Rock climbing

So. One of our newish local climbing facilities recently added homeschool classes during the school day. Upon mentioning this to Micah, I was surprised to learn that apparently he's very interested in rock climbing and has been wanting to learn more for awhile (first I'd heard of it, lol). You can see where this is going, right? :) 

Yesterday was his first class. Right now, it's just him and two of his friends who we corralled into joining to make sure there would be more than just him in the class, lol. The class is 90 minutes long and they loved every minute of it.

They started with some warm up and discussion about safety and rules then moved over to the "slab" to get going and allow the instructor to see where each boy was at:

(Micah's in the red shirt.) After that, they moved around to the "scoop" for some more challenging bouldering:

Micah quickly realized that a greater wingspan will help, lol. After more of that, there was time to try some higher climbs using the auto-belay systems:

It was pretty high but the boys were so proud of themselves when they reached the top...and enjoyed belaying back down. :) 

And then they "cooled down" with some easier climbs before going back and doing some stretching and then wrapping things up...

(Micah's way over on that far upper wall.)  

Admittedly I've not been in many climbing facilities, but I thought Ascent Studio was quite impressive. Beyond the amazing walls, it appears to be well run, clean and organized...all things I value. :) Plus, Micah's just in love with this now and is so looking forward to next week's class. Hooray!!

Five on Friday

1. On the yellow jacket front, everything seems resolved so far. We found one more spot where a couple managed to get inside but plugged that up and haven't seen more since. The Orkin man has treated the nest a second time and will be sealing the whole thing up shortly. Whew.

2. We're adjusting to our new normal around here with Noah off at CSU. We miss him, of course. But we're blessed to still be so close. Additionally, we're finding there are some perks to being a household of four: we have more leftovers available for lunches...it's easier to divide things by four, lol...there's less laundry...and we don't have to drive to JOAD practices and tournaments on weekends. 

3. Micah would like you all to know that he's officially taller than me now. He noticed last week (Oct 11, to be exact) and demanded that we measure...and, wouldn't you know it, he's finally just a smidge taller. :) 

4. Knowing that the forecast called for snow last Sunday and given how grey and chilly it had been earlier in the week, Nathan and I took advantage of the gorgeous day last Saturday to visit the Fort Collins Nursery's Giant Pumpkin event. The pumpkins were pretty impressive...

(Apparently, the winning pumpkin weighed in at 1568 pounds!! I think we might be standing in front of it in that first picture...you can't really see it.)

5. By the way, in case you haven't seen me lately...I had the ends of my hair dyed "extreme teal" last month. It's not as blue as I'd anticipated (which is what you get when you try to color over the top of what used to be purple, lol) but it's pretty fun and definitely more visible in the sunlight...

And now...since CEC has the day off today and, having planned accordingly, we finished all our homeschooling for the week yesterday...Asher, Micah and I are off to enjoy a beautiful Friday! 

Yellow Jackets

So, to avoid telling my tale repeatedly, I'm just going to post it here...

A couple weeks ago we started noticing a yellow jacket or two in the house. We didn't know at the time that they were yellow jackets but figured they were trying to get away from the cold. We dealt with them...either killing them or relocating them as the opportunity arose. Altogether, we had maybe a dozen over the couple weeks.

This past Wednesday, things escalated. In the morning, I had to vacuum up almost a dozen at once. The boys and I were not happy. We called Nathan...who was in Boulder for the day. He called some local exterminators, but no one was available to come until next week. We ended up having dealt with 16 that day and decided to try to just be patient and wait for the cold weather to end things. We tried to block off any place we thought they might be getting in. 

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday in terms of numbers. We blocked off a few more spots and hoped for the best.

Friday was crazy. We had lots going on, and Nathan was again working in Boulder for the day. By 10 in the morning, I'd killed 9 yellow jackets. At that point, I had to drive Micah up to CSU to talk with an expert for his First Lego League team project (which went great! more on that later). We left Asher at home to finish his schoolwork and eat before 12:30 when I would be back to take him to CEC. When we got back (with just enough time to switch boys), Asher was rather frazzled...having killed 40 more while we were gone. 

Yes. Forty.

Obviously, that's not good. 

