2012 Year In Reveiw

This is our first real attempt at a Xmas/New Years letter.
This year has gone down as one of our most active & exploratory.  Some of the activities that brought us to new & exciting places are rock climbing, running, camping, hiking, kayaking, biking, star gazing, any other sport you can think of, and even work.  We saw some awesome scenery and areas most people never make it back to, and that makes all the work to get there worth its weight.  We do it for ourselves, but also we do it to show Rohan the awesome world around us.
This year we went all over the Southwestern US with a quick foray into the Pacific Northwest.  Outside Arizona we hiked a couple state parks in Colorado, Canyonlands & Arches NP in Utah, several state parks in Oregon & Washington, camped in Joshua Tree NP and Cuyamaca Rancho SP in California.  Within AZ we explored East Clear Creek Canyon, Fossil Creek, Mount Lemmon and quite a few lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.
A little about the family:

Rohan is a week or so from turning 4 and as energetic as ever.  He had changed everything we knew about the endurance of a kid.  Rohan enjoyed playing TBall and was one of the better players (thanks to his awesome coach!).  He has just started soccer and loves to chase that ball as well.  Rohan has been intensifying his love affair with space shuttles, dinosaurs and Legos...the trifecta of any soon to be 4yr old.
Rohan has weathered 99% of all the adventures we have gone on and loves everything that goes along with exploring the world around us.

Mara is doing great in her 2nd year of her Pediatrics residency at Phoenix Children's Hospital.  She is also showing no signs of slowing down despite being 25 weeks pregnant with twin girls!  She really is a superwoman!  With the twins due in April (but planning for March) she'll have some time off with maternity leave.

Michael is still with Translational Genomics in their Center for Proteomics division.  He had a blast coaching Rohan's TBall team (despite the annoying parents).  Currently training for the Tough Mudder in February.

The Endeavor

We have been on countdown for what seems like forever for this trip.  I think we started the countdown at about 30 days for Rohan, which to an almost-4-year-old had to seem like an eternity.

First we had some stuff to do.  We had Rohan's last TBall game a couple weekends back followed by his party with his team at a friends house.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with the parents outside of TBall, and great to see the kids have so much fun playing anything other than TBall.

We also had Mara's party for PCH which we had our friend Shannon watch Rohan.  She always spoils him rotten when she's here so he's glad to get rid of us for several hours.  We had a lot of fun without Rohan, and even made some time for a quick coffee (just us!) at Matador before heading to the party.  We can back around 10 to Rohan sitting with Shannon on the couch (past his bedtime) watching The Avengers...spoiled...:)

After all that we finally hit the last day before the trip.  Mara worked a Noon to Midnight shift on Monday, so I picked her up at Midnight (after a quick nap) and we headed towards California.  We stopped around 3:30am in Joshua Tree National Park and found our normal spot for camping and slept for 3hrs before heading in the rest of the way.

We hit the California Science Center around opening time and got in line with our free timed ticket to see the space shuttle.  It was insane.  Thousands of kids were busing in from all over.  The shuttle iteself wasn't too crazy, but we see why they needed timed tickets.  Before the shuttle they showed a quick video of the Endeavor being brought through the streets of LA.  Here is a similar time lapse video:

Rohan was so amazed by this video...we watch it at least once a day now...:)
After the video we get full reign of the the shed it's currently in.  I will have to say...for someone who has been waiting ~27 years to see a space shuttle in person...it was beautiful.  Never had I had so much pride looking at a national monument.  I cannot wait until they set it up in it's final position, upright with the booster rockets and fuel tank attached.
We roamed the shuttle for about 45 min before heading to an IMAX movie about Earth.  Rohan liked that a lot too!  We finally grabbed lunch on the gorgeous USC campus and headed back towards the museum.  We had several more hours until it closed so we decided (well...Rohan decided) to see the shuttle again.  It was perfect timing.  It was around 2pm so the schools were all headed back home, and before others got off work to come.  We didn't even need to wait in line for a ticket, they just opened the door.  There was only about 15 people in there, and it was so nice to have it quieter and more open this time around.  We spent almost another 45min there before calling it a day.
We wondered around USC a little more, got some stuff for breakfast in the morning, and ate at the Lab Gastropub...very cool place...:)
The next day we got an early start (after some coffee) and hit the rose gardens on the museum's campus.  Rohan went around smelling tons of roses, and just running around being a kid.  Today we were hitting the Natural History Museum to see their Dinosaur Hall and whatever else they have...turns out A LOT!  Rohan was yelling TRICERATOPS at the top of his lungs when we walked in because they had a T-Rex attacking a Triceriatops in the front rotunda...it was hilarious...:)
We spent A LOT of time at the Dinosaur Hall and also checked out the mammal, gemstone, and evolution exhibits.  All in all and awesome museum!  It was great to see Rohan SO excited about everything.  Every time he saw a dinosaur exhibit or foot print or preserved dung, he would run and get us and tell us we HAD to see it.  We were there for almost 4 hours before grabbing lunch at a great Indian place.  We had some time before we had to head home, and around 2:00 we hit the space shuttle for the 3rd time in less than 2 days.  It was really quiet again, and very nice to see one last time before heading home.
The car ride back was mostly at night, and one nice thing is it was almost the peak of the Geminid meteor shower!  I saw more shooting stars on the way home than I have in the last 5 years...it was a great way to end the trip...:)
Enjoy the pics and hop everyone has a great XMas!

We ended the 3 days off by taking Rohan to a tampoline place called AZ AirTime.  It was a blast!
Double Trust Fall:  

Rohan Jumping:


Mike Jumping:

Full Advantage

Despite Mara's busy schedule, we have been taking FULL advantage of the beautiful weather lately!
Rohan had TBall the weekend before Thanksgiving, but it has been nice to have a break from it for a bit.  After his last game we headed out to the Anthem Community Park because of their amazing park, playground, and Daisy Mountain Railroad.  The day was so perfect, and we even had clouds! (The little things for AZ people...:P)
We also took the opportunity to continue our running and work on Rohan's biking.  Since we live in a fairly quite neighborhood with wide streets and sidewalks, we took Rohan on an 2.5mi bike ride while Mara and I ran next to him.  He did AWESOME!  Later in the week we did a run/bike to Matador to meet Mara while she studied, and also did a 3mi ride where Rohan rode a full mile on a trail!  It was slow going because he wasn't used to the terrain constantly trying to turn his wheel.  The first 100ft he wiped out 5 times, but kept at it, and completed the whole trail.  Very proud of him!
We also met up with Shannon & Angelika at the PHX Mountain Preserve for a sunset hike.  Rohan hiked almost the whole 3.5mi!  The sunset was gorgeous and the colors of the sky looked awesome from within the preserve.
Because we couldn't be with family this Thanksgiving, we decided to have an "Orphan Thanksgiving".  We have lots of friends who also don't have much family here so we did the only think we know how.  We got a 28# turkey and a keg of Four Peaks Kiltlifter...:)  We had about 20 people roll through and had a blast with great food and great beer...:)
The day after, Mara got sent home from the clinic (since it was empty) so we took Rohan to a park to do exactly what he wanted when we asked..."Play baseball, football, and soccer."  We played for almost an hour before we took him to an indoor trampoline place (AZ AirTime) to burn off some energy (this kid has a lot!).  We jumped into a foam pit for 2hrs.  I say "we" because after 2min of watching him jump, I went and got a ticket so I could join in the fun...:)  We had a BLAST...just see the pics...:)  Afterwards we went out for a picnic, and capped a lovely morning.
Saturday, Mara had to work, so I took Rohan and some friends to Groom Creek (near Prescott, AZ) to do some bouldering.  We were there all day, and had so much fun gouging our hands on the sharp granite...:)
We are just taking a nice break on Sunday, adding to our Target & Babies'R'Us wishlists since we keep thinking of more and more things we need for the twins...:)  Mara was 20 weeks on Thanksgiving Day, so we are well over half way now...can't wait to meet them!
Enjoy our pics from the last week or so! :)

