Joshua Tree Camping

We made it back out to Joshua Tree a couple of days ago. This time the weather was much nicer, almost too hot but perfect in the shade. It was really nice for me to get out there with the kids and expose them a little bit more to climbing. It takes a concerted amount of effort to do this, but for me it means the world. My kids will never know climbing like they do surfing. They will not grow up understanding rocks the way they will grow up to know and understand the ocean, but I deeply want them to be exposed to this side of nature. I'm not sure why, I guess because it is the element that I feel the most free and alive in, and I guess I just want to share that with them. In any case, it was wonderful to share that with them this past week for the first time in a very long time. And although it was extremely hard at times, for them and us, there were moments where we were all free and as happy as we can be which always seems to make it worth the work (to me at least). A special thanks to Jon who makes all of our adventures possible.  

Eden's Climb - she named this one 'The Man with the Yellow Hat'

Zion was climbing like crazy. It was actually a little scary at times.

The is a portion of a climb she named 'Curious George'

I love Jon's face here. It looks like he is trying harder than Eden.

This is the first time the kids have ever slept in a tent together. They must have played for an hour before they finally fell asleep, but once they did we found them like this. I was so incredibly excited to snuggle in with these two that I could hardly sleep that night - that in addition to the periodic howl of the coyotes - I was in heaven!

Jon being a hero on what turned out to be a too long approach to a very un-kid-friendly climbing area. Poor Zion has the war wounds all over his nose to prove it. /:

These black lizards were pretty cool. I was stoked that Eden got to see one.