Climbing Indian Creek

Landon had his fall break after Woody's wedding. So I took a few days off of work and we headed into the desert.

Indian Creek is just outside of Moab, UT, and is a world-class climbing destination. We are fortunate to have the Creek just a few hours from Salt Lake City. The thought of spending 4 days in the desert was never very appealing to me. Landon went climbing at the Creek during his fall break last year and his stories and pictures convinced me that I would probably survive.

The thing that is so amazing about climbing Indian Creek is that the park is miles and miles of sandstone cliffs with huge cracks reaching up into the sky. "Crack Climbing" is a specialized type of climbing that I am very NOT accustomed to. It involves "jamming", which pretty much just means cramming your hands into the cracks until they get jammed and pulling yourself up on that jam while you cram your next hand into a jam. Because of his, every morning we taped the backs of our hands so that we wouldn't rip our skin off. Watch a bit of the video below to get an idea of what I mean.

Here's a video of Alex Honnold climbing in Indian Creek

We both left with rock-burns on our fingers and landon's entire fore-arm was raw and is still healing (although he's climbing the Wasatch as we speak). It is a more painful kind of climbing but also very fun and challenging. 4 days of climbing was too much for me - i couldn't even do easier climbs come Sunday morning - my body was absolutely fried. A lot of people spend several weeks  at a time climbing at the Creek. There are hundreds and hundreds of cracks. It never ends.

We camped next to a wonderful Swiss-German man that was traveling around the U.S. for 4 weeks looking to go climbing. So we climbed with him for a few days. Here's a glimpse of some more crack.

We tried to keep Duvick in the shade as much as possible. Even though it was Autumn, it was still in the 80's during the days, which was only magnified as the heat was radiated off of the rocks. Hot.

Dooney sorting our the gear. Notice the dirt - we were in the desert after all.

Sunset from our camp site.

Dooney and Adrian. There is a river that runs through the middle of the park that is a wellspring for Cottonwoods. Kind of beautiful.

Sorry no pics of Doons climbing - he is the real rock star. But when he climbs, he is not hooked into the anchors as I am, so I don't take a chance to take a shot of him. He took one whipper on his very first climb which made both of us a little more careful for the rest of the trip.

Thumbs up on my way down. Had just sent my first 5.11, which in climbing world, is nothing. But in Hannah world, it's epic.

We found a crack in a cave. It was awesome.

Eating lunch beside the stream.

 We arrived home Sunday with our beautiful car, all of our possessions, and our own bodies covered in a crust of red desert dust. Dirty and exhausted, we were happy to be home. Although, Landon was itchin to get back out there.  We both a a great time and Duvick slept for 2 days straight.

Ushering in Autumn

I'm REALLY enjoying a relaxing Saturday.

I'm getting our Autumn up in here: Pumpkins, Halloween decor, McBrayer Caramels, and rotating my closet from summer clothes to winter clothes.

Two weekends ago we had a wonderful opportunity to watch Landon's childhood friend marry his beautiful bride. It was a wonderful occasion. Landon was honored and grateful to stand beside Woody as he married Caitlin. We both really were blessed to be surrounded by a group of loving Christians - I was overwhelmed with that feeling of spiritual unity - it has been awhile since we have been in a community like that.

We also got to see some of our long-lost friends that are very close to our heart despite our distance. They are our only friends that are really in our same season of life. We have a lot in common and we have a lot of history together. We were so blessed to spend a morning with them in Dallas. We love the Franzens!

Things I'm Loving Lately

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or for those of you less familiar - the final book in the 7 book series. I've loved reading Harry Potter.

And, I think that Emma Watson is so freakin adorable:

Fall is here.

Running. I'm still running about 3 miles at a time. But I've also been incorporating some extra leg-strengthening exercises to prepare myself for ski season.

Anticipating ski season. We just traded in our first-never-born child for ski passes. I've been literally dreaming about the taste of snow. I know it sounds ridiculous, but i just love love love the snow and the fun it brings.

Pinterest. All of my brilliant friends have the greatest taste and best ideas. I'm loving receiving your DIY crafts, recipes, and fashion tips through an online pin-board of beautiful pictures. If you want an invitation, let me know. It's really fun to glean ideas from friends.

Eating tomatoes from my own "garden".We planted toms and herbs on the fence this year. I think the greatest harvest was probably the wealth of knowledge of how not to plant a garden, but we got some yummies out of it too.

