Sender City @Sender One LAX

So there's a new climbing gym in "town", Sender One LAX! This is another gym Main wall is 60 feet high, with climbs as long as 85 feet. Here's Ryan on the lead climbing wall.

Not only did we get to enjoy checking out the new gym and routes at Sender One, but we got to spend some time with the cousins, Spencer and Liz. The kiddos had a kids climbing session at Sender City. Check it out.

Sender City is an area designed for kid-centric climbing fun. Here's a video of Liam climbing a wall of tires and a pan of the city.

Back view of Sender City. Liam on back rainbow wall.



Kids climbing up giant stacked blocks.

Leap to Bag. Emilia did this early on, no qualms or fear of heights.






Swirl clock work wall.

Circuits wall.

Climbing atop city skyscrapers.

On the other side of the tower from which one jumps to a bag, there is a jump to a bar.





Liam coming down on the auto-belay.



Emilia's descent on the auto-belay.



Sender City was fun for the kids, though it is time consuming for the parents. =P Parents have to be present to clip-in and clip-off their kids from the auto-belay. All in all, a fun special experience for the kids.

Just Another Climbing Session

The kids literally know the ropes now. A milestone of sorts, as the kids are displaying knowledge and skills of climbing independence! (Of course there is still adult supervision.) They know their figure 8 knots, the double fisherman knot, standard climbing commands and communication, safety checks, etc. Emilia even provides beta!





Kids have been learning and developing their climbing skills. Here Emilia climbs an easy 5.5 and her techniques are starting to show. She's been learning dynamic movement, backstepping, flagging, smearing, heel hook.



Check out Emilia's dynamic movements at the start of this climb. Here's a re-play, slow-mo of her two double hand releases and grabs!



Regular climbing sessions and Neil Greshman's Masterclass Videos are paying off.

Rock Star Cousins ... Literally

On Ryan's side of the family, the kids have 2nd cousins that are real rock stars. Not the music kind, but the scaling rock walls kind. Their 2nd cousins, Elizabeth and Emily, compete regionally and nationally in bouldering and lead climbing. So, that makes them absolutely rock stars. Western Regionals were held in our area this year, so the family went to watch the cousins during qualifiers. This was sometime Jan this year.

The competitors have 4 problems to climb, with each climb having 4-5? minutes to complete their climb. They are judged and given points for various things... a flash (complete route on first try), a top (complete route, but takes more than one try), points for highest hold reached, etc. And the climbers sit with their backs to the route while other climbers climb. This way they don't get to see the route or beta beforehand.

Liz.








Emily.





These competitions are interesting. The routes, the way it is scored... it's like a whole different aspect of climbing than I am used to. Outdoors used to be the proving grounds, but these competitions bring about it's own style.. flashy, dynamic creativity.

The kids have spent some time with their 2nd cousins and they just love being with them. Obviously for our rock climbing family, it's nice to for the kids to have their 2nd cousins as role models.

Here are the kids all over Emily when we got together for grandma's 90th birthday. It helps that they are being entertained by an IPhone. Electronics are just as addicting to them as candy!

A preview into how teenage years will be...

And grandma's 90-years-young. Not sure when they took this photo, cause once the cake was out, Emilia was all over grandma... and the cake!

Party celebrations.

An Oldie, but Goodie

This was from last summer of 2016 when Liam went to a Super Heroes Camp. He looks so little in these photos.

There were lots going on in the camp. They made super heroes capes and masks that they wore all week long.

There were classes on various subjects.. this one looks like drawing. They also learned about real-life superheroes, police, fire fighters, people that daily do things that help people and save lives.

There were games and sports... or in Liam's case, he sometimes likes to sit and observe.

They learned about animals and got to pet a few critters. This part was one of his favorites.

In fact, he asked if he could have *this* as a pet (*This* is a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach!

A leopard Bengal cat is okay though...

Coloring..

The kids took care of the garden, by watering the plants and feeding the chickens.

And they put on a musical production at the end of the week.

Super Hero Kids.