Day 1: We started the trip on the Lehigh river in Pennsylvania. Arvind and Amanda joined us. Eric was in his hard boat and did just fine. Arvind took Jay and Amanda down all the "hair routes" - quite unintentionally. Everyone had fun until the very last bit when an intense thunderstorm hit us - the kids were cold and everyone got soaked loading the boats up. Marti and the boys drove slowly through the storm to stay with Risa and Sandy in DC while I went back to work a couple of more days.

Days 2-4: Marti and the kids relaxed; I worked. I flew to DC and joined them for then night and then we snuck out of Risa's at 6am. We drove straight through to Denver, arriving about 10am the next day (wasted!). Melissa flew in and joined us.

Day 5: We went shopping for the kayak trip at REI and then went to Boulder to see who was around. Both Dave Youkie and Dave Fay were around so we all went up to the Dome. Marti and I did a route on the left side (1st pitch Cozyhang and then right of the roof and up) but Dave Fay couldn't climb and Youk was too wasted from working. But we had a great time chatting and later visited Dave Fay's lab to see the worms. Mutant worms are cool.

Day 6: My hard core climbing day. The Ab has a plan: Turnkorner (5.10) on Lumpy ridge. While Marti and kids decided to play at Water World, I wanted to be a hero. I took the first pitch (5.9). Not bad at all! Ab fires up another 5.9 pitch. Seems hard to me! Trisky to work out. The third pitch is only 5.8 but seems scary with slightly flexible flake holds. Ab is impressed. Now the crux: two 5.10 pitches through the overhangs. I cower while Mark leads the first crux. Easy liebacking - not bad - and an odd groove where I elected to do a slab on the left. Seemed easy.

Now the real thing. First a small overhang with an offwidth. Mark threw his left foot way up and pulled it. Then to the big roof - I watched from below as he grabbed a hold around the corner on the right and disappeared and then reappeared higher up. We thought this was the end but NOOOOO - lots more climbing before he hit the belay.

I had a hard time getting my leg up on the first overhand but finally made it to the real crux. I swung out onto the right wall (wild!!), stepped up, and fell. Crap. This sent me all the way back to the belay and I had to start all over. Next time I stuck the crux and pulled into the endless slot above. It kept looking like it would ease off but no - it kept coming and coming. Eventually I flopped up onto the belay ledge and we did a fast pitch to the start of the raps.

Day 7: We started with a Putt Putt death match between me and my brothers (everyone was there!). The kids went back to Grandma's while Marti and I went to Boulder to see who we could find. Spend the afternoon on the flatirons with Brad - climbed Dinosaur Rock. Jay tried to do the lead (with me soloing under him) but we went the wrong way and had to back off. Team Latvia was somewhere else in the flatirons getting totally lost. At least they made it back to the car at the end of the day ...

Day 8: We headed up to Platte Canyon just above Foxton. We visited George and Kathy Priest and then Marti led a party of kayakers to the Chutes while I headed for the Bishop with Brad and Paul Dierschow. I hadn't been there in almost 25 years - very nice place! Brad led us up the Ellingwood Chimney. Paul had a bit of trouble at the crux and had to get a shoulder stand to make it up. All good fun though and we had a nice climb. After relaxing on the summit a bit we rapped down and headed back to the Priest's. Marti and the gang were there after a successful kayaking day. Eric and Mo didn't run the chute after watching Martin get knocked over and take many attempts to roll up so they did it in the inflatable. Mom and Dad had tried to hike to the quartz mine with Jay but they turned back too soon. We headed on to Moab while Jay went back to Denver to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa.

Day 9: Moab. Met Alastair and Mike Soo. Ran the daily - no problem; everyone was ready for the Yampa. Climbed Owl Rock in Arches in the afternoon. Great route - nearly everyone got to stand on the summit.

Day 10: We started by a lightening hike through Little Wildhorse Canyon. Then to Vernal to meet the others. It was the 4th and we watched fireworks and packed up for the big river trip.

Day 11: We took way too long to get going - Jay Lapreau was running late and getting 24 people going took a long time. Lots of easy riffles but the water was very shallow andd it was hard to get the rafts down. Camped at Teepee after almost missing it.

Day 12: Pretty day: no hard rapids (Mo and Eric had no problems with the named rapids but Mo took a short swim in Little Joe). Camped at Harding Hole - nice place.

Day 13: Another late start. Slow current. Very pretty though - found an interesting skeleton (cow??) on a beach. Didn't get to Warm Springs till around 4:30. Took a long time to get everyone through - Jay took the rafts down. Because of the low water the route was pretty complex - lots of rocks to dodge. Many people chose to walk. Warm Springs is a sucky campsite - should have gone to the next one.

Day 14: Finally at the Green River - more water at last. Whirlpool was fun - all class II. Lots and lots of tourons now. Camped at Island Park and had fun at the campfire that night.

Day 15: Lots of flat water (I towed Mo on an inner tube) and then Split Mountain. Fun - no real difficult rapids at this level. Eric was nervous and snuck all the lines. Mo did great. Martin found the "hot" spring (rather tepid) and we all soaked a little. Finally got to the boat ramp around 4 and we all unpacked and split up. Spend the night in Vernal.

Day 16: Rest day: checked out the dino quarry and drove back to Denver.

Day 17: I headed for the Arkansas with the Ab who had learned to kayak in Boulder last spring. Martin J and Choh-man also joined us and I had Brad D along. We ran from Johnson Corner to the head of Browns. The Ab was a total hero - only one swim and a combat roll on his very first day in a river. Choh-man also did well in a hard boat. Brad didn't though - he decided inflatables were the thing for him.

Day 18: We took Martin and Choh-man up to Eldo for a climb of Wind Ridge. Jay came too and was a hero. This was Choh-man's first climb and she really took to it. Then we all headed for Rocky Mountain for photos in the meaddow where we were married (it was out 19th anniversary) and a hike to Dream Lake. The kids whined about a little 2 mile jaunt - too much Gameboy I guess.

Day 19 - 23: On to Nebraska for the big wedding of Matt and Julianna. The wedding was great and the kids got to meet their cousins and play with Uncle Wilfred's toys. Then on to Illinois to see Dave Kriegman (and Greg Hager who was passing through) and a final stop at CMU to see the robots and visit Al.