Biking, Great Basin, a Baby and Broadway!

Wowzers! What adventures I've had...

I got to ride in the Antelope Island Moonlit Bike Ride again this year, which was loads of fun, and really quite magical. We decked out our bikes with glow sticks which made my peeps easier to find in the crowd. And what a crowd! I didn't know there were so many bike riders in the world as showed up at this little community ride.

I have the greatest friends!

Here's Emma gnawing on her bike. We decided with all the glow stick spikes shooting out of her helmet she looked like a vicious lizard.

I went for the bug look. See my little antennas sticking up?

 Week before last we got the ol' crew together and spent a couple days climbing in LCC. I guess we were so busy climbing nobody thought to take pictures. So, here's my one token picture of our climbing multipitch trad routes for two days. It's a pretty great picture if you know what you're looking at. This is Emma working up a hilarious route that requires something in between offwidth climbing and stemming (lots of grunting and squirming). This is a picture of her hanging in the crack by her pelvic bone, which I discovered to be a really useful technique when I climbed it. It's pretty cool to see all the remnants of pioneer quarrying in this canyon. There are several abandoned blocks of granite that have the hand drilled marks in them. The weather would change from a zillion degrees to rainy mid-climb, and it proved challenging on some of the routes to figure the best belay options, and find "walk-offs" which turned out to be terrible hikes in climbing shoes... Over all I think we had a good time. Probably the most noteworthy event was that Becka led her first trad climb. Ever! and she did awesome. Which means my list of sport climbing friends is growing shorter and shorter. But I am quite proud.

After B&B left Emma and I headed off toward Great Basin National Park. Anyone less nerdy would probably not have enjoyed it so much. But we were geeking out the whole time! Here are some of the fascinating things we got to do:

1. Dig for trilobites.

This dear man has a little stand out at a quarry where they've discovered trilobites in abundance. The operation is called U-Dig, and you can rent a rock hammer and a bucket and go out digging for fossils, and you get to keep what you find.

We found quite a few! Here I am pointing out a smaller specimen. They look sort of like little scarabs.

Emma is a great digger. She's got a knack for finding things...I think she could be a professional treasure hunter.

Here's Notch Peak that forms a really beautiful skyline.

 And then we headed to Great Basin...

And there's some weird stuff out there...

2. We got to see the oldest living things on the face of the earth! These are the Bristle Cone Pine Trees. The oldest ones are 5,000 years old!! They have this sap that protects them from bugs and disease and a very short growing season which allows them to conserve energy the rest of the year....

They're such beautiful gnarly trees.

3. We camped near the base of Wheeler Peak, the tallest peak in Nevada.

Here's a serene little mountain lake. (A great place for bathing...perhaps?)

4. GB is also home to Lehman Caves, which house some fantastic formations. They say that when Absalom Lehman opened the caves to visitors in 1885 he was charging a dollar per person! Which got you entrance into the cave, a guarantee that someone would come in and get you if you didn't emerge within 24 hours, a candle in a coffee can to light your way, and a souvenir, which is why so many stalactites have been broken off.  

But there are still loads of formations. And they are impressive. Especially when you consider they grow at

an average rate of 1 inch every 100 years!

Here's a view looking straight up at the ceiling.

This is a very rare formation called a shield. Our guide could explain stalactites and stalagmites and helictites, popcorn, bacon, drapes and columns, but apparently nobody knows where shields come from.

GB feels like it's in the middle of nowhere. But, that's part of its appeal. The sky is so big!

We had fun doing a little bit of hiking. It feels so open and big in the desert...and then you start noticing all the little tiny details around you...this is why hiking is so fun! We had some down time too and were able to just wander around, read, hang out by stream or around the fire.

Our campsite (the night we had one) sat in a stand of aspen trees, next to a river.

 

 Emma's such a swell pal.

I love aspen trees, and mountain meadows...

and marmots...

5. We also certified as Junior Rangers! "Dumm-dah-dah-dmmmmm!"
 Wear it proudly Emma.

And then to top things all off, upon my return home, our new baby Elizabeth was born! She caused quite a hullabaloo getting here, especially for her poor mom! But she made it! And she's perfect and beautiful. We've all decided she's a keeper.

She loves having her head massaged. Here I am rubbing her head; her little eyebrows go up and she looks so content!

She was pretty sleepy so she didn't open her eyes very much.

And she's pretty tiny, especially in her uncle's arms.

Here she is with Aunt Karina.

I was fortunate several months ago to snag a couple tickets to Wicked! The night finally arrived and me and my madre headed to Salt Lake for a performance that turned out to be stellar! The cast did a fantastic job, most especially Elphaba, who blew me away! She owned the stage and her voice was amazing. What fun! If you haven't seen this show you should because it's a blast. How I love going to the theater!

This was mom's first exposure to the show, which made it even more fun. Good good times.