Rocking It

One of the last summer camps of the season... none other than rock climbing camp, of course! E rocked it! Her comfort level increased tremendously even from day 1 of camp. By the end of the week, she was top roping 5.8 and bouldering up and down V0s and trying V1s. The social butterfly also knew more folks at the gym than I did. On the last day of camp, it seemed as if everyone in the gym, adults and kids, were saying "Hi" and "Bye" to her!



A few of the older girls in the camp also took to Emilia like big sisters. It was cute to see the encouragement E got from them as they cheered her on with her climbing.

Here's E climbing a tricky 5.8. She had been working this route for a few days and completed it earlier in the day. She wanted to show me her climb, but after a week's worth of climbing.. and near the end of the day, her arms were giving out at the 90 degree portion which require dialing in the technique and having some strength left!



I'm still impressed. You can tell how she's working different feet and/or hand positions when she gets to a stuck position. That's what climbing is about.. trying to figure out how to make moves.

The Scientist

And summer is coming to an end... I don't think we even made it to the beach, not even once, this summer. To kick off back to school, here's a backtrack to last school year --> I looked through all the papers, projects, etc that the parents received at the end of the school year and came across this gem of a notebook. Emilia's first science research notebook!

And I thought Kindergarten was all play. This kid knows more than I do about every day animals that live in our sandy shores.

Sleeping In = Furniture Rearrangement

Backtracking to earlier, during the start of summer...
The kids wake up before we do nowadays, and on days when they have a couple of wake hours before us, this is what happens.

But how can I be mad at them when they are reading on their own??!

Oh yeh, that's right. It's a mess! I believe this creation is a two person car... or a train. Definitely some automotive vehicle that's for SuperHeroes.

On another weekend, I beat them to it and used a toy Build and Play Fort Construction set the kids received last Xmas as a gift. Fort success!! Minimal furniture rearrangement!

Kids loved it and played it in for a few hours.

Liam enjoying the fort - laying down while eating strawberries and contemplating the meaning of the fort...

It was fun for a few hours, and then it was more fun tearing it apart and building something else!

And the most recent weekend morning wake up findings. It's their home, compartmentalized for functionality.

The kids win. Maybe I'll give them back some of their toys!

Pre-Hueco Tanks : El Paso Zoo

Backtracking back to March - Spring Break time frame, when we went on a climbing trip to Hueco Tanks in El Paso, TX. The first day we arrived, it was early enough that we had extra time to check out the El Paso Zoo.

BFFs at this moment...

Ryan liked this zoo much more than the SD Zoo. Less crowded, less commercialized... and less crowded. =D We had the freedom to roam around, play tourists, act silly, climb on tiger statues without the worry of other tourists.

Liam walking on the bridge of a kids treehouse playground.

Oh look, monkeys!

These kiddos have a blast sharing adventures together.

Elephants!

Wonder if the zoos are now going to upgrade their "fencing" to keep curious kids from breaking into an animal enclosure?

Climbing on tigers.

Meerkats.

White Barn Owl.