On Vacation

I'm blogging from Atlanta, where we've descended on my parents, all six of us. The house is a disaster, with dolls and legos and race cars scattered everywhere. We're here to both visit my parents and to watch Ella climb at Nationals. Today was the first day, and she had trouble with her first route in technical climbing. She climbs again in technical tomorrow, and if she climbs well and gets lucky, she'll move on to semis on Saturday. She fared better in speed climbing and will probably climb in semis tomorrow.

At any rate, I'm going to be out of touch for the next few days, with limited access to blogging and e-mail.

So, if you don't hear from me, that's why.

Just what the doctor ordered

It's not an exaggeration to say that the past few weeks around here have been particularly rough. And after weeks of illness, injury and multiple ER trips, I was about at the end of my rope. I had stopped eating, which is what I do when I'm stressed. I was worn out emotionally, mentally and physically. I spent most of last week counting down the days until Ella and I left for Colorado, trying not to worry about leaving the little three with B, who is still on crutches AND buried in work.

The trip was just what I needed to pull myself back together. Traveling with Ella was a breeze. She carried her own backpack at the airport and kept herself entertained on the plane, allowing me to read and knit. Once we were in Colorado, she was laid back and easy going and didn't complain or misbehave. At the comp, she was off doing her own thing with her coach, so I had lots of time to knit and hang out with the other parents.

I ate well the whole time, probably a little too well, and slept like a rock each night. Even though the weather was cool and rainy, it was a treat for me. Given that we are heading into the miserable summer heat and humidity that wears me out, spending four days bundled into jeans and sweatshirts was wonderful. Even running in the cold and rain felt good. It's going to be months before I can do that again.

I came home to a mountain of laundry, sticky floors, and a ton of work, but it all feels manageable. The four days of rest and the change of scenery, not to mention the break from tantrums, squabbles and dirty diapers, did me a world of good.

Colorado state of mind

Ella and I both fell in love with Boulder. She's already decided that she wants to go to The University of Colorado, but I'm not sure I'm OK with that. I told her I was too afraid that she'd be distracted by all the hiking, climbing, biking, kayaking in the area to actually study. She just giggled.

Here are lots of pictures, in no particular order because Blogger always seems to scramble them.

Throughout the whole trip, Ella wanted to take a ski lift to the top of a mountain. We never found a lift, but when we went to Estes Park, we rode the tramway, which Ella said was just as good.

When we turned the corner into Estes Park, and I caught my first glimpse of the "real" Rockies, not the foothills of Boulder, I gasped out loud. The mountains are just breathtaking, and very forbidding looking with the low clouds. I can't imagine being one of the first settlers coming through and being adventurous enough to see what was on the other side.

"Redrum, redrum." The Stanley Hotel was Stephen King's inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. It's not the hotel that was used in the Jack Nicholson movie, but it was used in the mini-series version a few years ago. These days it has a housing development in its back yard, and a view out the front of a strip mall. Not quite as grand a location as in its earlier days.

These are the Flatirons, which loom over Boulder. For most of our trip, it was raining, so we couldn't actually see the mountains. But on our last day, the sun came out, and the view was spectacular. The grey area on the bottom left of the picture is the talus field Ella climbed.

When we reached this talus field, Ella begged and pleaded with me to let her climb it. "This is what I dreamed hiking would be," she said. "Everything else we've done was just walking in mud." I finally gave in and let her go up. If you click to embiggen, she's the little green dot towards the top. I decided to take the path up instead of the rocks.

I found my dream house. It overlooks the Chautauqua meadow and the Flatirons in the front and Boulder in the back. It probably only costs a few million.

We drove up Fulsom Mountain on our last morning. Ella loved that we were above the clouds.

We wanted to go hiking along Boulder Creek, but it was roaring, and the trails by Boulder Falls were closed.

When we left Estes Park on our last day, Ella started crying because she was sure she'd never get to visit Colorado again. I had to promise her that if the gym in Boulder ever hosted another competition, we'd go to it. That satisfied her long enough for me to pack her in to the car and head to Denver. I really do hope the gym gets to host another comp. I'd love to go back. Next time I want to actually venture into Rocky Mountain National Park. We didn't have enough time on this trip to do it.

And the results are . . .

