For her party, she went rock climbing with 12 excited girls and 1 very long suffering, awesome brother! Gib went with us to be an extra belayer since Mike was flying home from Utah and wouldn't be able to be there. Gib was smart and took pre-emptive ibuprofin. I took mine 15 minutes into the arrivals. Each girl walked through the door, met by glee and shrieks of her name! The gaggle, as my mom called them, moved as one entity, flowing from one place to another never letting up on the volume of their gaggling. When another arrived to their flock the whole crowd was aflutter and then they somewhat settled down until another came to join them, all the while talking, shrieking, talking, laughing, talking, shouting, shrieking. You'll notice I didn't put in "giggling". This group was not gigglers. I was surprised at this. Shriekers?! Yes, words cannot describe the decibel level. I would have paid good money to each and every one of them if they would only turn into non-stop gigglers. Their volume control problem went on for over 7 hours. I thought for sure it would die down eventually. It's not my first run-in with the species after all. But, even with a work-out for a party it didn't wear them out enough. Something about this group's dynamics... and possibly the gaggy amount of sugar in frosting of the cake, and the soda, and the s'mores. I tried to counteract it with carrots and celery, lots of water bottles, but it was a lost cause from the get-go.
Well, here's the Silent Still Pictures. My ears ring when I look at them. PTSD. Love Yah Mariah!! Happy Thirteen!!!
Gib doubled as photographer for this shot taken after rock climbing. They don't look very worn out, do they!?!
All of these photos feature pretty much just our party guests and The Crag's belayers. There was a Dad and kid climbing in the midst of us... don't know what they were thinkin.
All of these photos feature pretty much just our party guests and The Crag's belayers. There was a Dad and kid climbing in the midst of us... don't know what they were thinkin.
Mariah is in the polka dot pajamas. She originally had on a very cute outfit for her birthday party. However, we opened presents prior to leaving for The Crag, because everyone arrived an hour before we should have had them arrive (oops, my bad) and somebody gave her pajamas, and Mariah decided she should just wear those for the rest of the day.
Mariah reaching for the stars - or whatever that is! Ta-daaa! You made it!!
You can see Gib somewhere down there doing his belaying job. What a totally awesome guy Gib is. As a matter of fact, I think he may apply for a summer job at The Crag and based on his patience and ability with 12 screaming teen girls, he may have passed the first stage of the interview already. He asked at the front desk and they gave him an application.
The blisters didn't stop Gib. Ugh! I hate just looking at 'em!
Mariah reaching for the stars - or whatever that is! Ta-daaa! You made it!!
You can see Gib somewhere down there doing his belaying job. What a totally awesome guy Gib is. As a matter of fact, I think he may apply for a summer job at The Crag and based on his patience and ability with 12 screaming teen girls, he may have passed the first stage of the interview already. He asked at the front desk and they gave him an application.
The blisters didn't stop Gib. Ugh! I hate just looking at 'em!Some guy there gave him some tape and he was good to go.
The girls got tired of climbing, and went for the cake since the pizza hadn't arrived yet. That gave Gib some climbing time of his own! He attacked walls too difficult for the girls.
This wall is deceptively difficult.
Gib says they change out the hand and foot holds every day so each climbing experience will be different. Also there are numbers & color coded dohickeys next to each handhold so you can try for a certain level of difficulty when you climb. Easy grabs get you less points or something. Eh, just get me off this thing is what I'd be thinking. Style points vs. Hey! I Didn't Fall Off Points... who cares?!
Mariah's friend got points in my book for never quitting! And for hanging in the air for really long periods of time!!
Me and another mom who was my emergency driver of half of the gaggle
Back at home the girls watched a movie. I prepared veggie tray, and chips for them to eat while watching it. While they were contained, Mom and I lit the fire that Gib prepared for us in Lara's fire pit. Sadly, our firepit wasn't ready for the party - too many snow days. It wasn't easy to get it started in the wind. Good thing we watch alot of Survivor because we had all sorts of wood sizes and graduated up from pine straw to twigs to sticks, to logs. Yeah, sure we totally cheated with instant starting briquet's, which did not start instantly I might add. And I used like a dozen of those extra long wood matches. I counted them as twigs. And then we had to resort to stuffing paper in there to get a better blaze started so we could start feeding it with all our stuff. But it finally got going. 
