Halloween? Das ist gut, ja.

Brian and I as Austrians-- yodel-ay-he-hoo! B may be Scottish, but he makes a dang cute Austrian.

*WARNING: Some photos may be too spooktacular for some.

I have to say that throwing a dance party for 15 people in our garage felt more nerve racking than hanging on a rope 200 ft in the air. I mean, I have no problem dancing. I was quoted in my senior high school yearbook (caption of a dance photo) as saying, "I love dance because I like to groove and shake my booty" (although I still deny ever saying that). But my point is: why not be a little crazy? Okay, I know that throwing a Halloween dance party isn't exactly the zenith of "wild and crazy", but for a bunch of parents who don't use substances to overcome inhibitions, it might as well be.  

Leslie and Clay as June Carter and Johnny Cash back from the dead.

We had everything from the Pope to Moses and from Star Trek to the Mafia. 

1st Place dish: Severed Fingers by the Allreds-- aren't those amazing??

1st place costume: Trevor Knutson

 We had Moab t-shirt prizes for the first place dish and costume for the night. The Allred's shortbread severed fingers were amazing and won by a landslide. And in order to appreciate Trevor's win as scary gothic dude, you have to have seen him before. The transformation was pretty incredible.

This is the gang getting ready for the Halloween trivia game (ghoul girls vs. Bat boys). The boys won by one point and took home the coveted Wendy's Jr. Frosty coupons. 

We had kept the dance party a secret for the most part, and had cleared out the garage with nothing but a boombox, balloon chandelier, orange twinkle lights and a strobe light. Brian's genius and creative halloween story brought the gang out, we pumped a little Lady Gaga and the 45 minute dance party began. And for the record, I really do love to groove and shake my booty. 

happy fall.

deja vu

No, your eyes are not fooling you. Yes, this is another post about us at Indian Creek. But I mostly just thought this picture of Brian and Liesel was too cute to pass up. 

GR joined us this time (B's coworker from Teton) and while I think he would have rather climbed without the babysitting responsibilities, he was a good sport about singing "Wheels on the Bus" while belaying. 

Leslie nearing the last stretch of Jane Fonda's total body workout; a 140ft 5.11. This climb lived up to it's name.

They don't call it Indian Creek for no reason; Leslie reading a book to Owen next to a ruin. Another good day at the crag. 

report card

So my mom is a little crazy, if you haven't noticed. I mean, she's always hauling me around in the backpack somewhere outside. . . as if Indian Creek wasn't enough, she had to go to Arches, the Needles and bouldering last week.  Then when we get there she tries to get me to stay in one spot, when all I really want to do is crawl around and explore.This is me trying to ignore her while she sings "Yankee Doodle" like a broken record in hopes that I'll look over and smile. I held out, even though that IS like one of my favorite songs. 

I tried to convince Owen it was time to take off for some quality baby time putting choke-able sized rocks in our mouths and eating sand. Unfortunately our moms were too fast. 

This is me trying to ignore her while she chases me around with the camera. Man, I just LOVE sand right now. It is so cool. I love to eat it, to run it through my hands, to stare at it really close, and to even throw it into my eyes. Although that was more of an accident. 

I'm pretty impressive at finding the smallest objects buried in the sand (like small thorns, leaves, rocks, wrappers) and leaving them in my mouth for a really long time. Sometimes I'm so good at concealing them, mom doesn't even notice until after I wake up from a nap. 

Did I mention she hauls me everywhere? That's okay, because I get her back by pulling her hair when I'm stuck in this backpack for too long and biting her shoulder really, really hard. I just like the way it feels. But every time she turns and looks at me with her eyes big and says "no" really loud. I don't even know what that means, but I think it means "slow"-- so I just open my eyes real big back and go in real slowly with my mouth open and bite her again-- I think that's what I'm supposed to do, right? 

Besides all small children and live animals (including the neighbors chickens, which are AWESOME), I get really excited when I play with my cottontail. I mostly like to carry it around in my mouth and rip all the fur off with my teeth. I'm also pretty amazing at getting my dad to do anything I want. In the morning, he comes and gets me even before I've started crying. I think he must sense that I'm awake (meanwhile mom is still snoozing away). Overall, I guess they're doing a pretty decent job. . .

Indian Creek

At the base of the buttress on the way to Supercrack.

Van and Kendra (friends from the Tetons) came into town Sunday afternoon for a blitz trip to Indian Creek (and a pork chop and killer game of Scrabble). I know all of you blog readers have heard about IC and the Hays' obsession with splitter sandstone cracks-- but this place is world famous for how amazing it is. As a matter of fact, we were the ONLY Americans there. Everyone else was either from Europe or Israel. 

The above photo is B leading Supercrack-- a classic line that I had never done until Monday. Wide and exhausting but nothing beats the satisfaction of grunting your way up and smacking the chains (anchor) 120 feet later. 

Liesel watching daddy rap down. 

This is Coyne Crack. This is Brian on Coyne Crack. This is Brian right after (mini) whipping on Coyne Crack. This is Coyne Crack before I spent 30 minutes jamming my way up it. . .whew.  

The group at the base of Anasazi. Check out Liesel chillin' in her tent. She deserves the star award for being the world's best baby while we climbed literally all day. 

Previous Indian Creek inhabitants. With those little hands they were probably sending 5.12s. 