Twin Girls!

The other day we had the anatomy ultrasound for the twins.  Everything looks great, and they gave us a disc with tons of pictures and a couple videos of the heartbeats...:)  Enjoy!

Twin A Heartbeat:


Twin B Heartbeat:

More TBall & Biking...Enjoying The Awesome Weather

Catching up on some more weeks...they are just FLYING by!  Mara is done with her long, late, fun PICU rotation so she has some more free time and isn't so exhausted anymore.  She is at 19 weeks this Thursday, and finally starting to show a cute little bump...:)
Last weekend we painted the Twins' room.  It was hard to paint a pink room, but we got through it, and we think it turned out pretty good.

Rohan is finally completely autonomous on his bike.  He can start, stop and steer all by himself, and had been riding up and down our quiet street almost daily.  The other day Mara went to study for boards at Matador bright and early.  Rohan rode his bike all the way there (on the sidewalks) and I jogged next to him.  He was so proud of his achievement too!
Rohan has been doing great at baseball.  He overcame a huge hurdle...letting other kids get the ball.  He was a bit of a ball hog (as all kids are at that age), but he was faster and more aggressive than the other kids, so he would usually end up with the ball.  Now he will let other kids get the ball and cheer them on to get it and throw it.  So fun to watch him evolve!

We also had Halloween and I am just now posting those pics...sorry.  Rohan was really into the season this year, and couldn't wait to go.  He was shy in the beginning, very quiet, but after 20 houses or so, he started getting more and more excited to talk to the strangers and say Trick-or-Treat.

Hope everyone had a great start to November!

TBall & Bridges

This last couple weeks have been mostly filled with Mara working in the PICU, and on her short time away we've been climbing a bit, and going on some long bike rides.
The last weekend Mara had off we took advantage and headed North to camp (while the temps are still above freezing at night).  We just camped the one night since Rohan had TBall and a friends birthday party on Saturday morning, but afterwards we met up with Angelika and headed North.  We had plans to visit the Tonto Natural Bridge so we decided to find a forest road to camp on nearby.  We ended up about 6.5mi into the forest in an AWESOME clearing beneath some massive pines.  It was also maiden voyage for our new tent.  The fire was an excellent way to chill out and stay warm while the temps dipped down to low-40s.  We made some hot coco and relaxed well into the night.
Sunday morning we got up and warmed up with some oatmeal and cheesy eggs before heading to the bridge.  I was always unimpressed when they talked about the "Natural Bridge".  I've seen arches in Arches National Park, so how different could a bridge be?

Rohan was an absolute trooper, hiking almost 2 miles on his own through rough trail and over boulders that were at least his height, and sometimes much higher.  We visited the waterfall trail first, which had a really cool suspension trail, before heading down the canyon trail to the "bridge".  We stopped at a really fun cave we explored extensively before spying the bridge just around the corner.  How different are arches & bridges?  For one thing the arches are probably 20-30ft wide..the bridge was 400+ft long, and absolutely stunning.  The pictures don't quite do it justice.

Enjoy the pictures!

BUSY MONTH!!!

Wow, sorry about the absence!  We have been CRAZY busy, and just a teensy bit lazy about the blog.  I’ll play catch-up now.

Mid-September our friends Wyatt & Jovanna came to visit from Chicago.  It was AWESOME seeing them, especially since we hadn't seen them since their wedding (3yrs ago)!  As always with our friends, it doesn't matter how long it’s been, we can just jump right back in.  Wyatt & Jovanna did some much needed relaxing and I took them rock climbing in Superior as well.  Couldn't have been a better day for it!  It was a great visit, and we hope to see them soon!

Rohan has started T-Ball now, and I had the great idea that I should coach…:)  The parents are all pretty good, so it wasn't the nightmare I thought it could be.  Most of the kids are pretty athletic and have some skill in some way, so it’s been fun.  Some are even making progress after 2 practices!  Rohan, of course, is probably the fastest one, and hits just as well as his buddy on the team (Jack).  Jack has a much better arm though, but Rohan is catching up in that area.  It’s fun to watch them wield a metal bat and hit a regulation size ball (with a soft shell & core).

I also had some tickets for the last series of Diamondback games.  The seats were given to us by a very generous person ($120 apiece!).  They were ~12 rows behind the Rockies’ dugout and just off home plate.  Awesome seats!  Tons of foul balls around us, and a pretty good game with 5 HRs and a DBack comeback, but lost in extra innings.  We left in the 11^th, and they didn't finish until after we were already at home and in bed (13 innings!).

The last Friday of September we met up with H&J and hit up the PHX Science Museum (also with free tickets through work!).  They had a Lego exhibit (which Rohan was all about), some educational booths with heart beats transmogrified into drum beats (pretty cool), and a giant sneezing nose.  Rohan’s favorite was the giant stomach complete with farting noises, burps, gurgles, and a colon slide…yup…a colon slide.  Heather even took a spin down it…:)Heather also beat John in a head-to-head wheelchair race…good times…:)

We had more visitors from WI, this time work friends of Michelle’s that were in AZ for a conference.  I agreed to take them on a hike so I picked a night hike at Shaw Butte, just outside their hotel.  The scenery was awesome, and the sunset was gorgeous.  They bought us dinner afterwards, and we had great time!  If they come back, we’ll gladly take them out again!

We celebrated Oktoberfest with some German & Austrian friends in downtown PHX.  It was the second year we have been, and it’s fun every time!  Mara competed in a stein-holding contest and came in 3^rd to a 70yr old beast of a woman.  Rohan was cheering her on loudly as well…:)  Lots of pretzels, boots of beer, and bratwursts & wienerschnitzel.

