Danger & Adventure Around Every Corner: Wyoming: Part One

On the morning of the 4th of July, we drove to Lander, WY to start a two week climbing trip. We were so excited and loved being back in our mountain town element. We have great friends who open up their home to us and let us stick around probably longer than they really want. WE LOVE YOU STEVE & ELLEN! :)

Lander is one of those towns that feels like home to us. It's a smaller town and I do believe there is no Walmart which makes my heart sing. It's really the climbing community that we gravitate to. They have been extremely welcoming to our entire family for years and years. With tons of established climbing and the amount of rock with potential climbing is unheard of...it's makes Daddy's heart smile. Now, keep in mind, we don't visit Lander in the winter and we are usually there in the prime seasons. I'm sure there are days, weeks, months that feel miserable because of the blowing snow and icy temps but the rest of the year is pretty darn amazing.

Anyways, we were ecstatic to be back at "home!" We drove straight to Wild Iris to get in some routes before it was time for fireworks.

Axel found a sweet seat!

Lucas was excited, this boy grew up at the crag.

This is pretty normal for Daddy...stretching his forearms while starring at his route. :)

After a little rain and a few routes, we drove to Lander. To our surprise, the 4th of July celebration was in full force when we arrived.

We drove up to Steve and Ellen's just in time to take part in some firework fun.

I wish we would have been more prepared and purchased some goodies too. Then again, you can buy fireworks in WY any day of the week. Our friends shared too...THANK YOU!!

Smoke bombs were a favorite.

I wonder how long that will stay on the driveway?

We stuck to the normal climb one day and "rest" the next. It worked out great and maximized the climbing potential. Our rest days looked a lot like this...

Slip-n-slide! It was hot most of the time so water play was perfect.

This is what climbing days usually looked like..

Sam & Axel became good buddies all over again.

Lucas chatting with Daddy.

This is what dessert time looked like...

Smores time!! It was fun to share meals and desserts with our friends. This night was extra special with the sweet fire.

Mr. Steve and Anabel...happy girl she is! Looks like Daddy's a happy guy too!

This is what "rest days" looked like...

We did the traditional waterfall hike up Sinks Canyon.

It was hot but so beautiful.

It was so fun to see that the boys remembered how to hike!

Rest days ended in camping nights. This was perfect for us to get up early to climb while the boys slept in.

Ahhhh...so cute!

We made fun rock drawings in the dirt at the crag. This is our dancing skeleton and his skeleton dog.

Back in town...

Fire truck exploration!

We hit up the park a few times.

The International Climbers Festival was in full force which is always a great time.

Axel befriended an inch worm.

Daddy almost won the rope coiling contest!

Mommy participated in the Climbing Festival Dyno Comp. An old injury flare up to my right ring figure definitely limited what I could do but it was fun anyways.

Lucas and Axel were reunited with Timmy O'Neil who was the MC for the festival. THE BOYS LOVE TIMMY!! Who doesn't?? This guy is super loveable.

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Flash Back! Red River Gorge Rocktoberfest in October 2009.

Lucas was 4 years old when he first meet Timmy.

Yep, this is Axel when he first met Timmy at age 0. Check out those cheeks!!

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Horrible photo but very loved! More Timmy time!!

The whole fam enjoying the festival speaker night.

We did a lot of climbing and have hours of video to prove it. However, not many photos of Mom & Dad climbing. We did get some of the boys who really enjoyed finding boulder problems to work out.

Here's Lucas...

Here's Axel...

Lucas tried a super hard one and after a meltdown, got back on and did great. He learned that climbing is not always easy or obvious but can be tackled in small chunks. Okay...we hope he learned that. :)

They even roped up a few times. Here is Lucas...

Here is Axel...

Axel stopped mid climb to check out the pretty girl...too funny!!

This was the scene one evening at the crag. If you look closely, you can see Daddy (light blue shirt) hanging from a tree. We got a gaggle of friends to come out to climb so Daddy could get a few photos for his book. We had a great time and had the treat of watching Jonathan Siegrist climb a super hard route called Moonshine 5.14d which Wyoming's hardest climb. It was established by BJ Tilden a Lander local who was there to witness the send. Again, I have no photos but Daddy does. I was the videographer. Anyways, there was lots of cheering and celebrating after his successful go.

BJ congratulating Jon.

Happy day and so fun to see someone climb at such a high level, he's a strong kid!

Colby didn't forget to give Jon a little taste of the real stuff...his stashed jar of Moonshine is rough stuff!! He's not so strong when it comes to this kind of moonshine, who can blame him?!