The Christmas Crash

Indy was so excited to sit down with the adults and play a board game. He was doing fine until he wanted to play with the game pieces. When we denied him of that pleasure, he started to whine, cry, and throw a fit. So he laid himself on the chair that he was sitting on and protested. After a while he became silent...that's when we found out that he had zonked out where he laid.

climbing with kids: a day in the life of a new utahn

many of you have asked "how do you climb with kids?" Others of you have wondered how the climbing has been going since we moved to Utah. Here's an answer to both: a brief description of what a day of climbing is like down here.

It starts like this: I pack the night before. put everyone to bed early. make sure Halloween candies are handy and the laptop is charged.

wake-up. drop ben off at his work, and then pack up. when it's time to leave, receive notification that i won't be carpooling. wait for the stragglers, whom i find out are too lazy to pull of the freeway to have me follow them. so i meet them at the mouth of the canyon (after confusing texts and phone convos on directions).

get to the base of the climb. friend "A" knows me and likes me, and has offered to help with the kids. Other two climbers glare at me. They laugh when I ask them how to get my kids across the river.

Yes, river. because we don't climb at some kid-friendly crag, I'm beginning to wonder if they even exist down here. no, we climb at this leering limestone wall that has a river at the bottom. With one pair of gators.

Two sneering climbers leave. Fortunately friend A takes a kid for me so I only have to make 27 trips across the treacherous river in waders that go up to my crotch and have an ankle that is wider than my foot while carrying screaming child and gear.

the approach doesn't end there. because i mean, it was only a river crossing. too simple, right?

that's where the 200 yd mud slide begins. at about a 60 degree angle. so to start i crawl up it pushing Indy's butt up. slide down. play hot potato with friend A carrying Fisher up. Only dropped him once, and fortunately a tree branch grabbed his ankle. whew.

Hmm, so that's were the fun begins? Well, the warm-up is a .12a. It's the easiest climb there. so all the macho men onsight the thing... yikes! I take TR on it, fall at the crux, and finish wondering why I didn't lead it. oh yeah, that's because my kids are screaming at the base of the cliff (all 18inches of the ground) while said sneering climbers continue sneering.

Then we work on 5.13s. You know, since I send stuff like that all that time (right!) Fortunately kids are now busy eating chocolates, dirt, and whatever else they find while watching a movie. When they do cry (halfway up the 13a) sneering climberss kindly ask me to come down, so that they can have a turn (sheesh!) and the kids can stop crying.

So i come down (I'm whooped anyways) and pack up. Then begins the descent. I decide to make a head start before the kid-haters do their last climb. Going down the mud-slide carrying Fisher my little (new) cooler slides down the cliff. Slide is the wrong word. This thing bounces once, and then gets mega air and FLIES into the water. it catches a teeny branch in the water, we're talking twine-sized branch here, and waits.

so that's what would happen if I dropped Fisher.

then I fall. fortunately i land on my (very muddy) bottom and ungracefully slide to the bottom. whew, that's over. Friend A much more gracefully brings Indy down.

oh, and the cooler lost its branch. it's not a couple hundred yards down river. crap.

I slip the gators and start running through the deepest part of the river: we're talking mid-quads here. fisher tries to jump in after me. Friend A stops him, which means that he has to touch him, and if you know Fisher you know that that is an invasion of his personal space which results in high-pitched screaming.

oh well, i got the cooler. lunch and snacks are now total mush.

i take the kids across the river one at a time. then the gear.

Indy poops his pants. then pees on them. but, AHA I am a genius and packed extra pants. One sippy cup and one pack of wipes is lost to the river (a minor inconvenience with poopy diapers and poopy pants) but we are all safe.

Fisher keeps trying to jump in the river while we watch glaring climber try to redpoint 13b. So i strap him in his carseat, toss Indy in too, and shut the car. Then I lock it. Then I sit my muddy self down and talk with friend and watch the send, enjoying the quiet.

they want to hit up another wall. with only 2 hours of daylight left, i decline. said wall is supposed to have deeper river and a cattle-guard in front of it- tricky they say because you jump the fence and land in the river. doesn't sound fun in giant gators and screaming kids. i bail.

so that's how climbing with kids goes. does it suck? yeah, pretty much. but is it worth it? totally.

an apology to Halloween.

Dear Mr. Halloween,

It's not that I don't like you. Really. I've done lots of fun things with you this year. We went to the heritage park with my Mom. We even went on the night with free pizza and a trick-or-treating party. I forgot my kids costumes but we managed to scramble up a monster and a cowboy.

I also went to not one, but two ward parties. My children dressed up at both, and I even threw together a Luna Lovegood costume for one of them.

We also went to the this is the place park with cousins from Idaho. The kids got to trick-or-treat and wear costumes again. They even got to pet animals and ride horses in the Halloween spirit!