We had a housewarming party for a friend, that eventually escalated to a full out Nerf war.  Rohan was running around aiming a fully automatic gun that was taller than he is.  Comedy.  Rohan was a madman as well…running to and from rooms, targeting people, and yelling “Military”…it was awesome…:) 

Mara is doing great with the twins, she is at almost 14 weeks.  We had several ultrasounds and some very cool 3D pics.  Crazy to see them in 3D this early!  They were not cooperating, so we couldn't get a sex determination yet.  Rohan is flip flopping between all possible combinations so I think he’ll be happy with whoever will be his siblings…:) 

Well…that wraps up the last several weeks!  Here are some pics & vids of what we've been up to…

Roh-zilla:

The giant stomach...:


Rohan's War:


Rohan Laying Suppression Fire...Then Attacks:


Taking Fire...1st Person Angle:


Irena's Dart Stash:


Rohan working on some new moves...:)

Syring Family Update

For those who know me know that I am in LOVE with Fibonacci's sequence. It is just so damn elegant.

Well, I have another reason to love it, because my family is living it...let me explain...and see if you can figure it out...

We can get metaphysical and say that before I was born, I was 0, nothing, void.
Then there was me, I was 1.
Then there was Mara, she was 1.
Then we got married, our family was 2.
Then came Rohan, and our family grew to 3.
Do you know the next number in the Fibonacci series? 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, ?

It's 5! Meaning we have twins on the way! :)

Due date is mid-April, but we're guessing they will be slightly early. We are SUPER excited!
Rohan is asking all sorts of questions, and told Mara he wants twin girls...I don't think he understand the consequences of that...:)

Here are a couple, very early, ultrasounds. We will post more when we know more! :)

Rohan’s Longest Camping Trip!

This last holiday weekend took advantage of the 3 day weekend and turned it into a 4 ½ day weekend by taking a ½ day on Thursday and heading up North to the Mogollon Rim.  I picked up Rohan and the dogs and scouted for a perfect spot.  The woods are pretty full of people on holiday weekends, but I eventually found a spot that was somewhat isolated from drunken hillbillies.  Mara had to work Thurs/Fri so it was just Rohan, the dogs, and I that first night.  It was really fun to explore the woods and trails with Rohan, and he had a blast with the freedom he had!  We hiked a bit, explored the forest a bit, set up camp, and cooked, all to his amazement/interest.

Friday we set up guides for friends to find us.  Mara rode up with another one of our friends, Ryan, and Shannon came up that night as well.  Shannon made a GREAT dinner with steak, potaotes, asparagus, and who knows what else; all cooked on the coals of the fire.  It was perfect!

Saturday we headed back to East Clear Creek and did some kayaking and Deep Water Soloing/climbing again…we LOVE that area!  We met Jason & Jaymie there, who came up from PHX that morning.  It rained on us as usual, but we didn’t care, and Rohan even fell asleep in Mara’s boat…it was adorable…:)  That night Angelika, Michael, Patrick, (another) Ryan, and Heson came and joined us for a total of 11 people!  It was a great night of campfire, hanging out, and eating MORE great food!  Unfortunately Mara had to work on Sunday so she had to head back that night, but it was great she could get out of PHX for 24hrs!

Sunday the kayakers took to Blue Ridge Reservoir while others headed to Horton Springs on a solid hike down and up the rim.  The wind on Sunday night was pretty wicked, so it cut down the time we spent around the fire, but we still found some things to do.  Rohan always kept us entertained with is antics, and we use a tomahawk from Angelika’s stash to do some throwing contests and even do some deforesting (of dead trees of course…).

One exciting thing that happened on Thursday while we were looking for a spot is that I got the truck back to a fairly “tight” spot where I basically needed to do a 12+ point turn to get out.  Everything was fine until about turn 9 when I slowly backed into a tree that was in my blind spot and obscured by one of the 3 kayaks I had in the back.  It slowly pushed one of the kayaks through our back window (on the driver’s side).  Luckily Rohan was not covered in glass or anything, but he was a little shaken.  He calmed down quickly and when we did finally get to our site (which had plenty of trees) he said he was going to take his Captain America shield and chop down all the trees so I wouldn’t back into them…what a thoughtful boy…:)

We had an absolute AWESOME weekend with great friends, great food, great views, and awesome weather to storm watch!  We got some rain, but it never dampens our mood, it’s all part of the experience!   Hope everyone had a fun/safe weekend!

Shelf Jump:


Rohan & Jaymie Summiting The Tailgate:


Ryan Going Caveman On A Tree:

More Camping/Kayaking/Hiking...with stargazing this time!

We took yet another break from the heat this last weekend and headed back up to Northern AZ where it's about 15-20°F cooler, and about 30°F cooler at night (6250ft in elevation, compared to PHX at ~1500ft)!  This time we camped with some friends at Jack's Canyon (a climbing area that recently had a fire caused by lightning).  We got a fresh start in the morning and headed to Winslow to East Clear Creek (much like we did a couple weeks back).  We were in the water at 9am and didn't get back to the truck until about 4:30pm!  It was an AWESOME day on the water, and we got TONS of climbing in.  One was about a 35' jump from a small shrub...had to do this one a couple of times!!! :)
We camped at Jacks again and did some stargazing and meteor shower watching.  The Perseids did not disappoint.  We watched some really strong ones and  some even had streaking trails that hung around for a while...really fun!  Rohan was super excited and even fell asleep in his chair watching the skies...it was awesomely adorable...:)



Rohan's Jump:

Highest jump of the day: 

The Syrings Jump: 

Captain Rohan explaining Thor's powers: 

Small Vacations & Enjoying The Summer!

Wow, we have been busy! (Hence the lack of blog posts...)
A couple weeks back (end of July) I finished up TGen's Helios Internship Program for students interested in science.  My intern did an awesome job, and she churnned out some great work.  A lot of investigators were asking very good questions and I'm sure I'll be hearing more from them in the coming weeks.  We had a symposium on a Friday and after a celebratory beer with the other mentors, Mara, Rohan and the dogs picked me up and off we went on an adventure.  Friday night we camped at Joshua Tree National Forest in California   Absolutely gorgeous, and we found a free place to crash for the night.  The next day we headed to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, about an hour outside San Diego, where we set up camp and did a couple day trips into San Diego.  We LOVE to visit San Diego, but wouldn't want to live there.  We took the dogs to the Mission Beach Dog Beach where Schroeder had a blast chasing balls in the ocean, and Rohan had a blast as well running through the causeway and in the waves.
We also hit up the Little Italy Mercado where Rohan got to see his favorite accordion player, Smilin' Jack.  He's a little creepy, but a super nice guy.  We also took time to check out the USS Midway docked museum.  We couldn't go on it this time since we had the dogs, but we relaxed at the park next to it, and Rohan wouldn't stop talking about it.  We walked by Petco Park (where the Padres play baseball) and ran around their Park at the Park; a really awesome idea, and Rohan loved playing in the shadow of a baseball field!
The awesome kick to the end of the trip was The Field Irish Pub.  They had live dancing and Irish/Celtic music and we had the best seat in the house!  They gave us an elevated booth looking down on the dancers. Rohan would take a bit and chew it while he was trying to shove his head through the banister to watch.  Definitely a place to hit when we go back!
Earlier in the week Mara's vacation started (on a Wednesday...FFS), I took a day off and we headed down to Tuscon.  We never really explored the area as well as we would like, so we did just that.  We hit up a couple coffee shops, a couple parks, a Thai restaurant, and of course Mount Lemmon.  Mt Lemmon is HUGE, and it is about a 25mi drive from the base to the top, but it has some great views and was VERY cool and comfortable at the top (100°F+ below).  Rohan took it upon himself to do a Tough Mudder course which consisted of climbing, running, jumping over logs, trees, and streams...very similar to the real one...:)  He had a blast exploring and has really taken to engaging his surroundings and seeing what he can find.
Such a great week for Mara to have off, we always try to make the most of these rare vacations.

