For Memorial Day, some friends invited us to come meet them and do some climbing at City of Rocks, Idaho where they were going to be camping. (Click on any picture for a nice big slide show)
We managed to get out of the house by 7:30 am to start the drive. We had been told it would take about 2 1/2 hours, but it ended up being 3 1/2 from our house. We got there at about 11:00 which, unfortunately, was too late for Pete to get out on the first climb with them. They did a 3 or 4 pitch climb first thing in the morning and were hoping to be back by 10. But, after eating our lunch and sitting around at the campsite waiting for them with the wives and children for about an hour, we decided to go do some exploring.
This was our first stop. I think this one was called "Camp Rock" and there were pioneers' names scratched into it. Pretty cool!
Then we went across the road and had to take the stroller through some mud! George didn't mind, though!
Some flowers Elle picked for me.
We drove around for a while, and George fell asleep so I went out with the kids this time and Pete stayed in the car. This was a cool rock to climb up on that had a bunch of little pools on the top.
Finally, we spotted our friends driving to a new climbing spot! We parked and got everything packed up and ready to go then hiked down to the climb with them. (Hiking is kind of hard when you're carrying a 25 pound baby!)
Here we are waiting for the guys to get the 2 ropes set up. They had to belay from the top so it took a while to get it all set up. George was so funny and just laid down on the rock!
Elle (5yo) got to go first. She made it about half-way up which was the tricky part, but she did a great job and that was still really high for her!
George just had fun playing in the dirt and being outside. What more could a little boy want?
Mindy (9), waiting her turn.
Here goes Ethan (8)!
Look at my girl's form!
Mindy and Ethan both made it to the top! It was probably close to 100 feet high so that's pretty impressive for them! This picture kind of shows how high it was. Here, Ethan, in yellow, was about 1/3 the way up. You can see the guys on top belaying. It was a little difficult doing it that way since they couldn't see the climbers so we were constantly yelling up at them. It worked out ok, though, and everyone had fun! (except for one of Rob's boys who had recently broken his arm and wasn't allowed to climb)
After all the kids were done, I went up the one the boy in the red is on. It was a really fun climb! It was mostly really easy, but there were a few tricky parts, and the fact it was so high made it seem more impressive. I wore a finger-less cycling glove over my hurt right hand. It's nice and padded so it gave it a lot of protection. It was a little weird climbing with a glove on, but it was totally fine. I didn't hurt it at all! The hardest part was coming back down over the edge since I went up and sat on the top for a few minutes to let the guy belaying me rest and to chat and admire the view. I was slow, and my heart was about to jump out of my chest, but I just backed over without any panic attacks! Whew! Pete was watching me from the bottom and had to shake his head at me. I was impressed with myself for even being brave enough to do it, and not getting stuck at the top!
We left as soon as I finished because it was getting late. Even though we all only got to climb once, and Pete didn't climb at all, it was still worth the trip. It was a really cool place to see and I'm glad I got to climb!
We drove for about an hour and a half before we came to a town with food! I think it was Snowyvill (population 171 or something like that), and we stopped at Mollie's Diner.
George LOVE the homemade chicken noodle soup!
Mmmm, we were sure hungry from some home cookin'! It was a nice stop. We got home at about 10:15 so everyone was very tired! Luckily at least Mindy and Elle slept. Ethan and George just have too much fun looking at everything to fall asleep in the car.
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