Ella and I got back late last night from our trip to Boulder, and we had such a good time. I have so much to write about, but first things first.

As I've mentioned a few times, Ella is a competitive rock climber, and we went to Boulder for the Division 2 championships. Division 2 includes Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Colorado. To qualify for Divisionals, the climbers had to compete at a Regional comp. Ours was about a month ago.

Ella is in the Youth D division, which is for kids ages 11 and under. Sixteen girls from Division 2 made it to the comp this weekend, meaning they were all pretty dang good. There was a pack of teeny girls from a gym in Boulder who were amazing considering how small they were.

On Saturday, Ella competed in prelims for sport climbing (technical climbing) and for speed climbing (exactly what it sounds like). In sport climbing, the kids had two routes to attempt. Ella was able to complete both of them, and she ended up in a 6-way tie for first, meaning five other girls also completed both routes. She placed 4th for speed. Top ten kids in each even advanced to finals, so Ella easily qualified for Sunday's events.

Sunday morning I was a wreck. The route was unbelievably hard. I sent the below picture to B and my parents to show them what Ella was up against. I told them I wanted to find the route setter and tell him to change it because what he had put up there was way too hard for such little girls.

In case you're wondering, that wall is four stories high. And the dark grey area is indeed an overhang.

The Youth D boys climbed first, so I got to watch how they handled the route. Not one managed to finish it, although two came close. My heart raced each time one fell. Even though the climbers are all in harness and on belay, it's still a bit terrifying to watch them falling through the air until the belayer catches them. It doesn't seem to phase the kids at all.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, Ella finally got to climb. My heart was in my throat the entire time. The scoring is based upon how high a climber gets on the wall and whether she merely touches a hold or gets a secure grip on it. I'd been keeping track of how high the climbers before Ella had gotten, and measured her progress against theirs. She managed to get a solid grip on the holds just above the overhang, which was higher than most of the other climbers. After she climbed, she was allowed to come sit with me and watch the final two girls in her division. After they finished, I knew Ella was at least in the top six, which would qualify her for Nationals in Atlanta next month, which is all I really cared about.

The results were posted an hour later, and when I saw them, I gasped out loud and asked a mom from a Houston team to confirm what I had seen.

Presenting . . .

The Female Youth D Division 2 Sport Climbing Champion.

Holy cow.

After I confirmed that she really had won, I told her coach, who gave me a big bear hug. He then told Ella. Her eyes got huge, and then she gave him that small quiet smile she gets when she's really, really happy about something. I started crying, just a little.

Ella also placed 5th in Speed Climbing, so she'll get to compete at both events next month in Atlanta.

Congratulations Big Girl!

Speed Climbing

Here's footage from one of Ella's two speed climbing routes. I'm pretty sure she placed in the top two for this event, too.

Speed climbing is a lot of fun to watch, especially the "big boys," as Ella calls them. They go up the wall so fast it looks like something from the movies.

At last summer's climbing nationals, it was announced that speed climbing is going to be part of the 2016 Olympics. Ella jumped up and down and cheered and then immediately asked, "Will I be old enough to go?" I love that she is so confident in her abilities that she is sure she will be good enough to go to the Olympics, provided she's old enough. I hope that confidence lasts.

Climbing Ella

Ella had another climbing competition today, this time at her home gym. This comp was the regional qualifier, and climbers advance to divisionals in Boulder based on today's results. The format was different than the others she's gone to this spring. Instead of having four hours to climb as many routes as possible and pick the five highest scoring ones, the climbers attempt four routes, with four minutes allowed for each route. They're also not allowed to see the routes before their turn to climb.

I dropped Ella off at the gym at 7:30 so she could go into the "isolation" room with all the other climbers and headed back to the house, where B was rallying the rest of the kids. I took Lily to hang out with one of her best friends, who is also in the same Saturday ballet class, and I dropped Campbell at a neighbor's. Elizabeth came along with me and B. She had the best time at the gym, which has padded floors and lots of squishy crash pads to play on. It's like a giant gymboree, a giant FILTHY gymboree.

Ella climbed really, really well. She tied for first in one event, which meant that she and the other girl went on to a Super Final. The competitor who climbed highest won. Unfortunately, the other girl was able to touch one hold higher than Ella did before falling. Ella placed second by two 100s of a point. She was thrilled to have gotten to climb a fifth route and to have gotten second. Best of all, today's climb guarantees her a slot at Divisionals in Boulder next month.

