Thanksgiving?!

After looking at the photos took over Thanksgiving, I realized that it's really hard to see that it was Thanksgiving! I was on climbing/cabin mode and barely even documented the fact that we were doing something exciting for the holiday.

 

I guess it does give you a few snapshots of what we do when climbing season is on. Our "climbing season" varies dramatically depending on trips planned, the weather and having to work around the school schedule. On average, we have 4 climbing windows during the year and plan our workouts accordingly. We train for each so we can be super strong at the right time for our climbing windows. It makes climbing so fun and really is worth all the hard work.

 

Not having real rock within 4 hours or even a local climbing gym has made it quite a challenge to climb as Florida residents.  If anyone knows Daddy, when there is a will there is a way!!! He has equipped our house with a treadwall, hangboard, campus board, air conditioners and dehumidifiers. We've made it work, although, not ideal. To work with Lucas' school schedule, this past climbing window collided with the holidays. It was stressful at times but also magical!

 

Anyways, this Thanksgiving we headed to our cabin in Kentucky. We were super excited to get out of Florida, climb on real rock and cozy up in our awesome cabin. Our cabin really feels more like "home" than our house in Florida does. It's the lack of hills and rock here, something about that wears on this mountain family. We need to get back to the mountains soon! 

 

Here is a little taste of what our Thanksgiving trip looked like. Yes, we did have an awesome turkey dinner and numerous pumpkin pies were consumed...just no photos!

 

Daddy remembering what real rock feels like!

Our friend enjoying "tea time" while the boys occupy themselves in the background. This is a really good photo in that it shows what most of the adults do when not climbing and what the boys do. They do great exploring, sharing hot chocolate, building forts and using their imaginations!!

We woke up to snow one morning. Axel was a little confused and thought Christmas has come early. He was under the assumption that it has to snow to be Christmas. I thought we had worked this out last year in Florida but hey, this was Kentucky. Yep, same rule applies big guy!

Cozy hot chocolate morning.

This is what most rest days or after climbing evenings look like. Harry Potter has taken over!

Axel and Ed enjoying each others company.

The boys made a cool fort in the rhododendron bushes...garden, doorways, closets, rooms, secret passage ways. They love showing off their cool weapons and tools. I can't believe what great friends they have become and really play so well together. We don't see them half the time while we are climbing. We hear them but they stay so busy and really do love being outside. How about those cool hats?!

See, no turkey...just these two little hams! Happy Thanksgiving!