Steve, Stephanie, & Little P: Joshua Tree

Steve and I used to climb. A lot. Steve was climbing twice a day during the summer we met (his muscles certainly helped his case in the attraction department), and then his last semester at BYU he had already been accepted into optometry school so he didn't go to class half of the time and opted for climbing instead.

(While I worked full-time. Hmph.)

Rock Canyon was a 2 minute drive from our apartment, AF canyon was 20 minutes, and Moab was 2 hours and 45 minutes away. We also used to mountain bike A LOT. Our last summer in Provo we trained for a race up Snowbird Ski Resort and both placed!

Needless to say, we miss getting dirty, sweaty, and feeling the adrenaline while pushing ourselves to our limits. We had planned a trip to Joshua Tree out here in Cali for some camping and climbing two Thanksgiving breaks ago, then found out I was pregnant. I was about 10 weeks along, still assuming we were still going when Steve said no.

me: "Um, what?"

Steve: "You're pregnant! You can't CLIMB!"

me: "Yes I can! I'm not even showing, and I won't lead climb. I'll only top-rope. We're going!"

Steve: "You could kill our child. We're not going."

me: "Yup. We're going."

Steve: "Nope. Not it. No battle. Times infinity, plus one."

Dang it.

(We have this thing. One time I didn't want to do something, so I said "Not it." Steve replied with "Not it, no battle." He won. Then the next time, the same thing happened, except I added "Not it, no battle times infinity!". I won. Next time he added "Not it, no battle, times infinity, plus one." He won. That is the end-all be-all. You can't beat times infinity plus one. You just can't.)

So we didn't go.

After Chicago, we had a couple days to ourselves so we talked some friends into it and we went!

It was 106 degrees during the afternoon. Naturally we arrived in the afternoon, and it really wasn't bad in the shade! The babes played in their little baby kingdoms...

backcountry.com cover photo, no?

The adults played with their big-boy toys (trucks)

We grilled some steaks and veggies (One of the best dang steaks I've ever had. There's something about grilling it over a flame that makes it taste amazing. See? We still indulge! Although it was organic :)

Parker loved camping! He loves the outdoors, and daddy's trucks, and other bebes, so I'd say the perfect combination.

Steve was gnawing on some licorice, at one point Parker saw it and beelined for it with his mouth.

The kid knows what he wants and isn't afraid to go after it.

Brewers and Tuckers, our new camping buddies

Paul took a lot of these shots with his wide-angle lens

I saw the sun setting and knew I had to go get some shots with Parker, so I set him up on the rocks. Steve later said watching from afar, it looked like not about the safest thing ever...it's OK, I know CPR.

(JUST KIDDING MOM! He was totally safe...)

Love this guy more than words. so lucky to have such a smiley little boy!

This really is the best age so far.

We all slept decently well, for having a baby in with us...we're on the hunt for a bigger tent that we can stick our pac-and-play in. Every time I moved, he moved, etc. Oh, and the sun woke us up at like 5am. RIIIIIISE and SHINE!!!!!

On to the climbing. So it took us like 3 hours to figure out where we wanted to go, find a bolted route (most of the climbing in JTree is trad, where you set your own anchors into the rock as you climb), get it top-roped, and for 3 of us to climb once. That's it. Then we went back to grab everybody else and everyone got to climb another time or two.

I was less nervous that I thought I would be, it's been 2 years! But really it all came back so easily.

It also helped that it was an easy climb, I think a 5.8/9!

Felt sooo good! Kissed the chains at the top, it's tradition!

I could definitely tell that Steve was nervous as he started out. He did a little bit of a harder climb, I think it was a 5.10/11, but still abnormal to see the nerves coming out!