Rohan being C-R-A-Z-Y in San Diego:

Irish Dancing at The Field (wish you could see how enthralled he was!):

Schroeder having fun in the causeway:

Linus the not-so water dog:

Beating The Heat (Again)

We took a little break from the heat this weekend to explore some areas at or around a mile high...:) We camped at Blue Ridge Reservoir (about 7400 feet in elevation) and dodged rain the first night. It rained on our way up, but quit while we set up camp, ate dinner, explored the forest, and sat by the fire. A great first night! Saturday we took a day trip to East Clear Creek Canyon in Winslow, AZ. We took Rohan on a 3+mi kayak trip down the canyon. He had a blast, but couldn’t wait to get out and play on the rocks and jump into the water. We found a nice spot that had a 25’ jump for Mara and I, and a 12-15’ jump for Rohan. He was so excited to do it (but just a tiny bit scared). We stopped for lunch in Winslow and headed back to camp afterwards. Rohan was creating his “Tough Mudder Captain America Steve Rogers” course the rest of the day/night. He probably ran it 20 or more times…check out the video for the course walkthrough. Sunday we headed down to the reservoir amongst some awesome fog on the water and temps around 60°F! A far cry from the 112°F we left in Phoenix! The water was pristine, and very still. We kayaked another 3-3.5mi around the reservoir, and found a great place to snack and enjoy the serenity of the lake. Such a difference between the canyon and the reservoir, so it was awesome to kayak on both within a day! AZ is such a wonderland of terrain! Last week we also had a leak in our water line from the city to our house so we had a couple friends drop what they were doing come and help with that. Such great people we know! Enjoy the pics & vids!

Rohan's way of helping fix a leak:

Rohan's "Tough Mudder Captain America Steve Rogers" Course:

1st Person Jump (mainly for Michelle & Jen...:P):

Mara's Jump:

Rohan's First Jump:

Rohan's 2nd Cliff Jump:

Rohan discussing astronomy while traversing:

Rohan shooting bad guys then jumping:

Cliff Jumping & Bike Riding (not at the same time)

This last weekend we took a fun trip up to Winslow, AZ to explore a deep water soloing area. It's an area that you climb without ropes (the soloing part) and when you fall (or jump) you jump into deep water. Sound like fun! It was an absolute BLAST! Rohan didn't go this time because we wanted to scout it out for a future trip. Not sure how he would be for 5hrs in a kayak, or if there would be beaches or rocks for him to get out and play on. There were some areas he could be on, so next time, he'll be in some of these videos too...:) Next time Michelle comes we'll have to get her to jump off one of these cliffs too...:P We also took Rohan on his first foray into biking on concrete. We had mostly been on grass where he could fall and not get too scraped up, and plus the ground here is about as hard a concrete so he can still peddle through it. He did AWESOME biking on the pavement, and set a personal best for distance (we have more video than pictures). He had fun with it too, so eventually we'll be able to go on family bike rides! :) Hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Rohan Biking (On/Off-Road):

Rohan buzzes the fire hydrant:

First Person Jump (Slo-Mo):

First Person Jump:

Self Jump:

Erik jumping off The Monster:

Jeremy Slo Mo Jump:

Hannah Slo Mo Jump:

Beating The Heat!

This last week we had a great surprise from my buddy Rick from college who was driving around the country in their RV with his girlfriend, Deana, and their dog Bo. He swung by for a night and we were able to hit up a D-Backs game and also hit the pool and hang out/catch up. It was great to get a visit from an old friend! This last weekend we also explored other ways to beat the heat. Saturday we went to Lake Pleasant to try out our new kayak, and met our friends Shannon & Jeremy. Jeremy had an extra kayak for us and Rohan had a BLAST in it. Definitely going to get another one soon…maybe a Rohan/Mike/Mara birthday/Xmas present…:)  We found a nice island and rock to jump off of and have some hilarious video of the jumps as well. The first thing Rohan said when we landed on the island was “I want to jump off that rock!”. He had a blast! (as did we!) Afterwards we hung out with some friends who own Matador Coffee Roasters. We got to be good friends with them at the shop since we are there quite a bit…OK…a lot…:)  We grilled a couple AWESOME pizzas. One was an old standby…Chicken, bacon, artichoke, mozzarella and the other was an experimental one (stolen from a pizza place in Oregon) that had prosciutto, asparagus, gorgonzola, and mozzarella…they both turned out amazing! Sunday we met up with a dozen people, or so, and headed to Flagstaff. At 7000 feet it’s a lot cooler than PHX! There were also some scattered thunderstorms so the temp cooled to almost 60°F! We had never been to this bouldering area before and it was an awesome area to climb! Rohan had a blast traversing and bouldering his own routes. Mara and I had a lot of fun projecting some routes and watching Rohan explore and keep people entertained with his Spiderman-style weapons kata…:) It was a great weekend of staying one step ahead of the heat! Enjoy all the pics and tons of videos!     

First Person Front Flip (Slo-Mo):

Rohan watching Mara jump (Slo-Mo):

Rohan jumping off rocks (Slo-Mo):

Slo Mo Jump:

Slo-Mo Jump Backwards:

Rohan explaining Iron Man's boosters:

Rohan traverse project:

Rohan's first sent boulder project:

Vacation!

First of all…Vacation ROCKED!  We had such a blast with Tim and Allison, and huge props to my Dad for coming and watching Rohan.  I think they wore each other out equally...:)
Second of all, we will be missing our good friend Kim who deployed as a medic with his MP battalion unit to Qatar.  Rohan will be learning all about what Kim is doing while he’s away.