So please, Mr. Halloween, forgive me for ditching out on you this weekend to chase the warm sun in St. George. Forgive me for making my kids sit at the base of a climb all day instead of trick-or-treating. It's not that I love climbing more than you. Maybe I do. But I did try.

Love, Jennilyn

The Eaton Family Exodus

One July 4, Jennilyn found a pretty neat job opening on craigslist.com for a marketing communications manager for Ragnar Events. I applied and two days later was interviewed for the position. My quick time in Kaysville, UT for the interview consisted of three seperate interviews and then I was back in Rexburg. During the interviews I was informed of a race director position with the company, although I didn't show much interest. While following up with the man that would oversee the marking position, I was encouraged to apply for the race director position.

So on August 5, I applied for the position of race director and was called in for another interview. I left that interview with an assignment to read a case study and draft a proposal concerning the four questions at the end of the case study. After submitting the proposal, I was told that only the top applicants for the position got the case study (that always makes you feel good). They then called me in for another interview where I presented the proposal in front of four people. The commented on my document and asked questions.

The final step was to volunteer at the Ragnar Raley New England. On Sept. 9, they flew me out to Boston, MA where I worked and drove the back roads between New Haven, CT and Boston to set up portions of the course.

Two days after I got back from the trip (Sept 14) they offered me the job. I accepted and gave my two week notice at the City of Rexburg.

We are excited to go and sad to leave family and friends. This will be a good thing for us to meet new people and experience life in a new place. The job will keep me on my toes while loving it at the same time.

Kaysville or Bust!

Crack Addicts

Ben and I now share a crack addiction. While Ben is not quite as addicted as I am, he is also enjoying a "new" sport in rock climbing.

We recently went to city of rocks with a few friends. A good friend of mine put me on a harder crack climb than others I had previously tried, Heartbreaker 5.10d. I felt like this climb helped me get the hang of crack climbing, and got me addicted. Dean encouraged me to try leading it, so we have a few pictures of my first trad lead.

Ben is not quite so afraid of lead climbing, and didn't think twice about placing gear on Fred Rassmussen 5.8. He's been pushing himself in climbing, working hard pushing mentally, and finding out he's much stronger than he previously imagined. It's great to see him grow as a climber.

We had a great time with friends and I even had a few days to climb without kids! Enjoy these pictures, taken by an "aspiring" photographer, Dean Lords.

Fourth of July SWEETNESS

July 4th parades are always fun and games until you let your little ones fall asleep in the car with salt water taffy in their mouth.

The taffy was melting out of his mouth. It wasn't falling out, this was a steady stream of oozing chocolate taffy. It kept getting bigger and bigger as Jennilyn and I gawked at it.

Chocolate milkshake anyone?

We Like Rigby Lake

We tend to be regulars at Rigby Lake, it's one of the only kid-friendly places to swim around. Jennilyn grew up on the beach and I have always liked swimming, so we have that itch to get wet and splash. Rigby Lake is a lot nicer than when I was growing up. They have extended the grass, cleaned up a lot of the dead trees, and put in new sand. They now charge to go there, but that even limits who goes there. The crowds are limited and there are less scary people.

Ben trying to walk in shallow water with fins on.

Jennilyn getting ready to snorkle.

Indy trying to get as close to tossing his dirt on Fisher.

Indy at Rigby Lake.

Fisher in the sand at Rigby Lake.

Jennilyn Published

I am so proud of my wife. Jennilyn was recently published in an online magazine called "The Outdoor Parent." She is such a great writer, even after the editor hacks at the column.

Read the article at:
The Outdoor Parent

Good job Doll Face.

Teton Dam Half Marathon - 2009

After the Salt Lake City Marathon, Jennilyn wounldn't quit talking about running another race. "I'm going to run in the Teton Dam Half Marathon," she said. So he running didn't stop. Actually she was able to recruit Michelle, our sister in-law, to train with her.

She did very well on race day. Her race time of 1:48:24 landed her second place in her age division. She had a lot of fun and we are very proud of her.

Guess what . . . she is still talking about running. I think she gave me here list of races for the rest of the year and I counted 3 or 4.

I guess you can call running her healthy addiction.

"Fooling Around" with my wife

Jennilyn and I had some more fun in southern Utah on May 3-5. We went down to the Hanksville, UT area and met up with the Spring Summit group from BYU-Idaho. My brother Joe is a part of that group, so it was cool to camp with him for two nights and do some canyoneering.

We spent Sunday driving down to Hanksville and Tuesday driving back to Rexburg. This allowed for one full day to tackle two slot canyons. We hiked, squirmed, and shuffled our bodies through Monkey Business Canyon and Fooling Around Canyon. Both were considered slot canyons. This means that the canyon, as it continually drops in elevation, gets very narrow in parts. We had to use our whole bodies to squeeze both sides of the canyon walls to lower ourselves down the canyon. There are sections of rappelling where we used humans to anchor the rope.

