Finn the Human Climbs!

St. George decided to be quite mean to us this weekend. It rained on us for three straight days. Those of you in snow can stop laughing at me now. I have become very accustom to sunshine and warmth all day every day. 

We had made plans this weekend to climb our little hearts out and you really can't climb wet, slippery rock. It's hard enough when it's dry. So we had a Friday date night at home instead that basically included handstands, learning new knots and teaching me the basics of lead climbing.

 

Saturday continued to pour on us so we turned to cookies for comfort. We had two visitors that were more than happy to play video games and eat cookies.

 

Then blessed Sunday rolled around with all it's sunshiny glory and we headed out to the rocks! We made up for being inside all weekend by climbing for 7 hours. We were one of the first people out there and one of the very last to leave. We started in multiple layers and hats, stripped down to tank tops and then ended in all our layers again.

 

Chad climbed a ton of pitches since he has to set up a top rope for me and then clean it after I climb. I climbed my first little overhang and crack. It was amazing and exhausting and I can't wait for the long weekend to get here so we can climb some more!

 

After we hiked out of the gorge we saw this beauty. It was a gorgeous way to end our day. We really are lucky to live in such a beautiful place. 

 

Weekend Climbers

I bet you're all shocked that we went rock climbing Friday afternoon.

We grabbed some subs so we could hike, picnic and then climb. It was a great day. So great in fact that we repeated it on Saturday. After the ritual pancake brunch we went back out in the early afternoon, along with everyone else in St. George. The three day weekend led to everyone from the Salt Lake area coming down to good ol' St. George, where the sun is still shining and we are all still playing outside!

Most of the climbs were already being climbed on, but Chad found a ridiculous one to attempt. Everyone was avoiding that climb for a reason, it was a beast. It was nice to watch him struggle a little bit for a change ;) He figured out the moves on his first climb and then soared up it the second time around. What can I say, he's good.

I may not have made it to the top of my climb, but almost. I've got one that I'm working on and I'm getting better and better. I just need my arms to beef up a bit more! After an afternoon of climbing we headed up to Pioneer Park so Chad could boulder a little bit. He likes to follow up his climbing with more climbing. Then we rappelled!

The park has a few stations for it, and I had never done it before. It was horrifying.... at first. It was starting to get dark, so we were basically rappelling into a black hole, super comforting. And from the picture above you can see how jazzed I was to be trying this, not at all. But we kicked off our shoes and did it! Once I wasn't walking down the rock and was just hanging in the air it was even more fun. Whoever is down here visiting us next, get ready, we're doing this! We each went twice before packing up for the night.

After a sleepy Sunday morning we went back out again. When you can climb 5 minutes from your house it's easy to go everyday! I attempted my climb again, I was determined to be able to do it, but my forearms had other ideas. I made it about halfway before my arms refused to even reach out to the rocks.

Chad conquered the climb where he had his first fall while lead climbing. Needless to say we are both a little afraid of it. But he went ahead and lead climbed (led climbed?, oh grammar) it, shaky hands and all. And then when he was done, he did it again.

We followed up all of our climbing with donuts and cider on Friday and more cider and an apple crisp on Sunday. It's required, it's Fall. After devouring dessert last night we both promptly passed out. Also a requirement after 3 days of climbing.

Fall?

 

The desert really doesn't have fall like Michigan has fall.

Who would have thought, right?

So we ventured up north, just 20 minutes or so, and soaked up all the Fall that southern Utah had to offer us that day. We may not have the burning reds or fiery oranges but we still have a little somethin' somethin' going on. By the time the trees are changing here in town Michigan will be covered in a foot of snow, ha!

4/40 Challenge

Cassie, on her blog, Back to Her Roots, issued her readers a challenge. In the forty days leading up to Thanksgiving, set and work on 4 goals. The idea is that giving ourselves some good momentum heading into the holiday crazy would help us get through said holidays without turning into Cookie Monster. Or is that just me?

This coincided perfectly with the 90 day sweat challenge, move for at least 30 minutes everyday, for 90 days. Thanks Jen! Thanks to that challenge, and trying to post something on Instagram everyday for it, I've been moving a lot more!

So I decided to tackle the two together. Here's what I'm working on:

Here's Cassie's beautiful printout. She's got it up on her website to download and print for free!

Any goals your working on now as we wrap up 2013?

In search of Fall

We found it!

We called a hotel in the same area as Zion's National Park to see what the leaves were doing up there. Some crazy lady told us, "we'd missed it". "All the leaves have changed and fallen".

Just 2 weeks ago when we called we were told to come the first weekend in November, or even the second. We thought we were golden. Especially since everything is still very green around here.

We decided not to listen to the lady and drive up to Zion's anyway and hope there was still some color left for us.

Remember when I said the lady was crazy? I'm glad we didn't listen to her. I'm also thankful for the park ranger who let us in even though we accidentally left our park pass at home. We had a fun afternoon surrounded by a pretty good lookin' fall.