Before our vacation we were able to spend a night with Kim, and other friends, after he got back from California.  We hit up a Diamondbacks game as soon as he got back.  It was great to catch up with him before he left.  Kim also invited us to the sendoff for the battalion which was really a cool thing to witness.  Rohan was pretty silent, just taking everything in (as usual).  Kim even took Rohan on his shoulders while they had a battalion-only meeting.  The picture is awesome…J

We arrived in Portland just after Tim & Allison and hit up a brewery bus tour by BREWVANA.  What a great into to Portland!  We spent the rest of the week hitting up breweries, wineries and coffee shops.  To counteract all that we did some workouts at a practice field, 10+ miles of hiking, a trip to the coast, and a kayaking trip up & down the Colombia River Gorge.  So hard to put into words how much we accomplished, so the pictures will have to suffice…J  We got home around midnight and took Dad to the airport right away in the morning, so we spent most of Sunday relaxing by climbing and buying a kayak on Craigslist.  We’ve been wanting one for a while and the kayaking in Portland reminded us how much we enjoyed it! 

Pics NOT from Portland:
Portland Pics:

Rohan Jumping Into The Pool:

Schroeder Submarining for a ball:

Another Schroeder Submarine:

Best SloMo Parkour High Five EVER!:

Camping In Camp Verde

This last week we FINALLY had an entire weekend with Mara!   She has been on at least one weekend day for the last several months, so it was nice to have a weekend together.  We spent the weekend camping in a canyon in Camp Verde, exploring Sedona & Cottonwood, and stopping at Watson Lake in Precott since I had never been.
We had an awesome shady spot for camping, right next to a stream, with only one neighboring campsite, and no one took that until the middle of the night on Saturday.  It was very nice to be shaded so well since it was still close to 100°F during the day.  Friday night we explored our campsite and the rocks/trails around it before hiking around the West Clear Creek trail at dusk, it was really nice.
Saturday we had a great breakfast and camp coffee before heading into Sedona to beat the heat a little bit (about 10° cooler).  We talked to some locals and they told us to hit up Fey Canyon trail.  It was near another trail we had done, but we had no idea it was back there.  It’s 1.5mi back into a small canyon, nothing spectacular, but the views were awesome and another couple told us of a small “fort” someone had built and gave us directions to it.  Very cool to see, and the views back towards the canyon mouth were gorgeous.  We at lunch in the shade near the Tlaquepaque shops before heading back to the campsite.
We hiked back out on the West Clear Creek trail to a swimming hole we had found a couple years back.  Rohan was SUPER excited and there wasn’t many people there, but there were several younger kids.  Rohan was a trooper, jumping off of rocks and having a blast.  The other kids were crayfish hunting so Rohan was interested in that.  He wouldn’t touch one, but loved looking at them.  We capped then night off with some wine while Rohan chased beetles and crickets with a stick…
Sunday we headed back to Phoenix, but first stopped in Prescott.  I had never been and Mara looked up a really cool lake, Watson Lake.  It had very strange granite rock formations which is not like many other places in AZ.  Schroeder had a blast in the water again, and Rohan now has a renewed desire to go on a boat or kayak, so we might have to visit there again!
We capped the day/weekend off with some swimming at home and we let Rohan watch the Iron Man movie.  He has been so enamored with The Avengers that we thought it was time to give him some back story on them.  He was enthralled throughout the WHOLE 2hr movie and even gets drawn in during suspenseful parts and super animated during chase scenes and flying scenes.  It was a lot of fun to watch.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Enjoy the plethora of pics and SloMo videos…:)


Rohan Sized Cliff Jump:

One of the first times Schroder went in the water on his own:

Schroeder Chasing A Ball @ Watson Lake:

Schroeder & Ayla Chasing A Ball:

Schroeder Bobbing For The Tennis Ball:

Birthday Fun!

This last week we enjoyed Mara's LAST week of PCH wards!  It was a tough month, but we got through it as usual...:)  Mara and I had the chance to attend the graduation reception for the 3rd year senior residents who will be leaving for real jobs or fellowships.  Mara was good friends with some, so it was nice to be able to send them off.  Our friend Shannon watch Rohan that night, and from the sounds of it went swimming, to the park, and non-stop played...I'm sure Shannon slept good that night...:)

Mara will be on a much easier rotation this month (Development) where she is more of an observer of kids than an interventionalist.  She still has some cross cover in the ED, but her weekends and overall schedule is much more "social life friendly"...:)

Rohan has recently discovered superheroes and has also rediscovered the cape my Mom made for him when he was little.  Last week we went to see the Avengers movie in the theater...that kid was GLUED to his seat the entire 2.5hrs!  He had since been wanting to fly with his cape...and we can't say "No" to that...:)

Sunday we had a BBQ for my birthday, but it was more about opening the pool to everyone and enjoying the perfect weather.  We had SO much fun with the SloMo feature on our new camera...there is an entire playlist on YouTube with those videos...:)
We had tons of food as usual, great friends to enjoy the day, and to top it off, Jeanette brought her massage chair!  Nothing caps 8hrs in the pool and sun like a 15min massage!  What an awesome birthday!

Hope everyone had a great week/weekend!

SloMo Pool Party Playlist:
Here are some highlights:
DCN0254 - Dudo's awesome aim
DCN0258 - Taylor soaks Jess
DCN0281 - Wiram's bicycle kick
DCN0289 - Dudo defies the laws of physics
DCN0297 - Jess's spectacular entry

Baseball, baseball, Vancouver, and more baseball

Wow...what a blur the last couple weeks have been!
We went to a DBacks game against the Giants a couple weeks ago and Rohan got to play on their kids field.  What a BLAST he had!  We've essentially not used the tee at all, and now Rohan is opting for soft toss pitching...awesome!
Last week I was in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for a mass spectrometry conference.  Vancouver is an absolute gorgeous town!  Would love to go back and camp or hike some of the mountains!  Mara was an absolute rock star single parent while I was gone.  Not only was she in a particularly tough rotation, she also had 3 late nights on top of it all!  Heather & John REALLY helped us out by taking Rohan overnight a couple nights.  We owe them BIG!
When I got back from my nerd-fest, we hit up another game while the Brewers were in town.  Lots of fun to see Rohan enjoying baseball so much.  The Brewers lost, but it was a great game, lots of scoring, lots of hits, and lots of cotton candy...:)

Sorry to sum up 2+ weeks in such a short post...:)  Hopefully the pictures & videos will tell the story better!


SloMo Tee Ball:

SloMo Soft Toss:

Fossil Creek & Super Moon!

This last weekend we took a short (but packed!) trip up North.  We have a group of friends that set up a large venture to Fossil Creek, a gorgeous mountain spring hike with waterfalls and cliff jumping!

Frist, on Saturday we met up at our place and carvan’d up to the Mogollon Rim (or favorite camping destination!).  We got up there just in time to catch the setting sun and set up our tents.  One of the cooler coincidences was the Super Moon that took place while we were there.  The moon was so bright, we barely needed headlamps to walk around the forest!  The light was stunning looking over the valley below.  The next day the moon was just setting as we got up (around 5:30am) just as the sun was rising too!  What an awesome sight!

