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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

I'm glad we went on this camping trip. I feel so much better for the break. Being outdoors always has a good effect on me. Not even the heaps of stinky dirty muddy sweaty clothes that I need to wash now that we're home can depress me.

The car trip was uneventful. I'm pleased to say that we finally finished listening to Little Women. Stephen slept through most of it, Emily sort-of enjoyed it, but found it overly sentimental, and Sophie and Bobby loved it. My favourite moment was when Sophie poked me during the bit where Jo starts to sell her writing, and said "Soon that will be me."

Here're some pictures from the weekend.

Post-cardy shot of the waterfall.
Light falling through the trees. The leaf cover was so dense that, even though it drizzled for a lot of Sunday, we didn't get even slightly damp. And neither did our campsite. Last time we were there, in November, the trees were bare. Amazing to see the difference.
Stephen dangling by his fingertips from the roof of a cave before making a big move.
Sophie reaching for a draw. She is one of the youngest lead climbers around.
Emily climbing up the arete
Me half-way up a cliff
Bobby climbing
Me belaying Bobby while other party members look on. There was a sheer drop to my left - that ledge is way up high - so I am tied in to the tree. Lucky I did tie in because when Bobby came down I did lift up and move forward.
Kids bouldering behind the waterfall. The idea is to boulder up as high as you dare, then leap into the icy, icy water. This was one of the high points of the trip for Emily. There was an older couple sitting on the rocks watching as the kids did this, and the guy couldn't resist : he stripped down to his shorts and did it too. He was a climber too, though he hadn't climbed in a long while.
Tired girls at the end of a long day. Why invest in a posturpedic mattress when you can just use a rock?
Cooking dinner at the campsite.

When we got home, there was a Fed-Ex envelope lying by the front door - the kids' passports have finally arrived. And in the mail-box was a huge envelope from the endocrinologist : all Emily's medical records. So things are gradually falling into place for the move. Touch wood.

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