Fooling Around Canyon had a lot of still water in it. There was a section where we couldn't touch and were literally swimming through a 3 foot wide canyon. There was also another section where we were twenty feet above the canyon floor, scooting ourselves through the canyon by pressing up on both sides of the canyon walls. This made it so that we didn't drop ten feet in to a narrow 6 inch corridor where we could have gotten stuck.

Jennilyn and I above the last rappel in Monkey Business Canyon in southern Utah.

Jennilyn as one of the human anchors.

Jennilyn up the canyon a little ways; notice how narrow the walls are.

Tight squeeze through this section of canyon. We had to wedge ourselves in this slot and hand our backpacks down to each other to drop deeper into the canyon.

Salt Lake City Marathon 2009

Jennilyn and I did it. Our third marathon. We trained all winter to run an April marathon. I don't really recommend doing an early marathon, training in the winter is pretty brutal. However, getting the marathon over early in the year makes the rest of the year seem like breeze.

For our first two marathon, Top of Utah Marathon and Teton Dam Marathon, we ran them side-by-side. This marathon, we ran our own paces. We've been curious how fast we both can run. We're curious to see hard we need to work if we ever want to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

We both came across the finish line feeling good. We definitly had our moments of wanting to give up, but we ended up pushing hard and both came 15 minutes short of our goal time; both of us ran a personal record during this marathon. Jennilyn: 4:14:03. Ben: 3:47:09.

USA Climbing Competition in Pocatello

USA Climbing put on one of our regions sport climbing series competition on April 4. I, Ben, wanted to know what one of their competitions were like. So we drove down to Pocatello, ID and signed up to climb. Poor Jennilyn, she didn't get to climb because she was a sport and watched the boys as I climbed.

It was a lot of fun. It was a top-rope red-point format. The climbs ranged from 5.9 - 5.12. I was the only adult that competed. Luckily there were three teenagers that climbed harder than me. I definitly like doing competitions because of the aspect of submitting myself to a certain format and time frame. It makes me work hard and lets me see where I am at in my climbing.

My family after a full day of watching daddy climb.

Ben on one of his warm-up routes in the ISU Reed Gym.

Ben climbing a cool 5.10 or 5.11

March 29-31 Moab, UT

Our summer started in southern Utah. Idaho wouldn't let go of the snow and wind, so we headed south and took advantage of the sun down there. However, we did have some wind and quick snowflakes, but it was much better than the snow storm they had in Rexburg while we were in Moab. We had a lot of fun with Dean and Heather Lords, Justin and Beth Avenius, Emily Stedman, and Chad Alldredge. Sitting around the camp fire was just as fun as the actual climbing.

On Monday we tested out our weak ability to climb cracks on beautiful red sand stone. Then on Tuesday we did some bouldering. I highly recommend Moab. The area is wonderful. Just the drive down there was amazing with all the different and wierd rock formations.

Jennilyn approaching the off-width seciton of the climb.

Ben stemming his way to the splits.

Moab daycare.

Jennilyn laying it back up a sweet crack.

Family updates...

So what has the Eaton family been up to these last couple months that's kept us too busy to blog?

Here goes:
Christmas!!
Christmas was great! We spent it in Logan, visiting with lots of family, including Grandma Kroff from Canada, whom Ben and the boys hadn't met yet.

Snow!!
We've enjoyed a season of sledding, snowboarding, and x-c skiing. Yes, I said ENJOYED. Despite my desperate hatred for the snow, I am here in Rexburg and my desire to get outside overruled my fear of snow this year. The boys LOVE sledding, and whenever we take them in our X-C ski trailer, they immedaiately fall asleep. So I go cross-country skiing at least twice a week now lol. Ben and I got to go snowboarding for Valentine's Day, and we had a blast. I hadn't been in almost 4 years!!
Running, sleep, books, and movies
These are our traditional winter-hermit activities. We like to do a lot of indoor climbing as well, but haven't been going quite as frequently as we'd like. We're training for the SLC marathon in April, which is coming up very quickly! So our nights and weekends are spent running. Naps are common for us as well, since there isn't a day that goes by that SOMEONE in this house isn't sick. Recent favorite books/movies: Madagascar 2, Wall-E, The Giver, Lord of the Flies, and Flipped.
We are still getting used to being a family of four in a one bedroom apartment (okay, I'm exaggerating, it has an office too!). There's been lots of trains, play-dough, tantrums, job applications (still applying like crazy), and looking out the window, wishing it was WARM...

Going Green

Since I've started "going green" (and therefore became the family hippie) I've gotten a lot of questions about what I do: Why go green, how do you make your laundry and dish soap, what cloth diapers do you use and where do you get them, what canned/packaged goods can I replace with homemade, etc. I usually claim that I'll email them a recipe and completely forget. So I've decided to start a blog about all my green endeavors, hoping to answer questions, encourage others to try new things, and make a small dent in the pollution and consumerism that is going on. Check it out, and spread the word. If nothing else, it'll save you a few pennies. Thanks!!

http://clippingcorners.blogspot.com/