Awww, my first EB web baby...

My first web launch with the new company. Look at that code, isn't it gorgeous?

"To the beach, to the beach, to the beach beach beach beach"....

Is it just our family, or does everyone have their own little beach march?

So, the boys enjoyed a day of beaching and fishing (well, fishing was mostly Tyler) on Saturday. It was the perfect beach day, although it was a bit rough. Grant-man enjoyed making belly molds in the sand and occasionally giving it a little taste. Colin-bear spent most the time watching the water...his highlight, I'm sure, was wrecking his Aunt Mandy's sand castle! Parker was just Parker and enjoyed bossing around the big giant waves. And Tyler, well...there's the beach and his cousins, he was a happy camper.

My bug, Grant-Man, Colin-Bear, and Parker PiBS...


Uncle Scott, Ty's, and his big giant fish...

Seneca, Yokum blowkums, and Sunday laziness....

So, it was a good trip to Seneca. We climbed some single pitch stuff on Saturday. I didn't get to lead anything. :-( But maybe next time, it was good practice anyhow. I did get to use my gear a bit for some practice pitches on top rope. Of course, I managed to bang the hell out of knee on the first climb...so, that made for a grumpy me the rest of the day. errrrr

The plan was to camp out Friday night and stay at the motel on Saturday night just because I'm a girl, and I'm girly like that. So, we pack up camp and head to the Yokum's (the motel) and low and behold...they overbooked. My reservation had apparently been unreserved. They tried to stick us in their 'other' hotel, the same hotel that boasts the infamous "Room #9" (5 points to the faithful blog reader who knows what this means...). So, yea....our options were to set up camp again or head back. Being bitter about my pseudo-reservation, coupled with my knee, I decided to head home.

I'll spare you all the details of my lazy Sunday. Unless you all are just dying to hear about my bathroom and kitchen floor cleaning adventures... Oh, did watch the new Potter movie. Much like the book, it wasn't bad but it wasn't all that good either.

Scenes from the weekend...

My little good luck charm! The Grant-man going to town on a snack pak, who knew that this is just what I need before FNP. Yup, people...I won $11! Another night like that and I'm outta the negative.


We went to Alexandria on Saturday to enjoy the fireworks (that didn't happen). But it was fun, got to walk around Old Towne Alexandria...which I haven't done in a while. They were selling lots of neon glowy things, some of which resembled a light saber. So, guess who wanted one? And guess who stood their ground and didn't give in to the constant, persistent, maddening pleas? Tyler with his parrot buddies...




I'd post pics from the bridal shower that took place on Sunday, but it's way too raunchy for my G-rated blog! Sheesh, Meagan.... ;-)

Say hello to my new car....

You guys like it?! Somewhere underneath, there is a blue 2007 Camry with supah cool KNEE AIRBAGS. The knee airbags are not available for passengers, not available for Tyler (until he starts driving), and not available in the backseat. But, you know, I just really appreciate all of the concern! Such caring people you are. I was not able negotiate ice cream and donuts to the terms of the purchase, but with the extra money I'm saving by not buying a Lexus...I'm going to hire a cabana boy to feed me ice cream and donuts after all my service appointments. :-D

The Camry...no, the CR-V, how 'bout a Lexus...or there's the Subaru...

Okay, tomorrow's the big car sales day. It's final decision time. And, of course, now I'm starting to question whether or not I should just fork up the dough to fix the squeakiness and just cross my fingers that nothing else goes wrong with the Jimster (right...).

So, for a while the Camry was the forerunner. Knee airbags (go ahead Tuna, you know you wanna say something), side impact airbags, and fuel efficient. It's the most practical car of my list...

But then I got to thinking about all the road trips and all the times having an SUV came in handy. So, back to the SUV's I went. I refuse to pay for another gas guzzler so the mid-size SUV's will have to do. Here goes...

Highlander - Dig that it's the biggest of my options (tho, not by much) and it's not too bad price-wise. It's also ok on gas. Test drove it a couple of weeks ago, I actually don't like that it's such a smooth and quiet ride...where's the sport in that?! So, it's not really an SUV...but a UV. By the way, this and the Camry were both approved by the little one.

RAV4 - I'm liking the gas efficiency on this one. It's a bit cheaper than the CR-V, which always helps. But it is smallest of the lot.

Other considerations that didn't quite make the top 3 includes:

Forester/Outback - Forester was surprisingly small and Outback was a bit pricey and no knee airbags!

Passat - Really liked the safety features and interior. But Camry got the edge thru resale value and I hear VW's are a pain when it comes to repairs/maintenance.

Used nice cars - Don't wanna pay high interest rate and from what I've seen, the new ones aren't all that much more in price.

So, there you have it. Any suggestions, comments, or random thought is welcome...

Old Rag Epic, Part II

The trip started out okay. We got up to the summit. And yea...that was merely the approach. We downclimbed a bit from there and climbed a couple of routes. Then the epic ensued...

So, after we left the area, called the 'Summit' area, we went to get to the 'Sunset' area. This was the same place we tried to get to the last time we went to Old Rag (please refer to prior post). Well, the bushwhacking didn't get any better this time. Here I am, trying to follow the fella's and being that I believe I was the only one that was carrying both rope and gear...I think it's safe to say, I had the heaviest of loads. And we're full on bushwhacking and not only did I have the bonus of the heavy pack, but I also had the luxury of being the fly magnet. So, again I decided to head back to the main trail. But then they found the area up ahead, so I decided to stick it out. But after another 10 minutes of bushwhacking and hearing that these would be short climbs, I decided that it just wasn't worth it, so I told the guys I'd meet them at the car.

Now, I was fully aware that I didn't know the exact way back to the trail. But my directional instincts are usually not that bad. But not in this case, I got soooooo lost!! And I was fine, up until the point where I realized I couldn't hear the guys anymore and there were no hikers within earshot. Matter of fact, the only thing I heard was the buzz of the extremely annoying flies that never left my side. And I'm not talking a stroll through the woods here, I was scrambling over boulders and having fights with thorny branches. Anyhow, so back to being lost.... I've reached a section where the rock looked really familiar...so I felt hope. Only to climb over and see that there is nothing but thick crap all around me. I had busted my a$$ getting over that boulder only to find myself even more lost. And it was at this point, I went into full panic mode and starting cursing myself for not going to Sportrock instead. So, I drop my pack and scramble back up the boulder and decided to utilize my vocal chords and started yelling for the guys. 10 minutes goes by....nothing. I scramble up further, try again...finally, someone responds. Long story, semi-short...I get rescued and my rescuer's only advice to me was that if I wanted to meet people, next time use match.com. Nice. If I hadn't been so insanely grateful for being back on the path, I would've felt pretty silly. :-/ No more bushwhacking at Old Rag for me.....EVER.