We set off to catch up with the rest of the hiking group at the trailhead and began the hike.  There was a couple spots we had to wade through water, but that was the whole point of the trip! :)  We came across some awesome waterfalls, and areas we could jump off cliff (some about 30’ high!).  We spent the entire day there (almost 9hrs) hiking, jumping, swimming…it was awesome.

Rohan had an absolute blast while we were there, and really enjoyed the raft someone brought.  We might just have to get him on for the pool this summer!  Rohan has been climbing EVERYTHING lately and he demonstrated how he can climb onto the counters now, pretty effortlessly too.  He even started climbing a small pine tree when we were camping.  He was so excited to get in the water and play.  Too bad he got so cold, he could only be in the water a short time before he started shivering. :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Climbing Fool:



Mara's Cliff Jump:

Kim's Cliff Jump:

Jeanette's Cliff Non-Jump:

Rohan Whitewater Rafting:

Syring Family Vacation. Destination: Denver

Mara FINALLY got a chance to take a small vacation!  She was scheduled for a week off so we took full advantage of it and got out of Phoenix, headed to the Rocky Mountains to visit Steph.  Mara, of course, had to work until about 11pm Friday so I grabbed a short nap until she got home and then we packed up the truck, grabbed Rohan and the dogs and headed out!  We took a slightly circuitous route diagonally across the mountains, but it was gorgeous, and we were not in a hurry.  It took us about 15hrs to get to Denver that way with all the stops for Rohan, the dogs, and us to eat and stretch our legs.
We were happy to see Steph again and meet her boyfriend, Mike.  Rohan took to him right away.  Our dogs played great with their dog, Roxie as well.  Our first day in Denver (Sunday) was spent at Roxborough State Park in Littleton, CO.  We hiked the Carpenter Trail to the peak, as well as Lyon's Overlook.  Rohan took the lead and started trail running right away...apparently the altitude didn't bother him much...  He ran about 0.6mi before we had to put him in the backpack...pretty impressive!  The views from Carpenter Peak were awesome, and the rock formations at Lyon's Overlook were like something we've never seen before.
Monday we took a trip to a new hike for Steph at Golden Gate Canyon State Park.  We found a trail called Burro Trail and a spur trail to Windy Peak.  The hike was awesome, and awesomely hilly as well!  The veiws did not disappoint either.  Very surreal place.
Tuesday we gave our legs a break from hiking, and instead gave our livers a workout.  We headed up to Fort Collins, CO to do a mini brewery tour.  Fort Collins is a very laid back place with some awesome restaurants and beers.  We hit up Jeju for a great sushi lunch before we hoofed it to the New Belgium Brewery, Odell Brewery, and finally CooperSmith's Pub.  After all that, we hit up one of our favorite stops, Fish.  It's an awesome little seafood restaurant.
Wednesday Steph had to work, so Mara and I decided to take Rohan on the light rail to downtown Denver.  Holy crap was Rohan excited!  He was just in awe of the train on the way down and even said "I'm a big boy now"...:)  He really thought of it as some sort of rite of passage...:)  We walked around downtown a bit, and grabbed a bite at Swing Thai before we headed over to Coors Field (home of Colorado Rockies baseball).  We had an awesome tour, but Rohan was really bummed he didn't see #51 Matt Reynolds, his favorite player. He did get to pose next to a cardboard cutout though...that made him pretty happy.  What made is day complete was one of the staffers gave Rohan a brand new baseball.  To boot, we got special treatment and got to take the field using the visitors dugout steps when everyone else had to go through the umpire entrance.  Rohan even got to call the bullpen using the phone in the dugout...you could even hear it ringing in the outfield.
Thursday we had one more meal with Steph before we were back on the road.  It was great to see her and catch up!  We headed back across the Rockies towards Utah.  Around Grand Junction we ran in to a little bit of rain, and a lot of wind!  We missed the majority of the rain while we were outside, so it worked out good.  We camped at the stunning Devil's Garden Campground in Arches National Park.  We were literally about 1000 feet from one of the arches (Broken Arch)!  We climbed all over and around the arch and our campsite.  We also enjoyed a Ranger giving a talk about Ravens at night before heading to bed.  The stars were great when the clouds weren't obscuring them, but we got a couple good pics.
Friday morning we packed up and took advantage of a fortuitous event of the National Parks being free the whole week and hit up the Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park, which was only about 20mi away.  We hiked to Upheaval Dome, around Grandview Point, and finally Mesa Arch.  Very cool scenery that is hardly depicted well with photos.
After a fairly uneventful trip back to Pheonix (after a stop at Salsa Brava in Flagstaff) we crashed.  Hard.  The nap didn't last too long though.  We had to be up early to do the Warrior Dash with some friends! :)  It was a great cap to a long, exhausting, exciting and fufilling vacation!
We have TONS of pictures and some video...so enjoy! :)


Panoramas from our trip:

Rohan Protecting Us From Dinosaurs:

Party, Painting & Planets

We said goodbye to one of our long time climbing friends, Sean, who moved to Seattle last weekend.  We threw a pretty good size going away party for him complete with keg fridge (stocked with PBR), dual beer pong tables, Mario Kart, and best of all 60+ friends! :)  It was a blast, and some brave souls even ended up in the pool...brrr!

Other than the party, we have been working on a couple painting projects the last couple weeks.  First, we did Rohan's toy room with some stripes.  We had the idea when Allison did it a couple years back, and finally had the chance to try it out.  We think it turned out good, and Rohan still is in awe that his room "changed colors".
The next project was slightly larger...our Master Suite.  We also painted a stripe in it, and continued it throughout the bathroom.  There are LOTS and LOTS of nooks and crannies we had to paint and tape so it turned out to be quite a task!  The end result was worth it though!

We also found some time to feed the duck, hunt Easter eggs, and hit up the Children's museum!

This week we are also prepping for our trip to Denver to see Steph!  We have been meaning to get there for some time, but finally Mara's schedule allowed us to get out for a week.  I am sure we will have plenty of picture to frame on our new walls when we get back...:)


Rohan Showing Off His Fire Pole Skills:

The last couple weeks have been busy that’s for sure.

My parents came in for a visit and got to spend time with Rohan and I.  Mara was right in the middle of a marathon 14 days straight schedule so she was pretty busy.

We hit Matador several times, took Rohan to parks and the Challenger Space Center, and most importantly enjoyed the beautiful weather.  There was one day of rain, and actual hail, but the rest of was pretty nice.  It was great to have them visit.

Right after my parents left, friends from college, John & Margaret & Dean stayed over while they were visiting Phoenix.  It was great to catch up with them and awesome to see Rohan and Dean (18mo) play good together.  We, of course, brought them to Matador to try the coffee they keep hearing about…J

We have been keeping up with our running and climbing, but now that we are visitor-less, we will ramp that back up again.  In the mean time we started a couple painting projects in Rohan's toy room and our master bedroom/bathroom.  We'll post pics when it's done done, not just half assed done like it is now...:)

With camping weather coming up soon, we are getting antsy to get out and enjoy the desert Spring!

