Balancing kids and climbing can be quite the task. This is what a weekend at the crag looked like for 9 adults and 13 kids:

After the fourth reading of “Big Girls Use the Potty” we get the:

Mom, I am hungry. Can I have some chips?

It is only 9am. They just had breakfast…Imagine cute little smiles hidden beneath dirt so thick the kids don’t look like climbers as much as coal miners. Something like this:

Ok, but have a banana first.

All the kids inhale a pile of bananas and we realize two things. 1. We are vastly under-snacked (meaning didn’t bring enough food) and 2. we need to stretch this “chip” thing as long as possible in order to get in as much climbing in as possible before the inevitable melt-down-stage.

We ate a banana and are still hungry. Can we have the chips now?

I reply,

No, go play! Go dig, go in the rock fort!

Inwardly I am thinking, “No, I want to climb!”

So the kids play with their trucks. And the kids play in their rock forts. And somehow manage to get dirtier. 🙂 A sure sign of fun. Miraculously, us adults get some rock time:

Mom, can we have chips now?!

We need to stretch this as long as possible. But inevitably we cannot put off the chips anymore… our one last snack. I jump on the route:

And the chips are opened. An entire bag of potato chips. It was like a pack of wolves according to witnesses. My husband, who had glanced briefly up at my progress, looked back to find the bag torn in pieces. Crumbs the only remaining evidence of the snack, kids dispersing from the feeding frenzy.

And the climbing was good.

But…

Mom, we are hungry…

Later, back at camp it was the kid’s turn to climb. Luckily we were right by a fantastic 5.5 trad climb. Perfect for me (the newbie to trad lead) and perfect for the kids. Oh and there were even some challenging 5.10s and 5.11s for the “big kids” (ie. adults) to work on after dinner. 🙂