Climbing and Hike in the Foothills

A year ago for Christmas I gave Les a "12 Daytz of Christmas" book for Christmas. Yes, it may seem corny, but, you know what? It achieved its purpose. We had a terrible habit of saying we were going to go out to dinner or dinner/movie or something and then we'd end up eating fast food & doing necessary grocery shopping & that sort of thing. Not a very good "date" - I thought this might get us out of our rut. So each month had something different to do and for the most part we did all of them. The things I picked for the summer months didn't happen, but we did other things - Last summer we went to Meridian Speedway several times & that wasn't one of the things I'd even put in the book! BUT it was a date (or dayt) night and was wonderful.

So this last Christmas I did the same sort of thing - except instead of a booklet, I got a small bucket and decorated it and labeled it our "2012 Bucket List". Brianna painted sticks for me and I wrote all our dates for the year on them. There is room on it to write the date we do the event, too. And several blank sticks to add new things that we'd like to do. It has a variety of things to do in it. Meridian Speedway IS in there this time. 

So one of our first dates we did was go to Urban Ascent to climb. Now, I don't climb - but they are always in need of a belayer. So Les gets to climb & I get to help him without climbing! (Works for me.)  The 21st of January we went with Brian (THE Boss) & his wife Rachel. They had never climbed before so it was kind of a teaching day, which Les loves to share the sport, and he also got to climb 6 routes, I believe. 

Here is Les giving Rachel belaying instructions as Brian climbs for the first time.

Les is at the top of one route and Rachel is on her was down. The "little speck" at the bottom is Brian... And that is why I stay on the ground! :)

Last Sunday afternoon we went back to the Foothills Learning Center to walk the storybook path (that we discovered in November) and then hiked a bit, too. What a great surprise that our first month's story was Stellaluna. One of mine (& Brianna's) favorite books.

A very cold looking stream running next to the Learning Center.

We also got a treat - almost right on cue - as we were reading about the owl attacking Stellaluna and her mother, we heard an owl hoot. Kinda cool! Les found 2 of them in the tree - can you see them?

One of the owls is right in the middle of this picture.

And a view from another part of the path - right in the middle again.

"Catface" is a term used to describe an old wound on a tree trunk that closes over as it heals. The concept for this steel, concrete and glass mosaic tile tree is the artist's observation that fire causes change and new life comes forward in the spaces left after a fire. There are all kinds of plants and animals depicted in the tiles. Check inside the tree trunk - there's a raccoon (in tile!).

One of my favorites was the bunny you can see at the bottom of the tree in the above picture and this little bird. Really neat piece of art.

Us on our date hike... (though I think we messed this one up a little and went grocery shopping after... We'll have to remedy that next time!!!) And let me tell you - that sun was SO nice. I don't know how cold it was and there was a bit of a breeze, but in a sunny spot that was calm the sun was so warm on my face. I can't wait for spring hikes. :)

A part of the uphill trail we hiked. It wasn't too bad - the narrow path with drop offs was worse then the uphill climb. We've got lots of paths to explore though.