The young men and women in our ward go to Joshua Tree for an annual rock climbing trip with Brother Briggs. I had never been before because I either didn't go when I was in YW or it wasn't going on back then -- I don't remember. I would also like to take this introduction to confess that I am listening to Christmas music right now and loving it. It's the gospel-y type, so it felt more acceptable when I changed my Pandora station to it. I just had to get that out there. I have been fiercely in opposition to the listening/celebrating of Christmas before it's due time; namely, after Thanksgiving because everyone seems to go straight from celebrating zombies and vampires to the Savior's earthly mission. Interesting, no? Anyway, I must be getting older and becoming less passionate about frivolous causes. Christmas music is good and Thanksgiving doesn't have great selection, let's be honest. And, as I said, it is gospel-y, so it's not the stuff focused on greed and reindeer.
On the subject of getting older, Glen and I both enjoyed our birthdays last week/end. It was Bronson's first birthday, so we mostly did things for him haha. We've always been pretty low key on the whole birthday celebration side.
The weekend we went out to Joshua Tree, it was blistering hot back home and a cool 88 degrees of heaven out in the high desert. It has been incredibly hot this year and I am seriously looking forward to like 70 degrees... That isn't asking too much, but it feels like it is possible for the weather to never cooperate with that request. We arrived a little later than expected, but CA traffic, ya know? Plus, our car kind of missed the exit because we were enthralled listening to Carrie Underwood's rendition of "How Great Thou Art" and couldn't be disturbed by directional signs.
We got there and a couple of the girls and I went exploring up a rock until we realized we didn't have flash lights or proper shoes for the conquest of the rock. We had a devotional after dinner about the different ways to go about climbing and how it relates to staying securely fastened to the commandments of God.
We were interrupted in our attempts to go to sleep by the inebriated, male neighbors next to the girls' campsite. Them, and the stars. It was hard to close my eyes because it has been since moving from HI last December that I had really seen stars. Well, both of those and the coyotes howling and cackling all night; I had a dream that it was the girls doing it, but woke to find no one awake. But I did get some rest and we got our courteous neighbors back by getting them up before dawn because we were readying breakfast and our things to head out to our rock climbing adventure. The sunrise was gorgeous and it was my first one in a long while.
After all the youth had their chance to get up the rock, there was still some time for me to try my hand. I tried on all of the climbing shoes, but none of them fit. I tried going up with shoes that were three sizes too small, but my toes felt like the Hulk in a straight jacket; ready to burst. So, I came back down, freed my feet, put back on my New Balances, and climbed up with a ton of slips.
I just really like this rock formation.
This is Scotty climbing on the left and a girl from the Euclid ward on the right, Mikayla (that is spelled wrong for sure).
Glen belayed everyone all day. In the hot, hot sun. He's such a stud. Also, look at those freaking Chum's hanging off his ears. So awesome. We found them in the carnage that is his parents' garage. We've been trying to clean out and organize with little-to-no success up until last month when we got rid of the storage unit and have more room in the garage than in years... Oh, the joys of the D.I. and recycling bins. I love purging so much. Also-also, Glen's gonna kill me for putting this picture in because, well, because. But, it's the only photo I took of one of us and that's just how it goes sometimes.
We had tons of fun and can't wait to go back and take more pictures of each other doing awesome things haha. We got home and took a long nap after shower time. A big thanks goes out to all of the leaders that plan this trip every year and most especially to Brother Briggs who snagged us camping sites and brought all of the climbing gear and took these here photos of me climbing!
Aloha.
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