Games

Makett and Tanzen's have a newfound love for making up games. This is the sleeping game.This was the money game-- I recorded it but it's such a complicated game it's a good ten minutes. It involves putting money in and out of a wallet, taking drinks of milk, and saying "All aboard." I was dying watching them, it was too funny...and couldn't be captured in a picture!This is the Mommy-story game. Makett is pretending to be me...pretty self explanatory.
Other games include the tackle game, the baby Rymers game, the baby bear game, the Thomas daddy game. I just love hearing one of them say, "Let's play a game! This is what you do..."

Lunch...

Tanzen and Makett made lunch all by themselves.

In case you can't tell, it's a Thomas pizza...

A piggie pizza...

And a baby Ryme.

A little rough...

Makett stopped taking naps in November, which meant that Tanzen also stopped taking naps...even though Tanzen still needs them, as was manifested during dinner:

Mt. Aconcagua, Argentina

Mt. Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the world outside of Asia, standing at an impressive 22,840 feet above sea level in the Andes mountain range. The success rate for reaching the summit is approximately 30%. We spent the past year training as much as possible to prepare for this 18 day expedition.The trip began by flying into Santiago Chile where we dropped off art supply care packages to the local pediatric cancer children’s hospital. We then flew to Mendoza, meeting our guide, Juan Tomaselli, a local from Buenos Aires. After a several hour bus ride, weaving our way into the Andes Mountains, we came to Puente del Inca, at 9,185 feet, where we spent the first night on the mountain. From here we unloaded a good portion of our gear to be carried to base camp by a team of mules, and began our trek to base camp. It took three more days and more than twenty miles of walking before we reached base camp, spending two nights in Confluencia at about 11,000 feet. It was during these first few days that we caught a glimpse of just how massive Aconcagua is, this mountain stands high above the Andes with a steep, glaciated south face which is very intimidating.

First glimpse of the mountain

On day 7 of the expedition we made it to Base camp—Plaza De Mulas (below four pictures), at 14,200 feet and stayed here for three night acclimatizing, which consists of climbing high and sleeping low and carrying our gear in small loads to higher camps. Base camp is a unique place with people from all around the world. There is a helicopter that continually comes in and out of the camp for medical purposes and to drop off supplies. You can use the internet for 15 bucks, buy a coke for five, or even warm shower for 10 dollars. We got our gear the mules had carried, as they could go no higher.

Base camp

The highest art gallery in the world is at base camp, where artist Miguel Doura sells his paintings. Miguel was impressed with Radiating Hope and stated that he would give 20% of his online sales to our cause and hung a string of our prayer flags which can be seen from his art gallery via a live webcam which updates every three minutes. Go to aconcaguanow.com to check out our prayer flags. It will be fun to watch these flags as they will give you a real time idea of how the flags slowly unravel in the wind, so check out the website to watch the process.

By day 10 of the expedition we were ready for the high camps. The move to high camp I (see above picture) at 16,075 feet, started with a big storm of wind and snow which made climbing a little miserable, but we pushed on and within three hours we were setting up our tents at camp Canada. After only one night in Canada we made our way to high camp II (see below pictures), Nido de Condores (or condors nest), at nearly 17,720 feet. Here we stayed for two nights, spending most of the day melting snow in order to have plenty of drinking water. The view from here was amazing, we could see far into northern Argentina and see all the way to Chile, we were above most of the mountains in the area and the views were absolutely breathtaking (literally).

me at 16,500 feet (above), and Larry at 17,500 (below)

Next we were ready for the last and final camp, high camp III (see below picture), Colera, at 19,600 feet. We had planned to stay here for two nights, and had scheduled in an additional day for bad weather.Well, when we arrived to camp III on January 10^th, the winds were strong and we were forced to quickly make shelter and hunker down for the night, the summit attempt was going to be the next day, but due to extreme weather we had to abort the summit attempt and instead spent the day in our tents hoping that the next day would be better. Two of our strong climbers elected to head back down the mountain due to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) from the high altitude.
January 11^th started for us with a tap on our tent from Juan at 4:30 AM telling us to get ready as there was a break in the weather and we were going for the summit. The wind was still strong and it was cold, but thanks to good gear (and a special thanks to Sherpa Adventure Gear), we felt up to tackling these final 3,000 feet. Quickly into the climb another one of our climbers was sent back down the mountain with AMS leaving four climbers.
We pushed our way up the steep slopes, concentrating on our breathing and making sure every step counted, this was not easy. To quote David, “this was beyond difficult,” and in the words of Alex, “this is by far the hardest thing I have ever done.” We were elated to make it to the top of the Americas, 22,840 feet!!!!

_for more pictures go to our RadiatingHope.org facebook page______

Celebs at the Please Touch Museum

Next to our friends and our church congregation, the Please Touch Museum just might be what we miss the most about Philadelphia!

Word has gotten out, as we've met several 'celebrities' there....

The line for Elmo was a good 45 minutes. I tried to satisfy Tanzen with waving at Elmo, but he was determined to wait in line to give Elmo a hug.
Sport's most sued mascot, the Philly Phanatic, also came to PT. I have no idea who came up with this odd green furry puppet concoction of a mascot! I guess the Phillies were trying to broaden their horizons past the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin?

Clifford! Makett was asking me later why there was a girl in Clifford's eyes.

Whew!!

It's been a crazy past 6 weeks! The updates...

At ten months Ryme decided she wanted to drink out of a sippy cup like her brothers. I fought her on it for a few weeks, my efforts were futile so she won. Sad! She loves being right in the middle of whatever Tanzen and Makett are doing-- they'll be tackling and she crawls right in there with them. She's getting pretty close to walking, says Mama and Dada, and has three teeth. I can't believe she's almost one! Sunshine and smiles, that's our baby Ryme!

Tanzen and Makett are best buds. I feel like I'm getting some payback for the tough first two years, as they're finally to the age where they play and keep each other entertained. Granted, there are frequent cries of foul play, but we're getting there!

We love listening to them talk to each other-- "Tanny! As soon as Mommy goes down stairs let's go jump on her bed!" or "Kett, let's play this game. You run down the hall then tackle me!" They certainly keep us entertained!