Rock Climbing Adventures, Parts 1 & 2, and other misc. summer adventures

I love summer! Not much beats warm weather and all its glory, so says this desert girl.    Some of our recent activities include lots of game nights with our buddy Julie, (uberchrononauts seen above), lots of hiking, taking the dogs (Gromit and Julie's dog, Gromit's buddy, River) to the park, teaching Gromit to bike ride with me, and general basking in the balminess.


 We also went rock climbing at Mt. Erie twice recently.  The first time was my first time climbing outdoors, and Jon's first time since Australia!  It took quite a while to even find the spot, so after all that time, we only had enough time left to repel down :)  That was nerve wrecking enough!  Fun...but scary.  We roped in, repelled down, then hiked back out.  Rock climbing is not for sissies or the out of shape! 

The second time, now that we knew where we were going, we took Julie with us.  So now Jon's got two newbies with him :)  We found the spot a BIT easier this time, got all roped in and rapelled down, then Julie was the first one to try to climb up while I (learned how to) belay her.  It was...rough.  To be fair, she didn't have climbing shoes and still did fairly well. But this was supposed to be a doable medium route. It was not. I made Jon go next while I belayed him.  He needed to show us how it's done :) Even he struggled a bit, but eventually made it up.  Finally my turn!  The shoes definitely helped! Still didn't make it to the top, but made it up a respectable ways.  Better luck (and more strength) next time!