Kennedy's Haircut

So, here's the story. This last week Kennedy had a friend of hers over to play. The time came and went for her friend to go home. Having already yelled into Kennedy and her friend to wrap things up, Danielle ended up having to go into Kennedy's room to excuse her friend face to face. With her friend now gone, Kennedy was sent out to the yard to pick up some things.

This is where things got interesting.

10 minutes, 15 minutes past and Danielle hadn't heard from Kennedy. She wasn't in the backyard, she wasn't over at her friend's house, she wasn't answering Danielle's yelling into the backyard.

Danielle went back into the kitchen, looked out the window and right in front of her was Kennedy receiving a haircut at the hand of her friend. A look of absolute horror flashed on Kennedy's face before she dashed out of sight.

The pictures seen below are not the sole product of Kennedy and her friend. As her hair was very uneven in the back and her bangs all catywompus. She required some professional intervention. As Kennedy has wanted her hair cut short for quite some time, she is quite pleased with the end result, as evidenced by the pictures below.
As for Danielle and I, this has been another trial of parenthood - our first major one in fact. I'm sure when Kennedy is married with kids of her own, past the trials and temptations of growing up, we'll all look back at this and laugh. Until then, all we can do is hope for the best in the years ahead.

Poor Caleb

Not old enough for climbing.

Seth and the Dogbite

Here are some pictures of Seth at Dogwood Crag in Big Cottonwood.
Due to some negligence on behalf of his father, the rope was setup to act as a perfect pendulum should anyone fall while climbing.
Seth gave a great climb and when it was time to descend, I instructed him to walk along the wall before rappelling down. He took two great steps, perfect form. On the third, he trip and rolled the rest of the way across the wall. The resultant injury can be seen below.
I felt horrible, that I had ruined this experience for my son. Somewhat sheepishly I asked Seth if he'd like to come climbing some other time, almost certain of his answer. To my surprise, he said,"Yes, I'll be more careful next time."
What a great kid.

Kennedy and the Dogwood Crag

We took the kids camping and climbing a couple weeks ago, on the last perfect day of the summer (or so I thought until it started to rain during the climb).
We drove up to beautiful Big Cottonwood Canyon and set our rope upon Dogwood Crag, the prettiest bit of fossilized sea floor, carboniferous rock and wind-eroded quartzite this side of the Mississippi.
Kennedy, fearless as ever did a great climb.

Papa and the Kids

I love this video. If you turn off the sound on your computer (or have a speakerless computer like the ones at the hospital) it is reminiscent of the old 8 mm B&W films, like the ones featuring my Dad as a child.

I like this not only for the aesthetics but for how it shows the love my Dad has for his grandkids. He took this car off of the Stake float from the Days of 47, put wheels on it, cut a door, place two, count them, two steering wheels and made a trunk that goes behind the seats. All this only to find that we can in no way get this into our house.

All for the love of his grandkids.