This is why Liesel was the world's best baby. She couldn't get enough of the giant sandbox, bugs and rocks. She was even carrying around an adult fist-sized rock in her mouth while crawling around.

Brian getting a belay on Anasazi. 

Me on Incredible Handcrack. And it was incredible. 

I've never climbed 4 climbs in one day at IC before and I was so dead by the end of the day I could hardly brush my teeth. I figure it's only going to get harder from here (mobile baby with opinions, colder weather . . .etc) so I wanted to take full advantage before I'm climbing vicariously through Brian. 

friends and fun

After 8 years of friendship, Nicki and I still seem to find things in common. This weekend we bonded over our mutual love for McDonald's $1 hot fudge sundaes with nuts, quoting Bon Qui Qui, the great outdoors and shorts that fit amazingly well. We met at Badger Creek's outdoor adventure camp back in '03 where we worked as counselors and despite the fact that we've never really lived in the same place since, have stayed friends since. As an added bonus, my college roommate Jo came for a day as well. Jo and I have been friends for 10 years now and she is the bravest and most unique person I know. She can knit you owl potholders, fix your derailer on your bike and lead sketchy climbs that I can barely do on top-rope. It was an awesome ladies filled weekend:

At the Ice Cream Parlor on Kane Creek. I led my first post-baby trad climb. It was really easy, but still. Leslie came and joined the ladies day out too-- earning us some serious cred with all girls and two babies! 

Nicki and I hiked up Mill Creek the next day. It was perfect fall weather. Then we used our Wendy's coupons for their new cheeseburger, which I must say is absolutely delish.  

This post wouldn't be complete without a shot of Liesel sitting in some picturesque location. Maybe that should be our new blog title: Liesel & Landscapes. 

get out

This week started off with an interesting trip to Indian Creek with Brian, Leslie and babies. It reminded me of when Brian and I were engaged up in Alaska and the universe kept conspiring in our favor-- except the opposite. Not that it was bad, it just wasn't as good as it could have been. But with kids in tow, I've learned that outdoor excursions usually have about a 50/50 success rate. Some of the successes include: backpacking in the Tetons, first trip to Indian Creek and Table Mountain. The top of the fail list is mos-def fording the San Rafel river while holding 5 month old Liesel above our heads and bush-waking Tamarisk for 8 hrs. Didn't hear about that? Yeah, lets not go there. It actually felt amazing to shove my hand into sandstone again and climb 130ft of perfect splitter desert crack. That might sound like jibberish to some of you, but if you've been to The Creek, you know what I'm talking about. 

Now that Brian is at Arches he is sometimes scheduled for the late shift, leaving me a daddy-sitter for much needed time alone. This week I was able to sneak away and mountain bike a new mellow single-track and I LOVED it. And today we went climbing at Wallstreet-- the most kid friendly climbing area in Moab (as long as you can ignore the semi trucks flying by). I did one climb 3x in a row while listening to Brian say over and over: "make your body like iron" in a Schwarzenegger accent.  I so heart Moab in the fall. 

say uncle

Brian managed to beat me at chess 6 times in one weekend. Either his theory that I self-sabotage when I can taste success is true, or I should just stick to games that involve at least some luck.

Liesel's latest

Yeah, I think that would soothe me to sleep also. . . not.

First pigtails-- Owen's 1st birthday party

After eating a sand-covered strawberry

gettin' some post-play-in-the-hose naked chill time

Our little helper-- while we weed and mow the grass, she makes adorable noises and tries to eat the marigolds.

 

Capitol Reef

Between eastern and western Utah there is an expanse of the most amazing territory on earth. Seriously. On Monday we decided to take a family fall trip to Capitol Reef. Ever since we drove by this sleepy little national park on our honeymoon, I've been desperate to go back-- and in less than three hours of driving through the desert and itty-bitty towns, we arrived to perfect weather, few people and one of those days that just keeps getting awesomer (oh, that's not a word?). It was like a smaller Zion; huge red cliffs, cottonwoods galore and lots of grassy green lawns to sprawl out on. Plus orchards of peaches, apricots, cherries, pears and apples (although only the apples were in season by now). Capitiol Reef did not disappoint. We had such a good time. 

We started out the day with a 5 mile hike through Sulfur creek. 

Almost the whole hike is in ankle deep water and was really kid friendly. There were a few very inviting waterfalls and potholes, but it was a little too cold for jumping in. 

Apricot orchards. LDS pioneers settled in this valley next to the Freemont river planting dozens of beautiful little orchards. Since they're historic, the park now maintains them and allows visitors to gorge on fruit for free and pick and take home whatever they want for $1 a pound. Not too bad for organic. 

Liesel's first taste of berry pie at the Gifford Homestead. 

We spent a few hours in the orchard picking and eating apples. I think we ate a dozen between the two of us-- tried all of the varieties and analyzed which ones were best. They had ladders, fruit pickers and bags to load up on and we were the only ones in the whole place. 

I want to live in Torrey, UT. Between Boulder mtn and Capitol Reef the town is loaded with beautiful pioneer homes and is also home of the 5th best burger in Utah (according to the 2010 SLC burger guide). They were SO good. And so were the sweet potato fries.

I wanted to check out this pioneer school house and as I was exploring the rocks nearby (there's quite a few Freemont petraglyphs), I found my maiden name carved into the rock: Hatch, 1911. Liking this place must be in my blood.