Trying new hair styles. It really is fun to try new things - I don't get creative enough with my hair. My friends have posted a lot of neat style ideas on Pinterest, which had me wearing my hair in a different way each day last week (usually just do a french braid or pony tail). Even check out how I wore my hair climbing this weekend in the pic of me above.

Notch Lake

Another beautiful weekend was spent in the Unitas. Truthfully, we were skiing in the Uintas all the way into June (they didn't even get to plowing the road until June), so we couldn't do any over-nighters in the local mountains until late summer because everything was still covered in snow up there until mid-July.

The mountains here are extremely accessible. We can drive for 45 minutes and be at a trail head off the Mirror Lake Highway that runs from Salt Lake to Wyoming right through the heart of the Uinta Mountains.

We have climbed/backpacked to Ruth Lake in the past and we love it - very beautiful area. So we decided to hike to one of the other many lakes that are in that similar area. Notch Lake was a very easy 1.5 mile hike slightly downhill (not kidding - more difficult to hike out than in!).

Notch Lake itself was beautiful and less crowded than Ruth Lake. And the rocks there actually are in the sun for a good amount of the day, so it's a much warmer climbing destination than Ruth Lake, which is in the shade year-around.

I took this picture immediately upon waking. I just can't believe that we have beautiful experiences like this all of the time right here near our home. I had someone message me this summer and ask about all of the "exotic" places that we are always visiting. She thought I had a gazillion vacation days (or was unemployed). I explained to her that all of these places are just weekend destinations within an hour or so from our house. She couldn't believe it. 

It never rained on us

They love each other

Duvick didn't sleep a wink the entire time. 

We put our tent right on the edge of the lake. 

I even went for a quick (and extremely cold) swim after an afternoon of rock climbing.

The tent was also right on the edge of the climbing cliffs. We could walk up and do a few climbs, swim in the lake, climb some more, eat lunch, climb, etc.... Can you imagine anything better? (besides, maybe, skiing?)

A lot of the climbing was steep and juggy so I had a more difficult time with it since i am a weakling, but i just love to watch dooney send these climbs - he's a really incredible climber. 

He thinks he's a mountain goat.

Duves slept for 2 days straight once we got home.

City of Rocks State Park

This summer was different than any others.

#1: we didn't move. This freed up a lot of time. 

#2 Husband taught a summer class 

#3 I continue to work 40 hours a week 

With this being the first time (ever - not kidding - EVER) that either of us have had a 40/week 9-5 job during the summer, we didn't make it to Georgia or Colorado for weeks like we usually hope to. Instead, we made some weekend escapes to some fun places nearer Salt Lake City.

We took a 3 day weekend to City of Rocks State Park, Idaho (3hr drive) for some amazing rock climbing. The rock there was beautiful. It was nice and cool. The climbing was extremely accessible (read - not much hiking) and the camping was spread out and secluded but in designated spots (read - not much hiking). Which made for a fun trip full of relaxation and enjoying being together.

Looks like a climbers paradise, eh? it was!

Seeing the snow up there made me wonder if we could bring our skis next time. Probably not. Very pretty though, huh?

As a novice birder, I do get excited to see birds that I am familiar with in the wild. We saw plenty of Turkey Vultures. They were lovely.

Doons setting up a rappel. Isn't the rock beautiful?

Of course, I had to get one of my boys being "loving", as we call it. Duvick LOOOOOVES being outside: camping, hiking, skiing, and rock climbing are his favorites. He's in the right family.

and because i don't really like to leave the blog with 666 posts, here is 667 just to make me feel better. i'm not weird. 

Just a teaser for a post coming soon:

Putting food on the table

The husband is now back in the full swing of classes and homework and reading and paper writing and homework, and more, etc.... So his wife is back in the kitchen.

This means that I need your recipes. PLEASE. Dooney is amazing at choosing recipes and going to the grocery store - it'll take an entire hour out of his day. Just now I realized that I've been looking through recipes for 30 minutes and I only have a chicken salad picked out - gimme a break. I truly suck at this. So, I was thinking that if you could just leave a link to an online recipe that you enjoy, it would really help me out. Because I know I can count on you.

And to make this a fair trade, I am sharing our favorite recipe with you. This is our go-to meal. We started eating it every Sunday during ski season because it's quick and easy and we always have the ingredients in the kitchen. and after a weekend on the slopes, the last thing you want to do is pick your brain for tonight's menu, grocery shopping, and preparing a meal. So this is what we have. It's delicious, cheap, vegetarian, and easy and most of the ingredients come from your cabinet (not your refrigerator) so I always keep my pantry stocked with these things.

