Sunday, April 15, 2012

Haiti

The boys in Labadee Haiti

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Big ship

I've loaded the blogger app so maybe I will be motivated to post more ... Just trying it out.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Blooms in our yard

It's a bright sunny day here today so I took some pics of the blooms in the front yard Above are my daffodils in a row, and behind them is the Magnolia bush which is bloomed out in light pink.
Above are the daffodils from another angle.
Here's the front view of the Magnolia bush. We pruned it way back last fall, so it will take a while to fill out again. I just love this bush ... it's the first one to bloom in the spring.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Alek's Championship Flag Football Team

IMG_2946 by tony-chester
IMG_2946 a photo by tony-chester on Flickr.

The Seahawks win the championship!

Alek's Championship football game

IMG_2710 by tony-chester
IMG_2710 a photo by tony-chester on Flickr.

Alek scored the first touchdown in his championship flag football game on Saturday. He played center, snapped the ball then ran downfield. He was totally open, and the quaterback threw to him, he caught it and ran into the end zone.

This is not a picture of that play ... but it's a good one of Alek running.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Another pic of Ben

This one was taken by the photographer at Peak on Saturday ...

Peak Experiences Comp - 3/5/11

We went up to Midlotian Virginia on Saturday for the first top rope competition of this season. Ben did very well, placing 2nd in Youth D boys. His top 5 scores were each 5.10's and 5.11's, which are very difficult routes. Here's some pics of him climbing, and my best description of what's happening in the picture ...

He's getting ready to do a cross-over move to that big yellow hold on the right
And he makes it - it was tricky because you have to dyno (jump over) to it, and your body swings, and if you don't control the swing then you'll flip right off the hold. Ben got it! He's been practicing these at the gym.
Ben has gotten so tall over the last year, he can reach a lot further now.
The climbing walls all have different angles, so you have to control your body over the angles.
The next few pictures follow this amazing route - it was the most difficult route he completed, and was a 5.11. Here he's starting to turn parallel to the ground to traverse the arch. We have a similar set-up at our gym, only it's 6 feet off the ground. Here, Ben's about 30 feet off the ground.
Following the route along the underside of the arch. Ben is anchoring his feet while moving his hands.
The most difficult move was from the last picture to this one - going from hanging under the arch, to reaching up and shifting your entire body weight over an up to start moving up the wall. Last year, there was a move like this in one of his season finals routes, and Ben couldn't make it. He's gotten so much stronger.
Now the hand and foot holds get really small and flat. It takes a lot of strenght and balance to move up the wall without much to hold onto. And, get over the big triangle!
Perfect execution over the triangle.
And he's up to the top! 70 feet off the ground. He looks back at the belayer to ensure he gets full credit for the route.