Good ol' 26

Sitting at the red light, I glanced over at the car next to me and smiled at the child in the seat, the DRIVERS seat! I could have sworn the kid was 10! That's when it hit me that I am getting old! It was a decade ago that I was sitting in the drivers seat for the first time, trying to see over the steering wheel. 10 years later and my driving skills are still just as bad, if not WORSE then they were when I first got my license and I still can't see over the wheel. AWESOME!(I blame it on being Asian but whatever)

Birthdays used to consist of planning what to do and who to invite. Now its just another day. However, its a very special day because I get to share it with my best friend, my husband! At least I'll never forget his birthday! This year I had a lot on my mind. We drove up to Joes Valley to climb for the day. Half way there we realized we left our climbing shoes! Biggest mistake! Emily let me use her baby shoes but they were still pretty small and painful! Made me feel like I was in China practicing the old custom of Asian foot binding! The disappointment didn't last long. Not having shoes to distract me allowed my mind to wander. I was overwhelmed by all the beauty that surrounded me. I sat in the middle of the desert and pondered on the 26 years of life I have been given. Crazy how time flies. Feels like yesterday I was playing barbies with my sister and pretending to be a vampire in the gully with my little brother. So much has happened in 26 years. I've made a few good choices and MANY MANY MANY bad choices since then! haha But good or bad they lead me to where I am now and I can honestly say I am the happiest I have ever been. Without those bad times, I truly wonder if I would sincerely appreciate just how good my life is now, how lucky I am to be alive, and have such positive people surrounding me.  Every morning when I open my eyes, I wonder how I got so lucky. How did I get blessed with a family that never stopped loving and supporting me, even after all I put them through? When I was in the worst spots in my life, how did I meet such great friends and a wonderful husband that pulled me out of darkness? I will never understand but I will thank god every day for them. Not many years ago I wondered how much longer I could go on. How much more pain and suffering I could put myself and loved ones though. I wanted it to end. Now I have so much drive and passion for life! I can't wait to wake up and live another day! I ate dinner with my family and wandered the desert with my husband & friends for my birthday. Out of 26 birthdays, this one was the best! I can't wait to share the rest of them with everyone I love! What a beautiful weekend!

Now that I am done rambling on and on, let me share something exciting! Even though we usually don't buy each other birthday gifts, my sweet husband let me buy something I have always wanted, a camera! I have no idea what any of the buttons do but I still am so excited! I feel like I'm playing that game operation . Any time I touch it, I worry I did something wrong and or am going to break it! Haha hopefully I'll figure it out soon. Gives me something new to learn and explore!

Here are some pictures we took in Joes over the weekend.

Em and I got on Kill by Numbers but kept falling of the last move. Trent flashed it! He leaves all summer, doesn't climb and then comes home and kills it! Ugh. Gingers must have super powers!

One thing I love about climbing is that it's not only a physical challenge for me, but it is also a mental challenge! I have to learn to overcome the fear and doubt in my mind. I have to think of how MY BODY can make these problems work. What beta works for some people, may not work for me. (Because I'm a midget) I love trying to figure it out. Its like a puzzle! The feeling of solving it is unlike anything I've ever experienced.

 Went and worked a cool tufa problem . For short people, you have to pretty much dino to the last move. I kept pussing out on the last move and finally I was like "Okay, I'm just going to go for it!" Ready....Set....GOOOOO!!!!! Grabbed the lip, my hand cheese grated off the top, flipped me back and I fell to my death! Okay, maybe I exaggerated but that's seriously how I felt! Had a headache and my back hurt the rest of the day. At least I tried right? The picture is hilarious to me

Leaving his shoes didn't stop Bryce from climbing. He just sent all our projects in his Chacos. No big deal...

Got to work Minute Man V6 for a little bit until the rain came POURING down on us and made us call it a day.

I may say it a lot and I will keep saying it, I LOVE MY FRIENDS! They have forever changed me for the better. They bring out the good in me. Em is my rock. Together we encourage each other. We challenge ourselves to be the best we can be. I am grateful for her inspiration to me. Trent and Farmer bring so much laughter to anyone around them. You can count on them to bring smiles to your face while you climb. Bryce and I have really good people in our lives that we owe a lot to. Never once have I felt judged by these people. We all have the same thing in common, to live a happy healthy life to the fullest of our capabilities. There are MANY other people who we share this same vision with and we love them all!

