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.