watering hole…
After we got the woody up, we knew we’d have to protect it somehow, so we decided for the short term we would put a heavy duty tarp on the outside. We’re hoping this lasts through the summer months until we can put a corrugated metal roof on it. We scrambled this day to get the tarp on because it was supposed to dump rain on us that night…
Kids, don’t try this at home…
I swear, I TRY to make him wear pants and he refuses…This was a couple weeks later…a crazy mist came through town…
Several months ago, Grandpa went to the east coast to visit his family and hung out with his niece, PeggyAnn. We’ve never met her before but she is a total doll and she has sent the boys several presents (for no reason at all) without ever meeting them. So this last surprise was a pair of hedgehogs that she knitted herself. They are SO adorable and the kids love them and call them their “pinecones.” I really hope she can make the trip down here again soon so we can finally meet. Get on that, Grandpa!! =)
Aren’t they adorable?The hedgehogs, I mean. Not the dorks making the goofy faces…
And finally, I drove to NM with the boys 2 weeks ago to surprise my mom for her birthday. We stayed for 3 days and had a great time just chillaxing. =) Happy Birthday Oma! We love you so much!!!
Hi people! Well, we survived!!..barely. =) The past week was hell on Earth but we finally finished our massive monstrosity of a bouldering wall. We made the last push for it’s completion on Friday working from 7 in the morning until 10:30 at night. It was freezing cold, windy and downright miserable and I was ready to kill myself…buuuuuut I’m glad I stuck around to see it to the end. Haha! Our potluck and setting party on Saturday was a resounding success and we got some super good problems put up. We’re both completely exhausted but are planning a session on it tonight with some friends from out of town. There’s not much else to say other than I’m so glad it’s finally finished and we can now enjoy hours of fun whenever we want. This wall has been a long time coming…and hopefully we get years and years of enjoyment out of it. Yay!
Getting some love before putting the boys to bed and working on plywood in the garageHere is what the plywood looks like…holes with T nutsPounding in T nuts…
So fun…not.Friday morning…dragging the scaffolding to the wallLots of parts…Getting the first piece up was the hardest part. The rest was still hard as hell though. Our arms felt like noodles.This kid has climbers blood…
Proud of himself…2 sheets up…
The ridiculous process of putting the roof sheets up!!
Our arms and shoulders were about to die by this point!!
Roof done. Thank God!Now for the walls…
Right side done…Left side…what the hell is Will doing?Henry got home and was obsessed with the scaffolding as well…High parts are done…Tommy runs to town to return the scaffolding…It’s about sunset in this picture…and we still have a crap ton to do…Uuuuugggghhh.Looking so good though…We started a fire to keep warm and the damn wind kept blowing it out. It was freezing and windy.This was the last picture I took of this side…we got everything but the kickers up that night…The ladder was on the ground because the turds tried to kill themselves with it. Henry stole one of Tommy’s bungie chords and lassoed the stupid thing…and then it fell on him. Good grief.Saturday morning! Roof section done!Putting the last pieces up…Yayay!!
Time to PARTY!!!!
Cody’s not sure where to start…Haha!Michelle and Grandpa warming up in the sun…
Henry thought he would try to help…but he just kept stealing our wrenches. HahaLiz figuring out a good problem…Travers also put up an awesome one…
Matt-man!Tommy setting a hard one…
Lots o’ peeps! So fun!Courtney, Elizabeth and my boss, MikeBrianna getting ready to try a problem we set together…
We only had 400 holds, but we got some awesome problems out of them!Our neighbor, Don, spotting Tommy and Travers. Haha!
Grandpa taking it all in!LOVE this picture…Somehow just my gorgeous little family was in this shot. =)Lights on!
Our beautiful woody all lit up. =)Smore’s time!!!
Michael trying to help Henry make one…
9pm and still going strong! It was a wonderful night and we all had a great time. =)
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all rang it in right and are ready to start fulfilling your resolutions! Our first day of 2015 started off with a huge undertaking…the birth of our new climbing wall. I wasn’t sure it was going to happen as we drove home last night from Mario and Maria’s house watching snow fall all around us. We have been trying to beat the weather ever since we got home from vacation at mom’s house and it looked like we would probably be losing this battle. I had enlisted the help of some of our good climbing friends to come over this morning and help us, but wasn’t sure anyone was actually going to show up…especially when half an inch of snow was covering the ground and the temperature was 32 degrees. I had promised them a delectable breakfast but wondered if even that would tempt them. Climbers, after all, can be pretty flaky. However, to my delight and surprise, every single one came and helped out…on a holiday, no less! I am so grateful for such awesomely good friends. =)
Unlike most of our projects, the assembly of this massive beast went off WITHOUT a hitch. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see putting the trusses up, but when we finally had them all erected, I was in utter shock at how massive and beautiful our woody was. Tommy has such a beautiful brain (haha!) and the vision of what he wanted is exactly what is standing outside in our yard right now. I am so excited to get everything together and start climbing on it!! Our plan is to start putting holds on next Saturday…we’ll have a setting party and get everyone over here to help out. So stay tuned…those should be really fun pictures. =)
Hope everyone is well and had an awesome New Year! Love you all – enjoy! And Thank you Grandpa for coming and watching the boys today! This couldn’t have happened without you!! xoxox
I spent all day Monday moving the lumber from the garage to the back patio…and almost died.I somehow tricked Henry into helping me move little pieces…and he impressed the hell out of me by moving ALL of them by himself in his wagon. =) My heart!The sill plates…these are what the trusses will be attached to.Tuesday morning…Tommy starts assembly of the trusses. He gave himself 2 days to get 16 done. I thought it would be a breeze until I realized the labor involved and the fact that we were racing against a storm.It took him about an hour to assemble one…and of course there was nothing I could do to help except cheer him on. =(I had to waterproof the sill plates with a disgusting concoction…It stunk up everything!
End of Tuesday…He was able to complete 7…and the kids loved playing on them.Wednesday. 80% chance of rain at 3 pm and he had 9 more to go.The rain ended up coming around 4 pm and he had 2 left to assemble. He figured he could go to bed and and get up early to finish the rest. Little did we know it would be SNOWING when we went to sleep…at 1 in the morning.Happy Frickin’ New Year! Ugh.Our faithful crew arrived to save the day and stuff their bellies full of Green Chile Casserole and baked French toast. Mmmm.Then they all got distracted looking through our climbing holds…Ha!First Truss up…the worst part. After this, it went so quick it was crazy.Our buddy Mario spotting Tommy. Uuuuuhhhh…When we weren’t hauling these behemoth pieces of wood, we were all mesmerized by Tommy on the ladder. Hahaha!Goofing off…Liz making sure it gets done…The wood around the concrete swelled from the water and it was messing up the set of the truss. We just had to chip away the wood…Coming together!Almost there!Screwing in the last one!Woo hoo!! HOLY COW, LOOK AT THIS THING!!!Our new view…Yeah baby!!Gus was so stoked, he started climbing on the skeleton. Haha!Figuring out a date for our setting party!Shock and awe…