It comes from a childhood friend of mine's sister's blog. Ha! Who is an amazing homemaker with a large family. So this recipe makes enough for 3 meals for us and it's just as yummy as leftovers. (thanks, Kristen, you are a life saver!)

Here it is:

Rice and Bean Wrap by the Hopeful Homemaker

You should just click on the name of this recipe to go to her website. She does such a good job with her instructions. You know, Pioneer Woman style. Just trust me.

(her picture)

Well, we are still in the dog days of summer - with record breaking temps last week up to 98 and 99 degrees a few days. Just nuts. With these temps and school finally in session, my evenings have been less busy (read: we're not out every night playing in the mountains).

Doons is back at school and is completely submerged already. He is delivering a paper in London in two weeks, has constructed his comp. committee and is hard at work perfecting that paper, taking classes and is teaching "God Faith and Reason" again this semester. I think he is finding it more and more rewarding (my take, not his). He even ran into an old student of his in his department and asked her how her summer was and what she was doing there. She told him that she loved his class so much that she was officially changing her major to philosophy. Wow! The hubs is truly making an impact in the lives of his students - it's awesome. Now that the U is part of the PAC-12 i'm hoping he can hooks us with some football tickets this season.

Every year around this time i get antsy for Autumn. "Why can't you just appreciate things the way that they are instead of wishing they were different", the hubs asked me last week (or he said something very very close to that). I don't always wish for things to change, I really am content here. The only thing that kills me every year is August and September. With school starting it feels like it should be fall but in reality we are far from cooler weather. Last year we didn't get much of a fall at all, with the massive snow we had in October and the high temps in September. It was nuts. I'm hoping for some beautiful Autumn this year, but I certainly will not complain if snow comes instead.

I've been running a lot. Which I am loving. Really loving. And i'm trying to throw in quirky leg strength exercises so that my body can transition to the slopes a little easier and more quickly this ski season.

I was browsing my blog in the crafty section last week while I was looking for a pattern for something...and i missed the crafty part of my life. Once the evenings get dark, I will be inside and putting together some fun stuff, I'm hoping. But as long as the sun is shining, I find it difficult to abandon the day to the inside world. And, as you know, I love to share my crafts with you, so you should see some more blogging as the summer wanes. I know, I know, I keep telling you that I will have a presence once again in this good 'ol blog. And truthfully, the only reason I am writing this right now is because the husband practically made me. But he knows what is good for me. And he knows that I love it (and love you).

There are two things I will blog about in the next few weeks (see, i'm being realistic): My 10 year reunion - i know you want to hear about it! And some of our summer adventures. So that will happen. And I won't forget.

I had a talk with a friend at work last week about grace. "I've never thought to ask a religious person this question," she said, "what is your definition of grace?" This moved us into a discussion that was interesting for the both of us. My version of grace (undeserved favor) was pretty different from hers (an elaborate gift) but both compliment the other, especially in regarding the grace that we have received from God through Jesus Christ. It's amazing, that in my work culture  (agnostic/atheist, mostly), when I speak about my faith and my beliefs, I for the first time hear my own words unfiltered by the religions culture that I always took for granted. Faith means something completely different here than anywhere else I have lived. And every time I speak of it, I must start with very raw definitions - never taking for granted that anyone knows what I mean when I use religious language. Everything needs to be deconstructed first or else I am completely misunderstood. It's a challenge. But it makes me unpack my religion into it's segmented parts and survey and scrutinize everything at a very basic and raw level. I am grateful that I follow a God that is not packaged into religious terminology and heightened emotions of his followers. God remains completely God without me, without you, without music or tithing or philosophy or church or science or mountains or religious ceremony and experience. and I am nothing without Him.

recap:

Colorado. Backpacking. Dad. Fun. Turkey Vultures. Rock Climbing. DelGrossos. Babies. Beer. Fondue. Putt putt. Elk. Littleton. Hair Cut. TEN YEAR REUNION. Roxborough State Park. Mom. Fishing. Landon rescued a Horse. Columbine. Dogs. Janelle. Shopping. Running. Platte River. Road Trip. Landon. Relient K. Farmers Market. Memories. Coffee. Mosquitoes. Grandma. Clear Creek. I70. Buffalo. Picnic. Black Dress. Frozen Yogurt. Family Pictures. Buddies with Babies. Love.