Here are some baseball videos we took while G&G Syring were here:



Note my bad ass catch at 0:27...:)

Opening Day and TONS more baseball!

The last couple weeks have been a flurry of activity as usual...:)
We hit up opening day of spring training!  Great to see baseball back!  Heather & John introduced us to some friends of theirs and one is a pitcher for the Rockies.  Rohan was enamoured with him (Matt).  He kept asking about him, and was super excited when Matt waved at him from the bullpen.  Look for #51 for the Rockies, he's Rohan's best friend...:)
Mara was working overnights last week (8pm - 7am), so there was a lot of Dad/Rohan time at AZR, and a couple runs here and there.  I got off early enough one day to meet Mara for a NICE trail run around Lookout Mountain.  We broke in our new trail running shoes, and now they are covered in red dust and beautiful! :)
This last weekend we did TONS of yard work.  We have been spending a lot of time outside lately, and none of it involved yard work, so we had some catching up to do.  Saturday was mostly spent doing that, then experimenting with making Thai Spring Rolls.
Sunday was one of those non-stop epic days.  We started off playing T-Ball with Rohan, then went climbing at AZR, had a picnic lunch, played some soccer, hit TONS of balls at the driving range, then finished the yard work while Rohan slept.  After he got up we made some more Spring Rolls, and grilled a Thai Chicken pizza, went for a bike ride, and capped of the day with some yoga...one of the best days in a LONG time! :)
This week we are gearing up for my parent's visit.  Rohan is super excited to show them around the house and get them some outside time!


Rohan playing T-Ball...he's getting pretty good...:)

81°F In Late Feb = AWESOME!

Just when we figure we can’t spend more time outdoors, it hits 81F and we find ourselves eating almost every meal outdoors!  This last week had some awesome weather, and we did some really nice runs from the gym (after we climbed of course!).

Friday we had a small public tour of TGen, called DNA By Moonlight, which was a lot of fun.  There were about 60 people from the community who had the chance to see 6 labs and got a small schpeal about what we do, and how the technology works.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and there were some students who came that were compelled to look a little more at our Helios Scholarship program.
Afterwards we decided to try and make Grandma's Ice Cream Dessert.  It was an absolute favorite of mine growing up and I hadn't had it in years.  It's not the healthiest of things, but how can butter and sugar wafers be healthified!?!  We did make one small mistake (adding the chocolate on top when it was too warm), but it only made a small difference.  The rest was GREAT, and I think we have some guests coming out in a few weeks (G&G Syring, and John & Margaret) that might like to try some...:) 

Saturday we did some much needed yard work by completely removing our cactus from our front yard.  It was a nice cactus, but we just didn’t want it in our yard.  The root ball posed a challenge in that it was rooted pretty well in the ground, and heavy as hell.  But that’s one of the reasons we got a truck…J  With a little ingenuity and some horsepower I was able to rip it out of the ground no problem.  Mara helped hack some of the weight off and we tossed it in the truck and hauled it to the dump.  Our replacement Ficus tree should be installed next weekend.

Sunday was pretty packed as well.  We started on a 10mi bike ride that turned into a 16mi bike ride.  The trails we looked at on Google Maps didn’t show the fenced off areas that we couldn’t get past, so we had to ride quite a ways out of our way to get around it.  It felt great, but we all needed a nap that afternoon!
One thing that has kept Rohan busy the last few weeks was a planting project.  Mara and I are notoriously bad cultivators of plants.  We have literally killed bamboo, and all that needs is water once a month.  Given that we live in an area that gets 300+ days of sun per year we picked up some small starter pots and some basil & parsley seeds to plant.  We found a nice kit that has a sort of built in greenhouse and it made the plants come up pretty quickly.  Rohan has been fascinated with them and how they will "grow really big".  We transplanted the three smaller pots to a new, larger pot so they can continue growing.  We also got some more seeds, this time lavender in hopes of perfuming the kitchen nicely, and also got some cilantro.  It will be great if we can start a little herb garden that we can even start to cook with.

"Happy Valentine's Day Birthday"

"Happy Valentine's Day Birthday" is what Rohan has been saying ever since he learned that AZ became a state 100 yrs ago on Valentine's Day.  Pretty cute..:)  We celebrated the centennial with some local craft beers with a friend from TGen and capped off with some tacos at a local dive (Tacos de Juarez) that is pretty scary, but awesome food!
Tuesday we had a nice dinner party at our friend Shannon's place. She cooked an awesome goat cheese, fig, and onion dip that was outstanding! We mad some Pao de Queijo and we also had steak, great mashed potatoes and gravy and great dessert!  Rohan had a blast putting on his shirt and tie and getting dressed up with everyone.  He was quite the charmer for all the single ladies at the party...:)

Wednesday we had another dinner party, tacos this time, at another friend's house.  Mara had to work so it was just Rohan and I.  There were 2 larger dogs there so Rohan kept busy hiding from them and throwing toys.  He may, or may not, have been trying to sleep in their kennel...:)

Satruday we fianlly got around to going to the Phoenix Zoo.  We got there around 10am and walked for the next 3 hours around the zoo.  Rohan was so excited he walked the ENTIRE time too, probably over 3miles!  He was nice and tired at the end.  We saw lots of cool animals and Rohan now has a couple zoo books from the library.  After hitting some balls on the driving range, we went over to our friend Patrick's for an amazing wine & cheese night.  Patrick is from Luxembourg and has a great taste for cheeses and wine.  Rohan played really good with another 5 & 7 yr old there and they were all passed out hard by the end of the night.  Rohan, somehow, lasted until Midnight, even with all the zoo walking and only a 45min nap.  We hung strong until 3am before heading home...I was a little sleepy the next day...:P

Sunday we took Rohan to one of the parks by our house and took his training wheels off.  He had been wanting to do it and he was really excited.  He did WAY better than we expected.  The only time he fell was when he started thinking about falling, then he started bracing himself to fall even before fell...:)

We capped off the night with a run to Best Buy and picked up a new Asus Transformer Tablet.  Pretty much in geek heaven right now...:)

Other than that, just planning my trip to Vegas to climb in the Red Rocks this week, did a couple destiation runs, and even relaxed long enough to watch a movie...Shreck, with Rohan...:)

Rohan Raring at the Jaguar:

"That a big turtle!":

Rohan sans Training Wheels:


Rohan's wipeout:

Blastoff!

