Calder Maurice Hammond

Todd's father passed away on our anniversary.  Losing him and going through the funeral was much harder than I expected.

Meditating to the music being played by one of his grandchildren.

People say Todd looks like him in this photograph

 Joyce and Calder

I was driving with Lydia this morning when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came on the radio and sang, "Hush Little Baby, Don't You Cry." I told Lydia that it was Grandpa Hammond singing to her.

Laos Trip

Since having kids, we haven't traveled overseas as much as we used to, but we've been able to tag team a few times and do some trips separately with friends while the kids are little.  Britt had been encouraging me to plan an international trip for at least a year, and I decided to sit on it until a good opportunity came up.  Sure enough, my friend Brian emailed me last summer to tell me about an amazing new climbing area in Laos:  "the best in all of Asia," he said.  He had been living in Thailand for the last year or so, working as a climbing guide, and he planned to visit Laos again in November.  That was an easy decision.  My friend Bryce was also looking to take a vacation so we decided to fly out together an meet Brian. Here are some photos from the trip:

 

Taking a tuk tuk out of Thakhek to our destination in the countryside

 

Our bungalow at Green Climbers Home, a camp built and operated by German climbers Uli and Tanja Weidner

 

Camp headquarters/restaurant

 

  

Bryce enjoying the limestone tufas

 

Fish dinner

 

Good company from all over the world

  Massive cave with a river running through it, two minute walk from our bungalow. It was a great place to take a dip and cool off on hot days.

   

 Finishing a fun 5-pitch sport route called Chinese New Year

 

Brian summiting

 

We ended up renting a couple motorbikes to get in and out of town easier, and visit the local attractions

 

Sunset on the Mekong River. Thailand is on the other side.

 

 

 Come to find out our motorbike's headlight didn't work. Luckily we are climbers and had headlamps with us to make the long ride back to camp.

 

I led this route called "Finally Home" a couple times but didn't have enough time left in the trip to finish it clean.

  Classic roof climb called "Jungle King". One of my favorites of the trip.

 

Wild rock! Three climbers are seen. I'm near the top of the photo, climbing Jungle King

   

 Brian tunneling through the birth canal on "Saugeburt"

   

 The gecko that lived in our roof. It tormented us with its chirps every night.

 

Motor scooter adventure to visit one of the many Buddha caves

   

Moments before I fell. Somehow it a feels much more difficult when you're above water.

 

 

Back in Bangkok before flying home

 

The recently deceased King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand

 

Mourners outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok

 

New Car

We said goodbye to an old friend a couple months back.  Todd's Civic Hatchback finally bit the dust and had a blue book value of $250.  So we bought a Prius!

Leprosy claimed another victim.

Chunks of Todd's car were just falling off at random.

Here she is in all her glory

The Prius feels like quite an upgrade- it has way more space (and 4 doors!!) and gets 50 mpg. It's clean and quiet, and we don't have to crawl over seats with babies in our arms to get them buckled up. We were able to pay cash for it too, so that was nice!  Here's to living on one income!

Boston Marathon 2016!

We went to Boston in April, so Todd could run the Boston Marathon!  I'm hoping he will post more about it but here's the gist of the marathon second hand.

It was a very difficult course, and Todd didn't train as well as he should have.  He pushed really hard for the first nine miles, then hit the wall!  He fought through cramps the next 17 miles and had to walk quite a bit.  He passed the "Wellesley Girls" holding signs that said, "kiss me!" (and he reports that he didn't take them up on their offer lol) and struggled up heartbreak hill... As well as many other hills.  The crowds were tremendous and screamed support the entire race.  His ears were fatigued by the end and he felt like he'd attended a rock concert!  The only quiet moment of the entire race through a tunnel underneath a road where spectators weren't allowed to stand.  The lack of sound was quite strange after such a well supported race.

Todd was hoping for a personal record of 3 hours, but after bonking and walking so much he ended up finishing in 3:45.  That's a pretty amazing time if you ask me!

He enjoyed the experience and we both loved Boston with it's rich history and good food.  We had fantastic company because we stayed with my cousins, who were great hosts.

Beautiful Boston Harbor

Our fantastic hosts, Niles on the right and Thiago his husband next to me.

Todd looked like he had aged 15 years when he crossed the finish line!  It took a lot out of him.

The Boston Marathon runners looked like super heroes with wind whipping their blankets behind them like capes.  Let's face it, they are super heroes!

We feasted!

Niles and Thiago live in this beautiful historic stretch of condos.

I loved having a dog around to warm my feet on!

Our tour guide along the Freedom Trail

Paul Revere's headstone is the tiny unimpressive slab on the right, the plaque was built years after he died.

Avery stayed home on this trip.  Besides the flight, Lydia was fantastic and she enjoyed all the history and train rides. :)

Moab February 2016

Todd ran a 55k in Moab last week! That is 33.5 miles!! He is amazing. Photo credit: Kendall Wimmer

While Todd ran his heart out, Avery Lydia and I played at the park and biked along the river. .

After celebrating at the finish line (Todd ran 33.5 miles across steep terrain in an amazing 5 hours 45 minutes!) we went back to the hotel so I could run an impressive six miles on a flat paved trail, which nearly killed me. lol

We got pizza and to Avery's delight, went hot tubbing.



The rest of the trip was spent climbing, hiking, eating, and enjoying the scenery.  I loved seeing Moab with some snow!





Dinosaur tracks



I hadn't seen any petroglyphs in Moab till this trip.  They were everywhere!



Avery LOVED climbing and insisted on re-climbing each problem.

Lydia worked hard at sitting around and looking cute

Spot the toddler's head?



This was her favorite climb, it was repeated 5 times.



Still hard at work!

How Todd could climb for 1.5 hours the day after his race is beyond me.