Life on the Runn...

Sure, I have done the ‘back to work after having a baby’ thing, but that did not make this September any easier. And from day one of this school year, I have very much been looking forward to our October break.    Brian spent the past eight days in places other than our home, so I was tackling tiny human duty solo-ish - HQ has amazing grandparents, who are always willing to offer a hand. Friday, once the Runnells team was back to full strength, we scooped up my mom, and headed to Door County, where my dad joined us - after a few action-packed weeks of his own and a stop at Door Co. Distillery (Thanks for the treat,  Dad!).  We spend our weekend in Sister Bay. We hiked, swam, enjoyed all sorts of sports action, and snoozed; Brian biked and I cooked. We all enjoyed the free entertainment that is a 13-month-old (little miss has some dancing skills). I’ve really come to love Door County. It is a place of many HQ firsts and ...

While meeting with parents is a regular part of my job, it was a relatively new concept when I first began co-coaching the Adventure Rock climbing team.  It certainly seemed wild to me that any parent would entrust Brian and me with his or her child; we were practically kids ourselves.  So, when I was approached by a rather skeptical parent as we prepared for a team trip to Kentucky, I wasn't all that surprised.  This mom, riddled with concern, emphatically stated, "But climbers are just so eccentric." In many ways, her statement was a fair one: let's go camp for several days, skip showers, cook over a tiny stove, sleep in tents, use all of our energy to move ourselves gingerly up a rock face, and walk away with sore muscles and raw hands because...well, climbing is fun! I wasn't always a climber.  In fact, in a lot of ways, I was a lot like that particular mom.  I scoffed at any request made to join Brian on numerous climbing outings.  I laughed at the t...