This last weekend was pretty awesome.  It had been a while since Mara had a whole one off so we spent most of the time outside.  We did several runs and parks as usual, and also found some time to climb.
One of the more exciting things we did was take Rohan to the Challenger Space Center in NW Phoenix.  Rohan has been hard core into shuttles as of late (he has 2 or 3 favorite YouTube videos).  The museuem had anything and everything space related.  Tons of pictures of rockets and spacecrafts of all sorts.  Rohan really liked Ham the space Monkey that they shot into space in the early 60's.  Rohan considers him a national treasure...:)
The center also had a 10' space shuttle model and a launch simulator which Rohan REALLY liked.  Top off with a mock Mission Control Center, and Space Lab and I think there is a good chance Rohan will be attending Space Camp when he's a little older.  There was also a video on the 7 wonders of our solar system.  Rohan is good at recognizing Saturn and Earth, as well as the Sun, so that was pretty exciting to watch.  We capped off our 3hr trip (it went super fast) with a demonstration of a Tesla Coil and electric fields and my favorite...Eddy Currents.  Pretty awesome morning!  After the space center we grabbed some salads and hit a huge park in Glendale for a picnic and play time.
Sunady we watched the SuperBowl with some friends and grilled out.  I had made some Anaheim Peppers stuffed with cheese and sausage, then wrapped in bacon.  They were on the grill when the grease started dripping and made a HUGE fire in the grill.  The peppers actually turned out REALLY good!  The fire was hot enough to burn the tin foil we had them on!  Pictures are pretty sweet though...:)
Other than that, just enjoying the weather at the dog park, kid park, AZ Best Fest, and pretty much anywhere else outdoors that we can find...:)


Rohan watching space shuttle launches. He loves that they go to the International Space Station:

Tough Mudders!

I apologize for this taking so long to get updated, but we've just been buy...no more than usual...maybe we've just been lazy...:)

Anyway...The adventure week we had a couple weeks ago was EPIC in my book! First I climbed Pinnacle Peak with some friends, then Mara and I skydived, then the next weekend we did the Tough Mudder! It really was one of the toughest things we've done. 12.5mi and 29 obstacles was pretty intense! We ran with a GREAT group of friends and had some of their girlfriends hop around the desert taking picture of us. I had a small camera that took crappy pictures along the way, but thanks to them we have TONS of pictures. I stole some of them from Facebook, but if you want more you can go to my account and see more; I added some of the better ones here.
Overall the course was tough (duh), but for me the toughest part was the running in the desert sand part. My calves definitely did not enjoy that! By mile 8 I was cramping and getting OTM treatments from Mara (& Angleika) the rest of the time. One of the more breathtaking obstacles was the "Arctic Enema". Pretty much a tub of water and you had to swim under a thin board to cross...easy, right? What you can't see is the 5" of ice cubes on the other side of the wall... When you come up into them they wrap around your chest and it is incredibly hard to catch a breath!
The last obstacle was the one the race is known for..."Electroshock Therapy". 10,000 volts and mud...who could want more?! The hardest part about this obstacle was starting it. You had to stand in front of it, waiting your turn, and watching people get electrocuted right in front of your eyes! Eventually we headed on through. We started running, but as soon as we got electrocuted, you tense up and hit the mud and crawl. While I was crawling I got hit again, then the next thing I knew I opened my eyes under the mud (not a good idea by the way). Thing is I had NO idea where I was. One of the shocks must have made me blackout for a few seconds. The rest of the crawl I was barely able to see, but I made it through after a couple for shocks. It really was a great time! The shocks were tough, but it was all worth the challenge and the people we ran with couldn't have been better!

Other than that, we really have just been up to our same old routine of climbing, running and just flat out enjoying the upper 60s & low 70s we have been having! The bikes have gotten a TON of miles put on them over the last couple weeks! I'll put some videos from other people who taped the Tough Mudder from either the sideline or by running with a tiny GoPro camera attached to them...we WILL be doing it next year, so start prepping yourself for joining us, Michelle! :)

Here is one of the first person perspective videos...

Here is a taste of the Electroshock Therapy obstacle...

Rohan playing baseball. He is getting pretty good too! The first hit is weak, but the next two are awesome to watch!

More baseball:

Rohan’s Birthday Week

Well…our little man is 3 years old now! Crazy how time has flown, but we hope we’ve filled his life to date with some pretty awesome experiences…:)

We’ll start off with the Hawkeyes being in town for the Insight Bowl the week before last. Greg & Nico got me tickets and it was a good time tailgating, and watching the game…even though the Hawks lost…:) Rohan had a blast at the Hawkeye Huddle where the fans in town all meet at the convention center and prep for the game. Rohan kept calling it the Hawkeye Puddle…:

We celebrated New Years with friends and had a great time with the host (Kim’s) Nerf gun. He had bought it for whatever reason, but we took it to another level by throwing the Nerf darts since we only had one gun. It was decided we would have a future Nerf War with more guns and more people.

Rohan’s birthday week was pretty spread out and has essentially lasted from the end of Xmas until this last weekend. He had been looking forward to his birthday for weeks now and had been telling everyone how old he will be/is. We had a small celebration on his actual birthday, but Mara had to work that night so we postponed the actual party until a couple days later when we had a BBQ with “his people” as he calls our friends (mostly climbers from the gym). Rohan received 3 Nerf guns as presents from his friends, plus tons of Lightning McQueen cars/gear. We played several rounds of “Storm The Castle” with one group protecting the upstairs, and one infiltrating from downstairs. It was an absolute blast! There will be many more Nerf wars to come! We took time to sing happy birthday to Rohan, and of course spoil him with more presents. One of his favorites was a double sided light saber that he would charge upstairs with while we were playing our Nerf games…hilarious to see…he even had a war cry…:)

 The Saturday after his BBQ we meet up with some friends at Pinnacle Peak Mountain to climb a bit. It’s a different type of climbing (traditional) than we are used to (sport), but one of our friends lead the way and took 3 of us through 3 pitches and ~200 vertical feet to the summit of Pinnacle Peak. One of the coolest climbs I have ever done…and very rewarding to summit something like that!

 Afterwards we met Heather, John, Nelly, Matt, Don and Mary at Spinato’s Pizza. Nelly and Don had graciously offered their skydiving vouchers to Mara and I, so we paid them back in food…:) Heather and John were nice enough to take Rohan overnight so Mara and I could get up early and jump out of an airplane…and that’s just what we did! We got to the Casa Grande airport at 8am and were on our way up to ~10,000ft to jump in about 30min. It was awesome! Be sure to check out the video below!

All in all an AMAZING couple weeks, even after the whirlwind of Xmas and New Years when most people are slowing down a bit. We don’t even stop there…next weekend we are running the Tough Mudder race which was recently increased to 12.5mi and 29 obstacles! We have a great group of people to run with so it should be a blast! Can’t wait to post pictures of it! In the meantime enjoy what we have here:


My skydiving video (skip to 2:00 for the jump...):

Irena & Jen Walk Into A Nerf War Zone:

Singing Happy Birthday (I was REALLY late getting the camera start so I only caught the end...):