Fall Cookies (or a good reason to eat 2lbs of icing...)

my friend jamie loves sugar- in almost any form. she especially loves frosted sugar cookies. she is leaving for a 2 month paragliding-travel adventure in colombia next week, and we weren't going to be able to decorate christmas sugar cookies this year. so today we decided to make fall holiday cookies. i threw in a couple christmas ones to keep everyone on their toes. Eric assisted with the decorating as soon as he got home from work. little did we know he had such mad sugar-cookie-decorating-skills. he put us both to shame. although i win the prize for most cookies decorated, if they weren't necessarily the most detail-intensive.
we represented halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and a couple spring-fever cookies to boot.






the blue-ish picture in the foreground is one of eric's masterpieces. it was a fall tree loosing its leaves under the crescent moon. i'm not sure how he managed to represent all that with our limited media and small space. but he did. i already ate that cookie.

Indian creek, version 2.0

if i laughed more than i climbed on the first trip, then i made up for it on the second trip by climbing nonstop. i returned to the creek about a week after my girls trip for 8 days. Eric was able to join me for 5 days, which was fantastic. he also brought he fabulous photography skills to the creek, which made the documentation of this trip pretty phenomenal.
we met our friends BJ and Lacy from washington there. and made a new friend from washington, Dave.

my next trip this week is to Red Rocks outside of las vegas, nevada to climb with my brother Nelson. i'm really excited about this trip. nelson has recently started rock climbing and i'm looking forward to sharing the rope with my brother!




dave hauling his pack to the crag. i guess the real question here is not how heavy dave's pack was, but how heavy (or light) mine was.... ??
i think dave may also have been imitating one of the near-by cows here too...


gotta have a rainy day.... we still got in 3 climbs this day though- the standard indian creek daily quota. seems you just can't c limb more than 3 routes in a day down there. of course some of the routes are 160 feet and count as two. but mostly the climbs are just so stout (hard) that you can't physically do much more than that. plus, it leaves time for just laying around in the sun...or shade. depending on the temps.


everyone needs a 'whip it' outfit. this is mine.


E and me


this is quite possibly my favorite picture of the entire trip. indian creek has a problem with human waste. there are 2 portapotties in the whole canyon, and this one is the closest to all the climbing/camping. so everyday, like clockwork, between 9-10:30 am climbers line up to do their daily business. the line can get quite long- especially on the weekends. this particular weekend we were all waiting in line and it was just comical- people from multiple states and at least 3 countries were represented. i rallied everyone to jump for the photo- it was bonding. we don't even know half of the ppl in this picture...




excuse station. 5.11





Pente. 5.11



Eric, Dave, and BJ.


Lacy and I. it was so hot this day, we were hiding behind a small boulder trying to find some shade.



Lacy getting her lead on in the Creek!



this is me impersonating a 'wilted flower'. it was so HOT! we all wilted that afternoon and couldn't even climb... all i could think about was shade and water.




coyne crack simulator 5.10/11?
eric's photography is awesome!!



yoga poses at the base of the cliff



REI catalog shot!!


Lacy and I



Scarface 5.11





Pop Quiz, 5.11

Team Girl Squad does Indian Creek

it's not called "Rocktober" for nothing. it's been one busy climbing october and it isn't over yet. to start the month off i went down to indian creek with 3 other girls, tamara, liz and jamie. i had the funnest trip i've ever had to the Creek. we giggled, talked, laughed, danced, sang, and climbed non stop for 3 days straight. my body was sore from the laughing at the end of the trip! i've never had so much fun!! we did so a fair bit of climbing, but the pictures were spread over 3 cameras, and i only have my pics to post.
we had a dance party one night and got voted off the campground island the next morning by near-by campers. they did ask us nicely to not be so loud the next night. the next night we had karaoke, but wrapped it up by 10:30 so as to not make the neighbors more mad. we met a swiss german named Krischa, who had dance moves straight from the European dance clubs. we ate like queens, slept in a 8 person festival tent, carried heavier packs than any of us had ever carried before (ie- no boys around to pack-horse the load), and got attacked by viscous goatheads (a sharp thorn from a weed). we took a lot of video, and laughed a ton. it was perfect. i was sad to leave.






my dear friend Jamie belaying. and this photo proves we did do some climbing.


Jamie and i reproducing her classic "happy deer in the headlights" look. we think jamie walks around with this expression permanently on her face.





the four of us. this picture more correctly depicts us than the next one where we are actually posed. we basicaly didn't stop giggling and/or talking the entire time.


we are so cute! go team girl squad! from top L : Tamara, me, Liz. front: jamie


what is actually happening here is jamie is trying to hand liz an extra piece of gear to help with the next person top roping the route. but we asked liz to strike a pose and this is what she did. we call it "interpretive lowering"


liz and I


classic