As dusk was approaching they started to make their video - it involved alot of complicated dance moves such as photographed here. Then they moved it indoors. Grammy was shaken up a bit and a few things were knocked off her walls (not really) and a stack of cups fell down inside a cupboard (yes, really). I wondered what the weight bearing load of an upstairs ceiling was and whether or not it was a good idea for 12 girls to be jumping in rhythm to a song or if they could fall through a ceiling in such an exercise?! Luckily, the song ended and the ceiling held. After that, smaller group numbers only were allowed to perform.
The girls got tired of climbing, and went for the cake since the pizza hadn't arrived yet. That gave Gib some climbing time of his own! He attacked walls too difficult for the girls.
This wall is deceptively difficult.
Gib says they change out the hand and foot holds every day so each climbing experience will be different. Also there are numbers & color coded dohickeys next to each handhold so you can try for a certain level of difficulty when you climb. Easy grabs get you less points or something. Eh, just get me off this thing is what I'd be thinking. Style points vs. Hey! I Didn't Fall Off Points... who cares?!
Mariah's friend got points in my book for never quitting! And for hanging in the air for really long periods of time!!
Me and another mom who was my emergency driver of half of the gaggle
Back at home the girls watched a movie. I prepared veggie tray, and chips for them to eat while watching it. While they were contained, Mom and I lit the fire that Gib prepared for us in Lara's fire pit. Sadly, our firepit wasn't ready for the party - too many snow days. It wasn't easy to get it started in the wind. Good thing we watch alot of Survivor because we had all sorts of wood sizes and graduated up from pine straw to twigs to sticks, to logs. Yeah, sure we totally cheated with instant starting briquet's, which did not start instantly I might add. And I used like a dozen of those extra long wood matches. I counted them as twigs. And then we had to resort to stuffing paper in there to get a better blaze started so we could start feeding it with all our stuff. But it finally got going. By the time the movie ended, there was a good fire going, we had stuff for s'mores ready, hot dogs were ready to eat, I had set out bananas for anyone who wanted healthier choices... oh, and a bucket of water and a fire extinguisher. Not putting anything past this crowd. Mariah was a little insulted. She wanted to roast hot dogs over the open flame and do the s'mores in the dark, but I called it after watching the group, deciding that they were just too out of control for it, and I was a bit uneasy about the unfinished state the patio was in with all the debris and stuff sticking up in unexpected places that would be hard to see in the dark.
Plus, I needed to SEE them and they needed to not light each other on fire, go off on a night's walk in the woods (again)! I figured they would have fun no matter what, and could go upstairs to make their music video when it got cold and dark rather than roast s'mores in the dark. Mariah was less than pleased with my decision but at least now we have photos of the s'more portion of the party!
As dusk was approaching they started to make their video - it involved alot of complicated dance moves such as photographed here. Then they moved it indoors. Grammy was shaken up a bit and a few things were knocked off her walls (not really) and a stack of cups fell down inside a cupboard (yes, really). I wondered what the weight bearing load of an upstairs ceiling was and whether or not it was a good idea for 12 girls to be jumping in rhythm to a song or if they could fall through a ceiling in such an exercise?! Luckily, the song ended and the ceiling held. After that, smaller group numbers only were allowed to perform.
My favorite quotes of the party:
"Wow, I don't think I've ever been at a party this long where I've been awake the whole time"
"Hey, wait a minute. You shouldn't put our dance video up on Facebook. My dad says that stuff can haunt you for the rest of your life!!!!!!"
6 comments:
Wow! What a brother and Mom for being such troopers! I know exactly what you mean about shriekers having been involved in YW for so many years. I think back on my days as a 13 year old and wonder if I was anywhere near that type of girl. Sounds like a super fun birthday party for Mariah! Maybe Suzanne and I should plan that one for Matt and Preston this year. Seems like rock climbing can to apply to all ages. p.s. my word verification is disco, funny huh?
Oh, that was funny, Chrissie! Laughing my way through my morning tea. You are a trooper.
Practically exhausted just reading that entry!
The reference to the gaggle of geese was ingenious use of a metaphor. It gave the whole story so much more understanding and meaning....LOL!
The "favorite quotes" section was my favorite, haha! Let me just say, I'm glad I wasn't there. All I had to do was call on the birthday :) Lucky me!
Oh my, what fun! I loved your descriptions! I am pretty much thinking Eric would have been totally happy he was flying and not present! WHAT A TROOPER, GIB!
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