 

Rain Rain Go Away- Joes 09-06-13

A group of us went back to Joes the first weekend of September in hopes of better weather than last week. It still rained but not as much. We were able to catch breaks in the rain to climb.  The group consist of Amber, Tyler, Bryce, Jessi, Dane, Farmer, Joey, Diana, Emily, Trent, and Crystal.

 

I feel very grateful to have friends that live healthy lifestyles and have extremely positive influences on my life. The excitement was contagious and everyone was happy to be outside spending time together. Regardless of the sporadic showers, we had a great time!

 

 

Something about old buildings really intrigues me. They seem to be full of character. As if they have a secret story to them. Every time I drive by this old abandoned structure I want to stop by and explore it. Since we were bouldering near by, I finally got to step inside.  When I walked in there was broken glass, old decaying wood, and lots of cow poops. To most people this may sound unappealing however I found it beautiful.  An old wooden home in the middle of my favorite area of the desert providing shelter for the local animals. I find peace in that.

Amber, Emily, Joey's pup Kaya and I had had fun exploring in the sun.

I am always sad when the dogs are not with us. Whenever we come without them, it feels like we left a part of our hearts at home. They love Joe's as much as we do. We brought them with us regardless of the weather forecast and they had a blast! Joey has a pup named Kaya too! So we had 2 Kaya's, Sophie and Cosmo. Our Kaya and Cosmo left with some hurt paws. They wouldn't stop exploring and playing around. They had too much fun!

Beautiful boulders with great people! I tried to get pictures of everyone. Unfortunately I didn't get any of Tyler, Amber or Jessi but they all did great! It was Ambers first time bouldering and she got a V2 on her second try! It was great to have everyone there.

 Emily & Joey crushing together!

 

 

 Trent brought his friend Crystal. She is so beautiful and caught on so quickly!

We drove up to Riverside and saw Diana by the road. She had driven down by herself and was working on "Big Joe". Talk about dedication!! We decided to join her. Diana is by far one of the strongest girl climbers I know. She has only been climbing two years and just sent a V9 not too long ago. Something that really stands out to me about Diana is how humble she is. Even though she was obviously meant to climb and is extremely good at it, she does not boast or brag. She takes time to help give me beta and encourage me. Diana is very inspiring and I love meeting strong women to help motivate me to push myself.

 Joey is a beast, no surprise here! So glad he was able to join us.

 Trent on Big Joe

 Danestafari

 I felt very intimidated by this problem and was just going to watch the others try it. Of course my friends don't just let you sit there so they told me to just try it and I am very glad I did. I often surprise myself thanks to the encouragement of those around me. Especially, my husband who believes in me more than anyone I know. He gives me confidence when I feel like I have no drive left in me. There are no words to express how much of an impact his presence makes in my life.

 The rain came pouring in after that! Diana had to go home but before she left she told me to go try "Kill by Numbers". I wanted to try it but the rain kept coming. Finally we saw a blue spot in the clouds. The guys were all so optimistic and were convinced the rain would stop so we could climb. They were right! The sun came out and dried everything up! We went to a warm up boulder and they guys were being slow. When I went to check on them I found them dancing in the puddles blasting "Last Night a DJ saved my Life". They said they were warming and limbering up. They were giving the send God's a thank you dance for the sun! By far the most hilarious thing I have ever seen! I managed to capture a short video of the last part. Below are a few pictures I got from the video. We were all blown away by Farmers dance moves! Who would have known we had Michael Jackson with us all along! GO FARMER! GO FARMER!

So Emily and I got to meet our new project. "Kill by Numbers" V5. It was love at first site! We tried it as long as we could until it looked like it would start raining again and we still wanted to go see "Black Dalia". We are so close to sending! Can't wait to go back!

 Dave sending

 

 

 

 We ended the day by hiking up to "Black Dalia" V10. They boys had a great time working on that together until the rain started up again and ended the trip. What a great weekend!