Which is a good thing because I went against my superstitious nature and bought plane tickets on Thursday for the two of us. I was fairly convinced that by buying tickets before she had actually qualified for the competition I had tempted fate and something terrible would happen at the comp. But it didn't, and life is good.

Ella also competed in the speed climbing event, which is just what it sounds like. Climbers go head to head up the wall to see who can do it fastest. We don't know how Ella placed because we had to leave and collect children before the results were posted. But she easily placed in the top two. I'll post a video of her speed climb soon.

Now I'm counting down the days to our trip to Boulder. I've never been there, and I'm looking forward to a long weekend in the mountains.

28 hours away

This afternoon, Ella and I are heading out for a road trip to Houston, where she has a climbing competition tomorrow. Usually B takes her to comps and leaves me at home with the littles, but this time, it's my turn. And I'm thrilled.

I desperately need some time away, and even though I'll have Ella with me, this counts as a break. We're spending the night at a good hotel, and we don't need to be at the gym until 11:30 in morning. That means I'll get to sleep until I wake up instead of being woken up at the crack of dawn by Elizabeth. And tonight I'll be able to lie in bed and watch TV without worrying about dishes or laundry or messes. It should be divine.

We've been having some pre-tween issues with Ella lately - she has mastered the art of rolling her eyes so hard that we can hear it - but she is so thrilled about this trip that I think she'll be on her best behavior. It will be some good bonding time. Lily is a bit jealous, but B has promised her a movie night where she gets to pick whatever movie she wants and eat popcorn until she is stuffed.

Someone asked whether B's mom would be helping him while I was gone, and I said that I had no idea. Not only do I not know what plans he's made, I don't want to know. Worrying about what's going on at home will only ruin the fun of being gone, so I've vowed not to do it at all.

So I'm packing my knitting and a book for the hours I'll spend at the climbing gym waiting for Ella to compete, and I'm packing Ella's flashy pants and lucky socks. As soon as she gets home from school, we're hitting the road!

Look out, Houston. Here we come.

Monkey Girl

This past weekend B took Ella and Lily to Louisiana so that Ella could compete in her first rock climbing competition. She was supposed to go to one in Dallas last month, but it was the weekend after Elizabeth was born, and we were a tad preoccupied.

Ella has been so excited about this competition that I though her head would explode if she had to wait another day.

She did a great job climbing, placing second in her division. I'm still not sure exactly how the competitions work. The basic explanation is that they have a set amount of time to climb as many "problems" as possible. Each problem is worth a certain amount of points, and they get scored by the total number of points the rack up. Ella's final score was 8,000.

B said that Ella climbed as many routes as she could, but that there were some she couldn't manage because she wasn't tall enough. Another six inches of reach, and she'd be fine. He also said that other climbers and spectators would gather to watch her climb and to cheer her on. While watching the video of her climbs, I could tell she was a bit embarrassed by all the attention.

Here's a clip of one of her toughest successful climbs. I think Lily may have been doing the filming, which is why it's so unsteady. And B is the one spotting her.

Rock star

Ella has joined her first official team. She's now a member of the Austin Rock Gym Junior Climbing Team, which means B and I are now responsible for driving her to and from practice twice a week - at rush hour, in far south Austin. Sigh.

I took her to practice on Tuesday and managed to snap a few pictures while she was bouldering, which is when they climb without a harness. I try not to get too nervous when I see her 20 feet off the ground clinging to the wall by her fingertips, but sometimes it's hard.

In the above picture you can see the coach's hands. I'm not sure what good she would do if Ella fell from that height, but I guess they need to at least give the appearance that they're spotting the kids.

Here Ella was climbing "problems." All of the grips on the walls have colored pieces of tape under them that mark different routes. Ella had to climb the wall using only the grips that had certain colors of tape under them. At least that's what I think she was doing. I'm still figuring out how it all works.

Soon she'll be traveling to competitions. I'm not sure how exactly they compete, but I do know it's a big thing. The head coach just got back from the Junior World Climbing Championships in Australia. The US kids took 3rd overall.