So. I hurried Asher to class at CEC, left Micah at home to battle the yellow jackets alone (I tried to see if he'd just come with me but he had things he needed/wanted to do and insisted he'd be okay), and called Nathan to insist that he find someone who could come *today*. I then proceeded back up to CSU because it's homecoming weekend and there was a parent informational session I wanted to go to, and I needed to get a few things to Noah and finish up the submission of his annual FAFSA stuff. 

While sitting in the session, I was texting with Nathan (who finally found someone to come out but the time was such that I wouldn't be back yet so then he worked out leaving work early to be there, himself) and Micah (who'd been killing them left and right and had started deciding it hadn't been such a good idea to stay home but was willing to go over to the neighbor's house...but ended up just going for a walk to a neighborhood smoothie place with Asher once Asher had walked home from class). I offered to change my plans with Noah (who I was also texting with, as he had an advisor meeting and we were trying to figure out where to meet) and go home to get Asher and Micah, but they decided the smoothie place was safe enough, lol. 

(Sidenote here to say that I feel awful that Asher and Micah each had to deal with any of this solo. Huge kudos to them for staying on top of things and being brave...can you imagine if we'd all just come home and walked in to dozens of yellow jackets swarming about the house? Yikes!)

So. I then met up with Noah and delivered some Halloween goodies and his winter hat (which he'd asked for earlier in the week when it was snowing a bit). We went over the FAFSA and his spring registration stuff. All good.

Meanwhile, Nathan got home and the Orkin guy got there. They found a yellow jacket nest in the siding of our house and figured out that they'd been getting in through the ceiling lights and had apparently managed to make a bigger opening or something, hence the escalation. Oy. 

Anyhow, they sprayed them and closed up the openings/lights. The Orkin guy will be back to spray again and then to seal up the nest. Friday's total count in the house was NINETY, but we haven't seen any since then. Whew. Seriously not a fan of yellow jackets.

Homecoming

So, to celebrate Micah and I getting home from Spokane and the fact that we didn't want to participate in all the hoopla of next week's CSU Homecoming weekend (too many crowds for our likes, lol), we picked up Noah from his dorm and spent a day together yesterday. We'd initially planned to head up to Estes Park for our somewhat annual fall trek there, but the weather forecast (40s, rain/snow, overcast) had us changing plans and heading to Denver for Aurora's Punkin Chunkin Festival.

As it turned out, the wind made it colder than anticipated and less fun (but at least there was occasional sunshine!). We enjoyed the food truck foods and watched some of the pumpkin launching:

There were a number of categories of machines...from human powered (in kilts) to air cannons. (There was also chain saw wood carving and a corvette show and live music, for what it's worth.) We huddled together for warmth:

But we ended up leaving early and headed to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for some indoor time, enjoying tackling all the puzzles in the temporary Mindbenders Mansion exhibit:

And, we managed a group shot in our CSU shirts:

(I'd envisioned a nice shot in the fall colors up in Estes, but that didn't pan out, so we'll go with this. :) Many thanks to the stranger who took the shot for us.)

After the museum, we headed home for some family game time and visiting before taking Noah back to his dorm. Happy sigh.

Nephews

My sister, Cas, flew Micah and I out to Washington state last week to stay with my sweet nephews while she went on a business trip with her husband. We were there almost six days and kept plenty busy. :) We played at home, visited the trampoline park, took boys to their ninja class, took boys to their preschool classes, did some shopping, and played at a park...

Micah was such a great help! Having two sets of eyes and hands definitely made a difference; my nephews are 2 and 4 years old and significantly busier than any of mine ever were, lol. Fortunately, the boys love their cousin (and vice versa). 

I'm totally kicking myself because we didn't get pictures with my mom (she drove up for an evening at the start) and didn't manage more with Blaze (the older of the two) since getting him to stand still wasn't easy, lol.

On Wednesday, Cassy got home and we enjoyed some time outside (since it was the nicest weather we'd had the whole time; fall is definitely here!). Kicking myself, too, for not getting pictures of Micah pulling the boys down the yard/hill in sleds. Oh well. You'll just have to imagine their delight. :) 

And on Thursday, after getting boys to their respective preschool classes, Micah and I flew home. :) Asher and Nathan met us at the airport and (after getting a little help from parking services since the keys got locked in the van, lol) we grabbed dinner, got Asher to parkour, and finally made it home. Whew.